Oliver Davis reviews the tenth episode of Game of Thrones Season Three….
Myhsa.
Directed by David Nutter.
Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Few things were going to top last week’s Red Wedding, which featured the murders of Catelyn, Robb and Talisa, but, in a way, the season closer was more enjoyable. Mainly because George R. R. Martin wasn’t crushing your hopes and dreams.
The aptly named David Nutter (seeing that episode nine was absolutely nutballs) returned as director in an installment that explored the importance of family within Westeros. Some dig family. Others…not so much.
Tyrion
…luckily for Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), his father, Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), is in the ‘dig’ category. In a tense scene together, Tywin tells Tyrion he wanted to drown him in the sea when he was born. Whether this is because of Tyrion’s deformities (Sparta-style), or that his mother died in childbirth, is never explained. The point Tywin is making is that he didn’t murder his newborn son because family’s important. Aww.
Dinklage and Dance are capable of carrying any scene, and placing both together makes for captivating television. The whole episode could be a duologue between the two, and it could be just as entertaining as the action in the Battle of Blackwater Bay.
The episode’s masterstroke, however, is adding Joffrey (Jack Gleeson). Arguably three of the show’s most entertaining characters, all blood related (some more than others), they make pedestrians of everyone else onscreen.
The setting is a counsel meeting, that Joffrey had called to celebrate Robb Stark and his “bitch of a mother’s” death. Gleeson prances around the room like a kid at Christmas (Winter must be coming), with his jaw protruding ever-so-slightly forward. The effect shows his bottom row of teeth whenever his mouth opens. On careful watch, Tywin has the same habit. He must have got it from his mother’s and father’s side.
The Boltons
…it’s everyone’s favourite Westeros family – the Boltons! …wait, who?
Theon’s (Alfie Allen) torturer has finally been revealed after an entire season of teasing. Each episode found a new way to humiliate or maim the poor guy, culminating in a particularly gruesome dis-member-ment. And Jaime thought he had it bad.
The pay-off to this drawn out storyline was the revelation of Ramsey Snow (Iwan Rheon). He’s Roose Bolton’s (Michael McElhatton – last seen slitting Robb Stark’s throat) bastard, not Jon Snow’s brother. Those in Westeros name their bastards after the region in which they’re born. The North has ‘Snow’, the Iron Islands’ is ‘Pyke’, Dorne has ‘Sand’ and the Riverlands’ is ‘Rivers’. And boy, is Ramsey a bastard.
But as great a character as he is, and however brilliantly demented Rheon portrays him (there’s a Dr Who-esque twinkle in his eyes for the more playful moments), the final reveal is a bit of an anticlimax. He’s not working for someone grander. He’s not someone brought back to life by the Red God. He’s not a magically face-changed Hodor. He’s simply the bastard of a character who has only recently been brought to prominence.
It’s an issue that the books share. As immersive as they are, Martin’s story is sometimes too large. The Boltons are stepping up from minor roles to become more significant, which arguably reflects the brutal striving for power in Westeros, yet the way in which their progression is told feels like missed potential.
Davos
…Davos (Liam Cunningham) is still my personal favourite character. Even though his brow seems permanently furrowed in battle with himself, he still manages to be one of the show’s lightest players. A slave to his own moral code, he frees Gendry (Joe Dempsie) from his cell, from Dragonstone and from Melisandre (Carice van Houten), who intended to burn him for magic.
In a scene prior to this, Stannis (Stephen Dillane) appears in close-up, considering both options: to kill or free Gendry. In the background, Davos appears on his right, Melisandre on his left, each voicing their concerns. The visual is somewhat heavy-handed, but there’s a poetic simplicity in the way Stannis’ head separates the two, and how they appear like the metaphorical angel and demon on either shoulder, both begging for his ear.
Daenerys
…and so season three, just like season one, ends on Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons. Standing outside her recently captured city of Yunkai, her army awaits the slaves that she’s freed. They come in their droves and chant ‘Mhysa, Mhysa’, the episode’s title. It means Mother.
Daenerys, hoisted up onto her children’s shoulders, has her dragons circle above her. It’s a happy ending, a glimmer of hope made all the more brighter by the horror that preceded it.
Roll on 2014.
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter (@OliDavis).
Originally published June 10, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.
