Whether one has read the books in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, or is just following the drama in Westeros on HBO's Game of Thrones, it must have been apparent from the first season that Petyr Baelish, AKA Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), was plotting behind the scenes from Day 1. In last Sunday's episode, "First of His Name," it was revealed exactly how far back Littlefinger's plots and schemes have reached.
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| Sansa - can't the kid get a break? |
Poor Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). She has been forced to witness the steady destruction of her family, either first-hand, or through gleeful reports from now-deceased maniacal young kings. She seemed to be getting away from most of the horror last week when Littlefinger smuggled her out of King's Landing and delivered her to who she thinks may be her only living relative, her Aunt Lysa (Kate Dickie). Sansa had clearly been more than a little suspicious of Littlefinger's motives on their journey (he has said more than once that he was in love with her mother Cat, who she closely resembles), and was palpably relieved to see her mother's sister, who is holed up in the Eyrie, a virtually impregnable castle in the area of Westeros known as the Vale. But lemon cakes aside, Sansa wasn't able to enjoy her respite for long. Because her aunt is completely bonkers, and when she isn't accusing Sansa of sleeping with her beloved Littlefinger, she is planning her niece's nuptials to her infantile son Robin. Despite the fact that Sansa is currently married to Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage).
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| The happy couple, Lysa and Littlefinger - don't let the Moon Door hit you on the way out |
Sansa not only found herself disgusted by her aunt's loud screams (celebrating her instantaneous wedding to Littlefinger — Lysa does not fool around), but defending her husband Tyrion. She may have actually formed some kind feelings for him after all. What Sansa didn't know, and what came as a big reveal to many, was that Lysa had poisoned her husband Jon Arryn at Littlefinger's behest. This is the act that starts the ball rolling in the first novel A Game of Thrones and the first episode of the series. Jon Arryn is killed. Lysa writes to her sister Cat that the Lannisters have murdered him. Cat urges her husband Ned to take Jon's job of Hand of the King that his friend the King Robert Baratheon has just offered (and that Ned has no interest in). Ned's Sherlocking around in King's Landing to find Jon's killer results in his own death, which leads to war, which ends up destroying the Starks and their seat of Winterfell and is well on the way to currently destroying the Lannisters and their hold on King's Landing. And in case you forgot, Littlefinger was the mastermind behind King Joffrey's (Jack Gleeson) death, too.
What does Littlefinger want? Cat is dead. He has Sansa, sort of, but would she be a suitable substitute for his youthful love and rejection? Lysa may have survived the wedding, which is quite an accomplishment, considering how Westeros weddings go these days, but that Moon Door must look pretty tempting ... Does he really see himself as ruling all of Westeros?
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| Ghost and Jon, together again |
As we were all still reeling from Sansa's predicament, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and the Night's Guard shut down Craster's Keep. Jon was reunited with his direwolf Ghost in a great action sequence, which also saw the end of some hateful characters. Go Ghost! Go Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) warging into Hodor (Kristian Nairn)! "Hodor!" Bran had to decide whether he wanted to be rescued by Jon or not, and wisely chose to head onto the freezing unknown instead. I know, that might seem crazy to some, but the kid is on a mission, and he knows he can now transcend his body and do just about anything, which is a superpower as cool as, or even cooler than, Daenerys's (Emilia Clarke) dragons. Hmmm ... Bran ... dragons ... And speaking of Dany, she seems to be just about the only one in this universe who doesn't think she can just rule because she says so. Did you hear me, Stannis? Dany has decided to stay put in Meereen and learn to rule the city she has conquered before unleashing an army and dragons (!) upon Westeros.
But back to Sansa. Next week her hubby Tyrion is going on trial for the murder of the boy king/psychopath Joffrey. I missed Peter Dinklage this week, but he is sure to be front and center in the next episode, "The Laws of Gods and Men." Sorry to say, we are already half-way through this season. Say it isn't so!
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