Jaime is brutally awesome in this chapter. First he goes to see Brynden Blackfish Tully, who is unmoved by the threat to Edmure on the gallows and will not take Jaime's word for anything on account of the whole Kingslayer oath-breaking reputation. He knows his situation is desperate but is prepared to die rather than yield.
Jaime then calls a council of his men to decide the best way to attack the castle. There's an interesting idea about feigning an attack in order to put an arrow in Brynden but this is seen as dishonorable and an argument breaks out between Freys and another lord whose son is held hostage by Freys, and the whole thing is a bit of a shambles.
So Jaime outmaneuvers everyone. He takes Ilyn Payne to see Edmure on the gallows and we think he is going to chop off his head. But the drunken Ryman Frey comes to object. Jaime dismisses Ryman and releases Edmure. And he makes a clever bargain: I'll let you back into Riverrun where you outrank Brynden. Then you can yield the castle since he won't. This works because Edmure has so much to lose. He has a wife and a child on the way. He could live at Casterley Rock as a hostage in comfort and his child could become a squire and his immediate family will be well cared for. Or he could try to keep the castle but Jaime will ultimately win it at great cost and destroy everything Edmure lost. He has to make terrible threats because that way Edmure will have no choice but to acquiesce.
In any logical universe this ploy should work. But GRRM has a way of making surprises, so we will see.
By the way, at one point an un-named someone calls after Jaime as he makes his way through the Frey camp and he ignores it. I wonder if we will see events from that person's perspective in the next book.
