So long, King Joffrey. You were one of the most vile, loathsome, sadistic villains ever seen on TV, and your death will be celebrated by pretty much everyone except Cersei (and maybe Margaery, who can not catch a break with husbands). Killing Joffrey was a great way for Game of Thrones to show off its narrative boldness. The Purple Wedding was like a photo negative of the Red Wedding; I imagine a lot of viewers uttering the same “Holy shit” that they uttered after “The Rains of Castamere,” but with their mouths twisted into grins instead of hanging to the floor. The only downside is that the blame for Joffrey’s death is laid right at Tyrion’s feet.
“The Lion and the Rose” opens with Ramsay hunting down a girl in the forest. He calls out to her, “If you make it out of the forest, you win!” But remember what happened when Theon “won” – Ramsay started flaying him anyway. Speaking of Theon (er, Reek), he’s there too, limping alongside Ramsay. This tells me that Ramsay must have, as he did in the book, removed a few of Reek’s toes. Ramsay gets a visit from his father, whose relationship with his bastard is the polar opposite of the way Ned Stark treated Jon Snow. Look at the differences between “You’re not a Bolton, you’re a Snow” and “You’re a Stark. You might not have my name, but you have my blood.” Roose Bolton tasks Ramsay with hunting down Bran and Rickon, and it looks like Locke is going with him. Hi, Locke! We missed you, you hand-chopping son of a bitch.
Bran is far away, spending time in Summer’s body. He finds a weirwood tree and presses his hand to it, and goes on a brief 2001 trip like Gandalf did in The Two Towers. I like Bran’s storyline a lot. It’s the most metaphysical aspect of GoT, and in lesser hands it would come off like freshman philosophy bullshit, but Isaac Hempstead-Wright is skilled enough to give it the narrative heft it deserves. Bran’s time with the Reeds searching for the three-eyed crow is more or less a standalone story, hardly interacting with the other goings-on of Westeros, but it’s a slow burn with a huge payoff.
No Arya or Daenerys tonight; instead we get another wedding, and in Westeros weddings are more dangerous than war. Joffrey is poisoned and dies, but Jack Gleeson gets a nice swan song, and by that I mean he’s a total dick. He makes fun of Robb Stark where he knows Sansa can hear him; he makes Tyrion his cupbearer after using a sword to slice in half the book that his uncle gifted him; he offers a reward to anyone who can strike off Ser Dontos’ helmet, leading the poor fool to be pelted with food. The list of people in King’s Landing who would want to kill Joffrey could double as a census. It’s cathartic to watch him die, but glee quickly turns to panic as Cersei blames Tyrion for poisoning him, and Tyrion is – wait, what’s the Dothraki word for “fucked”?
A Few Thoughts
– I like the relationship between Tyrion and Jaime. It was great to see them together on screen again
– The way Tyrion broke up with Shae was heartbreaking. He basically gave her the Harry and the Hendersons treatment, but look at the way Peter Dinklage’s mouth crinkled up around the word “whore,” a word he was so comfortable with back in season one. If this is the end of Shae, I like it better than her end in the books (no spoilers)
– Bronn is Jaime’s new swordfighting instructor! These two are great together. In the books, it’s Ilyn Payne whom Jaime turns to, but I think Bronn will be a better foil for him. Jerome Flynn is absolutely owning his role
– Kristian Nairn is great as Hodor. You might think he has the easiest job on the show, since his role consists of only saying one word. But did you know he’s come up with seventy different ways to say “Hodor”? That’s just as impressive, to me, as putting on makeup and an olde tyme accent
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