'Game of Thrones' recap: Death and Dorne

Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones.

A decade and a half before we got to Westeros, Rhaegar Targaryen gave a crown of flowers to Lyanna Stark at a tournament, and nothing was ever the same. The memory of Rhaegar and Lyanna was ever-present in the latest episode of Game of Thrones, as the living continue to attempt to wade through this new world.

And how people interpret the past can tell us about the people of the present, like Littlefinger remembering Rhaegar "choosing" Lyanna, Sansa remembering him kidnapping and raping her, and Barristan Selmy simply remembering a young prince who liked to sing, not to kill.

And it wasn't just the ghosts of Raeghar and Lyanna who haunted the episode, but also the ghosts of Ygritte and Oberyn and even the idea of death itself.

Even for a show with as much death as this one, the episode was especially obsessed with the concept, and even left us wondering if two of our favorite characters will be alive next week. We recap the biggest moments from "The Sons of the Harpy."

Two queens, one king

The battle between Margarey and Cersei for control of Tommen, control of King's Landing and simply control wages on, as Cersei responded to Margarey's playful manipulation from last week with a move that was a lot less than playful. The Queen Mother continued to cement her alliance with the High Sparrow and his followers, going so far as to officially militarize the faithful, allowing them to dispense "justice" to "sinners" as they see fit. First on that list (as Cersei so helpfully pointed out) is Loras Tyrell, whose sexuality has always been King's Landing's worst-kept-secret, and now has him locked in a cell.

Margarey is, understandably, a little upset that her brother has been arrested. In a rare moment, she shows her true self to Tommen, storming into his chambers angry, demanding that Loras be released.

Poor, simple Tommen has no idea any of this is happening of course, and is more than a little shocked to see his doting wife in this way. Margarey quickly shifts back into manipulation mode, cooing over Tommen and pushing him to confront his mother.

When the boy-king does, Cersei shows her own brand of manipulation, telling her son to go take care of it himself. And so Tommen tries to see the High Sparrow, but it quickly becomes abundantly clear that while he may not be a raging psychopath like Joffrey, he is no more effective at being a king. He and his guardsman cannot get passed the newly militarized faithful, and are in fact chased off by cries of "bastard" and "abomination," much to Margarey's disappointment.

You know nothing, Melisandre

There's only one redhead for Jon Snow, Melisandre, and you should take note of that. The Red Woman has expressed more than her fair share of interest in the new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, going so far in this episode as to attempt to seduce him (seriously, guys, no one in Westeros wears anything under their dresses — ever).

Melisandre underestimates both Jon's loyalty to the Watch and his continued loyalty to Ygritte, even after her death. After she tries to get him to come south with Stannis and then strips, Jon resolutely kicks her out of his office, but not before she says, "You know nothing, Jon Snow." A coincidence? Probably not (she does have helpful visions). It was definitely enough to rattle our favorite brooding Lord Commander. We're thinking the sooner Stannis and co. leave Castle Black, the better for Jon.

The Warden-ness of the North?

It didn't take very long to come out, but it seems there was a method to Littlefinger's madness regarding this whole Sansa/Ramsay marriage, after all. (Although, there's no good reason why he couldn't have told this to Sansa in the first place, except to keep the audience in the dark for an extra episode but whatever, I digress.)

The self-proclaimed gambler is betting that Stannis will attempt to drive the Boltons out of Winterfell in order to win the allegiance of the North, and will rescue Sansa from the flaying family in the process. He also thinks that, since she's the only living Stark (that the world knows about, anyway), Stannis will have no choice than to give her Winterfell in her own right, making her the "Warden-ness of the North."

Sansa is quick to point out that Stannis could very well lose this fight, ruining Petyr's entire plan, but he has a solution for that as well: She'll simply marry Ramsay and "make him hers," which he thinks will be pretty easy, because clearly this man doesn't know about the Reek formerly known as Theon. (It's also only slightly foreboding that this conversation takes place next to the grave of Lyanna Stark.) But whatever is going to happen at Winterfell, it looks like Littlefinger won't be around to see his plan in action, as he's been called back to King's Landing by Cersei. He heads out, but not before one last creepy kiss on the lips, because he is Littlefinger, after all.

A Dornish road trip

As Tyrion Lannister can tell you, there's nothing like a road trip with Bronn. He can always be counted on for good stories, a lot of cursing and the ability to protect whoever he's traveling with.

This all comes in handy when he and Jaime head for Dorne to "rescue" Myrcella, who appeared to be having a sunny time when we glanced a shot of her earlier this season, but may soon be in danger (see below).

Jaime and Bronn's scenes are mostly there to show that Jaime is not as hopeless as we thought in battle (that golden hand is actually kind of, well, handy!) and to spend some more time dwelling on death. The pair have an always-casual conversation about how they want to die (a subject that's pretty much cocktail party small talk in Westeros), and Jaime admits that he still loves Cersei when he says he wants to die in the arms of the woman he loves, although Bronn pointedly asks if she would feel the same way.

Speaking of Bronn, he may have one of the more mature perspectives on life in the wacky world of Westeros, when he admits that he wants to die at home, surrounded by his sons. Jaime thinks he would have picked something more exciting, but Bronn brushes it off, saying that's for the high lords. "I've had an exciting life, I want my death to be boring," he says.

Meet the Sand Snakes

At last! After several teases we finally get to see the bastard daughters of Oberyn "The Viper" Martell, aka the Sand Snakes (just an excellent nickname).

We meet Obara, Tyene and Nymeria, chilling in, where else, the sand. They're none-too-pleased about the death of their father, and they blame the Lannisters. They've been brought together by Ellaria Sand, who we saw a few episodes pleading the case for war to Oberyn's brother Doran, who was not into the idea.

Ellaria and the Sand Snakes are now planning on taking matters into their own hands, and by that I mean they're going after the only Lannister they can get their hands on: Poor little Myrcella. The captain who smuggled Jaime and Bronn into the country gave them up to the girls, but that wasn't enough to save him from Obara's vengeful spear (Obara, by the way, is played by the excellent and Oscar-nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes).

I expect nothing but continued awesomeness from these women. The race for Myrcella is officially on, and despite his newfound golden hand trick, I'm not betting on Jaime to reach the princess first.

Waste of a good kidnapping

Pro tip: If you're going to kidnap Tyrion Lannister, don't ever take off his gag. Jorah may have left his hands tied, but the second he let Tyrion speak, he gave up all his power in this kidnapping arrangement.

After Jorah admitted he was taking Tyrion to Queen Daenerys, not Queen Cersei, it didn't take long for Tyrion to guess who had him captive (and to helpfully recap Jorah's entire storyline since season one).

Mostly the dwarf finds being kidnapped and taken to the place he was actually going to on his own quite hilarious, but Jorah wasn't a fan of what Tyrion had to say about the woman he once swore to protect.

But I can't help but feel that Tyrion is right about Dany; I doubt that bringing Tyrion to her will win Jorah his favor or position back. But in the mean time, punching Tyrion is probably making him feel better, so that's something. Oh yeah, and speaking of a certain Mhysa…

Unsullied, undone

Oh Dany. Dany, Dany, Dany. Things are just not looking to good over in Meereen. The city is proving to be far more trouble than Khaleesi anticipated, as the Sons of the Harpy continue to kill her soldiers and the Meereenese faithful continue to ask her to put things back the way they were (that guy with the name we can't pronounce is just really into those fighting pits, isn't he?).

The latest attack from the the Harpy Boys (who are exactly like the Hardy Boys, only with more violence and more creepy masks) has left the fates of both Barristan Selmy (who we finally get to see for the legendary warrior he is) and Grey Worm uncertain. And while I am very concerned about the fates of two of Dany's most important allies, I also have many questions about the Sons of the Harpy. First of all, how much gold is lying around in Meereen that the Sons of the Harpy can all make their masks out of it?

And how are they able to easily take down the Unsullied, former warrior slaves who were raised their whole lives to be soldiers? But regardless of how the Sons were able to kill so many Unsullied, it remains that they are a huge threat to Dany's reign. Maybe it's a good thing a certain knight and dwarf on on their way to her.