The Kingsroad


 * This article is about the episode. For the actual highway, see "Kingsroad".

"The Kingsroad" is the second episode of the first season of Game of Thrones. It is the second episode of the series overall. It first aired on April 24, 2011. It was written by executive producers David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Tim Van Patten.

Synopsis
Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister depart Winterfell for the Wall, and along the way Jon discovers his ideas of the Night's Watch may not match the reality.

Eddard Stark and his daughters depart for King's Landing, but an incident on the Kingsroad threatens to drive a wedge between him and King Robert.

Recap
The Dothraki khalasar led by Khal Drogo have departed Pentos and are heading east. They travel away from the Free Cities and into the Dothraki sea, the long-grassed plains that the Dothraki call home. Viserys Targaryen accompanies the khalasar, meaning to stay with Drogo until he fulfills his end of the bargain and provides him with an army with which to invade Westeros. Ser Jorah Mormont tells Viserys that he offended his liege lord, Eddard Stark, by selling poachers into slavery. When he received word that Eddard meant to execute him for the crime (slavery has been illegal in Westeros for centuries), he fled to Essos. Viserys laughs at the notion, saying such trivialities would not be punished under his reign. For her part, Daenerys is finding adapting to her new role as khaleesi to be a huge challenge. Only Mormont offers her some solace; saying it will become easier. Daenerys is however fearful of her new husband and it is revealed that their first sexual encounter has left her slightly injured.

In Winterfell, Bran Stark lies unconscious and badly wounded, his mother by his side. Tyrion Lannister urges that his nephew Joffrey pay his respects to Lord and Lady Stark, since his absence has been noted. When Joffrey refuses, saying the boy means nothing to him, Tyrion slaps him three times until he accepts his uncle's suggestion. Tyrion then breakfasts with his other family members, informing them of his decision to journey north to see the Wall before returning to King's Landing. He also tells them that Bran is expected to live and notes Cersei and Jaime's guarded reactions.

Cersei visits Catelyn Stark, sitting by her son's side, and tells her that her first child, a beautiful, black-haired boy, was stillborn. She and Robert were grief-stricken and her prayers and tears were for naught. She offers to pray for Bran's survival, hoping that this time the gods will listen.

Jon Snow has Winterfell's blacksmith, Mikken, forge a light sword for his sister, Arya. Arya is excited by the gift and names it Needle. Jon also gives her advice on how to best use the weapon: "Stick them with the pointy end." Jon urges Arya to practice every chance she gets. Jon then says goodbye to the comatose Bran, before departing at his stepmother's cold request. Eddard then says his goodbyes to his son and to Catelyn, who is angered at his departure whilst Bran remains ill.

The parties depart Winterfell: Jon, Tyrion and Benjen Stark to the Wall; Eddard, Arya, Sansa and the royal party south to King's Landing. At their parting Eddard tells Jon that, though he does not have Eddard's name, he has his blood. He also promises Jon to tell him about his mother the next time they meet.

Days later, on the Kingsroad south to the capital, King Robert Baratheon calls a halt to discuss some dire news that has just arrived with Eddard. Robert's spies have learned of Daenerys Targaryen's marriage to Khal Drogo, whose khalasar is reported to number over one hundred thousand warriors. Eddard points out that the Dothraki cannot cross the Narrow Sea, as they have no ships, but Robert is concerned that the Seven Kingdoms will soon face another war. A curious Robert asks Eddard about Wylla, the mother of his bastard son, but Eddard refuses to enlighten him. Robert reminds him that they were in the middle of a war and no one knew if they would ever return to their families.

In Winterfell, Catelyn's refusal to leave Bran's side is starting to cause problems for the smooth running of the castle. Robb offers to work with Maester Luwin to put the castle to rights. There is then a fire in part of the castle, but this proves to be a distraction to allow an assassin to attempt to finish off Bran. Catelyn holds the assassin off long enough for Bran's direwolf to enter the chamber and tear out the assassin's throat.

In the Dothraki sea, fascinated with her gift from Illyrio, Dany asks her handmaidens if they have ever heard of dragons surviving in the east. They reply no, but Doreah, a former pleasure-girl from Lys, tells her an old story about how there used to be two moons. One wandered too close to the sun and cracked like an egg, spilling out thousands of dragons into the world. Dany's Dothraki handmaidens dismiss the story, saying that the moon is a goddess, wife to the sun.

Daenerys seeks the advice of her handmaid Doreah. Doreah instructs Daenerys on how to please Drogo in bed but also how to use her skills to gain respect from him. Reminding her, "you are no slave" and should not have sex like one. Daenerys nervously puts these plans into action and is surprised to find Drogo responsive, particularly once she starts using her body in combination with the Dothraki language to speak to him. Traveling north, Jon and Tyrion talk and Tyrion reveals that he reads books to sharpen his mind, his greatest asset and weapon. Several new recruits join the party as it travels north, rapists who chose to take the black rather than face the knife. Tyrion tells Jon that the Night's Watch is not a noble institution of glorious knights defending the realm, but a dumping ground for the unwanted and for criminals.

In Winterfell, Catelyn goes to the tower from where Bran fell and finds a blonde strand of hair on the floor. She summons Robb, Theon, Luwin and the castle master at arms, Ser Rodrik Cassel and tells that that she suspects that the Lannisterstriedto kill Bran and that maybe he saw something in the tower. Robb and Theon are all for making war, but Luwin schools them to caution. Catelyn decides that Ned must know the truth and resolves to travel south to King's Landing and meet him there. Ser Rodrik will go as escort, whilst Robb will take charge of the castle in her absence. Jon's party crests a rise and sees the Wall before them. Benjen welcomes them, and Tyrion seems impressed by the Wall's sheer size.

On the Kingsroad, the royal party reaches the Crossroads Inn, a noted waystop on the way south to the capital. Prince Joffrey's bodyguard, Sandor Clegane, known as 'the Hound', a man with half his face burned in a mysterious accident, introduces Sansa to Ser Ilyn Payne, the king's headsman, a frightening-looking man who had his tongue torn out on the orders of the Mad King many years ago. Joffrey saves Sansa from this unpleasantness and takes her for a walk along the riverbank. They find Arya practicing her sword work with the son of the party's butcher, Mycah. Joffrey pretends to take offence at Mycah using a sword on his betrothed's sister and starts to cut his face with his sword, but an outraged Arya hits him round the head with a stick. Joffrey quickly becomes violent and threatens Arya at sword point, but before he can hurt her, Arya's direwolf, Nymeria, attacks Joffrey, biting at his arm. Mycha runs off and Arya throws Joffrey's sword in the river before running off herself. Sansa tries to help Joffrey, but he spitefully tells her to leave him alone and go for help.

Arya, knowing that Nymeria will be punished for injuring the prince, forces the direwolf to flee by throwing rocks at her. She is then taken before the King, who is angered that a minor fracas has become a major incident with his wife and new Hand blaming one another's children. He decides to let Ned discipline Arya whilst he will do the same to Joffrey, but to appease his Queen agrees that the direwolf must be executed. When Nymeria cannot be found, Robert commands that Sansa's wolf Lady must be killed instead.

Furious, Eddard attends to the matter himself, passing the Hound arriving with Mycah's corpse. "He ran, but not very fast." Eddard kills Lady with a dagger, and hundreds of miles away Bran awakens.

Commentary
Actors Mark Addy, Lena Heady and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau provide a commentary for the episode on Blu-Ray and DVD (Mark and Lena together in London, Nikolaj on a video link from Copenhagen). This commentary is more humorous then the producers' commentary for the previous episode.


 * Lena Headey and Mark Addy observe that the opening title sequence does a good job of orientating people within the world of Westeros. Lena proceeds to give an impersonation of locations that could be used by a Westeros-based satnav device.
 * None of the three actors were involved in any of the shooting on Malta or the scenes involving the Dothraki, so were fascinated to see how Daenerys's story unfolded.
 * Lena Headey finds the relationship between Ser Jorah and Daenerys fascinating.
 * Lena Headey suggests that Mark Addy could return in future seasons as Robert Baratheon's ghost.
 * All three actors find Peter Dinklage 'irritatingly great'.
 * The scene where Cersei talks about her dying first son was Lena Headey's audition piece. Lena's take on Cersei is that when she was very young she was not unlike Sansa.
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau mis-identifies Mikken as being played by Tommy Dunne, when in fact he is played by Boyd Rankin. Mark Addy then mentions Boyd Rankin's behind-the-scenes role on the show. Nikolaj's take on Jaime Lannister's view of Jon Snow and the Night's Watch is that he is completely baffled by the very idea of the organisation.
 * All three actors think the difficult relationship between Jon Snow and Catelyn to be extremely well-played.
 * Mark Addy and Sean Bean were previously acquainted from drama school (though they were in different years), as well as working on the Red Riding TV movie trilogy a couple of years earlier.
 * Sean Bean was noted on set for stealing other people's sandwiches.
 * Jaime Lannister was supposed to be present in the background of the scene where Eddard and Robert discuss Jon Snow's mother and Daenerys's wedding, but the schedule didn't allow for it. The scene between Jaime and Jory was written to make up for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's reduction in screentime in this scene.
 * The three actors agree that Eddard Stark's storyline is one of constantly making bad decisions.
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau notes the irony of Jon Snow's disapproval of Jaime breaking his oath to kill the Mad King (in his discussion with Tyrion in the woods) given his later decision to break his oath to the Night's Watch in the final episode of the season.
 * The wolves had a tendency to wake up the actors early in the morning with a chorus of howling.
 * Lena Headey considers the costumes to be brilliant, but finds some of the helmets to be veering a little towards Monty Python.
 * Lena Headey and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau love the phrase 'twincest', which fans coined some years earlier to describe Cersei and Jaime's relationship.
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau expands on the scene from the first episode where Jon, Theon and Robb were shaved. Apparently Alfie Allen refused to eat for two days prior to the scene to ensure he looked as good as possible.
 * During the scene where Doreah tutors Daenerys in the arts of love, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau observes the accuracy of the fan term 'sexposition' to describe such scenes. The three actors then debate whether Daenerys is indeed suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome in her relationship with Khal Drogo.
 * Lena Headey is a fan of the character development of Sansa throughout the first season, particularly her movement from being 'wet' to being stronger in her scenes with Joffrey in the final episode of the season.
 * The actors note how the fact that there were so many storylines progressing which they were not involved in, it was hard to see how the whole thing would come together until they saw the finished series.

Memorable quotes
Jaime Lannister: "But even if the boy lives, he would be a cripple, a grotesque. Give me a good, clean death any day."

Tyrion Lannister: "Speaking for the grotesques, I have to disagree. Death is so final, yet life is full of possibilities. I hope the boy does wake. I'd be very interested to hear what he has to say."

Jaime: "My dear brother, there are times you make me wonder whose side you're on."

Tyrion: "My dear brother, you wound me. You know how much I love my family."

Jon Snow: "Stick 'em with the pointy end."

Arya Stark: "I know which end to use."

Joffrey Baratheon: "I won't hurt him...much."

Robert Baratheon: "A direwolf's no pet. Get her a dog, she'll be happier for it."

Eddard Stark: "The wolf is of the North. She deserves better than a butcher."

Sandor Clegane: "He ran. Not very fast."

First Appearances

 * Irri
 * Jhiqui
 * Doreah
 * Rast
 * Ser Ilyn Payne
 * Mycah
 * Mikken

Deaths

 * Mycah
 * Lady
 * Catspaw assassin

Cast
Starring
 * Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark
 * Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Michelle Fairley as Lady Catelyn Stark
 * Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Princess Daenerys Targaryen
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont
 * Harry Lloyd as Prince Viserys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Richard Madden as Robb Stark
 * Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
 * Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark
 * Jack Gleeson as Prince Joffrey Baratheon
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
 * and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister

Also Starring
 * Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo

Guest starring
 * Donald Sumpter as Maester Luwin
 * Jamie Sives as Jory Cassel
 * Ron Donachie as Ser Rodrik Cassel
 * Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark
 * Roxanne McKee as Doreah
 * Dar Salim as Qotho
 * Amrita Acharia as Irri
 * Sarita Piotrowski as Jhiqui
 * Wilko Johnson as Ser Ilyn Payne
 * Rhodri Hosking as Mycah
 * Luke McEwan as Rast
 * Lalor Roddy as the Catspaw assassin
 * Conor Delaney as a Lannister guardsman
 * Callum Wharry as Prince Tommen Baratheon
 * Aimee Richardson as Princess Myrcella Baratheon

Uncredited
 * Boyd Rankin as Mikken
 * Unknown as Jeyne Poole

Cast Notes

 * Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) is credited as 'also starring' during the closing credits of this episode.
 * Wilko Johnson is a noted British guitarist who has played with bands including Dr. Feelgood and The Blockheads. The series marks his first acting role.