Game Of Thrones 4x08 The Mountain and The Viper review

The Mountain and The Viper is the eighth episode of GoT season 4. I know this post is very late but I really didn't have the will to write this week, so yeah.

The title refers to the battle between Gregor Clegane a.k.a The Mountain and Prince Oberyn a.k.a The Red Viper of Dorne which took place at the end of this episode. One word, mind-blowing. Or should I say, head-blowing? 

--- SPOILER ALERT ---

The episode opened with the Wildlings (Ygritte and her gang) attacking and killing everyone at the brothel in Mole's Town, the place where Sam left Gilly and her baby in. But for some reason, Ygritte spared Gilly's life. Why? Then we saw Jon Snow and his crow brothers talking about the attack, and the possibility of them fighting the Wildlings army soon.

I guess that scene was some kind of a "prologue" to the big Night's Watch vs Mance's Wildlings battle next week, since based on the preview it seems that next week's episode will be focusing on The Walls. Also next week's episode's director is Neil Marshall, the one who directed Blackwater in season 2. So a great battle scene is to be expected, I guess. 

Also from the north, we saw Reek a.k.a Theon Greyjoy claiming back Moat Cailin (which is a castle ruins) under the command of Ramsay Snow. 

I really really don't understand what happened to Theon tbh. Someone explain it to me please. During his time with the Starks, and when he betrayed Robb, Theon was one proud (a little dumb but still) man. I mean, how could he be completely brainwashed like that? Theon was practically walking back to his army, his fellow Ironborn in Moat Cailin, he could easily join them and fight back Ramsay, right? Instead, he's now Reek, forever Reek. 

Back to Ramsay, he killed all the ironborns at the ruins and presented Moat Cailin to his father Lord Bolton. As the result, his father awarded him with the name Ramsay Bolton, son of Roose Bolton, Warden of the north, from now on. See, Ramsay was a Bolton bastard, and it seemed that he really wanted to be considered as Bolton's real son. So, to me, this change of name felt like a conclusion for Ramsay's plot for a this time. Maybe we won't be seeing his character anymore for the last 2 episodes, but who knows.

Let's move on to The Eyrie. We know that last week Petyr Baelish killed Aunt Lysa, and this week, he was being investigated for it. Sansa, as some sort of the witness, gave viewers a great surprise, though. 

Maaaan, I can't even begin to describe how brilliant this is. Sansa had always been a smart girl, she survived King's Landing and Joffrey's cruelty, for God's sake. But now, she was smart and manipulative as well. 

She started her confession with her real Stark identity, her sad story, how Baelish helped her reach The Eyrie, how her Aunt Lysa was a jealous lady, every single part was real except for the part how her Aunt was killed. And her tears definitely helped the whole situation. Sansa protected Baelish, and the elders (the investigators? idk) totally believed her. Well done Sansa, very well done. All the awards. But why did Sansa protect Baelish?

See, she knew how to play safe now, she knew how to play smart and take charge of her life. Also, Sansa definitely changed in this episode. It's like, she's turned to the dark side. Has she actually decided to go along with Baelish's want for her to be her mother? Or is she playing Baelish now? 

One biggest part of this episode was, of course, the battle of the Mountain vs Oberyn. We know that Oberyn's main goal was to revenge his sister Elia Martell, who was raped and killed by the Mountain. Oberyn started really well and confidently, he was much quicker than the Mountain, he managed to knock off the Mountain's helmet, he even managed to wound the Mountain.

During the battle, Oberyn kept on pushing the Mountain to confess his crime towards Elia. Oberyn repeatedly said "You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children." You know what, this scene reminded me of The Princess Bride movie, especially Inigo Montoya's battle, haha. 

However, G.R.R. Martin is not GRRM if he doesn't kill a character loved by readers and viewers. Oberyn was already winning, he had the upper hand, the Mountain was already lying on the floor dying, but Oberyn took his time before finishing him off because the Mountain hadn't confessed yet. All of sudden, the Mountain grabbed Oberyn's leg, causing Oberyn to fall down beside the Mountain. This time the Mountain beat the crap out of Oberyn. He knocked off Oberyn's teeth with one punch, and then he smashed Oberyn's head with his bare hands. Dammit.

WARNING THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE NOT GUT FRIENDLY

To me this was one of the most disturbing scenes in Game Of Thrones, ever. Seriously. I knew already that Oberyn was going to lose the battle but I never expected this as the way he'd die. Also what will happen to Tyrion now?

Sigh. Oberyn was one of my favorite characters in the series. He stood up to Lannisters' bullshit, he fought for his sister's honor, he was a great character. Also kudos to Pedro Pascal for such an awesome performance that made us fall for Oberyn even though he's only been on screen for 1 season. 

Some other stories from this episode:

• Another big thing came from Daenery's story line. A letter of royal pardon came for Ser Jorah, causing Dany and her team to know that Jorah had been a spy for King's Landing all this time. This caused Dany to banish him from the city. HA! I knew there's a reason why I never liked Jorah.

• There's a bit of romantic scene between Missandei and Grey Worm. I don't really care about this plot but they're cute together

• Arya and the Hound reached the Eyrie only to know that Lysa had died. And then Arya laughed hysterically. 

• In my opinion, this was also a changing point for Arya, like it was for Sansa. For all Arya knew for sure, she had no family left, except for Aunt Lysa. Now that Lysa died, maybe Arya thought she's alone now. Cruel joke of life. But Arya had always been a tough kid. Like Sansa learned how to be manipulative from Baelish, Arya learned how to be tough from the Hound. I'd like to see how this plays out.

• Before the battle between Oberyn and the Mountain, Jamie and Tyrion had a talk in his cell about their cousin Orson Lannister, a simple (dim-witted) who liked to smash beetles, crushing them with rocks. I didn't understand this scene when I watched it, but after the event of Oberyn's death, it seemed funny. The beetles were smashed with rocks, like Oberyn was smashed by the Mountain. Oh. 

--- SPOILER ENDS ---

I give The Mountain And The Viper 4.5/5 noise. It's been a while since Game Of Thrones left me with jaw-dropping ending. Just plain awesome. 

Game Of Thrones 4x07 Mockingbird review

Mockingbird is the 7th episode of GoT season 4. Fyi, it is also the sigil of House Baelish, because yes, Petyr Baelish had a pretty vital story line in this episode. But overall I felt that Mockingbird is one of the most boring episodes in the whole series, tbh. So this might be a really short review. 

--- SPOILER ALERT ---

The episode opened with Tyrion and Jaime talking in Tyrion's cell. Basically Jaime's pissed because Tyrion didn't follow their deal, but Tyrion was glad because he didn't want to see his father's plan work out. Come to think of it, it's true the deal was made to be a win-win situation for Tywin Lannister, and lose-lose for Tyrion. That sneaky old man. 

Now that Tyrion had requested for a trial by combat, he gotta pick a champion to fight Cersei's champion, who turned out to be Ser Gregor Clegane a.k.a The Mountain a.k.a The Hound's brother. We got a scene where he slayed weaker men for some unknown reason. Buuuuut, that scene where Cersei walked over the victim's spilled intestines without even a glance, yes that's how a queen walks. Bow down to Cersei, y'all.

Tyrion initially wanted to ask Jaime to be his champion this time. However, Jaime didn't think he was good enough now that he'd lost his sword hand. 

So Tyrion picked his second best choice, Bronn. However,

Poor poor Tyrion. Bronn was literally his last hope. It was an end to a surprisingly interesting friendship, but it ended well because Tyrion was a good guy and he understood. But now that Bronn refused, Tyrion seemed to lose hope. 

But of course G.R.R. Martin wouldn't let Tyrion fight The Mountain, would he? No. Later on Tyrion got a surprise visit from Prince Oberyn. Here we got a little story from Oberyn, about the first time he visited Casterly Rock when he was little and Tyrion was just born. He told Tyrion (and viewers) how Cersei had hated him ever since he was born, because their mother died after giving birth to Tyrion. He told us about how much Cersei wanted Tyrion dead. And this was Tyrion's response.

Heartbreaking. Really this is such an emotional episode (season, let's be real) for Tyrion, okay. But, a little surprise came right after that. Oberyn told Tyrion about his revenge. About how Oberyn wanted justice for his sister and her baby that were killed by The Mountain. And this lead to him telling Tyrion that he would be Tyrion's champion. We could actually see Tyrion's sigh of relief and this, again, was heartbreaking. Oh Tyrion.

Another big vital story line came from The Eyrie, where Sansa was. We knew from last week that now Sansa was staying at the Eyrie with her Aunt Lysa and Petyr Baelish. First part was between Sansa and Robin, her cousin/to-be-husband. Srsly, what is it with Sansa and shitty arranged marriage? 

Things started off pretty nicely. Sansa was building a snow Winterfell and Robin came and they had a little talk. But then Robin started to be a little brat, destroying the snow winterfell and screaming until Sansa slapped him. Oops. But really this kid is like a younger, not cruel version of Joffrey. Spoiled boys, smh.

You think the slapping brought troubles for Sansa? No. Petyr showed up after the slapping and he, as always, started talking to Sansa in a creepy way. Very uncomfortable scene. Long story short, he ended up kissing Sansa and Lysa saw all that. 

Blinded with jealousy, Lysa then tried to kill Sansa by throwing her through the moon door. 

Petyr came to the rescue, BUT PLOT TWIST.

Damn Littlefinger, let me say it again, you truly are the most dangerous man in Westeros. Goodbye forever Aunt Lysa.

A few other seemingly less important things that happened in this episode.

• Daenerys and Daario Naharis finally did the frick-frack thing (but I really don't get the point of this scene, oh well)

• Ser Jorah, of course, didn't trust Daario fully (also jealous, I guess). He pointed out that Daario killed his 2 captains before joining Dany's team. Then Dany said that she didn't trust him either, so she sent him to Yunkai to slay all the masters there. Cruel Dany was cruel. But then Jorah managed to change her mind, to give the masters a choice, whether to live in her new world, or die in their old one. Well done, Jorah.

• A quite long part of The Hound and Arya's brotherly moment. Seriously they're like a team now, which is cool.

• Brienne and Podrick met Hot-Pie! Funny part of the episode, actually, with Hot-Pie talking nonstop about kidney pie. 

• Brienne told him that they're looking for Sansa Stark but Hot-Pie didn't tell them anything at first. Later on, he decided that he could trust Brienne, so he told her about Arya, and the possibility of Arya being at the Riverrun. But later Podrick thought that the girls might be at The Eyrie instead of Riverrun, since their Aunt was there, so it seemed that there's where they were heading now. Smart Podrick. 

• A few minutes of Melisandre and Stannis' wife (whatever her name was) a.k.a a few minutes of nudity. Basically, the wife didn't want them to take Shireen (Stannis' daughter) when they left Dragonstone. But Melissandre simply said that "The Lord needs her". Plot point? Maybe.

--- SPOILER ENDS ---

I give Mockingbird 2.5/5 noise. Boring. Dull. Emotional perhaps for those who root for Tyrion but other than that, nothing really stood out, except for the death of Lysa and Prince Oberyn volunteering as Tyrion's champion. The next episode will be on 2 weeks from this episode and the Oberyn vs The Mountain battle should be on it, right? I know how it ends, but I'm still excited to see how it will play out on TV, haha.