"Game of Thrones" recap: "Breaker of Chains"
Just how did "Game of Thrones" pick up after the wild events of the Purple Wedding?
Right where it left off, as it turns out -- with Cersei huddled over Joffrey's body, calling for her brother Tyrion's arrest.
Meanwhile, Sansa Stark got out of the wedding feast just in time, with the help of the drunkard Dontos. He ushers her through the alleyways of King's Landing and to a rowboat, and then out of a mysterious ship in the middle of the ocean, helmed by Lord Baelish, aka Littlefinger. Dontos hands her over and asks for his payment, which he gets in the form of crossbows. Sansa is horrified, but Littlefinger reassures her that he'll keep her safe. "Money buys a man's silence for a time, a bolt in the heart buys it forever," he tells her. He also informs her the necklace she wore at the wedding -- one Dontos had asked her to wear and said was a family heirloom -- was actually a fake of his own design.
The Lannisters have gathered around Joffrey's body, laid to rest with stones over his eyes. Tywin is already getting started on Joffrey's younger brother Tommen, who's next up for the throne. He asks the boy what makes a good king -- the correct answer being "wisdom," or in this case, the wisdom to do whatever your grandfatber tells you to. "Your brother was not a wise king, your brother was not a good king ... if he had been, perhaps he'd still be alive," Tywin says.
He walks Tommen away with some birds-and-bees talk, as Cersei is left there mourning the death of one son and watching her father lead the other one away. Jaime comes to join her and she implores him to kill Tyrion, but he's not convinced of their brother's guilt. "He was our son, our baby boy," she cries, confirming what everyone already knew of Joffrey's parentage. They begin kissing, she pulls away and Jaime -- who spent so much of last season on a path towards redemption -- rapes her by the corpse of their dead son.
Tywin also went to speak to Oberyn Martell -- interrupting some group sex in the process -- to ask him to sit as one of the three judges at Tyrion's trial for Joffrey's murder (the others being him and Margaery's father, Mace) in exchange for a seat on the Small Council and help bringing the Mountain to justice for the rape and murder of his sister Elia and her children.
The now-imprisoned Tyrion gets a visit from his young squire Podrick, who informs him of Sansa's disappearance and the names of the three judges. He also says he was offered a bribe in exchange for testifying that Tyrion bought a poison called "The Strangler," but turned it down because Tyrion had been good to him. Tyrion urges him to flee the capital, and the two say their goodbyes.
Elsewhere in the episode, Arya and the Hound meet a farmer and his daughter who give them a roof and some food to eat. The Hound repays them for the hospitality by robbing the man and taking his silver. Arya is furious, but he says he just understands the way things are. "How many Starks do they got to behead before you figure it out?" he asks her.
The Wildlings -- including Ygritte -- savage a village south of The Wall, and spare one boy to send to Castle Black to tell them what happened. Sam, fearing for Gilly among all the men of the Night's Watch, sends her to Molestown and sets her up in a brothel (just to live, not to work) where he thinks she and her baby will be safer.
And Daenerys and her army approach Meereen, where she delivers a big speech to the slaves and Daario Naharis kills a champion sent out by the city's rulers. Looks like the Mother of Dragons will be adding even more to her forces.
Tell us: What did you think of this week's episode?