Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things

Game of Thrones Episode 4, Season 1 - Episode 4

USA: HBO 2011-05-08, Germany: RTL 2: 2012-03-24 TNT Serie: 2011-11-23

5/5 stars (3 votes)

Game of Thrones episode 4: Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things (S01E4) Centrally located in Westeros the Riverlands are ruled by the house Tully, the home of Lady Catelyn Stark. The three arms of the Trident River flow through the Riverlands which is rich in farming ground and fishes. While the Kingsroad running through the Riverlands is the main connection between the north and south Catelyn Stark makes halt at an Inn where she accidentally meets Tyrion Lannister, the man she thinks is responsible for the murder attempt on her son Bran.

Jon Snow makes a new friend at the wall while Ned Stark investigates further the death of Jon Arryn leading him to a bastard son of Robert Baratheon.
Short Description TNT Serie

Below is the recap of this episode, which may contain spoilers if you have not seen it yet!

At Winterfell Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) has a dream in which he stands in the castle's courtyard when a black Raven arrives leading him into the family grave. Bran approaches the bird carefully and when it turns around Bran realizes that the Raven has three eyes. That is when Bran wakes up to Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) entering his room. He informs him about a visitor and that Robb (Richard Madden) has requested Bran's presence.

Since Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) cannot walk, the considered to be dumb stable boy Hodor (Kristian Nairn) and nephew of Old Nan (Margaret John), carries him into the court room where his brother Robb (Richard Madden), temporarily Lord of Winterfell, while his father is at King's Landing, and Maester Luwin (Donald Sumpter) receive Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Yoren (Francis Magee). Although Yoren is welcomed as a man of the Night's Watch, Tyrion is not so much. To Tyrion's disappointment Bran still does not remember the events leading to his fall. In an act of kindness Tyrion gives Bran the drawings of a special saddle to be made so Bran will be able to ride a horse again.

Robb (Richard Madden) is suspicious about the help but Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) tells him that he has a soft spot in his heart for cripples, bastards and broken things. Despite granting Tyrion the Winterfell hospitality, Tyrion prefers to stay the night at a brothel outside of the castle. Shortly before they leave Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) has a talk with Tyrion clarifying, when provoked, that Robb Stark is not his master. Tyrion also had noticed the absence of Lady Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) trying to get her whereabouts from Theon. Without success. Noticing the loyalty towards the Starks Tyrion teases Theon's pride of being a Greyjoy, making fun of his family origin and that he is only a captive and probably a disappointment to his father just like Tyrion is to his.

At Castle Black Jon Snow (Kit Harington) continues to train his comrades in sword fight and fighting in general when Alliser Thorn (Owen Teale) brings in a new recruit: Samwell Tarly (John Bradley). Sam instantly turns into the one person to be mocked since he is fat, inflexible in movement and an absolute coward when it comes to fighting. Jon Snow takes pity on him and starts to defend him against Alliser Thorne, something the drillmaster does not like at all.

Across the Narrow Sea Khal Drogo's Dothraki along with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), Viserys (Harry Lloyd) and Ser Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) finally arrive at Vaes Dothraki, the city of the horse lords and Khal Drogo's (Jason Momoa) home.

Viserys (Harry Lloyd) is enraged having hoped to go to war and gaining the Iron Throne back. But Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) does not think of marching towards the sea and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) defends her husband and the Dothraki people she now considers her own. She asks Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) whether the Dothraki would fight for her brother to which Jorah answers that the Dothraki have never crossed the sea and that they fear any water their horses cannot drink. But if they were to cross the sea king Robert (Mark Addy) would be foolish enough to meet them in open field if the advisors he had would be the same.

Daenerys(Emilia Clarke) asks him why he had sold slaves well knowing that he would be hunted down for that. Jorah (Iain Glen) had an expensive wife which is now gone with another man. Jorah needed the money to keep her.

Meanwhile Viserys (Harry Lloyd) explains that the Targaryens did not kill the dragons as dragon hunters but commanded and rode them. They rode them from Valyria to build the greatest kingdom the world had ever seen: The Seven Kingdoms he is the heir of. The breath of the greatest of the dragons had forged the Iron Throne.

At King's Landing Eddard (Sean Bean) meanwhile has different sorrows. Word of the upcoming tournament has gone out and the city is filling with knights coming from all areas of the Seven Kingdoms. Eddard has no choice but let the tournament happen as it was planned and grasps the opportunity to talk to Grand Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover) about Jon Arryn and his death.

The Grand Maester tells Eddard (Sean Bean) that the sickness came fast and that he had seen Jon Arryn just the night before his death in his chambers. That particular night he came to Pycelle (Julian Glover) to require a book. Eddard shows great interest in that book which Pycelle describes as a ponderous tome: The lineages and history of the great houses of the Seven Kingdoms with descriptions of any high lord and noblemen. Pycelle does not know what Jon Arryn had wanted with the book but Eddard is convinced it holds the key to Jon's murder, especially when the Grand Maester tells him the last phrase Jon had continuously repeated before his death: The seed is strong.

Eddard's (Sean Bean) suspicion Jon Arryn might have been poisoned is not confirmed by the Grand Maester but both agree that poison would be either a woman's weapon or one of an Eunuch to which Pycelle (Julian Glover) points out that Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) is one. Eddard takes the book with him to have a more careful read.

Before Eddard (Sean Bean) enters into his chambers he meets Arya (Maisie Williams) who does exercises Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou) has taught her. She asks her father whether she could be a knight to which Eddard replies that she will marry a high lord one day bearing his children. Arya says that that would not be her and starts her training even more focused than before again.

At the Night's Watch Ser Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) partners Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) with Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to have the watch shift. Sam warns Jon that he cannot see all that well and that he does not like high places. Jon does not understand why Sam has chosen to take the black and Sam tells him his story. On his 18th birthday Sam's father gave him a choice since he considered Sam not to be worthy of his land and title. Either he would take the black and forsake all claims of heritage or he would have a hunt to kill him. Jon realizes that there are worse ways to grow up than being a bastard son.

At King's Landing Lord Baelish (Aidan Gillen) has found out about the book Eddard (Sean Bean) is reading and since he had promised Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) to help Eddard he tells him that spies are everywhere at King's Landing. Spies who work for Lord Varys (Conleth HIll) and spies who work for the queen and of course spies who work for himself. Lord Baelish advises Eddard to trust no one and that he should visit a certain armorer in the city since Lord Arryn was seen visiting that place several times in the weeks before his death. He also tells Eddard to question the Hugh of the Vale (Jefferson Hall) who had become rather quickly a knight after having been only a squire to Jon Arryn before his death. Eddard wavers in his distrusting Lord Baelish but Baelish tells Eddard that distrusting him was the wisest thing Eddard could have done.

Eddard (Sean Bean) finds out that Jon Arryn came not to visit the armorer but the boy Gendry (Joe Dempsie) who is working as a blacksmith at that place asking questions about Gendry's mother. Gendry's mother died when he was little and that she had yellow hair. Eddard realizes that Gendry is Robert Baratheon's (Mark Addy) bastard son.

Meanwhile Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has to keep guard in front of the king's chambers while the king amuses himself with a couple of whores. Jaime is convinced Robert (Mark Addy) does it to make him hear how his sister gets insulted that way. It is there when Jory Cassel (Jamie Sives) who has a message from Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) for the king meets him. It turns out they once fought together against the Greyjoys and Jaime tells Jory that Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) was no good lad.

At the Night's Watch Jon (Kit Harington) defends Sam (John Bradley) against his friends. He tells them that Sam was no different from the rest of them, that he had no place to go, so he came to the Wall. And he asks his friends not to hurt Sam in the training anymore, no matter what Thorne (Owen Teale) says and that Sam was their brother now and that they needed to protect him. Only Rast (Luke McEwan) does not agree, promising to tear Sam apart in the next training session. During the night Jon, Pypar (Josef Altin) and Grenn (Mark Stanley) along with Jon's dire wolf Ghost make a visit to Rast as a warning for everyone else and threaten him if he hurt Sam they would hurt him.

The next day nobody wants to really fight against Sam (John Bradley) in the training making the whole session a farce. Thorne (Owen Teale) is mad at Jon telling them that they would want a man beyond the Wall to cover their backs and not a snivelling boy.

Across the Narrow Sea Viserys (Harry Lloyd) is jealous about Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) becoming more powerful than he is and confronts her about it. The argument gets out of hand and Viserys hits his sister. But Daenerys is no longer that little girl before her marriage with Khal Drogo anymore. She hits back. "I am a Khaleesi of the Dothraki. I am the wife of the great Khal and I carry his son inside me. The next time you raise a hand to me will be the last time you will have hands."

Back at the Night's Watch Jon (Kit Harington) and Sam (John Bradley) are punished with cleaning duty while other brothers have sneaked away to a brothel. Their friendship starts even more to form when Jon tells Sam that he has never been with a woman, just like Sam never had. Sam cannot believe it but Jon tells him that he could not do it because he was thinking about himself being a bastard and what would happen if that girl became pregnant. Then he would have fathered another bastard boy with the surname Snow who had no future. He also tells Sam that he does not even know his mother's name or whether she was still alive and that his father would not tell him.

Ser Alliser (Owen Teale) pays them a visit to tell them about what lies beyond the Wall, about how he hates what the Night's Watch has become. He was there the last winter, he was there when good men died, when they had to eat their horses and the fallen men to survive. He does not think any of them being fit for a fight like that. Soon new recruits would arrive and Jon (Kit Harington) and the others would be handed over to the Lord Commander (James Cosmo) who would tell them their positions, and that they would being called men of the Night's Watch but they were fools to believe it.

Across the Narrow Sea Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) tells Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) that she had hit the dragon, that she had hit her brother. The last dragon was Rhaegon Targaryen Jorah says and that Viserys (Harry Lloyd) was less than a shadow of a snail despite being him the true heir to the Iron Throne. He asks Daenerys whether she really wanted to see her brother on the throne. Jorah Mormont's dream is not going to war but finally to go home and be left in peace with no death warrant on his head. Daenerys realizes that her brother would never gain back the Iron Throne, that he would never be able to lead an army and that they would never see home again.

At King's Landing the tournament has started and Lord Baelish (Aidan Gillen) introduces himself to Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya (Maisie Williams) explaining why his nickname is Littlefinger. As a child he was very small and coming from a place called the fingers would give him that nickname. He also tells Sansa the tale of brotherly love. The tale of the Clegane brothers. Ser Gregor Clegane (Conan Stevens) whose nickname is The Mountain, and who is the older brother of Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann), called The Hound. The brothers cannot stand each other ever since the violent older one put the younger one's head into the fire over a borrowed toy when they were children.

While the rest of King's Landing attends the tournament Queen Cersei (Lena Headey) visits Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) in his chambers claiming to make peace about the event with Sansa's (Sophie Turner) wolf. In fact an apology is not what the queen wants to accomplish. She wants Eddard to leave King's Landing trying to provoke him into doing a rash action. She insults him by telling him that Eddard's older brother was trained to lead and he was only trained to follow. "I was also trained to kill my enemies." "So was I."

The fronts are clear now. The Lannisters despise the Starks and vice versa.

At an Inn Ser Rodrik Cassel (Ron Donachie) and Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) are resting from their journey back to Winterfell. When Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Yoren (Francis Magee) of the Night's Watch enter they try first to hide but the dwarf quickly discovers them and uncovers their identity to the rest of the Inn's visitors. Knowing that the dagger that ought to kill Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) belonged to Tyrion she talks to the Inn people as Catelyn Tully convincing them as most of them are sworn houses to Riverrun to take Tyrion as a prisoner, return him to Winterfell and inform the king so that justice can prevail since the Lannister had tried to murder her son Bran.

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Story: Bryan Cogman Director: Brian Kirk Music: Ramin Djawadi