Beyond the Wall, “Game of Thrones” went even deeper into the fantasy genre with the introduction of… an elf? I’m assuming that the Children are meant to be elf-equivalent, although I didn’t notice any pointy ears on the child (Octavia Selena Alexandru) that we met here. Her ability to shoot fire was impressive display of power.
I will never complain about a well executed fight with reanimated skeletons. The White Walkers were absent in this episode, but the skeletons were likely controlled by their power as they attacked Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), Jojen (Thomas Brodie Sangster), Meera (Ellie Kendrick) and Hodor (Kristian Nairn).
For all of his size and strength, Hodor is pretty useless in battle unless Bran is in his brain and pulling his strings. After that, Nairn has the second best action sequence of the night as Hodor destroys most of the attacking skeletons by himself. However, Jojen is fatally wounded before the arrival of the child, who obliterates his body before he can reanimate as well. Jojen’s demise is the third major character death of the episode, but it was also the one with the least impact. We just didn’t see enough of Jojen his two seasons to really care about him. And I had been expecting Jojen to die since his bleak vision back at Craster’s Keep.
In the aftermath, Bran, Hodor and Meera encounter a man who claims to be the three-eyed raven (Struan Rodger) from Bran’s dreams. There may actually be something to his claims, as the man knows details about Bran’s life and Jojen’s foreknowledge of his own death. But that’s for next season to explore.
During the previous season finales, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) tended to get her biggest moments and she even closed out seasons 1 and 3 on triumphant notes. However, “The Children” is anything but triumphant for Daenerys. First, Daenerys is devastated to hear that several of the slaves in Meeren want to be sold back into slavery because it is all that they know. Even more heartbreaking is the weeping father who presents Daenerys with the charred bones of his daughter… courtesy of her dragon, Drogon.
Thus the breaker of chains and the mother of dragons takes it upon herself to lock her remaining dragons away in the basement of the palace. Drogon himself is nowhere to be found and the most troubling aspect of this is that the dragons seem to be slipping beyond Daenerys’ ability to control them. Another thing to consider: are the dragons even full grown at this point? They’re already monsters. If they get any bigger, they may be even more deadly.
Back in Westros, Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Podrick (Daniel Portman) encounter Arya Stark (Maisie Williams).and Sandor “The Hound” Clegane (Rory McCann). Brienne and Pod quickly realize whom they’re speaking with and the Hound starts a fight with Brienne when she tries to get Arya to go with her.
This is unintentionally Jaime’s fault. The Hound recognizes Brienne’s blade as Valyrian steel and Lannister gold while mistakenly assuming that she wants the bounty on his head. Even in the midst of an amazingly brutal fight, Brienne still tries to hold back from killing the Hound… and he almost kills her for her kindness. Brienne emerges as the victor, but Arya slips away in the confusion.
Arya returns moments later to speak with the Hound, who admits that he’s essentially dead already. Looking for a relatively quick death, the Hound asks Arya to show him that mercy. When that doesn’t work, he tries to goad her into killing him before begging her to do it. Instead, Arya robs the Hound of his money and leaves him to die painfully.
Maisie Williams has always been the best child actor on this show, which she demonstrated again in her scenes with the Hound. But McCann was so good in the role that I actually felt sad when I knew that the Hound was going to die. The thing is, the Hound actually cared about Arya on some level. He could have abandoned her after learning that Lysa was dead. He could have abandoned her at the Red Wedding. Instead, the Hound protected Arya.
But Arya learned the Hound’s lessons all too well. She saw him take whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. And perhaps Arya never felt any warmth for the man who killed her friend years ago. Either way, it’s a very dark moment as she leaves the Hound to his fate.
Arya also gets the big season ending moment, when she books passage to Braavos by using the iron coin that Jaqen H’ghar gave her two seasons ago. Arya is getting the hell out of Westros and she’s not the only one. With Tywin dead and Tyrion fleeing east with Varys, I think that things may get a bit stale in King’s Landing. But the balance of power has been upset. Earlier this season, Davos (Liam Cunningham) predicted that the Lannisters’ grip on the Seven Kingdoms would slip once Tywin was dead. Next year, we’ll see if he was right.
“The Children” was an immensely satisfying way to wrap up the fourth season. But I will miss Tywin, Shae and the Hound. Another thing to consider is that we’re closer now to catching up to Martin’s novels than ever before. Only five of the seven novel series have been published, and the fourth and fifth books are said to take place concurrently.
I think that it would be a mistake to blow through A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons in a single season of television, especially after spending two seasons on the third novel. But we’ll have to wait and see what Benioff and Weiss have in store for “Game of Thrones” Season 5. And now it’s going to be a long 42 weeks before we get “Game of Thrones” back on TV.
