While I’ve complained in the past about the cohesiveness of the past episodes of ‘Thrones,’ I’m happy to report that this one episode was perhaps the most concise and easy-to-follow one of them all due to the fact that almost everyone feels the impact of Ned Stark’s arrest.  Let’s go through the areas one at a time and reflect on what happened.

Sansa:

The entire area of King’s Landing is under attack – Lannister troops are killing anyone associated with the Starks.  Sansa came across a group of soldiers and was told to run by her Septa, who pretty much sacrificed herself to protect the girl from the onslaught.  Unfortunately the Mountain finds her in the hallway and drags her to Cersei before long.

Sitting in front of the Queen, Cersei doesn’t feel as though Sansa is a good fit for Joffrey anymore.  Littlefinger tells them to give her a chance but the others feel as though the daughter of a traitor wouldn’t be able to be in the royal palace without becoming a traitor herself one day.  They play this sweet girl like a fiddle, and at the end Cersei gets her to write a letter to her family members to try to convince them to bow the knee to Joffrey.

Later she bows before King Joffrey while he’s on the throne and begs for mercy for her father’s life.  Joffrey tells her the only way Ned will be given mercy is if he confesses.  Sansa tells him he will.

Arya:Arya is taking her dancing lessons from her swordmaster when Lannister troops arrive.  They summon her to see her father, yet her teacher asks why Ned would send Lannister troops instead of coming himself.  It’s then that Arya proclaims that she won’t go with them.  A fight ensues and her teacher commands her to run.  We don’t see what happens to him, but I myself know I’m hoping he made it out alive.
She flees from the castle when a young boy tries to seize her.  Working upon instinct, she stabs him and runs.  Where she winds up, nobody knows.

Ned Stark:Our beloved Ned is stuck in a cell with absolutely no light coming in.  The eunuch comes in and offers him water but has to prove it’s not poisoned.  Upon doing so, he tells Ned that Arya has gone missing and that he basically caused the death of the king when he told Cersei that he knew her children weren’t Robert’s.  The cell door shuts again, and Ned is stuck in darkness.

Rob and Winterfell:

No one arrests his father and gets away with it!  He gathers an army of men and heads toward King’s Landing to declare war on the Lannisters.  He meets his mother on the way down and Catelyn offers him support.  She basically tells him that if he loses, his father dies.  No pressure though… sheesh.

Jon Snow and the Wall:

He’s stuck guarding that stupid wall when his father is in a cell and his brother is getting ready to declare war on the Lannisters.  Sucks to be him! 
But that day they recover two bodies from beyond the wall that show no sign of rot or decay.  Not sure what to make of it, they put them aside for examination later.

That night he’s confined to quarters and is resting but then his dire wolf Ghost starts acting up.  When he opens his door Ghost leads him to the commander’s quarters where he actually finds one of those bodies fully animated and trying to kill him!  He stabs it several times but the only thing that stopped it was throwing fire on it.  Whew.

The Wrath of Drogo:Let’s just say this – you don’t want to get Drogo angry.  Like, ever.  Just do whatever he says as quickly as possible and with as little talking as you can manage, or you might wind up with your tongue ripped out along with your esophagus.

Dany is part of a raid and sees the troops take over a small village.  Apparently the spoils of war are the women but the Khaleesi keeps the men from raping them and brings them back to the village with her. 

When she arrives a soldier argues that he was deprived his “rape right.”  No, not his words exactly but you get the point.  Drogo tells her that the men get to do what they please with the women they encounter, but Dany stands her ground and tells him to let the men take them as wives if they wish to mount them.  He agrees with her assessment and all is well.

Or is it?  Said soldier steps forward and challenges Drogo’s leadership for listening to a woman.  At this point if you didn’t know how much of a badass Drogo was, now you do – he dropped his weapons and dodged his enemy’s sword attacks.  And, when he was ready, he ripped the man’s throat out along with his tongue.

The series will be finishing up soon so continue to catch it on HBO every Sunday night at 9 pm EST.