'Game of Thrones' Recap: Season 3 Finale 'Mhysa'

Every action in the world of Game of Thrones has a consequence. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like the consequences for the Red Wedding will be coming anytime soon. Finales are no long final, more often than not they end up being prologues for what is to come next and “Mhysa” is such a finale. With little to no fallout from the Red Wedding – Jon Snow doesn’t get off as lightly – “Mhysa” decides to tease some of next season’s stories.

There will not be anything quite as shocking, devastating, and enthralling as the Red Wedding again, so to compare “The Rains of Castamere” with “Mhysa” would be doing neither justice. While Robb’s death and Walder Frey’s/Roose Bolton’s treason will eventually be punished – Bran tells a ghost story this week with a lesson about what happens to those who break the Gods’ law of hospitality – the punishment will be a long time coming. What is most surprising about “Mhysa” is how little effect Robb’s death had on the world of Westeros as a whole; the world doesn’t seem significantly altered in any way. Aside from a jubilant Joffrey and a handless Jamie, Robb’s insurrection was merely a speck in the grand scheme of things – at this stage in the game.

The Lannisters became the focus again this week, specifically Tyrion as he continues to struggle with the idea of bedding Sansa. Just when Tyrion and Sansa seemed to be building a rapport as they strolled through the garden they were interrupted so Tyrion could attend a King’s council meeting to discuss the news of Robb’s death. Tyrion, more of a Stark than a Lannister it seems like, made another one of his meaningless threats towards Joffrey, which made Joffrey completely fly off at the handle at not only his uncle but also Tywin – who promptly sent Joffrey to bed. Once everyone is gone, Tywin tells Tyrion that he is only living today because Tywin refused to act on his desire to kill Tyrion when he was an infant due to the importance of the family name, in hopes of inspiring Tyrion to finally impregnate Sansa.

Later in the episode Cersei tries her hand at getting Tyrion in bed with Sansa as she tells him how wonderful it was when she first had Joffrey and how, even now with Joffrey being the worst person in the world, her children still bring her some sense of fulfillment. And even though much of the Lannister snark is still present it does seem that Cersei and Tyrion are being pushed together by Tywin’s wielding of ultimate power over his family – even though it is clear Varys believes Tyrion should have the power of the realm during his failed attempt to bribe Shea to leave.

Jamie also makes his return to Game of Thrones and King’s Landing this week just to show how far he’s fallen. First a lowly citizen doesn’t recognize Jamie when he enters the city. More harrowing for Jamie, however, was the look on Cersei’s face when she noticed how much Jamie has changed, stump and all. And none of this even mentions what Brienne’s role is now that she has successfully escorted Jamie back to King’s Landing.

At least Cersei’s scorn of Jamie did not match that of Ygritte’s of Jon. After Jon’s escape from the wildling attack last week he must have been taking his gold old time to get back to Castle Black on his horse as he was easily caught by Ygritte. This was the first scene that really showed how close Jon and Ygritte had become as she tearfully shot Jon three times with her arrows. At the same time Ygritte showed Jon how angry and yet how much she loved him. Jon rode off and made it to Castle Black barely able to remain mounted on his horse.

Jon was not the only one to return to Castle Black as Sam and Gilly finally made it there as well. At the crossing of The Wall Sam ran into Bran, failing to dissuade him from going to the north but giving him all the dragonglass he could and revealing its power against the white walkers. Sam’s conversation about Gilly to Maester Aemon was classic Sam. It was nice to see Sam remove the burden of returning to Castle Black in his excitement to be writing Aemon’s 44 letters about the coming of the white walkers.

And thankfully Davos can now read since he finds one of Aemon’s letters. Davos revealed a lot more of his character this week as he went from dutiful servant of Stannis to a cunning defender. Despite Robb’s death, Davos seemed unconvinced that it was Melisandre’s leeches that somehow ensured that Robb’s death would happen. Gendry’s sacrifice never sat well with Davos and after visiting Gendry in the dungeon Davos only grew closer to the boy as they both revealed their King’s Landing street urchin upbringing. Once Gendry’s sacrifice was ordered Davos decided to hide the message from anyone and freed Gendry and waited for Stannis to order Davos’s death until he brought the message up. Surprisingly Melisandre agreed with Davos about the course of action Stannis should take, saying that Stannis should take his armies, which he needs Davos to gather, north of The Wall to fight off the oncoming white walker threat. Seeing as how Melisandre knows her way around a flame it may not be all that bad an idea to have her fight off some white walkers.

Stannis’s upcoming storyline wasn’t the only one teased in “Mhysa.” Both Arya and Yara, Theon’s sister, embarked on their new journeys, although Arya’s was much more of a tease. It has been a long time coming but it seems Arya has decided to finally exact her own revenge instead of waiting for someone else to do it for her. In her only scene this week she kills a Frey bannerman as she and the Hound come upon some soldiers sitting around a fire in the woods. Arya pretends to be a needy little girl and offers the coin that Jhaqen H’ghar gave her for fare on a boat to his homelands. She purposefully drops it in order to stab him multiple times while his back has turned. The Hound dispatches the three other foes and is surprised to see Arya had stolen his knife to do this deed but it seems Arya may be well on her way to taking matters into her own hands and possibly be have found somewhere to flee.

Theon is still being tortured by Ramsay Snow, who Roose Bolton confirmed to Walder Frey was Theon’s torturer and his bastard son. Ramsay sends a message to Balon and Yara Greyjoy telling them to remove their troops or he will kill Theon, which Balon is more than happy to exchange for his recently gained lands. Yara, however, decides to take it upon herself to save Theon from Ramsay. Without Theon’s presence the Greyjoys would have been forgotten altogether so it’s good to see that they will be getting some more screen time next episode.

Dany also only received one scene but it was the final scene of the season, which seems to be a trend for the show. Dany and her army met the recently freed Yunkai slaves outside the city walls, telling them that their freedom is theirs for the taking. They all exultantly chanted ‘mhysa,’ which means mother, and Dany decided to walk amongst her new people eventually being lifted by the masses in celebration. This was the first time that the audience actually saw how Dany’s deeds were affecting the world as a whole. The sheer outpouring of love and gratitude from the people was a sight to see. It was also a not so subtle hint from the creators of the show that those recently dispossessed from Robb’s just cause should now take up Dany’s just cause. However, Dany has never had this many people to take care of and it is clear that she must begin to learn how to rule the masses instead of just liberating them.

“Mhysa” did not seem like a season finale, instead having the feel akin to a season premiere. Now it has been stated multiple times over that A Storm of Swords the third book in the series would be split in two but for a season finale it felt lacking. The lack of any new episodes until next March hasn’t truly sunk in yet and “Mhysa” did nothing to help that feeling.

Make sure to take a look at the season in review article that will be posted later in the week.