While it is obvious and repeatedly stated that Catelyn freed Jaime "for her girls" and as a reaction to the news of Bran & Rickon's deaths, a subtle construction reveals that Catelyn was willing to risk her girls' lives to be comforted by their return to her. It was not motherly of Catelyn to try to rescue her girls by trading Jaime for them, it was childlike. She wanted them to be comforted by them, not to protect them. The pretext for her release of Jaime is that Catelyn