'Game of Thrones' Season 5, Episode 1 - 'The Wars to Come' Recap

New season, new location in the opening credits: Pentos has been added to the map.

That's not where we start, though: instead, we start with a young Cersei as she wanders through the woods with a friend, taking her to the hut of a fortune teller. Or witch, if you want to be mean about it.

"Tell me my future or I'll have your two boring eyes gouged out of your head," Cersei says, showing us that her personality hasn't changed much in 20 years.

Cersei learns three things from the seer: "You'll never wed the prince, you'll wed the king," she says. "You'll be queen, for a time...there will be another, younger, more beautiful to cast you down," is the second fortune (hi Margaery!).

The third has to do with Cersei's kids, and Robert's bastards. "The king will have 20 children, you will have three. Gold will be their shrouds."

King's Landing

Back in the present, Cersei and Jamie talk about their future over their father's dead body. The stones in his eyes have him looking much like his grandson, who found himself in the same position not long ago. Cersei is furious with Jamie over setting Tyrion free, but she maintains that at least Tyrion killed Tywin on purpose, not by accident the way Jamie did.

Ser Loras is still very much with his boyfriend, and Cersei is still very much annoyed by him. Margaery gives him a bit of a scolding over his lack of discretion. "Everybody knows everything about everyone," Loras says. He makes a good point.

"If she doesn't marry me, she doesn't go to Highgarden, she stays in King's Landing and you're stuck with Cersei Lannister as your mother by law," he says. "Perhaps," Margaery responds. Mysterious!

Pentos

Tyrion is finally let out of his shipping crate by Varys. It's obviously been a very unpleasant trip. Varys reveals that he was part of a conspiracy to bring the Targaryens back to power, and attempts to persuade Tyrion to help fix thing. "I'm talking about the future of our country," he says.

"Our future is shit," Tyrion responds.

Varys continues to try to get Tyrion to stop wallowing in booze and to help him bring about "peace," if what Varys says can be trusted. He wants Tyrion not to take the throne himself, but rather to help the right person take the throne. "Good luck finding him," Tyrion says.

"Who said anything about him?" Varys responds.

Time for a road trip to Meereen!

Meereen

One of Danaerys' Unsullied is murdered in a brothel as it appears there is a resistance faction rebelling against Dany's new rule. She orders a public burial.

"Why would an Unsullied go to a brothel?" Missandei asks Grey Worm. It's a good question: they don't have much going on downstairs.

Later, Dany denies the request of one of the nobles to re-open the fighting pits that once put slaves up against slaves in fights to the death. This re-opening would have fights between free men, but she still refuses. That night, Daario convinces her otherwise, in part with the use of his exceptional glutes.

He also convinces her to give it another shot with her dragons, the remaining two of whom she locked away when they couldn't be controlled. "A dragon queen with no dragons?" he says. "That's not a queen."

Unfortunately, Rhaegal and Viserion are super pissed about being chained up in a crypt for however long it's been.

The Eyrie

Watching Robin Arryn attempt to fight and get his butt kicked is hilarious.

Somewhere Near the Eyrie

Brienne is down in the dumps about her failure to bring Arya back safe, and Podrick isn't helping her mood much. She's very close to seeing Sansa, too, who is being taken by Littlefinger to "a land so far from here that even Cersei Lannister can't get her hands on us."

Castle Black

Jon's training is interrupted by Melisandre, who tells him that Stannis wants to speak with him. She has a habit of staring at Jon creepily. "Are you a virgin?" she asks, somehow increasing in creepiness. "No," Jon responds. "Good," she says.

It seems that Stannis wants to recruit the Wildlings to fight for him and help take back Winterfell from Roose Bolton. Once they win, he'll offer them all land to live on and declare them citizens of the Realm.

Jon attempts to convince Mance to "bend the knee" and follow Stannis. Mance maintains, though, that the only reason the Wildlings follow him is that they respect him...once he bows to a southern king, that all goes away.

"This was my home for many years," Mance says to Stannis when the moment comes. "I wish you well in the wars to come." After a speech from Melisandre, he's burned at the stake...but before the flames can overtake him, Jon Snow storms off, grabs a bow, and shoots Mance through the heart, sparing him.

Side note: did you see that slight twitch of the eye that Ciaran Hinds gave when Jon tells him that he'll be burned alive as the method of execution? Incredible moment from a veteran actor.