Joel Fry-days: Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 7 – “The Gift” (2015)

*Spoilers from previous episodes*

*CW: rape*

After a bigger showing for Joel Fry last time, he’s back to his usual few minutes of screentime. This is kind of a “catchup” episode, checking in on a number of different plots. It’s not quite “1-2 scenes per plotline,” but we don’t spend too much time on anyone.

As Jon leaves with Tormund to meet with the wildlings, Sam stays behind at Castle Black, where he struggles to keep Gilly safe from other members of the Night’s Watch without Jon there to back him up. Now married to Ramsay, Sansa is in a desperate situation and begs Theon to help her. Tyrion and Ser Jorah were captured by slavers in the previous episode, but there may still be a way for them to make their way to Daenerys: competing in the newly reopened fighting pits. In King’s Landing, the Sparrows have imprisoned Loras and Margaery, and both Lady Olenna and Cersei come to the sept to meet with the High Sparrow about it. Jaime and Bron’s rescue mission in Dorne isn’t going great.

• When I realized this was the “Sansa back at Winterfell” season, I wondered whether Joel Fry’s episodes included her horrific wedding night with Ramsay. Fortunately, we skipped over that one, but this episode has two Crows trying to rape Gilly. Afterwards, Sam and Gilly unironically recreate the circumstances that Shae found so unbelievable about the story of Tyrion’s first wife back in season 1.
• Even just hearing about Sansa’s circumstances, without having to see them onscreen, is horrible—“But he hurts me every night. All day, I’m locked in this room, and every night, he comes.”
• Lady Olenna is always a welcome sight. I enjoy her faceoff with the High Sparrow, and she has a good scene with Littlefinger too. I love her telling Littlefinger, “If I should meet with some accident here, at your broken little flesh market, they’ll never even find what’s left of you.”
• This episode marks the first appearance of Hannah Waddingham’s Septa Unella a.k.a. the Shame Nun. But even more a.k.a. Rebecca from Ted Lasso! Even though this is far from her most memorable appearance on the show, it’s the first time I’ve seen any of her episodes since watching Ted Lasso, so it’s kind of wild for me.
• Not much to say about the Dorne plot, except I like seeing Jaime in Dornish robes and Bron sings a lovely rendition of a bawdy tune while sitting in a dungeon.
• When Ser Jorah and Tyrion are sold to be sent to the fighting pits, the slave auctioneer (played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) really talks up the Westerosi knight, appropriating such impressive claims to fame for Jorah as wielding a flaming sword and “[killing] the great Khal Drogo in single combat.”
• Kudos to Tyrion for managing to stick with the only person he knows on the road to Meereen—even if Jorah kidnapped him, he’d prefer the devil he knows. Tyrion knows he’s a hard sell for anyone buying fighters for the pits, but he proves himself a solid investment.

Before we get to Hizdahr in this episode, a few spoilers from episode 5. In response to the Sons of the Harpy attack that killed Ser Barristan, Daenerys gathered the heads of all the Great Families of former slaveowners, feeding one of them to her dragons and leaving the threat hanging over the rest. But ultimately, she wants a solution that’s not killing all the oldest families of Meereen, and the one she finds is twofold: 1) reopen the fighting pits, the one thing that former Masters and former slaves might both want, and 2) form a political marriage with a prominent Meereen citizen, Hizdahr.

That leads us to this episode, where Dany and Daario are in bed together and he can’t stop asking questions about “the King of Meereen.” Further proof that I know I’m right to dislike Daario. My irritation for his jealousy, by the way, isn’t out of any allegiance to Hizdahr, who’s an interesting character played by a great actor but definitely not a “good guy.” No, my irritation is because his jealousy is so stupid. As Dany points out, “Don’t be ridiculous. My marriage to Hizdahr is political. I think he’s smart enough to understand that.” Every single time Hizdahr comes to the pyramid, Daenerys can barely restrain her “ugh, this guy” reaction. Daario getting all pissy about Hizdahr is equal parts absurd and pathetic.

We’re back to just one scene for Hizdahr, but although it’s a lengthy one, he’s not much of a focus in it. For the most part, he’s just present while other things are happening. Namely, he accompanies Daenerys to watch an early round at one of the “lower” fighting pits ahead of the Great Games, which will be held in Meereen’s illustrious arena. In episode 5, Hizdahr was grateful to survive Dany’s wrath but seemed apprehensive about the prospect of becoming her fiancee—I got a bit of an “out of the frying pan, into the fire” impression from him.

In this episode, though, it looks like Hizdahr is feeling pretty good. I don’t know if he’s less anxious about the Dany situation now that he’s no longer at active risk of Execution by Dragon, but he spent half the season trying to get her to reopen the fighting pits, and he’s clearly pleased to have gotten his way on that front. To further my anti-Daario agenda, Hizdahr doesn’t really seem to be flaunting his betrothal to Dany at all for his personal aggrandizement, and he’s not making any moves on her. As Dany says, he appears to get that this is entirely political.

Like I said, he’s not really the focus of his one scene at all. Hizdahr only has two lines, filling in Daenerys on the traditions related to the fighting pits—the rest of the time, he’s just watching the fight, not fully aware of the larger stuff at play until the end of the scene. But despite his limited presence, Joel Fry still does a nice job with it. Given the state Hizdahr was in the last time we saw him, it’s interesting to see how relaxed and happy he is now. He just looks so damn pleasant about watching men fight to the death. He’s completely absorbed in the “sport” of it all, only occasionally glancing at Dany to see if she’s having fun (spoiler alert: she’s not.) Just through his body language and nonverbal acting, Fry tells us a lot about Hizdahr by showing the good time he’s having here.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 1, Episode 9 – “881 Lope de Vega” (2018)

*Episode premise spoilers, which includes a major spoiler for the end of episode 8.*

Penultimate episode, people! Things are going down in a big way. This episode gets intense, both viscerally and emotionally.

At the end of episode 8, Félix’s government pals arranged to have Kiki kidnapped. He’s now being held and tortured to try and determine what he knows. As Kiki’s boss Jaime confronts numerous barriers of bureaucracy and corruption in trying to search for him, Félix attempts to deal with the fallout from this unforgivable move.

Obviously, this is a dreadful turn of events. It’s been hanging over the show all season, since the pilot forewarned us about Kiki’s abduction, but it’s still brutal to see him tortured, to see his wife Mika full of fear and panic for him, to see Jaime coming up against brick wall after brick wall as he tries to convince any government agency or law enforcement operation to care about this missing agent.

Under those circumstances, it’s not surprising but still gross to get a serious copaganda moment. Jaime and the DEA guys are busting their asses to try and find Kiki, and the Mexican intelligence officer sent in to run point is blatantly shady as hell. When he’s replaced, however, the new guy signals that he’s the real deal when Jaime says, “Still waiting on the warrant [to check out some potential leads]” and the officer replies, “What’s a warrant?” Cue the jocular back-slapping and camaraderie, ugh.

Before I get into talking about Félix, I want to reiterate that I’m talking about Félix as a character, not Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo the real person. Also, I want to emphasize that I’m viewing this through the show’s version of events. Within the story, Félix is not responsible for Kiki’s abduction; once it’s been done, he signs off on the interrogation, but the initial escalation is portrayed as his government partners acting without his knowledge, and in fact against his express advice from episode 8.

So within that context, Félix is definitely concerned but trying to hold steady. In his mind, abducting a DEA agent is far more damaging than whatever intel he might have uncovered during his investigation, because now it’s bringing the full force of the DEA’s wrath down on them. But he says, “We focus on what’s ahead, not waste time on what’s done,” making his best efforts at damage control.

Félix is very much in character here, making a forceful show of confidence as he holds tight to the notion that steady, rational moves will save them. But the more the DEA bears down and the more his allies flail, the harder that is to maintain. He insists, “We manage the business. The only thing that keeps us alive,” and he coldly tells the DFS man in his pocket, “I’m getting tired of reminding you who you work for.” However, the cracks are starting to show, and the DEA’s crusade hits much closer to home than he’d like.

Diego Luna is fantastic in this episode. I’m continually impressed with his ability to project such authority in a relatively quiet way—Félix’s voice is rarely the loudest in the room, and he’s often surrounded by people who are physically larger than him, but he always makes his presence felt. And there’s a scene toward the end of the episode, a telephone conversation between him and Rafa, that’s just masterful. Luna cycles through numerous emotions, hiding just beneath the skin of calm self-assurance Félix maintains. So well done.

Other Doctor Lives: Twenty Twelve: Series 2, Episode 1 – “The Boycott: Part 1” (2012)

Series 2 kicks off with a two-parter. It’s certainly a big story, although part 1 hasn’t really impressed me. We’ll see how things shake out in the second episode.

The commission has a big problem. The Olympic Park’s “shared belief center” for athletes to pray/worship has finished construction, and now Algeria is threatening to boycott the Games because none of the building’s walls face Mecca. Before the commission has even drafted their own statement in response, other countries have already started weighing in, with some supporting Algeria and others in opposition.

Our character of the week is Fi Healey, head of legacy. She’s been working with the commission for a while, but she’s only just moved into the building. Kay is less than thrilled about this—she gets annoyed when people constantly confuse sustainability with legacy, and now Ian wants Kay and Fi to share an office. Fi is played by Morven Christie, who I know from Lost in Austen and the Twelfth Doctor story “Under the Lake” / “Before the Flood.”

You would hope that the Olympics would consult with multiple faith leaders before constructing a multi-faith building, but admittedly, I can believe that this group wouldn’t have thought to do that. So now that they’re in this mess, it’s safe to say that they’re not handling it well. For the most part, the commission kind of regards this as an Algeria problem, like this issue is frivolous and unreasonable. There’s an “if we give one religion ‘special treatment,’ then they’ll all expect it” attitude, and one member of the commission muses on whether anyone would miss Algeria if they did boycott the Olympics.

Ian is at least searching for solutions and trying to meet with people who could help, although that naturally doesn’t go well, either. But his primary concern is more about optics than the actual grievance at hand. He makes more than one statement praising London’s “multiculturality,” even as he questions whether that’s really a word. And we learn that Sibohan thinks “Islam” and “Muslim” involve two different religions—which kind of tracks for her, to be honest.

The narration doesn’t stand out as much to me in this episode, but we still get a few good lines for David Tennant. Here are my favorites:

• I like the phrasing here – “Their earlier press release may have bought them some time, but Ian’s worry now is that they may have already spent it.”
• Nice introduction to a guest character here – “As Parliamentary Undersecretary of State with responsibility for Afghanistan, South Asia, North America, the Middle East, and North Africa, Richard Parker is a man who doesn’t have time to suffer fools, either gladly or in any other way.”