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 king and his family are in the royal box at the tournament. Technically, wherever they sit is going to be the "royal box," but I think this is actually their official box. The female Starks are nearby, which lets Sansa look around and smile at Joffrey. He looks away in what might be disgust. He always looks kind of disgusted. Littlefinger appears suddenly and sits with the Starks. Arya asks why he's called Littlefinger, which is apparently a rude question. He's willing to answer it, though: he used to be small, and he came from a place called the Fingers. The king is bored and shouts, "Start the damn joust before I piss myself!" Cersei looks appalled. This is presumably not what she imagined when she decided she was going to be Queen Cersei.
Littlefinger narrates the introduction of the first jousters. I think he's supposed to be talking to both Sansa and Arya, but he might just be talking because he likes talking. Anyway, he provides valuable exposition, so I appreciate it. The first jouster is Ser Gregor Clegane, who's also called the Mountain. He's the Hound's older brother. His opponent is Ser Hugh of the Vale, who we met earlier in the episode. He only recently became a knight, so this is one of those early matches between the #1 and #16 seeds. Robert gets impatient almost immediately and makes them start. Jousting, as I'm sure you know, involves two guys with lances riding horses at each other. The first pass goes by without incident. The second, however, sees the tip of Gregor's lance splinted off and embed itself in Hugh's throat. Hugh is down on the ground, and there's a very impressive blood spray. I like that it changes as he coughs. He (or rather, his body) is dragged off by the medieval equivalent of rodeo clowns. Littlefinger leans over to Sansa (although Arya is also listening) and says, "Not what you were expecting. Has anyone ever told you the story of the Mountain and the Hound?" The Hound was six years old. One evening, Gregor found his brother playing with Gregor's wooden knight by the fire. And then, without a word, he grabbed the Hound by the hair and held his head in the fire until his face melted a bit. We see the Hound's face, and it is, in fact, all grossed up on the side. Sansa is shaken and promises not to tell anyone. Lilttlefinger promises that if the story should get out, "I'm afraid all the knights in King's Landing would not be able to save you."
Cersei is let in to talk to Lord Stark (who's studying the Ponderous Tome), because both of them are avoiding the tournament. She wants to put "the ugliness with the wolves" behind them. She explains, "Sometimes we go to extremes where our children are concerned." She can tell that Sansa's the only Stark that likes it here. Ned isn't all that interested in talking with her and says that he's here to advise the king. She says Robert does whatever he wants all the time, but she's not surprised that Eddard is doing what he's told, because, "Your older brother was trained to lead and you were trained to follow." He decides to take part in the verbal sparring that everyone in King's Landing seems to enjoy so much: "I was also trained to kill my enemies. Your grace." "As was I." So was that a declaration of truce or of war?