The Children

"The Children" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of Game of Thrones. It is the fortieth episode of the series overall. It aired on June 15, 2014. It was written by producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and directed by Alex Graves.

Plot
Tywin learns that a Lannister always pays his debts.

At the Wall, and Beyond
The outer gate of Castle Black closes behind Jon Snow, and he walks north through the wreckage of the last night's battle, as Dolorous Edd watches from atop the Wall. Jon reaches the treeline and quickly arrives at the main camp of Mance Rayder's wildling horde. Jon holds up his hands to show he is unarmed, and is brought before the King-Beyond-the-Wall, who notes that he is wearing the black of the Night's Watch again. Mance brings Jon inside his tent, and questions his status as a traitor. Jon explains that he has always been loyal - to Qhorin Halfhand, whose plan was to have Jon infiltrate Mance's camp, and that Qhorin tricked Mance into trusting Jon by allowing Jon to kill Qhorin himself in a fight. Mance asks about Ygritte and Jon reveals that she is dead. Saddened, Mance proposes that they drink a toast to her memory (which Jon accepts after Mance explains that if he'd wanted to kill Jon he wouldn't need to poison his drink). Mance then asks about the giant who got through the gate, but never came out, and Jon says that he died, killing Jon's friend Grenn. Mance ruefully notes that the giant was named Mag the Mighty, and he was "king" of the giants - last of a bloodline stretching back thousands of years, before the First Men entered Westeros.

Jon continues to insist that there are 1,000 men defending Castle Black, as he previously told Tormund, but Mance points out that he can tell he's lying: when he sent his full force against the Wall the Night's Watch threw everything they had at him to repel the attack, and he guesses that there might be as few as 50 men left in the garrison after the losses they took last night. They are also running low on arrows and oil to drop on them. While Jon has lied, Mance offers him the truth: after seeing how few men were defending Castle Black, he sent 400 men about five miles west to climb an unmanned section of the Wall, and they will attack Castle Black's weak southern side as soon as he gives the order. Mance cares about his followers, however, and the Night's Watch will kill as many of them as they can if they attack again. Mance explains to Jon that the wildlings will die if they stay north of the Wall when winter truly begins, when the White Walkers spread with the cold. They're attacking the Wall because they want to hide behind it, just as Jon and his friends are. Mance therefore honestly gives Jon an offer of peace: if the Night's Watch will let the wildlings pass through the Wall, he promises that not one of them will be harmed. The wildlings just want to survive.

Mance then sees that Jon is eyeing a cooking knife, and quickly realizes three things: Jon came to parley with Mance simply so he could assassinate him, that at that moment Mance's guards are far enough across the room that Jon might actually be able to kill him, and that Jon must have known he would die assassinating Mance but came anyway. Mance is shocked, and questions Jon if this is what the Night's Watch has sunk to: killing a man who let him into his own tent, accepting a parley in good faith, and who even offered him fairly reasonable peace terms. Jon hesitates, but before anyone can make a move, war horns are heard from outside. Mance's guards safely grab Jon during the distraction, and he demands to know if the Night's Watch is attacking them, but Jon admits that just as Mance said, the Night's Watch doesn't have remotely enough numbers to leave the safety of the Wall and attack...

Columns of heavy horse carrying hundreds of mounted knights are charging into the wildling camp: they carry the flaming stag banners of House Baratheon of Dragonstone, and are lead by none other than King Stannis Baratheon. The wildlings are caught in their own camp, resting from the battle the night before, and moreover they only expected attacks from the Wall, so their eastern flank is completely undefended. Moreover the wildlings are undisciplined and have no experience fighting heavily armored cavalry. While the wildlings have little in the way of tactical knowledge, Stannis's cavalry are deployed into two columns which act as pincers to catch the wildlings in a perfect double envelopment. Victorious, Stannis and Ser Davos Seaworth ride up to Mance, who throws down his weapons in surrender. The Battle of Castle Black has ended in victory for the Night's Watch and King Stannis.

Davos introduces Stannis as the true king of the Seven Kingdoms, but Mance points out that they are not in the Seven Kingdoms at the moment. Stannis demands that it is customary to kneel when surrendering to a king. Resignedly, Mance says that the Free Folk do not kneel, knowing that Stannis will kill him if he does not. Davos, however, asks what a man of the Night's Watch is doing in the camp, and Jon explains that he came to treat with the King-Beyond-the-Wall. Jon says that he knows that Stannis is the true king, as his own father died supporting his claim: he is the bastard son of Eddard Stark. Remembering his debt to Ned, this makes Stannis take Jon more seriously, and he asks him what his father would do. Jon responds that Mance could have killed him or tortured him when he was his prisoner but he spared his life, so his father would in turn spare Mance. Jon also urges Stannis that they should burn the dead (lest they later be turned into Wights).

Later, all of the dead Watch members from the last night's battle have been lined up in a large funeral pyre in the main courtyard of Castle Black (the bodies of Pypar and Grenn among them). Maester Aemon delivers a eulogy for them, saying that they died to protect the men, women, and children of the south who will never even know who they were - it is the duty of the surviving black brothers to keep alive their memory. Aemon closes with the customary line, "and now their watch has ended", which is repeated by the gathered men. Samwell then aids Aemon in setting the pyre alight, which is continued by Jon and other men carrying torches. Stannis and Davos look on, along with Queen Selyse and Princess Shireen. The Red Priestess Melisandre is standing on the opposite side of the pyre from Jon, and they catch sight of each other through the flames. Melisandre seems intrigued, while Jon is uneasy.

Afterwards Jon talks to Tormund, who is chained up in a chamber of the castle. He asks why blind old Maester Aemon patched up his arrow wounds, and Jon says that Aemon is sworn to heal all wounded men, friend or foe. Tormund asks if Jon really loved Ygritte, and he admits that he did. Tormund says that Ygritte truly loved him too - she didn't say it, in fact all she kept talking about after he left was how much she wanted to kill him, but this is how he knew (if she didn't love him, she wouldn't have been that upset at his betrayal). Saddened, Tormund implores Jon that Ygritte's final resting place should be in "the real north". Jon then takes Ygritte's corpse to the north side of the Wall and builds a funeral pyre for it near a sacred Heart tree. Jon looks on his love one last time and lights her pyre, then walks away weeping.

Far to the north, in the lands beyond the Wall, Bran Stark and his followers are exhausted in their trek through the snow. Jojen Reed is sick and his strength has left him, but just as they think they can go no further they crest the next hill and see the heart tree that Bran saw in his visions, where they will find the Three-eyed raven. As they approach, however, Wights burst up from the snow, grabbing Jojen's ankles. These wights have been buried by snow for a very long time and are little more than animated skeletons. Meera fights them off of Jojen, but they begin to swarm over Hodor, who is too scared to fight. Bran wargs into Hodor's mind so he can fight off the wights, aided by his direwolf Summer, but more wights keep appearing and they are soon overwhelmed.

Just as all seems lost, the wights around Bran burst into fireballs, and he is called to by a young girl's voice coming from a cave entrance at the base of the heart tree. Amidst the confusion Jojen is repeatedly stabbed by a wight, before Meera can fight it off. The mysterious girl calls to Meera and says that Jojen is lost and she should leave him if she wants to live. Meera hesitates, but Jojen himself urges her to save herself. Crying, Meera slits her brother's throat to grant him the mercy of a quick death. Meera runs to the cave entrance, along with Hodor (carrying Bran) and Summer. The mysterious child covers their retreat by magically throwing fireballs from her hands at the wights. Just as the life drains from Jojen's eyes she destroys his body with a fireball as well, to prevent him from being turned into a wight (and fulfilling Jojen's vision that his death would involve fire).

As they enter the cave the wights follow, but they fall to pieces as soon as they cross the threshold. The little girl explains that the power which animates the dead corpses is powerless inside the cave. Bran asks who she is, and she says that "the First Men called us 'the Children', but we were born long before them." She is not actually a little girl, but one of the last surviving members of the Children of the Forest - the original, non-human inhabitants of Westeros, who thousands of years ago carved the faces in Weirwood trees and taught the First Men to worship the Old Gods. The Child leads them deeper into the cave, which is overgrown with white weirwood roots from the massive tree above. Other Children of the Forest peek out around corners as they advance. Finally, they arrive at a large central chamber, littered with bones on the floor. In the middle of the cave is an old man seated in the middle of weirwood roots, which have grown around and even through much of his body. Bran crawls on the ground to approach him, and asks if he is the Three-eyed raven who appeared in his visions. He admits that he is, having taken several forms in the past, but his true form is before them now. Meera is upset that her brother died to reach him, but he says that Jojen (who possessed the Greensight, as Bran does) always knew that he would die helping Bran arrive here, even before he left, but that he came anyway. He has been watching all of them their whole lives, "with a thousand eyes, and one." Jojen died so Bran could come here and regain what he has lost. Bran asks if he means he will regain the use of his legs. The old man says that Bran will never walk again...but he will learn to fly...

In Slaver's Bay
In Meereen, Queen Daenerys Targaryen sits in her throneroom hearing from the day's supplicants. And old but dignified former slave named Fennesz approaches the throne, first speaking in High Valyrian but then revealing that he also knows the Common Tongue. Daenerys greets him warmly. Fennesz explains that he was not one of the slaves who toiled away at manual labor, but a servant and well-educated teacher to the slave-masters. He was owned by Master Mighdal, who employed him as a teacher for his own children, including his little seven year old daughter Calla - who admires Daenerys, and who he taught history lessons about the Targaryen dynasty. Fennesz was well-treated and even well-respected in the household...but now he is living in the street.

When Daenerys forcibly freed all of the slaves in the city she did not understand the full-scale complications of suddenly having to care for so many people. Fennesz originally stayed in Master Mighdal's house after she took the city, and Mighdal's children begged him to stay, but Mighdhal and Fennesz agreed that he must leave, rather than face reprisals, and this left Fennesz without a home. Daenerys insists that she had mess halls set up to feed the freed slaves, and barracks to house them. Fennez says he does not mean to insult her, but he went to one of these refugee centers and they are not very safe: the young prey on the old, beat them and take whatever they want. Daenerys insists that her Unsullied will restore order, but Fennesz points out that even assuming that they are able to ensure his physical safety, what then? He has lost his livelihood, and all of his purpose. He is too old to start over again. Therefore he has come to Daenerys to beg her permission to sell himself back to Mighdal. She is shocked that he would want to be a owned as a slave again, as a man might own a goat or a chair. He implores her that the young who can adapt rejoice in her new world, but for those too old to change, there is only fear and squalor. Nor, he says, is he alone: there are many supplicants waiting outside lining up to make similar requests.

Daenerys is crestfallen, and says she did not liberate the slaves of Meereen only to preside over the very injustice she sought to destory...but freedom means making your own choices. Therefore she will allow Fennesz to enter into a labor contract with Mighdal, but lasting no more than one year. He earnestly thanks her, and leaves. Ser Barristan Selmy warns Daenerys that the masters will assuredly take advantage of this, quickly making "contracts" with all of the displaced former slaves until they are all slaves again in all but name.

The next supplicant then enters, a shepherd carrying a bundle in his arms - as past herdsman have come to show the bones of their livestock which Daenerys's dragons burned, so they could be reimbursed. But the shepherd is weeping, and says that the "winged shadow" came - he opens his bundle on the floor to reveal the charred bones of a human child. Daenerys's largest dragon, the black one named Drogon, roasted the man's three year old daughter Zala until this is all that was left of her. Horrified, Daenerys meets with Missandei and Grey Worm in private. Grey Worm reports that Drogon was last seen flying over the black cliffs three days ago, but he can no longer be found. Daenerys tells them to head with her to the catacombs under the city. Later, she leads her remaining two dragons into the catacombs, where they are distracted by sheep carcasses. As they are feeding and distracted, Daenerys personally locks iron collars around their necks, which are secured by heavy chains. She weeps as she does so, as it is symbolically reducing her remaining "children" to chained-up slaves themselves - but her dragons are growing beyond her control, and she has to prevent them from harming anyone else. Daenerys wordlessly leaves, as her dragons grow distressed and pathetically call after her.

In the Seven Kingdoms
In King's Landing, Oberyn actually coated his spear with Manticore venom, horrifically poisoning Ser Gregor, whose wounds are putrifying and making a terrible stench. Pycelle says that he is beyond any hope of recovery, but Qyburn insists to Cersei that he can save him using less...orthodox, methods.

Cersei rages at Tywin that she will not submit to a forced marriage to Loras Tyrell. He denounces that they've discussed this long ago. She says its not just Loras: he wants to ship her off to Highgarden and remove her from the court entirely, keeping her away from her last remaining son. Meanwhile, both Margaery and Tywin will get their claws into Tommen, each trying to manipulate them into their allegiance. She refuses to be married to Loras because she does not want to be sent away. Tywin won't budge so Cersei plays her trump card: she threatens to destroy House Lannister by telling everyone the truth. Tywin seems confused, and at first Cersei scoffs that he is merely feigning ignorance. With growing realization, she assesses that even the brilliant Tywin Lannister never noticed what was going on between his own children, when all it would have taken was one attentive moment in the past twenty years. Tywin is still apparently confused, so with a merciless grin Cersei reveals that all of the rumors about her and Jaime (and their children) are true - she will tell everyone and destroy Tywin's vaunted family legacy. Tywin shakes with anger, but says he thinks Cersei is simply lying to anger him. Cersei says she doubts he truly thinks that.

Cersei finds Jaime in the White Sword Tower and insists that she wants Tyrion dead, and that she just revealed everything to their father. She begins to seduce him, and says she chooses her brother, also her lover, over everyone else in the world, all of those small people who are so far beneath them. They have rough passionate sex propped up on the table.

In the middle of the night, Jaime opens Tyrion's cell to lead him to an escape, along with help from Varys, who has secured a galley in the harbor which Tyrion can sneak out of the city on and flee to the Free Cities. Jaime chose Tyrion over Cersei. Tyrion, however, decides to use the secret passages to infiltrate the Tower of the Hand. He enters the Hand of the King's quarters, and sees a woman in Tywin's bed, and Tywin's clothes folded up on a chair. Coming closer he sees that the woman is Shae, who calls out for Tywin calling him "my lion". She sees that it is Tyrion, caught in a moment of utter betrayal. Shae grabs a knife to defend herself and though Tyrion could leave her rushes forward. They struggle for the knife. They struggle with their bare hands. Ultimately Tyrion grabs the necklace around her throat and pulls it tight until she stops struggling...and continues to strangle her long after she stops struggling, until she is dead. He weeps and says he is sorry. Tyrion then takes a crossbow down from the wall and loads it, and heads down the hall to find his father taking a shit in the privy (toilet). Tywin insists that he was never going to have Tyrion actually killed, simply sent to the Night's Watch. Tyrion admits that he just murdered Shae with his bare hands, but Tywin scoffs that it doesn't matter, she was just a whore. Tyrion threatens that if his father says the word "whore" one more time he will kill him. Tyrion considers the lifetime of torment Tywin has inflicted on him, and that he has always wanted him dead. Tywin casually agrees that yes, he has always wished that Tyrion would die, but then insists that he actually respects and even admires Tyrion for fighting to hold on despite everything Tywin threw at him. He tries to convince Tyrion that they should continue to discuss this in his chambers instead of in the privy (with Tyrion pointing a crossbow directly at him). Tyrion says he cannot go back to Tywin's chambers because Shae's body is still there. Tywin dares Tyrion by mocking, "because you're afraid of a dead whore?" - thinking he is calling Tyrion's bluff. As it turns out, Tyrion wasn't bluffing.

The moment Tywin utters the word "whore" again Tyrion looses his crossbow bolt, hitting Tywin in the belly and knocking him backwards. Tywin is incredulous that Tyrion actually had the courage to fight back against him, and that he will die in such an undignified way at the hands of his hated dwarf son. With his last words he angrily declares that Tyrion is no son of his. Tyrion tells Tywin that he really is his son and takes after him, then looses a second bolt into Tywin's heart, killing him.

Near the Eyrie, Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne encounter Arya Stark and the Hound. Brienne realizes who Arya is, but by this point Arya is wary of anyone trying to find her and simply ransom her. Brienne admits she was sent by her mother to return Jaime Lannister, and that Jaime gave her the sword she is carrying, which only frightens Arya into thinking that Brienne is working for the Lannisters (not realizing how much of a change of heart Jaime has had). The Hound mocks Brienne, accurately pointing out that even if what she says is true and she intends to take Arya to "safety", she didn't really think this through. There is no safe place for Arya anymore: her father, mother, and older brother are dead, the Stark armies are scattered, Winterfell is burned-out rubble, and now even her aunt Lysa in the Eyrie is dead. They enter into a brutal fight. Ultimately Brienne wins and knocks Sandor down a cliffside. Arya hides from Brienne and doubles back. Sandor is badly wounded and begs her to kill him and put him out of his misery. She coldly refuses.

Later, Arya rides a horse to the nearby coast of the Vale, and sees a wharf with ships docked. She asks the captain if she can pay for travel to the North, but he says that they won't go there because the North is full of war these days, cold, and pirates. Instead, the ship is going "home". Arya asks where that is, and he reveals that it is the Free City of Braavos. Arya lights up at this and wants to book passage but he says she can't. Remembering, Arya pulls out the special coin that the Faceless Man known as Jaqen H'ghar gave her, and instructed her to present to any ship captain from Braavos if she needed aid. She does so now, and the captain is utterly surprised at how she obtained it, but she says only "Valar morghulis" (as Jaqen instructed), to which the captain gives the response line "Valar dohaeris". He welcomes her aboard the ship, and insists that she will have her own cabin.

Arya stands on the ship and watches as the shore of Westeros shrinks further and further away. She then moves to the prow of the ship, looking forward in the direction of the Free Cities and Braavos...

First

 * Kullback
 * Leaf
 * Three-eyed raven
 * Braavosi Captain
 * Fennesz

Deaths

 * Jojen Reed
 * Shae
 * Tywin Lannister

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Charles Dance as Lord Tywin Lannister
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Stephen Dillane as King Stannis Baratheon
 * Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Princess Arya Stark
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
 * Rose Leslie as Ygritte
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Conleth Hill as Lord Varys
 * Sibel Kekilli as Shae

Guest Starring
 * Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder
 * Peter Vaughan as Maester Aemon
 * Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle
 * Anton Lesser as Qyburn
 * Ian McElhinney as Barristan Selmy
 * Struan Rodger as the Three-Eyed Raven
 * Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Jojen Reed
 * Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed
 * Kristian Nairn as Hodor
 * Tara Fitzgerald as Selyse Baratheon
 * Dominic Carter as Janos Slynt
 * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * Mark Stanley as Grenn
 * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett
 * Josef Altin as Pypar
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Trevor Allan Davies as Fennesz
 * Brenock O'Connor as Olly
 * Kerry Ingram as Shireen Baratheon
 * Octavia Selena Alexandru as Leaf
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Gregor Clegane
 * Darren Kent as a Grieving Father
 * Ian Whyte as a Giant
 * Gary Oliver as a Braavosi Captain
 * Alice Hewkin

Cast notes
18 of 26 cast members for the fourth season appear in this episode.
 * Starring cast members Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Aidan Gillen(Petyr Baelish), Alfie Allen(Theon Greyjoy), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Hannah Murray (Gilly), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), and Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.
 * This episode includes the final apperancees of Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) and Sibel Kekilli (Shae) due to the death of their characters as well as Rose Leslie (Ygritte), whose body appeared during her private funeral pyre scene.

​Memorable Quotes
Tywin Lannister - "You are no son of mine."

​Tyrion Lannister - "I am your son. I have always been your son."

​In the books

 * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Storm of Swords:
 * Chapter 73, Jon X: Jon meets with Mance Rayder in his tent to negotiate while Stannis and his bannerman arrive at the wall and take Mance captive.
 * Chapter 74, Arya XIII: Arya leaves the Hound to die and makes her way to the Titan's daughter with Braavos as its destination. When she asks for a cabin, the captain refuses, but Arya then presents the coin she got from Jaqen H'ghar and says "Valar Morghulis", which grants her a cabin and passage onboard.
 * Chapter 76, Jon XI: Stannis tells Jon that he believes Ned Stark was a man of honor and Jon meets Melisandre at Castle Black.
 * Chapter 77, Tyrion XI: Tyrion is saved by Jaime who leads him out of the black cells to the stairs that will take him to Varys and they say goodbye. However, Tyrion decides to go to the Tower of the Hand to encounter his father Tywin before leaving and he finds Shae in Tywin's bed. Tyrion in rage strangles Shae and then goes to find Tywin on the privy and shoots him with a crossbow after much confrontation.


 * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Dance with Dragons:
 * Chapter 2, Daenerys I: Daenerys learns that one of her dragons killed a child when a shepherd empties out a sack of burnt bones on the floor.
 * Chapter 11, Daenerys II: Daenerys decides to chain up two of her dragons Rhaegal and Viserion, but Drogon was unable to be taken and was last seen flying somewhere north of Slaver's Bay to the Dothraki Sea.