‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 5 Premiere Recap: Life After Tywin Lannister

When the biggest power player in Westeros dies, it opens up a realm of possibilities for everyone still standing in “Game of Thrones.”

Charles Dance’s Tywin Lannister loomed large over nearly everything in “Game of Thrones” (the events at The Wall, less so), and his exit (murder) at the end of Season 4 changes things in big ways.

Sunday’s Season 5 premiere of HBO’s fantasy drama saw the vultures circling the Lannisters in King’s Landing. Across the sea though, in between vomiting and gulping down wine, Tyrion listened as Varys attempted to woo him into having new hope for the Seven Kingdoms, with talk of a young queen named Daenerys Targaryen.

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Up North, King Stannis Baratheon began to forge a new plan to take Westeros, beginning with taking back the North, now that it no longer has the protection of Tywin Lannister. But he had one request – the allegiance of Mance Rayder and the wildlings.

Here’s what happened to the main players in “Game of Thrones” Season 5, Episode 1, “The Wars To Come”:

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House Lannister

For the first time ever, the show flashbacked (in its Season 5 opening scene) to Cersei as a child, as she visited a witch (Maggy the Frog) who shared a prophecy about her future. “You’ll never wed the Prince, you’ll wed the King,” the woman said (Cersei didn’t marry Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, she married King Robert Baratheon). She learned she would be “queen for a time. Then comes another – younger, more beautiful – to cast you down and take all you hold dear,” Maggy said (Margaery Tyrell, we assume). And she learned she would have three children, who weren’t the king’s. “Gold will be their crowns. Gold, their shrouds” (with Joffrey gone, could the prophecy hold true for Myrcella and Tommen?).

Following the flashback, “Game of Thrones” picked up in present day King’s Landing…

A dressed-in-black Cersei climbs the steps to say goodbye to her father, passing a half-smiling Margaery Tyrell (an odd expression for such a sad day) on the way. Inside the Throne Room, where their father’s body is lying in state, Cersei and her twin brother/lover Jaime Lannister get a moment alone to talk. “They’re going to try to take it away – all of it,” Jaime tells his sister, referring to the Lannisters’ power and wealth – everything their father built. For Cersei though, the greatest threat is their younger brother, Tyrion. He’s torn them apart, he killed their dad and Jaime is to blame too — he let Tyrion out.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones’ (Helen Sloan/HBO)

At a gathering later, Cersei’s betrothed, Ser Loras Tyrell, tries to offer a few words of comfort in a going-through-the-motions kind of way. “Your father was a force to be reckoned with,” he tells her, but she can barely pay attention. All she sees is Margaery flirting with her youngest, King Tommen. After strolling off (presumably for more wine), an old face returns – Lancel Lannister, Cersei’s cousin, who she used to have intimate relationship with. Lancel looks stronger than the young man last seen in Season 2, during the Battle of Blackwater, and he’s dressed differently too, donning a raggedy robe instead of an outfit more befitting a Lannister. “They call themselves Sparrows, bloody fanatics,” Cersei’s uncle, Kevan Lannister, explains, apologizing for his son. “They never would have come to the Capitol if Tywin were alive,” he adds.

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Later, Lancel corners Cersei when she’s alone, offering an apology for tempting her into “unnatural relations” and helping get King Robert drunk on the boar hunt in Season 1 (where the King ended up with a wound that later killed him). “I’m a different person now. I found peace in the light of the Seven. You can too,” Lancel tells her.

***

Tyrion: He ended Season 4 inside a crate on a ship, with Varys at his side, but in Season 5, Tyrion makes it to the dry land of Pentos. While gulping down wine, more wine and still more wine, Tyrion listens to Varys explain their new digs are courtesy of Illyrio Mopatis (the Season 1 character, who housed Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen, and gave Dany the dragon eggs after she was sold off into marriage to Khal Drogo). He also explains his connection to Illyrio. They were part of a collective of people who saw Robert Baratheon “for who he was,” and while they tried to support a Targaryen restoration to the Iron Throne, mistakes were made along the way.

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones’ (Macall B. Polay/HBO)

Now, though, it’s time for a different strategy. Westeros needs someone who can take the throne – someone who is stronger than Tommen, but “gentler than Stannis,” Varys tells his friend. “A ruler loved by millions, with a powerful army and the right family name,” he adds. He wants Tyrion to play a role in leading Westeros because he has compassion and experience. “You can ride with me to Meereen, meet Daenerys Targaryen and decide if the world is fighting for,” Varys says.

House Targaryen

Ruling in Meereen is difficult, Daenerys Targaryen is continuing to learn. Sons of the Harpy (shadowy figures who wear gold masks) are killing her Unsullied, including one who visits a brothel for the comforting arms (only) of a woman. Daenerys tasks a man named Mossador with finding out who committed the murder and orders him to bring the culprit to her.

Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis in ‘Game of Thrones’ (HBO)

There’s also the small matter of the ongoing interest in reviving the fighting pits. Hizdahr zo Loraq requests that Dany reopen them in Yunkai and Meereen, but she refuses. “I do not respect the tradition of human cock fighting,” she tells him. Behind closed doors (in her bedchamber), Dany hears a different viewpoint, courtesy of her lover and fighter, Daario Naharis. “You should reopen the fighting pits,” Daario suggests, explaining they played a big role in his own development. His own mother sold him into slavery and he learned to fight in the pits, eventually winning so much money for his master, that when his master died, he was set free. He joined the Second Sons, and then came to serve her. “You’re the queen. Everyone’s too afraid of you to speak truth. Everyone, but me. You’ve made thousands of enemies across the world. As soon as they see weakness, they’ll attack. Show your strength, here, now,” Daario tells her. When Dany points out she has the Unsullied to keep the peace, he tells her she’s “not the mother of Unsullied. You’re the Mother of Dragons.” Of course, one of those dragons – Drogon – is on the loose, while the other two remain chained up. “A dragon queen with no dragons, [is] not a queen,” Daario says. Before the episode ends, Dany visits her boys – Viserion and Rhaegal. Larger and angrier than in Season 4, they get ornery during her visit and Dany quickly makes her way out of the vault they’re being kept in.

The Wall

Up at The Wall, it’s a time for change. Jon Snow is teaching young Olly (who killed Ygritte) to fight, while Ser Alliser Thorne is lumbering about after being injured during Season 4’s great battle with the wildlings. There’s talk of finding a new leader for the Night’s Watch among the mean. Meanwhile, Gilly is in the courtyard making Samwell Tarly promise not to let anyone send her or baby Sam away. Atop The Wall is King Stannis. He needs to see Jon, so Melisandre fetches the bastard.

Carice van Houten as Melisandre in ‘Game of Thrones’ (Helen Sloan/HBO)

On their elevator ride to the top, Melisandre gets a little bold in her dialogue (when has she not), asking Jon if he’s a virgin. When he says, no, she seems pleased. At the top of The Wall, Jon kneels before Stannis and then, the two chat. This King plans to take “the North back from the thieves who stole it,” namely The Boltons, who now have Winterfell. But Stannis wants the wildlings to help. “If they swear to follow me, I’ll pardon them,” Stannis says. They will become citizens when the war is won, but there’s a caveat. “I’ll offer them they’re lives and their freedom if Mance kneels before me,” Stannis explains. If Mance doesn’t kneel, he’ll burn.

“I respect him. If he gets what he wants, I expect he’ll be a better ruler than the fools sitting on the Iron Throne the last 100 years, but I’ll never serve him,” Mance tells Jon, when the young man comes to his cell with Stannis’ offer. Mance Rayder doesn’t want his people to bleed for Stannis. Jon can’t understand why he won’t take the knee, after convincing 90 wildling clans to come together for the first time in history.

“You didn’t do it for power, you didn’t do it for glory. You brought them together to save them because none of them will survive the winter, not if they’re north of The Wall,” Jon says. “Isn’t their survival more important than your pride?” But that’s not what it’s about to Mance. He won’t kneel, even if the method of death makes him shudder (“Bad way to go,” Mance says of burning at the stake).

Walking out in chains, past the wooden pyre, Mance faces Stannis. “Bend the knee, I promise you mercy,” Stannis says to the King Beyond The Wall. A moment passes, then another. “This was my home for many years. I wish you good fortune in the wars to come,” Mance says. He won’t be kneeling. Stannis nods, and the prisoner is tied to the stake. It’s Melisandre who makes a speech as the Night’s Watch and the captured wildlings (including Tormund Giantsbane), watch what comes next. “Behold the fate of those who choose the darkness,” she says, as she sets the pyre on fire.

Kit Harington as Jon Snow and Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder in ‘Game of Thrones’ (Helen Sloan/HBO)

Watching Mance struggle in the flames is devastating for his friends, and for those who don’t even know him (Stannis’ wife, Selyse Baratheon, though, is creepily delighted by this moment). But Jon makes a bold move, taking matters into his own hands. Instead of watching Mance suffer and scream, Jon shoots him with an arrow, killing him before he has to endure any more.

Everyone Else

Sansa Stark and Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) leave Robin Arryn with another lord for some fight training (obviously Robin is horrible at it) and head to parts unknown. Petyr tells Sansa he’s taking her, “to a land so far from here, even Cersei Lannister can’t get her hands on you.”

Elsewhere, Brienne of Tarth is trying to free Podrick Payne from his duty to her. Having lost Arya Stark as she fought with The Hound, is something that continues to weigh heavily on Brienne’s mind and spirit. But despite her suggestions, loyal Pod will not go.

“Game of Thrones” continues Sunday nights at 9 PM ET/PT on HBO.

Jolie Lash

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