The Pointy End (5 Jun. 2011)

Eddard and his men are betrayed and captured by the Lannisters. When word reaches Robb, he plans to go to war to rescue them. The White Walkers attack The Wall. Tyrion returns to his father with some new friends.

Director:

Daniel Minahan

Writers:

David Benioff (creator), D.B. Weiss (creator),

Stars:

Sean Bean, Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Bean	...	Eddard 'Ned' Stark
Michelle Fairley	...	Catelyn Stark
Lena Headey	...	Cersei Lannister
Emilia Clarke	...	Daenerys Targaryen
Iain Glen	...	Jorah Mormont
Aidan Gillen	...	Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish
Kit Harington	...	Jon Snow
Richard Madden	...	Robb Stark
Sophie Turner	...	Sansa Stark
Maisie Williams	...	Arya Stark
Alfie Allen	...	Theon Greyjoy
Isaac Hempstead Wright	...	Bran Stark
Jack Gleeson	...	Joffrey Baratheon
Rory McCann	...	Sandor 'The Hound' Clegane
Peter Dinklage	...	Tyrion Lannister

Storyline

Joffre has claimed the throne and he and is mother eliminate Ned Stark's supporters. Ned is imprisoned and Sansa remains engaged to Joffre but Anya seems to have escaped. Cersei gets Sansa to write to her eldest brother Robb to ask him to swear loyalty to the new King. Robb agrees to go, but at the head of an army. Catelyn receives word of her husband's imprisonment and learns that her sister will not support her. Tyrian and Bron encounter the Stone Crows and makes them an offer they can't refuse. At the wall Jon's wolf, Ghost, alerts him to trouble and it seems that the White Walkers have returned. Daenarys has trouble accepting the rape of new female slaves and when Drogo supports her, he is called out by one his men.

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Plot Keywords:

duel | boy | violence | warfare | brutality | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 June 2011 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Television 360, Grok! Studio, Generator Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

59 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

The episode title refers to the first lesson about sword fighting that Jon gave to Arya before their farewell in Game of Thrones: The Kingsroad: "stick them with the pointy end".

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Goofs

After Barristan Selmy tosses his sword in front of Joffrey and leaves, the right-most Kingsguard facing him (from Joffrey's view) is unable to sheathe his sword as the four other Kingsguards do.

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Quotes

Theon Greyjoy: Are you afraid?
[Hand is shaking]
Robb Stark: I must be.
Theon Greyjoy: Good.
Robb Stark: Why is that good?
Theon Greyjoy: It means your not stupid.

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Crazy Credits

The sun tells an important part of the series back story, on its panels. It does so in three segments. First, as the credits start up, the sun depicts how the Targaryens and their dragons conquered Westeros. The second time the sun is shown, a dragon is depicted in a mortal struggle with 3 other animals: The Stag, the Lion and the Wolf. It is a very literal way to show how Robert Beratheon and Ned Stark rebelled, with Tywin Lannister reluctantly supporting them, in the end. Finally, the third time the sun is shown, before the series title enter the scene, a lion (among other animals) is shown "kneeling" to a triumphant Stag. Just as Robert was crowned King after winning the war.

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Soundtracks

"Main Title"
(uncredited)
Written and Performed by Ramin Djawadi

User Reviews

Still not the show's full potential

Ned is imprisoned and only has about three minutes of screen time in this episode, so you would guess that the show suddenly gets boring, right? Hell no, Robb is Lord Stark now and boy, is he badass in this episode. This is the first time that he really gets to be a major character and he owns absolutely every single scene he's in. We can expect one of them to die in the season finale (maybe both, but I sincerely hope not) and Richard Madden's intriguing performance as Robb managed to make me root more for him than for Ned. Catelyn finally getting together with at least parts of her family was also great to see and the scene with Robb and her was utterly fascinating. And while the Winterfell story part was clearly paramount in 'The Pointy End', most of the other locations were entertaining as well.

Despite the huge events at the end of the last episode, King's Landing isn't that much in the fore as I'd expected it to be which is not generally a bad thing because even those scenes dragged a bit from time to time, so I think I would've only been bored with more scenes there. Lena Headey's turn was once again absorbing to watch and Jack Gleeson also gets more and more interesting, but I just feel that his character has way too little screen time to really let the audience get to know him.

One crucial moment in this episode was Tyrion encountering his father Tywin for the first time to be seen on the show while having a lot of grubby companions coming with him. Their conversation wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped it to be, mostly because there wasn't anything new being discussed in the scene. In the end, Peter Dinklage proved once again to be a hugely talented actor and Charles Dance also did a very fine job as his evil daddy, the plot just wasn't that juicy.

The weakest scenes of this episode were happening at either the Night's Watch or at whatever place the Dothraki scenes are taking place. Unnecessary supporting characters are being introduced again and there are some serious acting problems to be found. Even though George R. R. Martin, the author of the novels that are the basis for the series, wrote this episode, I feel like it isn't exactly how it was meant to be. Some important scenes last for too short, some less important scenes get too much time. I always feel like they don't use all the potential they've got.