Last week's episode of Game of Thrones left us with one of the worst cliffhangers since Bran Stark was pushed from the tower back in the premiere. King Robert is dead, his "son" Joffrey is on the throne, and Cersei has managed to climb her way to power in King's Landing. While Ned Stark knows that Cersei's children are not Robert's - but are actually the children of her brother Jamie - he was unable to prevent Joffrey from taking the throne. Now Ned has very few allies left in King's Landing, as one of them (Littlefinger) has turned on him to pursue greener pastures.
So what will happen on tonight's episode of Game of Thrones? The promo gives us some clues.
The Lannisters: The family has managed to secure control of the throne. Cersei has put her son on it and obviously wields a great deal of power now that Robert is gone and she is the mother of the present king. Tyrion will be seen again after being set free by Cat and her sister. Meanwhile, Cersei seems very determined to ensure that she gets her enemies and potential enemies firmly under her control, which leads us to...
The Starks: Things are not looking up for the Stark family. If you watched the promo then you know that Ned has been arrested and thrown into the dungeon. The question is whether he'll survive. Not only is he threatened, but so are Sansa and Ayra. Robb Stark, back in Winterfell, seems to be ordered to come to King's Landing to swear his allegiance to the new king. But Robb isn't prepared to take the present situation lying down. He will be gathering his father's allies and heading south for war against those who threaten his family.
Tonight's episode was written by George R.R. Martin, the author of the books that Game of Thrones is based on. After tonight, there will only be two more episodes left for season 1. But rest assured we'll be back in King's Landing again, because Game of Thrones has already been renewed for a second season.
Below is a sneak peek for tonight's episode. It's a short scene showing Tyrion and his champion traveling through the woods - presumably heading back home after escaping the clutches of the crazy Lysa Tully. I've also included the "Inside the Episode" featurette from HBO, which is a good summary of what happened in the last episode.
Don't miss an all new episode of Game of Thrones tonight on HBO!