Review: Game of Thrones ‘Kissed By Fire’ – Burn Them All

If you couldn’t tell things were staring to heat up in ‘Kissed By Fire’, episode director Alex Graves has got you covered: every scene incorporates flames into its visuals in some way, whether it’s just in the background, or explicitly involved in the events unfolding, as it is in the opening scene. By far the best episode of the season, ‘Kissed By Fire’ is a compilation of memorable moments for numerous characters, as they exposed their internal fires around the bright orange imagery of the flames around them.

The best scene of the episode is an easy choice to make: after being on the sidelines for much of the last season and half, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau finally got to exercise some of that pent up acting energy in his scene with Brienne. I’ve always been fascinated with Jamie’s back story: he’s the single most ironic character in the Game of Thrones universe, the man who saved the city of Westeros and was immediately condemned for it by the very people he was protecting. Unlike Ser Barristen (who talks to Jorah in this episode about how he kept his oath under shitty kings for decades), Jamie tried to be the hero, and his ambitions were crushed under a life of ridicule.

His emotional monologue also gives some texture to his relationship with Ned Stark; Jamie’s anger towards him didn’t come out of contentious relations from the family. Jamie respected Ned (to this day, he calls him the ‘honorable Ned Stark’, even if it’s slightly sarcastic), and the minute Ned saw him and realized he’d slaughtered the king, he deemed Jamie a guilty traitor, never taking the moment to consider what Jamie sacrificed (his honor) to save an entire kingdom. As he tells Brienne, the Mad King wasn’t trying to just burn the city down: he wanted to burn himself down, consumed by his obsessions and believing he’d return as a dragon to slay all those who stood in front of him.

But what was Jamie supposed to do? It was either that, or watch the kingdom burn and have to go murder his father under the king’s orders. As always, the world of Game of Thrones is driven by characters desperately trying to maintain control of things: like Robb, whose army has fallen apart around him. Still pissed that Catelyn let the Kingslayer leave, Rickard Karstark takes a few of his men and kills the two imprisoned young Lannister boys, the nephews to the powerful conglomerate living in King’s Landing.

Does Robb have a choice whether to behead Carstark or not? Like his father in the pilot episode, Robb’s bound to his oaths – and therefore, expects others to hold to theirs. Certainly the teasing that he’s a weak King didn’t help his decision, but Robb’s choice reflects those that many in this world have to make, reacting to events and variables completely out of their control.

So what does he do? He decides that it’s time to attack – and makes one of the dumbest decisions a desperate man’s ever made in his life. As most remember, Robb broke his wedding promise back in season two, after pledging himself to one of Walder’s less-deformed daughters in exchange for a favorable route to attack the Lannisters. Is this a good idea? I think not – and I do feel like there has to be a better option for him to select before attacking Casterly Rock – but hey, he’s the king, I’m just sitting on the sidelines. Can this end well for Robb? Every move he’s made has come with less and less thought as the war’s carried on: what began as careful and calculated has quickly devolved into pure desperation, as more and more of those beneath him continue to lose faith.

He’s certainly not thinking things out as well as Tywin, who Robb notes has done nothing but patiently wait for his army to fall apart as he tends to business in the Capitol. What does this involve? Mainly crushing the possibility of a power play by the Tyrell family by punishing his children in the most despicable way possible: forcing Tyrion to marry Sansa, and after Cersei smirks about it for a few seconds, informs her that she’s to marry Loras, the Knight of Flowers who is currently sleeping with one of Littlefinger’s squires (named Olyvar, I believe) to keep him in the loop on any Tyrell plans.

Things are still moving slowly at King’s Landing – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t time for Sansa to be an idiot once again. She finally has the chance to leave the Capital with Littlefinger, who despite his possible plans for her, would at least present the opportunity to get the hell away from the Lannister family. But she doesn’t, and the moment Littlefinger realizes his plan would fail, traded her like a commodity. As he tells Sansa, now that he has a ship, he suddenly wants a dozen. Of course she doesn’t understand what it means, but we do: he’ll do anything to get the crown, and trading Sansa back to the Lannisters certainly isn’t going to hurt him in the future (getting back in Cersei’s good graces helps, as well).

If we didn’t already have enough character in this world, we get a few more in ‘Kissed By Fire’ when Stannis pays a visit to his wife Selyse, who is totally cool with him banging Melisandre, because it’s all in service of the Lord of Light, right? We also meet his deformed daughter, who promises to teach the Onion Knight how to read, even though he’s stuck in a dungeon, condemned as a traitor for questioning the forces consuming Stannis and his family holed up in the old Targaryen castle.

Speaking of Targaryens, Daenerys’s scene felt a little bit tossed in, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We got some fun Valyrian speech, and another group of down trodden slaves dedicating themselves to the “kind” heart of the Khalessi (though I bet the dragons flying over their head certainly don’t hurt). We meet a lieutenant named Grey Worm, and Jorah makes a lot of suspicious faces when him and Barristen verbally spar as the camp travels. But seeing as they’re all in transit for the time being, there isn’t going to be anything too interesting going on with her (she just lit a shitload of people and property on fire; she can relax for the time being).

It would be insanity to try and talk at great length about every scene in the episode, but there’s still one elephant in the room to discuss: the opening scene, where the Hound takes a massive chunk out of Beric’s body, only to see him stand up after a few words about the Lord of Light are spoken. It’s not the first time this has happened: apparently Beric has died six times, which throws another big piece of mystical fuckery into Westeros just for good measure.

As is the norm this season, there isn’t really a coherent way to connect all the various plots in ‘Kissed By Fire’ narratively – but the imagery does more than carry the load here, reminding us that while things are slow right now, there’s some serious shit building as everyone gets more and more desperate to cling onto whatever power they have.

Grade: A

Other thoughts/observations:

– Jamie: “By what right does the wolf judge the lion?”

– Olenna: “I take figs in the afternoon… they help move the bowels.” Note Tyrion snagging one after their meeting.

– Arya: “I could be your family.” Gendry: “You would be my lady.” Puppy love on Game of Thrones, ladies and gentlemen.

– Ygritte likes that thing Jon does with his mouth. Apparently the men beyond the wall aren’t that sexually versatile.

– Jamie FINALLY learns about the battle of Blackwater from Lord Bolton, who is kind enough to see that Jamie’s nasty, decrepit stump is taken care of.

– Arya will never forget that list of names.

– Test tube babies!

– Jamie: “I’m sick of fighting.”