Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

"Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" is the fourth episode of the HBO medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones, which first aired on May 8, 2011. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Brian Kirk.^[1] In this episode Lord Eddard Stark, the new Hand of the King, investigates the sudden death of his predecessor. Jon Snow, Eddard's bastard son, defends a new recruit who has just joined the rangers at "the Wall." Exiled prince Viserys becomes increasingly frustrated as the Dothraki horde he needs to invade Westeros and win back his crown continues to linger at Vaes Dothrak. The episode ends with Eddard's wife Catelyn arresting Tyrion Lannister on suspicion of attempting to murder her son Bran.

The title comes from the original book, spoken by Tyrion after he provides Bran Stark with a saddle design that will allow him to ride despite his paraplegia: "I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things."

Critical reaction to the episode was mostly positive, with critics citing the Night's Watch scenes at the Wall as highlights, as well as Michelle Fairley's performance as Catelyn Stark in the final scene of the episode with Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 2.5 million in its initial broadcast.

Plot

In King's Landing

Lord Eddard Stark begins quietly inquiring into the death of Jon Arryn, the previous Hand of the King, who had long served as the Kingdom's chief administrative nobleman. Questioning Grand Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover), who tended Jon Arryn in his final days, Stark learns that Arryn's last words were "the seed is strong" and that he was reading a book titled The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms.

Helped by Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Aidan Gillen) and his net of informers, Eddard follows up on two more clues regarding the last days of his predecessor. He questions a smith's apprentice whom Jon Arryn had visited in his last days and, due to his resemblance to King Robert, Stark deduces that the boy is the king's bastard. Eddard also plans to question Jon Arryn's former squire, but the recently knighted young man is killed while jousting at the tournament held in Eddard's honor. The knight responsible for his untimely end is Ser Gregor Clegane (Conan Stevens), also known as "the Mountain" due to his towering size. He is a Lannister bannerman and is the older brother of "the Hound" Sandor Clegane. Baelish tells Sansa the secret of the Clegane brothers: as children, Gregor brutally burned his brother's face, thus explaining the Hound's scars.

In Vaes Dothrak

Khal Drogo's khalasar arrives at the city of Vaes Dothrak. Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) impatiently waits for the army Drogo (Jason Momoa) agreed to lend him, the bride price offered for his sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), to reconquer the Seven Kingdoms. When Viserys misinterprets Daenerys' invitation to dinner as an order, he becomes angry and strikes her. For the first time, Daenerys fights back, hitting her astounded brother and promising that if he raises a hand against her again, his hands will be cut off. Later, the banished knight Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) tells her that Viserys would not be a good leader for the invasion of Westeros and, despite what Viserys believes, the people of the Seven Kingdoms do not care who rules them as long as they are ruled well. Daenerys agrees that Viserys could not conquer the Seven Kingdoms even if Khal Drogo gave him an entire army.

At the Wall

The Night's Watch receives Samwell Tarly (John Bradley), a fat, fearful and clumsy recruit who rapidly becomes the focus of bullying by master-at-arms Ser Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale). Sam later explains to Jon that his father forced him to "take the Black" and forsake his inheritance because he considered Sam unworthy, threatening to kill Sam and pass his death off as a hunting accident if he refused.^[2] Jon Snow (Kit Harington) defends Sam and convinces the rest of the recruits not to harm him, much to Thorne's rage. Thorne defends his treatment as essential, since life north of the Wall is very harsh especially during winter, warning Jon and Sam to toughen up or they will have no chance of survival.

In the North

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) stops at Winterfell as he is returning to King's Landing after his visit to the Wall. He gets a cold welcome from Robb Stark (Richard Madden), acting Lord of Winterfell in his father Eddard's absence. Robb suspects the Lannisters are behind his younger brother Bran's fall and the subsequent assassination attempt. Despite the cold reception, Tyrion shows the now crippled Bran an act of kindness by giving him blueprints for a saddle that will allow him to ride again despite his paraplegia. Before he leaves Winterfell, Tyrion has a talk with Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), a ward of House Stark, and mocks him regarding how the Greyjoys and their land, the Iron Islands, attempted a failed rebellion against King Robert, calling Theon a "hostage" to the Stark family.

At the Inn at the Crossroads

Further south, Tyrion and his small retinue stop to spend the night at the Inn at the Crossroads. There he recognizes Lady Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) in disguise. With her identity revealed, she requests help from her father's bannermen present at the inn to seize Tyrion to face trial for Bran's attempted murder.

Production

Writing

"Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" is the first episode of the series that was not written by the show's creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The script was authored by writer Bryan Cogman, based on George R. R. Martin's original work.

Cogman worked on the Game of Thrones's pilot as a writing assistant and was contracted for the full series as script-editor and the unofficial "keeper of the mythos" for the show, entrusted with the task of writing the series bible outlining character and background information, and making sure that the world-building remained consistent. In this capacity, he was approached by Benioff and Weiss, who asked him to write a treatment for the fourth episode. Believing it was only an exercise that would be completely rewritten by another professional writer, he completed the script that ended up being episode four.^[3]

The chapters of the book covered in this episode are Bran IV (less the first few pages that were included in the previous episode), Eddard V, Jon IV, Eddard VI, Catelyn V, Sansa II, Daenerys IV (chapters 25–30 and 37). Among the scenes created for the show, there are the conversations between Theon and Tyrion, Sansa and Septa Mordane, Doreah and Viserys, Jory Cassel and Jaime, Jon and Samwell and Eddard Stark and Cersei. The character of Alliser Thorne is given some more depth by justifying his harshness towards the new recruits, and a more subdued version of Bran's dream is included.^[4]

During the bathtub scene in which Viserys recalls the old Targaryen dragons, he lists names taken from the books (Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar) and others invented for the show. Among them a dragon called Vermithrax is mentioned, which is an homage to Vermithrax Pejorative from the 1981 film Dragonslayer.^[5] Author George R. R. Martin once ranked the film the fifth best fantasy movie of all time, and called Vermithrax "the best dragon ever put on film," and the one with "the coolest dragon name as well."^[6]

Casting

This episode introduces the character of Samwell Tarly, a new recruit of the Night's Watch and a self-described coward. John Bradley was cast in the part, the actor's first professional appearance after graduating from the Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre. The scene used in the auditions belonged to "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things," with Sam explaining to Jon how his father forced him to take the black. According to author and executive producer George R. R. Martin, Bradley delivered "a heartbreaking performance."^[7]

Australian actor Conan Stevens, whose official website lists his height as 214 cm (7' 1/4"),^[8] first appears as the gigantic knight Gregor Clegane, known as "the Mountain." Stevens had sought to join the production since HBO started developing Game of Thrones. Since the character of Gregor Clegane, the role he believed he was most fitted for, did not appear in the pilot, he auditioned for the role of Khal Drogo instead in the hopes of getting noticed by the casting team. Although that role went to Jason Momoa, Stevens was chosen for the part of Gregor.^[9]

Other recurring roles making their first appearance in the episode include Dominic Carter as commander of the City Watch Janos Slynt, Jerome Flynn as the mercenary ("sellsword") Bronn, and Joe Dempsie as the smith's apprentice Gendry. The character of Gendry was made older for the series than he appears in the books.^[10]

Props

The book of lineages Ned receives from Pycelle was prepared by Bryan Cogman, who in addition to writing episode four also served as the show's "lore master" and authored the historical background content included in the first season's DVD and Blu-ray release. Cogman wrote two pages worth of text detailing the lineage of four noble houses. The text concerning house Umber was shown in "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things," and the Baratheon text appears in episode six, "A Golden Crown." Cogman also wrote text for the houses of Targaryen and Royce, but the corresponding scenes were removed from the final script for episode four. Cogman said that he drew on the novels and the fan-created website Wiki of Ice and Fire for reference, and invented what could not be sourced, including even some Internet fan message board names as in-jokes.^[11]

Filming locations

The scenes of the Tourney of the Hand were filmed at the grounds of Shane's Castle.

The episode was shot at Belfast's studio The Paint Hall, including interior shots of King's Landing,^[12] and on location throughout Northern Ireland: The scenes taking place at the grounds of Castle Black continued to be filmed at the large exterior set built on the abandoned quarry of Magheramorne, the grounds of the ruined Shane's Castle were used as the location of the tournament, and the area known as the Sandy Brae, at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, was used for the entrance to Vaes Dothrak.^[13] Much of this episode was filmed early in the production;^[14] an Eddard and Arya scene from this episode was filmed on the very first day of shooting.^[15]

Reception

Ratings

"Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"'s first airing was seen by 2.5 million viewers, a slight increase from the previous episode's 2.4 million. Including the repeat, the night's viewers totalled 3.1 million, which was also in line with the previous week's ratings.^[16] In the UK, the viewership increased significantly, rising to 628,000 viewers from 510,000 the previous week.^[17]

Critical response

"Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" was received positively by critics. Todd VanDerWerff from the A.V. Club gave it an A-,^[18] and Maureen Ryan from AOL TV rated it with a 70 out of 100.^[19]

VanDerWerff stated this was his favorite episode of the show so far, "an hour that simultaneously feels more propulsive and more relaxed than the last three." He admitted that the better part of it was given to exposition, with many monologues by the characters to expose their motivations and background. In his opinion, though, it was done skillfully and efficiently.^[18] IGN's Matt Fowler wrote that it was another great, exposition-heavy episode and that the best and most natural scene happened between Viserys and Doreah in the bath.^[20]

Out of the different storylines, many critics singled out the scenes on the Wall as the best. Myles McNutt from Cultural Learnings wrote that "Jon Snow’s time at the Wall is maybe my favorite central location of those introduced early in the series, and it is in large part due to the work done in this episode," ^[21] and Maureen Ryan stated that "they're exceptionally well acted and written. John Bradley is a great addition as Samwell Tarly, and I continue to be very impressed with Kit Harington's quietly charismatic performance as Jon."^[22] Besides the acting and the writing, both agreed that one of the reasons the Night's Watch scenes worked for them is that it was easy to connect with the story of a group of raw recruits bonding under a hard-nosed trainer who tries to prepare them to face great danger.

The closing scene was praised by HitFix's Alan Sepinwall, highlighting Michelle Fairley's acting as Catelyn gathers allies to arrest Tyrion.^[23]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

• "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" at HBO
• "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" at TV.com