Game of Thrones Series Blog – The Climb

Cersei hits the nail on the head when she says, ‘We’re all being shipped off to hell together’.  Theon is being tortured by an unknown assailant, Sansa’s dreams of marrying Ser Loras have been crushed, and Arya has lost Gendry to Melisandre, who parted with some rather sinister words. The happiest of our crew appear to be Danaerys, still stuck across the water, and Jon, who now stands on top of the wall with Ygritte. Westeros is certainly not the place to be at the moment. Perhaps someone should warn Danaerys to just stay put.

Many of the scenes in ‘The Climb’ focus on wedding bells, usually a happy occasion, but George. R. R. Martin wastes no time in shattering that illusion. Tyrion and Cersei discuss their engagements, with the news finally making it to Sansa. Sophie Turner has only a few seconds of screen time to convey Sansa’s reaction, but she somehow manages to portray the despair and vulnerability perfectly. Shae stands beside her, trying her best to avoid revealing the truth about her relationship with Tyrion. However, Sibil Kekilli, who plays Shae, also manages to slide in that hint of frustration and sadness as she finds out that her lover is now engaged.

Robb seems to have smoothed over his disagreement with Walder Frey, as his uncle Edmure Tully reluctantly takes his place as a fiancée to one of the Frey daughters. I can’t be the only one with reservations over how easy the solution seemed to be. There’s still a definite air of tension surrounding Robb’s marriage, and I expect we haven’t heard the last of it.

Arya meets Melisandre, who speaks with Thoros with an unsettling familiarity. Thoros is apparently a terrible priest, and explains that he has no real power – the Lord of Light is the one that keeps bringing Beric Dondarrion back from the dead. We still don’t know why Beric is so important, but with his burning sword and death-defiance, I imagine we’ll find out soon enough. Gendry is taken by Melisandre and her men, and Arya tries her best to stop them, accusing the red priestess of being a witch. Melisandre rather ominously tells Arya that she ‘has darkness inside’ her and that they will meet again. I’d really rather they didn’t.

The name of the episode is, of course, ‘The Climb’, an obvious reference to the mammoth ice-wall that the wildlings attempt to scale. Jon and Ygritte nearly fall to their deaths in a heart-stopping scene (where Orell seems all too quick to cut them loose…), but Jon manages to save them both. Ygritte tells Jon before the ascent about how she can’t wait to see the world from the top of the wall, and when they finally make it, the scenery is stunning. The scene ends with a romantic embrace, one of the few moments in the episode that incites a smile.

At the end of the episode, Littlefinger talks about chaos, and although every move made in the Game of Thrones is meticulously calculated, he is right in saying that chaos is all there is. The audience can’t help but shudder as Joffrey, who has been uncharacteristically quiet for the past few episodes, is shown holding a crossbow, having just shot Ros, who was hanging from his bed. If chaos is indeed a ladder, it would appear that Joffrey has fallen off.

With just four episodes left in the season, conflicts are coming to a head, and plots are ready to unfold. You won’t want to miss a single second.