The Kingsroad 

While Bran recovers from his fall, Ned takes only his daughters to King's Landing. Jon Snow goes with his uncle Benjen to the Wall. Tyrion joins them.

Director:

Timothy Van Patten (as Tim Van Patten)

Writers:

David Benioff (created by), D.B. Weiss (created by)

Stars:

Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Bean	...	Eddard 'Ned' Stark
Mark Addy	...	Robert Baratheon
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	...	Jaime Lannister
Michelle Fairley	...	Catelyn Stark
Lena Headey	...	Cersei Lannister
Emilia Clarke	...	Daenerys Targaryen
Iain Glen	...	Jorah Mormont
Harry Lloyd	...	Viserys Targaryen
Kit Harington	...	Jon Snow
Sophie Turner	...	Sansa Stark
Maisie Williams	...	Arya Stark
Richard Madden	...	Robb Stark
Alfie Allen	...	Theon Greyjoy
Isaac Hempstead Wright	...	Bran Stark
Jack Gleeson	...	Joffrey Baratheon

Storyline

Although his son Bran is lying in bed unconscious from his fall, Ned Stark must return with King Robert to King's Landing. His wife Catelyn stays behind in Winterfell, though there appears to be little hope of Bran's recovery. The King has agreed that his son Joffrey and Ned's daughter Sansa should marry, uniting their families forever. Problems arise when Joffrey challenges the butcher's boy who is out playing with Sansa's younger sister Arya. Joffrey is injured when Arya's pet wolf attacks him. The King's justice is swift but fair even if his wife Cersei doesn't agree. Meanwhile, Ned illegitimate son heads north to join the Night Watch. Across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys is having some difficulty accommodating herself to married life. She turns to one of her servants, a slave whose job it once was to pleasure men, to learn how she could make her husband happy.

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Plot Keywords:

abuse of power | false accusation | nudity | barefoot male | bare butt | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA Ireland UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 April 2011 (USA)

Box Office

Budget:

GBP6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Television 360, Grok! Studio, Generator Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

56 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby Atmos (Blu-ray release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The episode title refers to the longest and grandest highway in Westeros, running from Castle Black at the Wall all the way south to the capital city of King's Landing, passing Winterfell along the way. Many of the characters, among them Eddard and Jon, travel on this road throughout the episode.

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Goofs

In the first scene of the episode where Jorah is telling Daenerys about the Dothraki's beliefs, the clips of Emilia Clarke's (Daenerys) hair extensions are visible in a close up.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jorah Mormont: You need to drink, child. And eat.
[hands her piece of dried meat]
Daenerys Targaryen: Isn't there anything else?
Jorah Mormont: The Dothraki have two things in abundance. Grass and horses. People can't live on grass.
[Daenerys finds the taste of dried horse meat repulsive]

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Crazy Credits

The cities and places featured in the opening credits change as the series progresses. For example, in the first episode, Pentos is shown whereas in later episodes, because it is not pertinent to the episode's narrative, it is not.

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Connections

Referenced in Game of Thrones: The Children (2014)

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Soundtracks

Main Title
(uncredited)
Written and Performed by Ramin Djawadi

User Reviews

The Road to Ruin

The second episode of Game of Thrones builds nicely on the excellent opening. Looking at it now it is moving to see characters saying farewells as they go on journeys from which we know some will not return for a long time, if ever. We see the Starks starting to split up to follow different paths with Jon Snow riding off to 'take the black' and Ned riding to King's Landing.

Acting is brilliant across the whole cast and the very well written dialogue is intelligently supporting the intriguing plot. At this point the show is not quite up to top speed but is establishing itself with incredibly high standards.

One grumble I have with the transition from episode 1 to this episode is that when Bran's direwolf Summer is shown, the animal is strikingly large when at the end of episode 1 it was still a very small pup. It is established that only a few weeks has passed between these two points so even for a fast growing direwolf in a fantasy setting it seems jarringly improbable that it could have grown so much in such a short time. An avoidable lapse in internal logic perhaps but not a major one and really that fault lies with the first episode not this episode. Within this episode there is no issue.

On the plus side the plot moves on well increasing the level of interest for a new viewer. This episode also starts to establish Daenerys' character (Emilia Clarke) strongly with her showing some strength and drive. The star of this episode is probably Jack Gleeson's Joffrey though. His brilliantly slimy, cocky and nasty little turd of a Prince is wonderfully brought to the fore in a scene where Arya's direwolf bites him. This also leads to some moving scenes as well as letting Maisie Williams as Arya show that she too is a real little star. Mark Addy and Sean Bean play the father figures with aplomb and Lena Headey as Cersei is already a manipulative bitch Queen.

9/10