Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B+ | 3 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Hodor!
By Monty Ashley | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 05.08.2011
The jerk is sleeping. Snow and the boys encircle his cot and hold his head down by gagging him with a piece of rope. He wakes up and sees a white dire wolf on his chest. Snow tells him, "No one. Touches Sam." They leave. Hey, remember when Snow got that dire puppy a few episodes ago? I think this is the first time we've seen it since then. I guess it's nice that the Wall lets you bring pets. You have to renounce your family and take a vow of chastity, but at least they have a doggie daycare on site.
The next day, Thorne is angry, which is nothing new. But this time, he's got a fairly valid reason, namely that no one's even trying to attack Samwell. They're just parrying Sam's thrusts and gently tapping him, as opposed to trying to kill him. Thorne sends the jerk in, and the jerk whispers for Sam to hit him. When he can eventually find the courage to do even that much, the jerk falls theatrically and yields immediately. Thorne knows what's up and grabs Snow to demand whether he thinks this is funny. "Do you want a man at your back? Or a sniveling boy?" It's a good point, really. I can't imagine that Sam's going to come out of this training somehow being an expert fencer.
Back to Vaes Dothrak and Daenerys's tent. Viserys drags his handmaiden in by the hair. Judging by her previous scene, I guess "hand"-maiden is inaccurate, but I'm trying not to be cruder than I have to be. Not when Viserys is willing to take on the crudeness all by himself: "You send this whore to give me commands?! I should send back her head!" Daenerys tries to apologize and explain, but Viserys is in high dudgeon. Or what he thinks high dudgeon looks like. Daenerys just wanted to invite him over to her tent for a nice dinner and offer him some nice clothes. Those nice clothes, of course, are described by Viserys as "Dothraki rags" that stink of manure "Next you'll want to braid my hair!" he shouts. Of course not, she explains, because he isn't actually entitled to a Dothraki braid. Strangely, this does not calm him down, and he knocks her to the floor before telling her, "You are a horselord's slut and now you've woken the dragon!" He's on top of her, but she's got her hand on one of those belts that's made of a bunch of metal disks. Whap! Belt to the face! He goes down and she stands. "I am a khaleesi of the Dothraki. I am the wife of the great Khal and I carry his son inside me. The next time you raise a hand to me will be the last time you have hands." Nice work! It would be nice to think this would teach Viserys to mind his manners, but I don't think so.