Kimberly Roots
Curated From tvline.com Check Them Out For More Content.
Traditionally, 10th anniversaries call for gifts of tin or aluminum. That’s fitting for the Game of Thrones‘ episode that turns 10 today, given how many characters were run through with sharp pieces of metal during the hour.
June 2 marks a decade since Season 3, Episode 9 — known among fans as “The Red Wedding” — first aired on HBO. The epic drama’s first season had established it as an unflinching adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, where major characters might meet violent ends with very little warning. Still, “The Rains of Castamere” shocked those unfamiliar with Martin’s novels when it depicted the brutal deaths of Catelyn and Robb Stark, as well as Robb’s new wife, Talisa, and all of the Stark-friendly men in the room.
“Your grace, I feel I’ve been remiss in my duties,” Walder Frey tells Robb, right before the frenzy begins. “I haven’t shown you the hospitality you deserve. My king was married, and I owe my new queen a wedding gift.” Cue the carnage!
TVLine wrote about the episode back in 2013 (read the recap in full here), but we thought we’d take a bloody stroll down memory lane by revisiting the events of Edmure Tully and Rosin Frey’s nuptials. Scroll down for the highlights.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Everything seems great as the band (featuring Coldplay drummer Will Champion) starts playing at the wedding feast. Maybe, as Walder Frey said earlier, squashing the beef between the Starks and his family really will be as easy as “The wine will flow red, the music will play loud and we’ll put this mess behind us.”
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Up at the head table, Edmure and his new bride certainly look like they’re getting along well.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot And out in the crowd, Catelyn, Brynden “The Blackfish” Tully and Roose Bolton seem to be enjoying themselves.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot In retrospect, Bolton’s telling the serving maid not to fill his glass seems all the more sinister. “Don’t you drink, Lord Bolton?” Catelyn wonders. “Never do, m’lady,” he answers genially. “Dulls the senses.”
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot “A sword needs a sheath, and a wedding needs a bedding,” Walder Frey announces, and just like that, Edmure and Roslin are carted off to make things official. (One of them is much more enthusiastic about it than the other.)
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Then we get a few lovely moments before things go south. First, Catelyn lets Roose know that Ned outlawed the bedding ceremony at their wedding. We love a man ahead of his time!
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Then, Talisa — whom we learn is pregnant — tells Robb that if their child is a boy, she wants to him Eddard, after Robb’s father. He’s clearly touched. Aw.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Hope you liked the happy part of the evening, because it’s over. In quick succession, the doors are closed, the band starts playing “The Rains of Castamere…”
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot … Frey says he has a gift for the king, right as Catelyn notices that Roose is wearing chainmail under his clothing…
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot … and the carnage begins. A man approaches Talisa and repeatedly stabs her in the belly.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Then Robb takes a few arrows to the chest before he can even figure out what’s going on.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Meanwhile, outside, Arya arrives with The Hound and realizes that something is very wrong…
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot … especially as she witnesses Robb’s direwolf, Grey Wind, die at the hand of Frey’s men. Poor pup.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot And then, just as Arya is going to try to push her way inside to help her family, The Hound knocks her over the head and carries her away to safety.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot Back inside, a badly injured Robb crawls toward his dying wife while the violence slows down around him… because pretty much every other Stark or Stark-friendly person is dead.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot A desperate (and injured herself) Catelyn grabs Frey’s young wife/daughter/ewww and holds her knife to the girl’s neck as she begs Walder to let Robb go, “or I will cut your wife’s throat!” He shrugs. “I’ll find another,” he says, unbothered.
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot That’s when Bolton steps up close to Robb and delivers the killing blow, saying, “The Lannisters send their regards.”
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot A despondent Catelyn screams in horror, slits Frey’s wife’s throat…
Image Credit: HBO Screen Shot … and then puts up no fight whatsoever as another of Frey’s men cuts her throat. Annnnnd bloody scene!
