Needless to say, Spoilers Ahead...just in case I'm not the last person on Earth over twelve who hasn't seen this yet.
I'm reviewing each episode's "happenings" based on location. In other words, each place is getting its own review.
Season 1 Episode 1: "Winter is Coming" - Winterfell
This was roughly 60% of the episode, so here we go.
The Gist:
Meet the Starks!
I know...I'm getting ahead of myself.
(Sigh) Seriously though, here we go:
This part of the episode picks up right where "The Wall" left off. Will is found wandering around somewhere not covered in snow and is captured...
...by what we learn to be soldiers of Winterfell.
While that happens, the two older 'boys' shown here are watching the younger lad practice his archery,
along with their father,
and mother.
His name is Bran of the Stark family...and his archery skills need all the help they can get,
unlike this young lass, who seems to be better with the bow than the needle.
Eddard (Ned) Stark, is notified that a member of The Black has been captured nearby and must be punished by law as a deserter. He reluctantly accepts the duty, but orders Bran to come along.
Catelyn (Cat) Stark thinks he's too young to see such things. Ned tells her the boy won't be one forever, and she drops the issue.
So Bran goes with his father, along with
his eldest brother Robb,
this guy,
and this guy...
...whom Cat doesn't like very much.
To no one watching the episode's surprise, Will is the "deserter" that must be punished. Before the sentence is carried out, Will tells Ned that he's seen the White Walkers and that was why he ran. Ned listens and then passes the sentence:
death by beheading.
Bran, to his credit, doesn't look away.
On their way back to Winterfell, the party comes across a dead stag...and a dead direwolf. This is bad, because direwolves aren't supposed to be south of The Wall. Even worse - the direwolf was a mother to several pups.
At first, Theon Greyjoy is ordered by Ned to kill the pups.
Bran asks his father to spare them,
then Jon speaks up about there being five pups, one for each Stark child. Which is all the more significant since the direwolf is the sigil for House Stark. Jon's okay with not getting one, since he's not a Stark but a Snow.
Ned reluctantly agrees to bring the pups back with them, but only on the condition that his children care for them themselves. But as they leave,
Jon finds one more pup, left to die away from the others, and takes it with him
A while later, Cat gets a message via Raven about Jon Arryn's death.
Remember Jon Arryn?
Ned is deeply saddened by this because Arryn was like a father to him.
But there's more news: the King rides for Winterfell.
Ned knows that with the Hand of the King dead, King Robert is riding this far north for only one reason.
Cat knows it too, but wants her husband to tell him no.
As King Robert's party arrives, we learn a couple things:
Bran's a climber (like seriously a climber),
and Arya (the girl from earlier with the bow), isn't afraid to wear a helmet to sneak off and peek at stuff.
Then we meet the Stark family:
Robb, the eldest son,
Sansa, the elder daughter,
Arya, the younger daughter,
Bran (of course),
and finally Rickon, youngest of the Starks.
But we also meet the royal family. There's King Robert Baratheon,
Queen Cersei (Lannister) Baratheon,
Jaime Lannister (Cersei's twin brother),
their eldest child Joffrey Baratheon, a bunch of other people,
and this scary f**kin' guy.
It's at this point that we learn that King Robert,and Ned are best friends, were both essentially raised by Jon Arryn, and fought together in several wars - the last of which ended with Robert getting the throne...
...after the death of Viserys' and Daenerys' father (leading to the siblings' eventual exile in Pentos).
We also meet Tyrion Lannister, Cersei and Jaime's younger brother...an imp who frequents whorehouses.
But wait - there's more!
Not only were Robert and Ned lifelong friends (and basically raised as brothers), but Robert was in love with Ned's younger sister Lyanna -
who was killed by one of the Targaryens before the Iron Throne was won.
And Robert wants revenge on those who remain.
Yep...those two.
Then King Robert tells Ned that he wants to unite the Starks and Baratheons by blood like he wanted to do years before.
Which means Sansa,
is to marry Joffrey.
Sansa doesn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she's a bit whiny about having to wait too long.
There's a big feast in honor of the King's arrival, during which we see His Highness throwing himself at all the serving ladies in front of everyone...
...including his wife.
Meanwhile, outside the Great Hall,
Jon Snow (so named because he's a bastard of the North - son of Ned but not of Cat) hangs out elsewhere honing his sword skills when he's interrupted -
by Uncle Benjen's arrival.
Benjen is Ned's brother and a member of The Black. Jon begs his uncle to take him back to the Wall so the lad can take the Oath (which means they can own no property or father any sons), but Benjen tells him that they'll discuss it later. He enters the Great Hall, and Jon returns to his swordplay when he's interrupted again -
this time by Tyrion.
This is the first time they meet and they have a wonderful conversation about accepting oneself as seen through the eyes of others, until the imp enters the Great Hall...
...leaving Jon to continue his swordplay.
Back inside the Great Hall, more meetings take place:
Cersei meets Sansa and asks the young lady if she's bled yet.
Jaime meets Ned and they parry with words.
Benjen catches up with Ned and they discuss "strange things happening" in the North.
And King Robert meets with any woman he can get his hands on.
Later that night, Cat gets a message from her sister - also known as Jon Arryn's widow. The message implies that Jon was murdered - by the Lannisters. This gets Cat very worried about King Robert's request to make Ned the next Hand of the King, saying that Ned's already lost his father and a brother in the South.
But Ned, duty-bound badass that he is, takes the job anyway and leaves Winterfell the next day with King Robert on a boar hunt. As they go,
Bran the climber does some climbing, and stumbles upon...
...Queen Cersei having a meeting of her own...
...with her brother Jaime high in one of Winterfell's abandoned towers.
They catch him watching them. Jaime grabs the boy, and pushes him out the window.
And that's the how the episode ends.
Ab...sof**king...lutely!
The Good: Like I said, there's a lot going on here...and it's fabulous. There's not a single wasted scene, (although one does drag on a bit). We're introduced to many different characters, and we get them. We know Bran is curious, Cat is cautious, Arya is a tomboy, Sansa is so not a tomboy, Tyrion's often ignored but is worth watching, Jon is worth watching but is often ignored, Ned is compelled by duty, King Richard doesn't want to be king, Cersei doesn't want to be his Queen...
...and Jaime's an A$$HOLE!
The Bad: My biggest issue with this part of the episode was the scene where Theon Greyjoy walks across the way to give Ned his gloves before Richard comes up and thanks Ned for saying yes. Why is that bit there? Did the episode need to run two full minutes past the hour mark? I get why they kept that exchange between the Hound and the Imp, but they should have just cut to Robert at that point. Just sayin'.
The WTF?: This is the same issue I brought up in "The Wall" - how the hell does Will make it to Winterfell? He would had to have gone through the Wall to make it that far south, right? Unless he followed the direwolf, which also somehow made it past the "ever watchful eyes" of The Black.
Secondly...
Secondly...
That is a terrible use of a sword.
Use an axe next time Ned.
Mrs. Adorkification Moments: They did go off-book a bit here. In the novel, the scene where Cat gets the message from her sister about Arryn being murdered had her jumping out of bed Stark Naked in front of both Ned and the guy with the chain around his neck. Ned basically says "What the hell are you doing?" pointing out the guest in their bedchambers, and she replies "This man delivered my children, so there's nothing now he hasn't seen before." Which I thought was a cool exchange, but there were enough (non-Stark) Naked bits in this episode. Which brings me to...
...F**KING HBO!!!
This bit of off-book pissed her off. She felt the introduction to Tyrion was excessive and unnecessary, since his first appearance in the books is when he meets Jon outside the banquet hall. Me? I was distracted by Tyrion's hair.
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