Episode summary and clarification for those interested (from another website):



The Riverlands

The episode opens with Robb, his wolf Grey Wind, and his army beating Stafford Lannister's army. Stafford is a cousin of Tywin and was in charge of a newly gathered army, and Robb continues his streak of victories at the expense of Stafford. Have no doubt, though: Stafford is in the minor leagues. Robb hasn't engaged Tywin on the field as of yet.

In the aftermath of the battle, Rob meets a physician who happens to be an attractive woman (and handy with a saw, too!). Her name is Talitha (I think) of Volantis. She deplores the waste of battle, and punctures Robb's ego a bit by laying blame on him for the costs of war. He's left standing there, watching her ride away. Will we see her again? He seems a bit smitten, but remember that he's promised to wed a daughter of the Freys (part of the payment for Walder Frey allowing Robb's army to cross the river at the Twins).

In this scene, you also meet Roose Bolton. Roose is one of the key bannermen for the North. His sigil is the Flayed Man, and he offhandedly mentions that his House believes that naked men hold few secrets, and flayed men have none. He and Robb seem to have differences of opinion as to how to wage war most effectively. It bears watching.

King's Landing

King Joffrey is not happy with news of Robb's victory, and he takes it out on Sansa. Tough guy Joff has taken to carrying a crossbow around with him, and he lines Sansa up in its sights. But alas, his mother Cersei has told him he is definitely to marry Sansa, and she would frown upon him killing her. So he has Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard beat Sansa with the flat of his sword and rip her dress.

Tyrion arrives and puts a stop to it. He is appalled at his nephew...and he has good reason to be, doesn't he? Tyrion explains to Joffrey that even kings can't do whatever they want - see the Mad King as an example of someone who went too far. He escorts Sansa from the throne room, and asks her if she'd like to call off the engagement to Joff. Sansa gives the politically correct answer that she is loyal to Joffrey, her one true love.

Tyrion's man Bronn thinks Joffrey is backed up "from balls to brains". Tyrion asks if Bronn thinks that Joffrey getting laid would cure him of his idiocy. Line of the night: Bronn replies "there's no cure for being a c*nt", but it couldn't hurt.

So Tyrion buys Joffrey a couple of prostitutes. Joffrey is a twisted guy, or he resents Tyrion's presumption of buying him the whores, or both - so he makes one of the prostitutes (Roz) torture the other, and then makes Roz take the tortured one to Tyrion. A message, no doubt.

Tyrion is visited by Lancel, his cousin (Tywin has a brother named Kevan. Lancel is Kevan's son.) Lancel is not a particularly bright lad, and Tyrion quickly traps him into a confession that he's sleeping with Cersei. He twists him with incredible ease, and gets Lancel to commit to being his spy, reporting on everything Cersei does, who she sees, etc. As a sop to Cersei, Tyrion agrees to release Pycelle from the dungeons.

The Stormlands

Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) has visited Renly, but he finds little welcome. Renly resents Baelish's betrayal of Robert. Baelish hints that some might welcome Renly as king, and that Petyr could shorten the seige of King's Landing tremendously.

Petyr then tries his wiles on Queen Margaery. Margaery shows herself to be a seasoned (though young) player of the Game of Thrones, and Petyr doesn't seem to get very far with her.

Thirdly, Petyr finds his old crush Catelyn in Renly's gathering. He finds a more heated reception with her, as she resents his betrayal of Ned. With Catelyn, Petyr cannot seem to find the cool, measured approach that he normally has. He puts his foot wrong with her repeatedly, and she threatens him with a knife. Finally, he plays upon her concerns for her two daughters, and demands the release of the Kingslayer - Jaime Lannister - from Robb's prison. As a goodwill gesture, Petyr has escorted Ned's bones to be presented to Catelyn, so that he may seek his eternal rest in the Stark crypt in Winterfell.

Later, Stannis and Renly meet to parley. Stannis is immovable in his demands that Renly bow to him, despite Renly's clearly superior numbers. He consents to name Renly his heir until he has a son. Renly is dismissive of Stannis ("born in salt and smoke? Is he a ham?").

Stannis gives Renly one night to recant his claim, and he departs after a final warning note is sounded by Melisandre to Renly - "the night is dark and full of terrors".

The Red Waste, and Qarth

Daenerys is in desperate straits vis-a-vis food and water, but finally one of her scouts returns with news of a city. The Thirteen of Qarth would be honored to receive the Mother of Dragons, the scout says. Jorah Mormont warns the Khaleesi that the ground around the city of Qarth is a "Garden of Bones" left behind by those who were not granted access to the city. It seems that Daenerys and her khalasar may add their bones to the garden, as the Thirteen (essentially the wealthiest merchants who rule Qarth) refuse her entry unless she reveals the dragons. Daenerys doesn't think she should have to show the dragons first, but the Thirteen are unimpressed by her promise of vengeance when her dragons are grown, and they play a little hardball. Well, twelve of the Thirteen, anyway. The thirteenth is Xaro Xhoan Daxos, who vouches for Daenerys with his blood in order to allow her and some of her crew entry to the city.

Harrenhal

Arya and company have been brought to the cursed castle of Harrenhal, burned by dragon fire with the coming of the Targaryens. Arya has taken a lesson from Yoren, saying her "prayers" as she lays down to sleep. Her prayers are the recitation of the names of those she will take her vengeance upon. Currently the list consists of: Joffrey, Cersei, Ilyn Payne (the executioner who took Ned's head), and the Hound.

Harrenhal is a cheerful place, as prisoners are being tortured to death, selected by The Mountain, and put to the question by a gentleman known as Polliver. He asks the prisoners the same questions - is there any gold or silver in the town? Gems? Where is The Brotherhood? Nobody seems to know the answers, so they put a bucket with a rat tight up against their stomach, and then hold a torch to the end of the bucket. The rat, of course, can feel the heat and in an attempt to get away, has to chew through the prisoner's belly. Polliver and the Hound get added to Arya's list.

The next day, Gendry is picked. He is asked the same questions as the others, but he can't answer - he's not from the village, and he doesn't know what The Brotherhood is (and neither do we at this point). Tywin returns to Harrenhal in the midst of this questioning and puts an end to it. Not out of altruism, but because he deems it wasteful - a point which is underscored when he asks Gendry if he has a trade, and finds out that he's a smith. Smiths, logically, are very valuable in times of war. Tywin also sees through Arya's gender disguise, is taken by her smarts, and designates her as his new cupbearer.

The Finale

At last we get a little more straight talk on Davos Seaworth and the pouch around his neck. He keeps his fingerbones in that pouch. What happened to his fingers? Stannis chopped off the last digit of 4 fingers on one hand, as punishment for his smuggling. Stannis did this personally, wielding the cleaver himself. He did this at the same time he was raising Davos to knighthood as thanks for smuggling food into the castle in which Stannis was besieged, saving them all from starvation (the bulk of the smuggled foods was onions - thus Davos is the Onion Knight). Stannis is so exacting that when Davos mentions he has four less fingernails to keep clean, Stannis corrects his grammar...it's four fewer fingernails.

Stannis orders Davos to smuggle Melisandre into Renly's keep, which he does. He banters back and forth with her. He points out that it's odd that the Lord of Light's methods involve working within the shadows, to which Melisandre replies that shadows could not exist without light, that they are servants of light, and that brighter fires cast darker shadows. She then drops her robe, revealing an advanced state of pregnancy. What's up? She promised Stannis a son, but they just had sex for the first time last week.

She plops down right there to give birth, and it looks to be a messy one. Issuing forth from her womb is a shadow creature...then fade to black.

Did they describe in book 2 how he "Tickled"? I remember the questions he asked and all that, but can't remember if they went into detail, it's been too long.

Guys wtf? There is a thread for those who have read the books. Go discuss that stuff there.

I'm only discussing things that have happened. It isn't a spoiler if it happened already.

Wtf came out of that dragon priestess!?

She's actually a priestess of Rh'lor, Lord of Light. It was a shadow. Next week you'll get to see why she did it, though it shouldn't be hard to figure out.

Agreed. I would have to resist punching him on sight if I ever ran into that actor; him and Shooter McGavin.

Poliver /= to the Tickler...two different people. Poliver asks the questions, the Tickler does the rest. I think the Tickler isn't going to be mentioned in the show like he was in the book. Not a spoiler, already happened, just not expanded on the screen. In the book they did talk a lot more about all the things they did for torture, the rat thing being one of them.

I've been wondering what Melisandre's real motivations are. Power for herself or for her god? It seems odd that she's involving herself in this dispute over a throne.

She claims to believe that Stannis is fulfilling an old prophecy about being the promised hero that was born of salt and smoke and wields the magic sword lightbringer. At least that is what she said in the first episode when she had him pull the burning sword from the flames on the beach, and in this last episode when talking with Renly (to which Renly replied "salt and smoke, what is he, a ham?"). I won't expand more on the prophecy yet since this is spoiler free and that is all she has said about it on the show so far.

Not sure who the spoiler comment was directed at, but everything I post in this thread is spoiler free through the last episode to air. Once it has aired, it is fair game. The summary of the latest episode that I posted above from the other website is spoiler free and is specifically intended to help explain things to nonreaders without spoiling anything for future episodes.

The power of religion. If a kingdom subscribes to her religion, who rules who? The king over the priest(ess) or the priest(ess) over the king?

I would venture to guess that not everyone knew that it was a shadow.

This is what my comment was directed at.

I haven't read the books and I figured that out.

Good for you. I didn't know it was a shadow. For all I knew it was a ghost or a demon. I actually checked the spoiler thread to see what it was. Regardless, there is talk about the book in here.

Also some shit that happened in the book that didn't happen in the show. The thing with Salsa being topless being in the book.