Inside Game Of Thrones - Season 1 - Episode 25

Episode 4 years ago

Inside Game Of Thrones - Season 1 - Episode 25

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All this time they have been following the main road leading into the Vale, and when they reach the city itself, all of them part ways. All the rest are going off to rest, as should Catelyn, but the Lady of Winterfell insists that she must see her sister, even though the day is growing late. Ser Rodrik says he must come with her, and Catelyn appreciates his fierce loyalty, but she can also see that he is barely sitting on his horse. So they leave him in the care of the Vale’s maester.


As for Tyrion, her captive, she places him under guard. All the rest will continue the journey tomorrow, while Catelyn continues on.
They have come to see Catelyn’s sister, yes, but Lady Lysa Arryn doesn’t reside in the Vale per se. To meet her, Catelyn will have to go to the Eyrie, the castle in the sky, stronghold of the Arryns.


Riding there takes another few hours, and Catelyn is nearly dead with exhaustion. At the foot of the gate to the Eyrie, Catelyn is handed over to someone else who will take her on, a girl named Mya Stone, about eighteen or nineteen years old. The girl is a bastard. Stone is the bastard name of the Eyrie.

The girl swaps Catelyn’s horse for a mule, assuring her that those will handle the long climb up to the Eyrie much better. So it’s on to the mules, and the journey continues.
Mya is a decent enough girl. She talks a bit with Catelyn, telling her about some of the great Houses of the Vale and about the young squire she one day hopes to marry.
And Mya was right about the mules. The way to the Eyrie is up a long series of steps carved out of stone, straight up, spiraling upwards round the side of the mountain. The mules don’t even need direction. It’s just as if they know the way up by themselves. The motion of the animals climbing the steps makes Catelyn, bone-tired and weary, to begin to drift to sleep, right inside the saddle.
Can I even blame the woman?

There are waycastles along the way up, according to Mya: Earth, Stone and Sky. At the first waycastle, Earth, they enter into the garrisoned stronghold and eat a light meal and have some rest. Then they change their mules, and it’s up the stairs once more.

The journey takes hours and hours, through trees sometimes, with the darkening sky above, and the high-altitude air blowing down on them. At the second waycastle, Stone, it’s the same thing. A meal, change of mules, and then the journey continues.
From Stone up, the stairs become steeper, and at a point they have to cross a natural stone bridge that has no rails, with just a sheer drop off to the sides. Mia just dismounts and says they have to lead the mules across. And so she does, coming down off her animal, holding the bridle and leading it across the bare stone slab of a bridge.
Catelyn is afraid at the sight of it, and after braving herself to hold the reins and lead her mule onto the bridge, one look at the sheer drop of over a thousand feet to either side makes her stop dead in the middle and have a mental breakdown.

It’s only after Mya has led her mule across that she comes back and tells Catelyn to trust her and walk across, that she won’t fall. But Catelyn disagress vehemntly. The woman is deathly afraid of heights and won’t even open her eyes. In the end, Mya has to come back onto the bridge and take Catelyn’s hand. She says there’s no need to worry about the mule, that it can take care of itself.

Even so, Catelyn still doesn’t open her eyes, letting the girl lead her one step at a time. As she does, Catelyn hears the mule following along behind and realizes that what Mya said is true. The mule doesn’t even need guidance to cross the bridge.

Down in the Vale, the men had mentioned that the supplies for the Eyrie were usually sent up in a winch basket (a basket drawn up by ropes), a method Catelyn had shunned because of her pride as Lady Stark. After her ordeal on the bridge, however, Catelyn has had her fill of climbing, and after they get to Sky, the last waycastle, she just swallows her pride and takes the basket the rest of the way with the vegetables.

It’s in the middle of the night when they finally reach the Eyrie, a series of tall towers perched at the peak of the huge mountain Catelyn had spent the better part of the day ascending, but even with that, Catelyn insists on seeing her sister at once.

And so they take her to see Lysa. By the time Catelyn is ushered into the Eyrie’s hall to see her sister, Lysa has already assembled her court, the high lords and ladies of the Eyrie. Her son Robert is in her lap, the child she had with her husband Lord Jon Arryn, both of them seated in the chair beside the high seat of the Lord of the Eyrie, which her son at age six is too young to sit in.

All the lords and ladies mutter their courtesies to the Lady Stark of Winterfell, and, quite contrary to what her uncle Brynden had said, Lysa greets her warmly as befit a sister, and thanks her for helping bring justice for her husband’s death.

And then Lysa tells her lords and ladies to leave her, so she can talk privately with her sister.

The moment that door is shut, Catelyn begins to understand what her uncle was talking about. Lysa shouts at her, demanding what she is looking for there. Catelyn, puzzled at the sudden change, says that she has brought one of her husband’s killers to her. And she asks that whether it wasn’t justice she sought when she sent them that letter at Winterfell. Lysa says she wants justice, yes, but she didn’t mean for her to bring a Lannister to the Eyrie and risk the wrath of Lord Tywin.