“THE KINGSROAD” Airs Sunday, April 24 at 9:00 PM on HBO
In last week’s premiere we were introduced to most of our major players with events to get us started. This week, things are set in motion even further. Despite the end of the premiere, Ned Stark, along with daughters Sansa and Arya, goes south with the King to Kings Landing and his new position as the Hand of the King. Jon Snow decides to take up the black and head north to join the Night Watch. Catelyn stays home at Winterfell, a decision that could prove more perilous than she can imagine. And across the narrow sea, Dany turns her seemingly hopeless situation around for the better.
Once again, the pages of the book are really brought to life in the second episode. The script is faithful to the novel, but it is the performances that really blow the roof off. Tyrion Lannister decides to ride north with Jon Snow and Peter Dinklage does a phenomenal job showing multiple sides to the diminutive Lannister brother. Both his conversation with Jon Snow and breakfast earlier in the episode with his family go a long way in shedding light on Tyrion. He may embrace debauchery in all its extremes, but it’s possible that Tyrion may just be the most honest and upstanding of the Lannister clan.
Likewise, Emilia Clarke does a tremendous job of portraying Daenerys’ transition from terrified, enslaved wife to determined future leader of the Dothraki. It’s interesting to note that while she is making great strides to become a part of her new family and find a way to please her new husband, her brother continues to regard his supposed army as nothing but objects. Wonder how that’s going to turn out?
In Winterfell, there is an assassination attempt that just might reveal for all the truth behind Bran’s fate at the end of the premiere. Catelyn faces the assassin with determination, but it is one of the dire wolves that saves the day. Unfortunately, for one of the other Dire Wolves, things don’t go so well. Poor Sansa, she becomes a victim first to her sister’s determination to not be a lady and then to the Queen’s capriciousness. Cersei’s guile in manipulating her husband into causing pain to his best friend Ned is truly a wonder to behold, but no less scary.
This second episode was pretty fantastic, but I sort of think it would have worked better had it been shown back to back with the premiere. Both episodes contain a whole lot of story and I think the amount of story and the large number of character introductions might have worked better for those new to the story with a two hour premiere. But that is a minor complaint, really. And as much as I loved “Winter Is Coming” and “The Kingsroad” next week just really wowed me. In fact, each episode has just gotten better and better as far as I’m concerned. And when you start off with extraordinary, that is really saying something.