The Ghost of Harrenhal

As Renly and Catelyn negotiate an alliance, Melisandre's shadow creature kills Renly and disappears. Brienne, mistaken for the murderer, is forced to slay Renly's guards and escape with Catelyn. Brienne and Catelyn stop beside a river to discuss her return to Winterfell and Renly's death. Brienne swears allegiance to Catelyn, who promises not to interfere with Brienne's vengeance against Stannis.

Loras also blames Stannis, but Littlefinger and Margaery convince him to flee. Stannis arrives, and his dead brother's bannermen swear fealty to him. Following Davos' advice, Melisandre's blood magic is not used for the King's Landing assault; Stannis gives a reluctant Davos command of the fleet.

Despite Theon's lineage and title, his new ship's crew have little respect for him. Yara comes to make jokes at him. First mate Dagmer Cleftjaw explains Theon must win their respect. When Dagmer proposes assaulting the Northern town of Torrhen's Square, Theon realizes that will leave Winterfell poorly defended for a takeover.

Tyrion learns from Lancel that Cersei is stockpiling King Aerys's dangerously flammable "wildfire", and visits the royal pyromancer, Wisdom Hallyne, who reveals a massive cache of wildfire Joffrey intends to catapult at Stannis' forces. Bronn doubts the logistics and odds of Joffrey's idea, so Tyrion claims the cache for his own plan.

Tywin holds council to discuss Robb. Tywin deduces Arya is a Northerner, but remains unaware of her true identity. Jaqen H'ghar, disguised as a Lannister guardsman, offers Arya "three lives" in return for saving him and two others from their burning caravan cell. She designates "The Tickler", Harrenhal's cruel interrogator, as her first victim. He is found dead, and Jaqen signals to Arya that the first life debt has been paid, leaving Arya pleased.

Receiving news that Torrhen's Square is under attack, Bran urges Rodrik to raise defenders. He tells Osha of his dreams featuring a "three-eyed raven" but she deflects his inquiries.

The Night's Watch meet legendary ranger Qhorin Halfhand at the Fist of the First Men, an ancient fortification. Qhorin warns that the wildlings have become more organized and dangerous under former ranger Mance Rayder. Jon Snow volunteers to join Qhorin in eliminating a wildling watchpost.

Daenerys holds court at Qarth as her dragons grow. The warlock Pyat Pree invites Daenerys to visit the "House of the Undying", while the masked Quaithe warns Jorah of dangers facing Daenerys. Xaro asks to marry Daenerys in exchange for resources to take King's Landing. Jorah argues that Daenerys must win the Iron Throne on her own, and she eventually agrees.

"The Ghost of Harrenhal" is the fifth episode of the second season written by the two showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and the fifteenth in the whole series. The script is based on the chapters Daenerys II, Arya VII, Catelyn IV, Jon IV, Bran V, Catelyn V, and Jon V (28, 31, 34, 35, 36, 40, and 44) from George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings. Tyrion's scenes with the Pyromancers and Cersei are taken from the chapters Tyrion V and Tyrion VIII (21 and 37).^[1]

There are numerous divergences from the source material: in the books Lord Baelish is sent by the council to negotiate with the Tyrells only after Renly is dead; Theon's departure from Pyke is not shown, and Dagmer Cleftjaw is a scarred old master-at-arms who is fond of Theon because Cleftjaw trained him when Theon was a boy; Arya is a scullion instead of a cupbearer and is not able to interact with Lord Tywin; and the character of Xaro Xhoan Daxos has been drastically changed making him a black heterosexual of humble origins and giving him a vault that is never mentioned in the books.^[1]

The episode introduces the character of the pyromancer "Wisdom" Hallyne, played by the British actor Roy Dotrice. Dotrice is a personal friend of George R. R. Martin, since the two met while working on the 1980s hit TV series, Beauty and the Beast (Martin as a producer, and Dotrice playing "Father"). Years later, Dotrice was Martin's choice to read the audiobooks of A Song of Ice and Fire, a work that brought Dotrice a Guinness World Record for the largest number of characters voiced in an audiobook.^[2]

After the series was greenlighted, Martin wanted to involve Dotrice, suggesting Maester Aemon, Rodrik Cassel or Grand Maester Pycelle as possible roles.^[3] He was eventually cast as Pycelle,^[4] but he had to withdraw from the show for medical reasons and Julian Glover was cast to replace him.^[5] In the second season, with his health recovered, he was given the role of Hallyne.^[6]

Other characters introduced in the episode are the Night's Watch ranger Qhorin Halfhand, played by Simon Armstrong, and the mysterious Quaithe, played by the German actress Laura Pradelska. This is also the first episode in which Pyat Pree (briefly seen standing in Episode 4) has any lines.

The episode's interior shots were filmed at The Paint Hall studios, close to Belfast, where the main sets are located. Also in Northern Ireland were filmed the scenes at Harrenhal (in a set built near Banbridge) and Pyke (at the port of Ballintoy). Renly's camp was once again filmed on the country's northern coast.

After having filmed the Night's Watch storyline beyond the Wall in Northern Irish forests for the first four episodes of the season, the producers decided that the unexplored land further to the north would be filmed in Iceland. According to the creator George R. R. Martin's vision of the setting, "the area closest to my Wall is densely forested (...). And then as you get further and further north, it changes. You get into tundra and ice fields and it becomes more of an arctic environment. You have plains on one side and a very high range of mountains on the other." ^[7]

Co-Producer Chris Newman said that until then they had been able to reproduce the lands north of the Wall by adding artificial snow, but now they needed a bigger landscape. According to David Benioff, they always "wanted something shatteringly beautiful and barren and brutal for this part of Jon's journey, because he's in the true North now."

To represent the Frostfangs and The Fist of the First Men, the production filmed at the glacier at Snæfellsjökull, and also at the glacier of Svínafellsjökull in Smyrlabjörg and the hills of Höfðabrekkuheiði (near Vík).^[8]

The other main location introduced in the episode was the gardens of Qarth, which were filmed at the Benedictine monastery of the Croatian island of Lokrum. The abandoned monastery was built in Gothic-Renaissance style in the 15th century.

The island of Lokrum is only 680 metres offshore from Dubrovnik, the location used for King Landing's exteriors, and can be reached by boat in 15 minutes. Coincidentally, Lokrum shares with its fictional counterpart of Qarth having peacocks among its distinctive features: Lokrum is inhabited by families of peacocks that were introduced to the island in the 19th century by the Austrian archduke Maximilian.^[9]