A Clash of Kings

The reconnaissance team spots a wildling fire on a mountain. Qhorin sends Jon and another ranger named Stonesnake to investigate. They carefully ascend the mountain and confirm that there are three wildling watchers.

Jon and Stonesnake kill the first two wildlings as the third one wakes from sleep. Stonesnake returns to report to Qhorin while Jon holds the wildling at knifepoint. He discovers that she is a girl named Ygritte. She claims that thousands of wildlings are massing beyond the mountain.

While waiting for Qhorin to arrive, Ygritte tells Jon the story of Bael the Bard, a past King-beyond-the-Wall. Bael thwarted Jon’s ancestor, Brandon the Daughterless, by sneaking into Winterfell disguised as a singer. He kidnapped Brandon’s daughter and gave her a son, who became the Lord of Winterfell. All the Starks, therefore, have some wildling blood in them. Jon refuses to believe the story.

When Qhorin arrives, he gives Jon privacy to execute Ygritte. Ygritte insists that Mance would take Jon in, and he ultimately decides to let her go.

Sansa tells Ser Dontos that she is losing hope in him. Dontos urges her to wait a little longer as he tries to find a way through the increased security in the city. Sansa is not reassured.

While ascending a tower, Sansa stops to look out a window at the forests that were burned in skirmishes with Stannis. Sandor apprehends her, thinking that she meant to throw herself out. He knows that the scars on his face scare her, so he reminds her of how he rescued her from the mob. The rescue allowed Sandor to kill, an act he finds joy in. He believes that knights are not meant for nobility but for killing their lords’ enemies. Sansa charges him to think of his conscience. Sandor believes that in a godless world, all that matters is surviving those who use violence to rule others.

That night, Sansa dreams of being killed by a knight during the riot. When she wakes up, she is startled by blood on her mattress. She tries to hide the stain by burning parts of the mattress, which draws the attention of her maidservant. Later, Cersei tells her that she has experienced her first “flowering” (menstruation) and is now old enough to marry Joffrey. Cersei can sense that the prospect no longer appeals to her.

Qhorin deduces that Jon released Ygritte instead of killing her. Jon explains that he didn’t kill her because he didn’t see evil in her eyes. Qhorin admits that he chose Jon to execute her because he wanted to see what Jon would do. This gives Qhorin greater insight into how he can lead Jon.

That night, Jon dreams of himself as a direwolf in the woods. He is called to a weirwood (a sacred tree from the old religion) that has his brother’s face, albeit with three eyes. The tree touches him, and he is granted another vision of the wildlings crossing a frozen river with mammoths. An eagle strikes Jon. This startles him out of his dream; upon waking, he understands that the dream was from his direwolf Ghost’s perspective. The other rangers believe that Jon is a skinchanger (a person who can enter an animal and control its actions).

Ghost, wounded by his encounter with the eagle, returns to Jon. Qhorin decides to turn back since the eagle has spotted them. One of the rangers stays behind to delay the wildlings.

Theon is reported to have killed Bran and Rickon Stark. Tyrion shares this report with Cersei, implying that this might provoke Catelyn into killing Jaime. They talk about the coming battle, with Tyrion indicating that Sandor will need to rally the soldiers. He adds that Joffrey should ride, too, to embolden his men.

Cersei implies that Varys has revealed the existence of Shae. She wants revenge for Tyrion’s political maneuvering against her and threatens to kill Shae if either of her sons is harmed. To prove her threat, she has the prisoner brought into the room, but it is revealed to be Alayaya, not Shae. Alayaya plays the part of Shae. Tyrion promises to have her released and swears revenge against Cersei.

Tyrion finds Shae waiting for him in his bedchamber. He tries to have sex with her but is too tense.

Catelyn is too distraught to have supper and tries to send Brienne away. When Brienne asks what is wrong, Catelyn shares the report that Bran and Rickon are dead. To sate her anger, she sends wine to Jaime to prepare him for interrogation.

Jaime doesn’t drink the wine, but when Catelyn arrives, he strikes a deal to talk if she tells him news about the war. He starts drinking the wine and, at her prompting, reveals that he is the father of Cersei’s children and caused Bran’s fall. However, he denies hiring the assassin who tried to kill Bran after his fall.

At Jaime’s prompting, Catelyn admits that Stannis murdered Renly. They both acknowledge that Robb will never ransom Jaime as a hostage when so many of his bannermen want Jaime dead. Catelyn reminds Jaime of his vows, which sends Jaime into a rant about knighthood. He declares that it is unfeasible for a knight to honor all his vows and tells the story of how he stood by as Eddard’s kin were tortured to death by King Aerys. After he killed King Aerys, Jaime was made to publicly seek forgiveness from Robert. He has always resented the way people looked down on him for killing King Aerys despite all the good it caused.

Catelyn calls Jaime a “Kingslayer” out of spite, causing him to mock Eddard’s fidelity to Catelyn. Catelyn asks Brienne for her sword.

In his dreams, Theon is haunted by the deaths of the Stark boys. After their visit to the mill, Theon’s men have quietly died in various accidents, convincing him that something in Winterfell is stalking him. He executes a suspect, which momentarily stops the murders.

Asha arrives at Winterfell to report that Ser Rodrik has defeated Dagmer at Torrhen’s Square. Theon is angry that Asha hasn’t brought more men to defend Winterfell. Asha criticizes his strategy, suggesting it would have been better to destroy Winterfell and bring the Stark boys to Pyke as hostages. She urges him to return with her to Deepwood Motte. Theon refuses out of pride.

After Asha leaves, Reek suggests hiring mercenaries to defend Winterfell. Theon lets him go. That night, Theon has a dream of a feast where the guests turn into the dead of Winterfell. Early the next morning, he thinks about how he and Reek skinned the miller’s sons to pretend that they were the Stark boys’ corpses.

Stannis’s fleet is reported to have entered Blackwater Bay, and Sansa sees Joffrey off before he rides into battle. On her way back to the Red Keep, Sansa goes to the sept, where she secretly prays for her family and friends, as well as for Tyrion and Sandor.

Sansa arrives at the Red Keep, and she and other highborn women are ushered into the Queen’s Ballroom. They are guarded by Ser Ilyn Payne, her father’s executioner. Cersei later explains that Payne is there to kill traitors and defend the women from invaders.

The Baratheon fleet is led by the ship Fury, commanded by Stannis’s brother-in-law, Ser Imry Florent. He chooses to send the fleet into Blackwater Bay all at once, organizing 200 ships into 10 lines of battle. Davos captains his ship, Black Bertha, as part of the second line, which will directly engage Joffrey’s fleet. His sons, Dale and Allard, command flanking ships.

Davos knows that Tyrion has built a defensive boom to block the fleet’s entrance, though it is only as they approach King’s Landing that Davos confirms its completion. The chain has not yet been raised by the time the fleet crosses it.

The Lannister defenders fire pots of flaming pitch and trebuchet boulders at the fleet. Some of them hit, but they do nothing to prevent Stannis’s first ships from deploying archers. Davos rams ships and orders his archers to fire at the enemy.

Suddenly, Davos hears someone calling out for “wildfire.” He orders his ship to fall back as the flames quickly spread over the first line of battle. He is still confident that they will win until he sees one of Stannis’s burning ships prepare to ram a Lannister ship. The Lannister ship leaks wildfire from its hull, and the two ships explode in a violent blast, spreading wildfire across the bay. Davos orders a retreat, but it is too late. All of Stannis’s fleet catches fire and is stopped from escaping by the now-drawn boom chain.

Tyrion watches the destruction. Joffrey is upset that his ships are being destroyed, but Tyrion dismisses them as collateral damage. The few survivors of Stannis’s fleet land on the riverfront. Tyrion directs Bywater’s company to meet them. Joffrey demands control over the trebuchets.

Tyrion is called down to the King’s Gate, where enemy soldiers are preparing to use a battering ram. Tyrion and his squire Podrick Payne reach the gate, which Sandor and his men are holding back. Tyrion orders Sandor to fight the invaders, but Sandor refuses after seeing the wildfire. The mercenaries likewise refuse, afraid of any further casualties.

With no choice left, Tyrion decides to lead his own battalion out to stop the battering ram.