Some drama happened at my apartment this week, so I was unable to post this till now. If you haven’t seen Game of Thrones season 4, episode 8, beware – spoilers ahead!

Photo credit: HBO

Well, we’ve been waiting for it for 2 weeks now: Tyrion’s trial by combat! Was it as good as you expected? But first, a bit of an episode recap. Of course, they wait until the very end of the episode to show the trial, geeze.

In Meeren, Ser Jorah recieves a royal pardon from Robert Baratheon. Dany learns of his betrayal; he spied on her when she married Drogo and reported this news to Varys. He begs her forgiveness, but Dany is not in a forgiving mood. She banishes Ser Jorah from the city and says that if he isn’t gone by sun down, she will have his head.

Missandei notices that the commander of the unsullied, Grey Worm, has noticed her. Dany wonders if when Grey Worm was cut, if they took both “the pillar and the stones.” An awkward line I thought for the Khaleesi, but Missandei decides that she is not sorry of his interest, neither is Grey Worm.

In the Eyrie, Lord Baelish is questioned about Lysa’s death. He claims that she has committed suicide. Sansa is asked to testify against him, and finally dear Sansa has learned to play the game. She tells her tale, admitting that she is Sansa Stark and that Lord Baelish has only lied about her identity to keep her safe. She agrees that her aunt Lysa was always a “troubled woman” and that Lysa was extremely jealous of Sansa when she saw Lord Baelish kiss her cheek. JUST a kiss on the cheek, she claims. Distraught, she says that her aunt Lysa then committed suicide by throwing herself through the moon door.

The committee seems to believe her tale, and later Baelish asks her why she didn’t tell the whole truth – why take the chance on him? Sansa answers because she knows what he wants. (She seems to look at him knowingly when she says this.) Baelish says that she was a child when she first arrived at King’s Landing, but it is clear she is a child no longer. It begs the question, does Sansa want Baelish? Also, Baelish decides it is time for Robyn Arryn to leave the nest.

Meanwhile, Ramsay Snow uses Theon Greyjoy or “Reek” to take back parts of the North. He says that it is time for Reek to pretend to be Theon Greyjoy and help him. Greyjoy acts as Ramsay’s ambassador and manages to convince the people of Moat Caitlin to surrender and spare what lives they have. Greyjoy is questioned and called a woman and not a true Greyjoy which almost unravels him. However, the men decide to take the pardon, yet Ramsay slaughters them anyway. The scenes with Ramsay end with his father honoring him with the title of “Ramsay Bolton.” Yaay….NOT.

We then get an amusing scene between Arya and the Hound as they make their way towards the Eyrie. Arya thinks that she should be happier about Joffrey’s death, but she’s not. Maybe it was because she didn’t get to see him suffer or something. The Hound’s bite is hurting him and Arya says that he should have let her burn it. He also says that poisoning is a woman’s weapon. They arrive at the Eyrie only to find that Arya’s aunt Lysa is dead – to which Arya laughs and laughs at the news. It is kind of amusing and ironic for the Hound: every family member that he tries to ransom Arya to does have a strange habit of being dead beforehand.

Farther north, Gilly and her baby are still in the tavern where Sam left her. The town gets raided by the Wildings, but thanks to Ygritte, she manages to survive. Meanwhile at the wall, Jon and the others are wondering how 100 men are going to stand up against 100,000. And Sam is kicking himself for leaving Gilly in the town by herself, he should have known better.

Finally we get to the battle between the Viper and the Mountain, Gregor Clegane. There is a scene between Tyrion and Jaime before this where they talk about their slow cousin and how he used to smash beetles. Tyrion is tortured by the thought of it, the waste of all those beetles. He ask Jaime, “Why? Why did he think their cousin did that?” To which Jaime has no answer.

Prince Oberyn performs well in the battle, he dances quick around the Mountain, taunting him, wanting his opponent to admit to the death and rape of his sister and the death of her children. He manages to get a few hits on him, and stabs him in the chest with his spear, but he won’t let the Mountain die until he admits to the crimes that he’s committed against the Martel family. Did anyone else have a ‘hello my name is Inigo Montoya moment?’

As the prince dances around the dying Mountain taunting him, Clegane uses his last bit of strength and strangles Prince Oberyn in a most gruesome way, gouges out his eyes and literally crushes his head with his hands. And thus, Tyrion’s champion is the one that dies first, meaning that Tyrion gets to die as well. The episode ends with a look of shock from Tyrion, and Cersei’s satisfied smile.

Well, what did you think?

My thoughts:

• Anything with Arya is always entertaining. I always want to see more scenes with her!
• Dany’s treatment of Ser Jorah is understandable, but she might also be making a mistake. If she can’t trust him, this man who’s stuck by her side through thick and thin, who can she trust? Just makes me wonder what kind of road are we going to see Dany on in the next seasons or so. Is she going to be led astray? Was her treatment of Ser Jorah too harsh?
• The scenes in the Eyrie are playing out how I kind of thought they would, however, I am interested to see what Sansa’s game is. Does she truly know what is going on?
• And Tyrion can’t die! He’s one of my favorite characters! Is Jaime going to try and help him out? I hope so!
• I wonder if we are finally going to get a reunion between Arya and her sister, Sansa? If so, how are the two going to react after seeing each other? The two were different before, but now look at them!

Only 2 more episodes left in the season! Thoughts below if you got them!