[Back across the Narrow Sea. Drogo is mumbling incoherently in Dothraki inside a tent, Daenerys by his side.]
"He's going to die" Gendry observed.
"Not your first time seeing a man die?" Varys asked.
"I was born in the slums of King's Landing. People die all the time there" the bastard muttered.
"Come. He's very strong. No one understands how strong he is."
[Jorah removes an herbal treatment from Drogo's wound, revealing it has become infected.]
"He will die tonight, Khaleesi."
"He can't. He can't. l won't let him."
"That is quite some genuine worry you show for him" Doran mused.
"That is not me, it won't be" Daenerys stated. Her future self had gone through some things that made her into that. Things Daenerys had not gone through. That was a different person entirely.
"That is still you. What you are seeing is that you care deeply for people you deem to be close to you. Not a bad trait to have, Daenerys" Rhaegr whispered to her.
"That is not me!" Daenerys glared at her brother a moment before looking away. But he wasn't wrong, she did care deeply.
"Even a queen doesn't have that power. We must go quickly. I've heard there's a good port in Asshai."
"l won't leave him."
"He's already gone, Khaleesi."
"Even if he dies, why would l run? l am Khaleesi and my my son will be khal after Drogo."
"I'm afraid that is not how things work amongst the Dothraki, Princess," Varys said with an apologetic smile. "Only the strongest rule amongst them. The Khal dies, there will be a fight and whoever survives will be the next Khal. Your son would probably be killed in the womb and you will be made a breeding mule for the new Khal."
"That's Barbaric!" Sansa Stark said in shock, while Daenerys stared in horror.
"The Dothraki are a barbaric people" Varys lowered his head.
"All the more reason to get Daenerys away from Viserys before that boy gets her married off to that brute" Rhaegar said, pleading eyes towards Doran Martell.
Doran said nothing.
"This isn't Westeros, where men honour blood. Here they only honor strength. There will be fighting after Drogo dies. Whoever wins that fight will be the new khal. He won't want any rivals. Your boy will be plucked from your breast and given to the dogs."
"l won't leave him."
"Not the time to be stubborn" Rhaegar muttered in worry.
[Mirri Maz Duur enters the tent and bows to Daenerys. Qotho comes to check on Drogo too, with a few other bloodriders at the entrance.]
"The wound has festered."
"You did this, witch."
[Qotho pulls a dagger out of its sheath.]
"Stop it! l don't want her hurt."
"No? No? You don't want her hurt? Pray we don't hurt you, too. You let this witch put her hands on our Khal."
"And already they turn on you" Elia sighed.
"Rein in your tongue. She is still your Khaleesi."
"Only while the blood of my blood lives. When he dies, she is nothing."
"l have never been nothing. l am the blood of the dragon."
"I don't think that matters much to these savages," Jon Snow pointed out.
"That doesn't matter much to anyone outside of Westeros in the way it matters to us Westerosi" Jon Arryn explained, "there are many in Essos who would want her dead because of it, many who descend from the people that were enslaved by Valyrians."
"So the Targaryens aren't well-liked by the majority in either Essos or Westeros then?" Robb asked.
"You could say that" Jon Arryn nodded.
"The dragons are all dead, Khaleesi."
[Qotho and the other Dothraki leave.]
"l think you should wear your armour tonight, ser."
"l think you're right."
[Jorah leaves the tent.]
"You've saved me once more."
"And now you must save him."
"He's beyond the healer's skills. All l can do is ease his path."
"Save him and l will free you. l swear it. You must know a way. Some – some magic."
"Princess…"
"I know! Alright? I know!"
"There is a spell. Some would say death is cleaner."
"Do it. Save him."
"There is a price."
"You'll have gold, whatever you want."
"It's not a matter of gold. This is blood magic. Only death pays for life."
"My death?"
"No, not your death, Khaleesi. Bring me his horse."
[Daenerys signals to Irri, who leaves to find the horse. We cut to the horse being taken by a rope into the tent.]
"Khaleesi, do not do this thing. Let me kill this witch."
"Kill her and you kill your khal."
"This is blood magic. lt is forbidden."
"l am your Khaleesi. l tell you what is forbidden."
"Careful with your words, Princess. You might start sounding like your brother and father" Oberyn warned with a sly sharp smile.
"I am nothing like them and I will never be like them!" Daenerys glared at the man.
[Mirri Maz Duur starts an incantation]
"You must go, lady. Once l begin to sing, no one must enter the tent. The dead will dance here tonight."
[Daenerys caresses Drogo's forehand as she moves to leave.]
"No one will enter."
[Mirri Maz Duur slits the horse's throat. Blood spills all over Drogo's chest and Daenerys' face.]
"Bring him back to me."
[Daenerys leaves the tent as the horse collapses to the ground, dead. Jorah comes to her.]
"What have you done?"
"l have to save him."
"We could have been 10 miles away from here by now, on the way to Asshai. You would have been safe."
"This must not be."
"I'm inclined to agree with the Horselord" Tyrion muttered. Like the others, he too had been drawn into watching in silence the moment Mirri Maz Duur began singing.
"This must be."
"Nothing good will come of this."
[Rakharo tries to talk to Qotho, but gets sucker punched in the face.]
"No, you can't."
[Qotho unsheaths his dagger and moves past Daenerys, pushing her towards the ground. Daenerys hits the ground with her belly.]
"Oh no," Elia muttered.
[Daenerys starts moaning in pain, while we hear Mirri Maz Duur's incantations in the background. Qotho turns around and lunges towards Jorah. The two fight, but Jorah gains the upper hand and kills him with a sword blow to the face.]
"Good" Arya muttered. She didn't like that Horselord much, not with how he treated Daenerys who was turning out to be an okay person to her.
"Are you hurt?"
"The baby… is coming."
"Fetch the midwives."
"They will not come. They say she is cursed."
"They'll come or I'll have their heads."
"The witch - she can bring baby. l hear her say so."
"She specifically said not to go to her!" Sansa all but screamed.
[Jorah moves inside the tent with Daenerys in his arms, as screams and incantations from the inside start getting louder and louder in tone.]
Daenerys gripped her belly and bit the inside of her cheeks. The Witch said no one should enter the tent and now there she went. There was no way her child was surviving now.
[At the Lannister camp, Tyrion, Bronn and Shae play a drinking game together inside Tyrion's tent at night, before the battle.]
"Who is that?" Joanna asked.
"Probably a camp whore. The night before a battle men tend to do whores in case they never return" Jaime explained.
"And I do whores whenever I please. So not surprising" Tyrion added.
Joanna made a face.
"It's not. Here's how it works - l make a statement about your past. lf I'm right, you drink. If I'm wrong, l drink. And no lying. I'll know if you're lying."
"l don't want to play this game."
"Fine. Bronn first. Your father beat you."
[Bronn drinks.]
"But my mother hit harder."
"Truly a match made in heaven" Jaime snorted.
"You killed your first man before you were 12."
"lt was a woman."
[Tyrion drinks. She looks at Bronn, surprised.]
"She swung an axe at me."
"Fair" Tyrion shrugged.
"You once loved a woman many years ago, but it turned out badly so you've never let yourself love again. Oh, wait, that's me."
[Tyrion drinks]
"Excuse me?" Joanna turned to her sons, demanding they answer her.
Jaime shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.
Tyrion did not.
"I was around sixteen at the time and contemplating priesthood when Jaime and I rescued a common girl from bandits. Jaime went after the bandits and I took care of the girl, Tysha" Tyrion's eyes glazed over with emotions. "Tysha seemed to like me even with my deformities and we eventually fucked. I bribed a drunken Septon and we got married. We lived in a little cottage by the sunset sea and she would sing this Myrish Song to me. And then Father found out and ordered Jaime to tell me the truth. Tysha was a whore and Jaime paid her so she might take my virginity. Then Father had the guards fuck her for a silver coin each and then had me fuck her but for a gold coin since a Lannister was worth more. The marriage was undone and all that."
Joanna could only stare at her son in shocked silence, disbelief over what had happened. The rest who heard also stared with disbelief and pity. Tyrion for his part had wiped the emotions from his eyes and drank from his ever-refilling cup.
Joanna turned to Jaime and her eyes narrowed. Jaime looked guilty, but Joanna had a suspicion that there was more to the story than what Tyrion said or knew. She'd find out.
"Enough pity! Let us continue with the show!" Tyrion shouted, waving his hand to push attention back on the viewing wall.
People turned away in silence.
"Your turn, my mysterious foreign beauty."
"l don't want to play."
"lt's fun! Look at the fun we're having. Your mother was a whore."
"Drink."
[Tyrion drinks.]
"All right. Your father left the family when you were very young, never to return."
"Drink."
"And we've established the rules about lying?"
"Drink!"
[Tyrion drinks.]
"You wanted a different life. You came from somewhere and you wanted to be elsewhere."
"The whole shit-stained world could drink off that one."
"So, specifics… You wanted to be elsewhere, but how would you get there? l don't believe the life of the Silent Sisters is for you. So, what's a lowborn girl to do?"
"Drink."
"Are you sure –"
"Drink! And don't talk about my mother and father ever, or l will carve your eyes from your head."
"My dear lady, if l have offended you, l apologize."
"Maybe the offence was in thinking she was a whore?" Renly questioned.
"She has to be. Why else would a woman willingly spend time drinking with me?" Tyrion questioned.
"You make a fair point" Renly smiled and Tyrion snorted.
[The next day, the Lannisters ride to battle; Bronn returns to Tyrion's tent to wake him and Shae up.]
"See? A whore" Tyrion said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"What is it? What do you want?"
"You're sleeping through the war. They stole a night's march on us. They're a mile north."
"A good start" Ned leaned forward, anxiety in his posture and gaze.
" lf l die, weep for me."
"You'll be dead. How will you know?"
"I'll know."
[Tyrion leaves the tent, fully armoured.]
"Stay low."
"Stay low?"
"If you're lucky, no one will notice you."
"A valid piece of advice" Jaime nodded.
"l was born lucky. Tribesmen of the Vale, gather round! Stone Crows! Black Ears! Burned Men! Moon Brothers! And Painted Dogs! Your dominion over the Vale begins now! Onward, to claim what is yours!"
[Tribesmen of the Vale (chanting): Half man! Half man! Half man! Half man! Half man! Half man!]
"To battle!"
[Tyrion rides to battle with the rest but turns around quickly after and is hit with a mace from one of the Tribesmen. He passes out.]
Jaime broke out in laughter, followed by a few others who were not so invested in a Stark vs Lannister fight. Tyrion scowled.
[Later, we cut to the end of the battle – dead bodies and swords piling on the ground. Tyrion wakes up to find Bronn talking to him as he's carried on a wheelbarrow.]
"You're a shit warrior."
"I'm alive?"
"You're alive."
"Did we win?"
"We wouldn't be having this conversation if we didn't."
"How did our tribesmen do?"
"Yeah, good."
"lt's nice to see them getting along."
[Tywin shows up beside them, fully armoured and on horseback.]
" You're wounded."
"Good of you to notice. l hear we won."
"Huh! The scouts were wrong. There were 2,000 Stark bannermen, not 20 [thousand]."
"Only 2000?" Renly questioned.
Robert beside him frowned until it hit him and he barked out a roaring laugh.
"Ned your boy's a genius!" the King laughed.
Ned smiled in relief, both at the fact that his son lived and that his boy had made a clever use of tactics.
"Do you know what I did?" Robb whispered to Jon.
"I can guess that you used the scout from before to set a trap and delay Tywin Lannister's main troops" Jon whispered back.
"So I sent men to their deaths? For what?" Robb asked in a panic.
Jon gripped his hand.
"We'll see soon I know it."
[We cut to Catelyn and Rodrik Cassel overlooking the Trident from a safe distance at higher ground. The Stark host arrives at the clearing. Robb is amongst them, and he comes carrying a tied and bound Jaime Lannister.]
"That" Jon pointed out to his brother. "You captured Jaime fucking Lannister. You outsmarted Tywin Lannister and got yourself a hostage!"
Robb couldn't help but grin up at the wall.
[At King's Landing, Arya follows the crowd to the Sept of Baelor. She climbs up the pedestal of Baelor's statue to get a better view of her surroundings. We cut to Ned Stark being taken from the sept and into the courtyard, in full view of the gathered populace; Baelor's statue is seen in the background to his left. Ned catches Arya's eye at the foot of the statue.]
And just like that Robb's grin fell, as did the smiles on everyone who watched Robb outsmart Tywin Lannister.
[Ned is taken across the populace and runs into Yoren of the Night's Watch.]
"Baelor!"
[Yoren looks towards the statue knowingly.]
Ned relaxed seeing that. Arya would be safe.
[Ned is taken to a raised platform where Sansa, Cersei, Joffrey, and Littlefinger are standing. Sansa smiles warmly at her father as he addresses the crowd.]
"I am Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Hand of the King. I come before you to confess my treason in the sight of Gods and men."
"Good… good" Catelyn swallowed thickly. Ned confessed he wouldn't die. He'd be sent to the Wall, which was better than dying.
"I betrayed the faith of my King and the trust of my friend Robert. I swore to protect and defend his children, but before his blood was cold I plotted to murder his son and seize the Throne for myself. Let the High Septon and Baelor the Blessed bear witness to what I say: Joffrey Baratheon is the one true heir to the Iron Throne, by the grace of all the Gods, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm."
"As we sin, so do we suffer. This man has confessed his crimes in sight of Gods and men. The Gods are just but beloved Baelor taught us they can also be merciful. What is to be done with this traitor, Your Grace?"
"Why is Pycelle saying that instead of the Septon?" Rhaegar asked.
All shrugged. Nobody had an answer for him.
"My mother wishes me to let Lord Eddard join The Night's Watch. Stripped of all titles and powers, he would serve the realm in permanent exile. And My Lady Sansa has begged mercy for her father. But they have the soft hearts of women."
"No…" Catelyn whispered in horror.
"So long as I am your King, treason shall never go unpunished. Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!"
"No!" Lyanna shouted in alarm.
[The townsfolk roar with approval; Arya leaves the pedestal and runs towards the commotion. Sansa gets visibly distraught and starts yelling as a member of the Kingsguard holds her back. Varys runs to the platform to talk to Cersei and Joffrey, Ilyn Payne puts on his executioner's mask. Arya marches towards the courtyard but is grabbed by the arm by Yoren.]
"Don't look!"
"Let me go."
"Shut your mouth. Look at me."
"Stop him, stop!"
[From Ned's perspective, the roars of the crowd become almost silent; he looks towards Baelor's statue but finds no one there. He lowers his head in recognition of his fate as the sound of Payne's longsword cuts through the hushed silence. We see the sword swing until it reaches his head, with a direct cut to Arya as Yoren prevents her from seeing the actual execution. Arya looks at the sky; a flock of pigeons flies away from the courtyard as she holds her head against Yoren's chest; she sighs heavily, and the wall turns black.]