Dark Wings, Dark Words

"Dark Wings, Dark Words" is the second episode of the third season of Game of Thrones. It is the twenty-second episode of the series overall.

Synopsis
Sansa says too much; Shae asks Tyrion for a favor; Jaime finds a way to pass the time; Arya encounters the Brotherhood Without Banners.

Beyond the Wall
Jon Snow is marching with the Free Folk army of King-Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder. Mance explains that his army is a diverse group, formed of about 90 different groups or clans of wildlings, who speak different languages, and have numerous internal rivalries. However, he managed to unite them all by telling them the truth: that they will all die if they remain north of the Wall. Mance and his men then meet up with one of his advanced scouts, a man named Orell who is staring into the sky at an eagle. Mance says that he is a "warg", and Ygritte is surprised that Jon doesn't know what that is. Mance explains that a warg is a person who is capable of magically entering the mind of an animal with their own mind, seeing what it sees and even controlling its actions. Orell controls his eagle to scout for miles ahead of their army. Mance asks him what he sees, and Orell says he saw the Fist of the First Men - and many dead "crows".

Meanwhile, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont leads the few surviving men of the Night's Watch who survived the slaughter at the Battle of the Fist of the First Men as they travel south in hope of reaching the Wall. Samwell Tarly is exhausted and cannot keep walking. Rast the raper is annoyed that Sam didn't fight but just hid during the battle, and thinks they should leave him because he's slowing them down. Sam is upset that Grenn and Dolorous Edd left him behind at the start of the attack when they ran back to base camp ahead of him, though they don't want to leave him now. Mormont tells Sam that he has to keep moving, and sternly commands, "Tarly, I order you not to die."

In the North
Bran Stark is having a prophetic dream in which he is walking and hunting in the woods, and sees the mysterious three-eyed raven again. As he aims with his bow, he relives his memories of when he was practicing archery with Jon and Robb, and hears the voice of his father Eddard (memories of a scene at Winterfell which happened in the first episode of the series). Bran shoots at the raven but misses, but then an unknown boy appears, who tells him that he cannot shoot the raven, because Bran is the raven. Bran awakens suddenly, worrying Hodor for a moment but he says he is fine. Osha says the have enough problems without dark dreams. Bran, Rickon, Osha, Hodor, and the direwolves Summer and Shaggydog continue to head north from Winterfell to the Wall.

Later, the same boy from the dream approaches their camp in the woods unarmed, and while Summer snarls at him at first he then sniffs his hand and turns away. Osha comes up behind the boy with a sharpened wooden spear, only for the boy's sister to come up behind Osha and pull a knife to her throat. Everyone then calms down, and the boy introduces himself as Jojen Reed, and his sister is Meera Reed. House Reed are loyal bannermen of House Stark, and they have been searching for Bran and Rickon so they can protect them.

Sometime later, when they are on the move again, Jojen and Bran discuss his wolf-dreams, and Jojen explains that Bran himself is a warg. Jojen says that it starts out as vivid dreams seeing the world through his wolf's eyes, but with practice he will be able to consciously enter the mind of his wolf and control its actions. Bran asks if prophetic dreams are part of being a warg, but Jojen explains that's a different, related magical ability. "The Sight" allows those who possess it to see events that haven't happened yet, or events that happened long before they were born, or events happening now but thousands of miles away. Jojen confirms that Bran's dream of his father Eddard the day he died was an example of the Sight, and that Jojen himself had a similar dream the same day. He says that when he told his father, Lord Howland Reed, he openly wept, for he correctly realized that his son's dream signified that Eddard was dead. Bran says that Howland was a great friend of his father Eddard's who fought alongside him during Robert's Rebellion, though Jojen says Howland doesn't like to talk about the war much. Jojen also confirms that Bran wasn't simply experiencing a vision of Jojen in his earlier dream, but it was Jojen himself who reached out with his mind to contact Bran in his dream, and Jojen remembers seeing the three-eyed raven too.

At an indeterminate location, apparently not too far from where he was, Theon Greyjoy has been chained up in a dungeon. Men come in, some wearing ironborn clothing, and interrogate him. The "interrogation" doesn't involve any real questions and seems to be intended just to break Theon, as when he asks what they want one of the guards simply says "this" and proceeds to start prying his fingernails off with a knife. Later, they slowly turn a screw into his foot until it is bleeding freely, repeatedly asking him why he captured Winterfell, but apparently not caring about the answers he gives. Theon, for his part, at first tells them the simple truth (that he wanted to take and hold Winterfell while the North was weak to impress his father), then starts frantically lying (saying he hates the Starks and is their enemy), desperately trying to figure out what his captors even want him to tell them. When the guards leave they put a bag over his head, but a servant boy comes over to Theon and unwinds the screw on his foot, and tells him that he has been sent by his sister Yara to rescue him. However, he must wait until nightfall when the castle is asleep, so he puts the bag back on and the desperate Theon is left alone crying for help.

In King's Landing
King Joffrey Baratheon is being fitted for new clothes in his chambers, in preparation for his upcoming wedding to Margaery Tyrell. His mother Cersei begins to criticize Margaery, saying that she is only charitable to the poor to build up support for herself, and also saying that she thinks she dresses like a harlot. However, Joffrey barely tolerates his mother's chiding and simply tells her off.

Meanwhile, Shae is dressing Sansa Stark in her chambers, and she warns Sansa about Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish. She points out that Baelish has offered to help her in exchange for nothing in return, which probably means he's after something. Sansa naively says he's an old friend of her mother's, that should be reason enough. More to the point, Shae suggests that Baelish is actually sexually attracted to Sansa. This disturbs Sansa, but she thinks it is simply impossible, as Baelish is so much older than her, and surely "Littlefinger's not in love with me". Shae continues to warn Sansa that Baelish is manipulative and men usually only want "one thing" from pretty young ladies.

Ser Loras Tyrell arrives at the door and escorts Sansa to the gardens to meet with Margaery and their grandmother, Lady Olenna Tyrell. Sansa points out that she met Loras once before at the Tourney of the Hand, and he takes his leave after introducing her. Lady Olenna is a cunning and intelligent woman who speaks her mind, and bluntly says that her son Mace was a fool for supporting Renly Baratheon's claim to the throne, though Margaery speaks well of Renly. Lady Olenna insists that Sansa tell her the truth about what Joffrey is like, as he is to marry Margaery. Sansa blurts out that Joffrey said he would show her father mercy, only to behead him in front of her and then say he meant the mercy of a quick death, then forced her to look at his head on a spike - but then Sansa catches herself and starts robotically reciting her lines about how great Joffrey is. Olenna continues to prod Sansa as she fidgets around, and it becomes obvious that she is visibly afraid about being overheard. After enough times of Olenna insisting that she can trust her not to repeat what she says, Sansa blurts out that Joffrey is "a monster". Olenna is not pleased but takes this in stride, and having finished with Sansa ponders how to proceed.

Elsewhere, Shae shows up in Tyrion Lannister's new chambers, though he warns her that his father threatened to kill her if he found her with him again, and that his father follows through on such threats. Undeterred, Shae starts undressing Tyrion, and asks him for a favor: to protect Sansa from Baelish. Tyrion says he doesn't have enough power or influence anymore to attempt to do that, though Shae accuses him of being attracted to Sansa, which he cheerfully denies. It also comes out that Tyrion had sex with Ros back in the North, though Tyrion points out it was before he met Shae. They joke around about it then start having sex.

Margaery then comes in to Joffrey's chambers to see if he needs anything, as he is planning to go out hunting, though Sansa previously warned that he is a monster. While Joffrey has previously been easy for Margaery to manipulate, Cersei was apparently able to plant one seed of doubt in his mind: the fact that Margaery was married to his uncle Renly (and thus, already had sex with another man), whom Cersei described as a "traitor and known degenerate". Margaery says that she was ordered to marry a traitor as her family duty, but Joffrey implies that this still means he must have had sex with her. Margaery struggles at length in a very roundabout way to explain that she didn't, as Joffrey gets increasingly angry, so ultimately she comes around to saying that "I don't believe he was interested in the company of women". This gives Joffrey pause, and he asks what she means. Margaery says that Renly kept finding excuses to avoid sharing her bed. Then, trying to manipulate Joffrey's sympathy, she lies and says that the one time she was able to convince Renly to try to "make children" with her, he was very drunk and became brazen, and suggested "something that sounded very painful, which couldn't possibly result in children". Joffrey's fears that Margaery already had sex with another man pass, as he acknowledges that Renly was a "known degenerate". Joffrey then tries to impress her by playing around with a new hand-cranked custom crossbow he's had made, which he intends to go hunting with, and offers to take him with her to share in the excitement of killing something.

In the Riverlands
King Robb Stark is settling into the council chamber at Harrenhal with his wife Queen Talisa, when Lord Roose Bolton comes in bringing two letters which just came in via messenger-raven, each of which brings bad news. First, Robb's maternal grandfather Hoster Tully has finally died after a long illness at his castle of Riverrun. Second, Roose delivers a letter from his bastard son Ramsay Snow, stating that when the ironborn realized they couldn't hold Winterfell, they torched the castle and put all of its inhabitants to the sword, and then fled. There has been no sighting of Bran or Rickon, and though Robb hopes that they are still alive, there is a strong possibility that they are dead. Moreover, there has been no word of Theon, and if he took the boys captive the Greyjoys haven't sent out any demands. This double-blow reduces Catelyn Stark to tears, who laments that she had not seen her father in years. She is horrified at the thought that Bran and Rickon were in danger while she was away and could not protect them, and are now likely dead.

Robb leaves Roose Bolton in command of Harrenhal with a detachment of the Northern army while Robb leads his main host back across the Riverlands to Riverrun. Lord Rickard Karstark angrily says that this is a waste of time, though Robb points out that Catelyn's brother and his uncle, Edmure Tully, is now lord of Riverrun and his levies will reinforce their army. Karstark maintains that unless Edmure has been breeding soldiers like rabbits, it will make no difference: with their new Tyrell allies, the Lannisters outnumber them over two to one. Robb asks if Karstark has lost faith in their cause, and Karstark says he still believes in revenge. However, the fact that Robb lost his home castle, and now his home castle has been burned down and its people all killed, makes him seem vulnerable in the eyes of his bannermen, and many no longer believe in Robb as they once did.

Appearances

 * Main: Dark Wings, Dark Words/Appearances

First

 * Jojen Reed
 * Lady Olenna Tyrell
 * Meera Reed
 * Orell
 * Thoros of Myr
 * Anguy
 * Skinner
 * Unidentified boy
 * Locke

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Richard Madden as King Robb Stark
 * Michelle Fairley as Lady Catelyn Stark
 * Natalie Dormer as Lady Margaery Tyrell
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Prince Bran Stark
 * Jack Gleeson as King Joffrey Baratheon
 * Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Princess Arya Stark
 * Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy
 * Oona Chaplin as Queen Talisa Stark
 * Joe Dempsie as Gendry
 * Rose Leslie as Ygritte
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * James Cosmo as Lord Commander Jeor Mormont
 * Sibel Kekilli as Shae
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane

Guest starring
 * Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell
 * Ciarán Hinds as Mance Rayder
 * Mackenzie Crook as Orell
 * Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Noah Taylor as Locke
 * Natalia Tena as Osha
 * Michael McElhatton as Lord Roose Bolton
 * Iwan Rheon as Boy
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * Finn Jones as Ser Loras Tyrell
 * Thomas Brodie Sangster as Jojen Reed
 * Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed
 * Ben Hawkey as Hot Pie
 * John Stahl as Lord Rickard Karstark
 * Philip McGinley as Anguy
 * Mark Stanley as Grenn
 * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett
 * Luke Barnes as Rast
 * Kristian Nairn as Hodor
 * Art Parkinson as Prince Rickon Stark
 * Michael Shelford as Skinner
 * Joe Purcell as a Riverrun traveler
 * Joe Cassidy
 * Will Rastall as Tyrell servant

Cast notes

 * 18 of 28 cast members for the third season appear in this episode.
 * Starring cast members Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister), Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont), Conleth Hill (Varys), and Carice van Houten (Melisandre) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.

In the books

 * See Differences between books and TV series - Season 3