"Game Of Thrones" Premiere: Ratings, Recap, Headcount
In not entirely unexpected news today, it turns out that despite pirating and the crash of HBO Go, the Game of Thrones season premiere still aired to record ratings. According to TV Guide, the premiere drew in 6.6 million viewers on Sunday night, making it HBO's most-watched program since The Sopranos' series finale in 2007, which drew 11.9 million. This is up from all previous records set by Thrones, including the season 3 premiere, which recorded 4.4 million viewers and the previous champion episode – the sixth episode of season 3, which was watched by 5.5 million people.
Now it’s time for the recap. Do we even need to say it at this point? SPOILERS AHEAD. Seriously, so many spoilers. If you have not seen Two Swords and do not wish to get spoiled, turn back now. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about character development.
Read the recap on the next page.
The episode opened with Tywin Lannister melting down the Stark greatsword and using the rare Balerian steel to make two smaller, easier to wield blades. This means that House Lannister finally has the one – or in this case, two – things they were missing. Plus an ocean of fan tears, but that’s beside the point. The only problem is that when Tywin tries to give Jaime said not-so-greatsword and quietly ship him off to Casterly rock, he gets his very first brush with rebellion from the golden boy. See, Jaime’s already been removed from Cercei once, and he’s not letting it happen again. Way to be an actual character for once, Jaime. We see later on that it’s all for naught – Cercei has become cold, distant and mildly alcoholic in Jaime’s absence – but points for effort anyway.
Looks like this trailer, Vengeance, nailed the theme of the season.
John Snow is being tried by the Night’s Watch for his crimes. He did mostly spend last season living with the wildlings after killing his brother from the Watch and even the valuable information he has about Mance Rayder’s plans is barely enough to save his skin. However, the new and improved Jon Snow cares about all of it approx. 0%, so the sass in that entire scene is just a thing of beauty.
On the theme of sass, we get to finally meet Oberyn Martell in this episode. In his introductory episode, he completely ignores Tyrion Lannister’s accomplished diplomacy, has an orgy and threatens to kill anyone wearing Lannister colors and avenge the murder of his sister Elia. Oberyn is a baddass, if ever there was one, and we hope he gets plenty of screentime this season.
“Maybe I'll pick my teeth with it.” Watch Arya's revenge in #TwoSwords on repeat: https://t.co/1GoVkbrSCk #GameofThrones
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) April 7, 2014Tyrion and Shae have some family drama and then it’s time for what is probably the best scene in the entire episode. The Hound and Arya, raiding a party of Lannister hired hands. The hounds wants a chicken. Arya wants revenge on the man, who killed her friend Lommy a while back. And a horse. Both get what they want, of course, but not before some thoroughly satisfying banter. We get to see Arya commit her first murder (they grow up so fast!) and the friendship between the unlikely pair deepens.
What a great set up episode! Which scene was your favorite?