Lord and Lady Stark are together in bed, but this is a moping scene, not a sexing scene. Ned mopes about how he's a Northman and doesn't want to go down to the capital. Lady Stark wants to back him up: "I'll say, 'Listen, fat man. You are not taking my husband anywhere.'" That's probably not the best idea. A monk whose name turns out to be Meister Lune interrupts to report that there's a rider in the night, from "your sister." There's a black wax seal on it the letter, and it was sent from the Eyrie. Wherever that is. Cat reads it, then tosses it in the fire. At Ned's request, she summarizes her sister's news: "She's fled the capital. She says Jon Arryn was murdered. By the Lannisters. She says the King is in danger." Meister Lune says that only Lord Stark can protect the king if this is true. Lady Stark points out that the Lannisters killed the last Hand, and now they want Ned to be the new one? In her opinion, he owes the king nothing and reminds him, "Your father and brother rode south once, at a king's demand." That was, Ned says, "A different time. A different king." Ned thinks about it.

We now move the scene to someplace vaguely eastern. Oh, there are two people with vivid white hair, which establishes them as the Targaryens, so we're back at Pentos. This is the wedding? Or afterparty? Drogo and Daenerys are sitting regally as people bring gifts and set them before the wedding party. Somebody's brought a box of snakes! As a gift, I mean. He opens the box and waves the snakes around as if to say "See? Box of snakes, just like you asked for!" There are big piles of meat that may be gathering flies. The dancing is frenetic and bare-breasted. This is where some objections have been raised, since the swarthy savages are being made out to look, well, swarthy and savage. I'm withholding judgment until later in the season, but I wanted to point it out. If this sort of thing bothers you, then, yes, the dark-skinned people seem to be combining dancing and rape here. The brother is impatient about getting his throne, but his advisor assures him that Khal Drogo will keep his word. The rape-dance appears to be turning into actual rape (or at least, actual sex, because it's not clear if the female dancer is objecting), but the dancers are pulled apart by somebody. But he's just doing so he can get in on the rape-dancing. And that turns into a scimitar fight, and then there are entrails everywhere. Two men carry off a woman, and I think two women are carrying off a man. I'm not sure. The advisor says that Dothraki weddings are rated by how many disembowelments they have. And the gift-giving continues. Somebody brings Daenerys a book of stories. And then there's a trunk of dragon's eggs. They're from the shadowlands. We (and Daenerys) are told that the ages have turned them to stone, but they're still pretty. Well, sure.