Reviewed: Game of Thrones: Oathkeeper

There will be spoilers ahead so read on at your own risk...

This week Daenerys shows no mercy, we learn who was behind Joffrey's murder, Jaime makes a big decision and the Stark children may finally be heading for a reunion.

Once again we start off right where we were left last week, with Daenerys outside Meereen. Grey Worm and some of his fellow Unsullied manage to sneak in to Meereen and convince the slaves to revolt against their masters, they give them weapons to help as well. It appeared as it was going a brilliant opening with the slaves revolting against the masters but we actually only saw one master killed, none of the others were shown, presumably due to budget restraints. With the few surviving masters from Meereen, Dany decides to nail them to posts as justice for what they did to the children instead of showing mercy like Barristan Selmy advised, she showed glimpses that she is her father’s daughter with that decision. 

No one is playing the Game of Thrones more than Littlefinger, Lady Olenna and the Tyrells we found out in this episode as they both revealed their involvement in Joffrey’s murder. They both have plenty of money so it must be power they want. This became evident when Sansa was quizzing Petyr about his motives for his part in Joffrey's death; "I'd risk everything to get what I want." "and what do you want?" asked Sansa, Littlefinger replied "...Everything.". It would also be hard to argue that Joffrey’s death doesn’t improve the position of the Tyrells, especially if Margaery and Tommen are to marry, but as Cersei would warn, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”.

Petyr also informs Sansa that he is to marry Sansa's aunt Lysa in the Vale and that she would be taken there to be safe. Someone else who is currently being taken to the Vale is Arya, as the Hound expects to receive a reward for returning her to her aunt. They haven't seen each other since Ned Stark lost his head, could a reunion finally be on the cards, time will tell.

After his interesting actions in 'Breaker of Chains', Jaime returned this week on his road to redemption. He visited Tyrion in his cell for the first time after some convincing words from Bronn, it seemed like he finally realised that his loyalties can no longer lie with Cersei instead of Tyrion. He knows that Tyrion is innocent but once again when he meets with Cersei she still refuses to accept that he didn’t do it.

Jaime then decides that he must find Sansa, but not how Cersei would hope. He tells Brienne to honour their vows to Lady Stark, even though Catelyn is dead. He gifts the valyrian steel sword that his father gave him to Brienne, a move that would enrage Tywin to no ends, but as it was forged from Ned's greatsword, Jaime felt it should be used to protect the Stark children. She would later name the sword Oathkeeper. He also gifts Brienne a new suit of armour and a squire... Podrick! Yes, the adventures of Pod will continue with Brienne. It was clear that Brienne does indeed have feelings for Jaime as she departed with Pod, she is one of the few people who knows the truth about when he killed the Mad King after all. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of Cersei and Tywin will be if they find out about this, Jaime could see himself being despised as much as Tyrion is by the pair.

Back up at Castle Black, Jon and Grenn are training the men how to deal with Wildlings. One of those men was Locke, the guy who cut off Jaime Lannister's hand and who is now on a mission from Roose Bolton to kill the remaining Starks so the Bolton's can have the North to themselves. He may only be half Stark but Bolton still sees Jon as a threat so Locke goes to the wall, hoping that Bran and Rickon will also be there after escaping from Winterfell.

After Thorne attempts to once again humiliate Snow in front of his brothers, Janos Slynt persuades Thorne to allow Jon Snow to travel to Craster's Keep in hopes that he may not return with him being so popular among his men. Unsurprisingly, Locke is one of the men who volunteer to travel to Craster's with Jon. 

In our first look at Craster's Keep since Commander Mormont's death we see Carl Tanner, (the man who killed Craster) drinking wine from the skull of the commander. I wondered if they could replace Joffrey's evil after he died and Tanner is proof that they can, I don't even think Joffrey would drink wine from someone's skull and repeat some of the things that came out of Tanner’s mouth.

One of Craster's older wifes/daughters then brings in Craster's last child, a son. We all know what happens to his sons but Tanner doesn't, when he is informed that they are gifted to the White Walkers, he has no issue sending one of his men to leave the baby in the forest for them to collect. Tanner is a brilliant character, I just loved the way he threw those hilarious insults at one of his men for merely speaking back. I would love to see him stick around in the show but that's almost certainly not going to happen one would imagine with Jon Snow and company heading their way.

Travelling through the same forest was Bran, who hears the cries of the baby that was left for the Walkers. Bran was warging as Summer to find the baby only to get trapped after seeing Jon Snow's wolf, Ghost caged up. They go to investigate hoping Jon would be at the keep but they end up being caught, and Tanner knows the value that he will have being highborn. This is the second pair of Starks that may be destined for a reunion, this one seems a bit more likely than Sansa and Arya. This was the perfect set up before the likely battle between the mutineers and Jon’s men.

Viewers where then taken by surprise to end the episode as we see the baby being taken away by a White Walker. The Walker places the baby in some sort of alter inside an ice cave in preparation for a ritual. Another White Walker that appears to be some sort of leader enters, picks up then touches the baby's face, turning his eyes blue and presumably in to a Walker. I believe it was our first look at the walkers when there aren't any humans present like when Sam killed one in season 3, when Sam saw them at the fist of the first men or in the opening scene of the show. Because of how little of them we’ve seen, it’s been tough to see them as threat they are but that may be about to change.

This episode was so different to last week’s because this one was so heavily focused on just three storylines with the exception of Daenerys’ opening segment, Breaker of Chains was jumping from character to character, feeling very disjointed. I found this episode to be far more enjoyable, it really did leave me looking forward to seeing the repercussions of Jaime’s actions and the upcoming conflict at Craster’s. Hopefully more episodes of this standard are in the pipeline.

Next week's episode is entitled First of His Name and will be on HBO on Sunday and Sky Atlantic one day later in the UK. Here is a preview of that episode courtesy of the Game of Thrones YouTube channel.