Game
of Thrones
Season 4, Episode 2 “ The Lion and the Rose ”
Positives this week included... Joffrey's death, the Dreadfort's reveal, Tyrion and Jaime's scene, Bronn and Jaime's sparring, Dragonstone's first scenes of the year, Bran's vision, the Purple Wedding as a whole
Negatives this week included... Absolutely nothing!
We begin this episode with Ramsay Snow, a woman whom we suspect Ramsay is banging, and Theon... I mean Reek! They're hunting down a woman because... we don't really know why. Maybe it's just because Ramsay is a sick twisted little shit, who likes to hunt down innocent women? Yeah, probably that. Great introduction to the Bolton's, Reek and especially the Dreadfort. Loved the look of the whole castle, and the distance shots of it were magnificent. Theon is well and truly broken, and it's good to see. Well, not really! I'm just saying, I'd rather we not have to see another season of torture porn; we get it, Theon is dickless and it's not looking so bright for him! Just get to the portion where he's well and truly broken, and adheres to whatever Reek wants of him. Fortunately, that's what they've done, and it's kind of heartbreaking to watch. Sure, Theon has made his mistakes, but no one deserves this fate. Roose Bolton returns to the Dreadfort, with a fat woman named Walda, who is his wife. If you hadn't guessed already, this is a daughter of Walder Frey. Walder wished for Roose to marry in to the Frey family, and allowed him to choose his wife out of all of his daughters, telling him he could have that daughter's weight in gold. So what does Roose do? Pick the fattest one of course! Roose is angry at Ramsay for maiming Theon, as Theon is meant to be a bargaining tool; Balon Greyjoy is still alive in the show, and has had his men take Moat Cailin during season 2 I'd guess. By the way, sorry for that partial spoiler; Balon dies near the start of Storm of Swords, so he should be dead by now. Nonetheless, the Ironborn hold Moat Cailin, which is the key to the Neck, and Roose wanted Theon as a bargaining tool. His maiming may have reduced his value in the eyes of Balon, so Roose is angry at Ramsay. Roose also doesn't completely trust that Theon is broken, so Ramsay has Theon shave him; he basically gives Theon the opportunity to kill him, yet Theon continues with his task, leaving Ramsay unhurt, and clean shaven. It's again, a difficult scene to watch; seeing a man who we saw as driven and somewhat intelligent a few seasons ago, now shaving his captor and the man who took his dick off without complaint is quite confronting. Poor Theon!
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| Poor Ramsay, can't please his father! Taking it tough! |
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| Wow; looks like I'm a natural with my supposedly horrible left hand! |
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| Shireen just don't give a shit! |
Let's cross over to Bran, with his first scene of the season, and boy, is it a good one or what! We arrive in the North with him to see him looking through the eyes of Summer, his Direwolf. Bran is woken from his warging to eat, before the group, that being Bran, Hodor, Meera and Jojen, set out to continue North. That is until they come before a Heart Tree, like the one in Winterfell, and Bran lays his hand to it's trunk. Now remember, the Children of the Forest could apparently see all over the continent of Westeros thanks to these trees, as they all have eyes. By touching one, they could see what they all saw. Bran basically does this, and it's awesome. He sees visions of his father, of possibly Balerion the Dread, the three-eyed raven, and a voice that says North. Bran is shaken out of the vision, and tells his companions that the way they head is North. This tells us a few vital things, this vision does; first and most importantly being that the magic of the Children of the Forest does in fact exist, and would that mean that the Old Gods could very well exist?! Maybe the Old Gods are fucking with Melisandre, and pretending to be R'Hllor! Explains so much! Secondly, that dragon in the trailer is most certainly not Drogon, as a lot of the internet were stipulating, but in fact a dragon from the previous Targaryen ruling days. Thanks Bran, you have answered a lot of questions in your 5 minutes in the spotlight; much appreciated!
Back to the wedding. We see a lot of main characters that wouldn't normally associate with each other, associating with each other, and it makes for some really intense moments. Brienne has a scene with Cersei which turns ugly very quickly, Lancel and Jaime have a little jab at each other, and Oberyn verbally spars and threatens Tywin and Cersei, before engaging in a stare off! Again, Oberyn is a badass, as I mentioned last week. Kissing his paramour, who may I remind you is a bastard, at a Lord and Ladies event is a big deal, yet Oberyn doesn't seem to give near two shits about what others think. Total badass, as I've said before! Interestingly enough, a lot of what went down in the books is transferred near flawlessly, including a mock of dwarves that visibly infuriates Tyrion, the cutting of a pie that has doves stored away inside, and Tyrion's various jabs at Joffrey. All of this leaves my heart pumping quite rapidly; I was thinking they may leave him to live another day leading up to this episode, seeing as The Hound kind of should be dead after last episode's fight, but all the book accuracy made that case look far fetched. And, well, they did kill him. And it was fucking awesome! Watching the little shit die was brilliant, but also at the same time horrendous. I almost felt sorry for the little prick as he died, watching his face turn purple, and the piece of pie come hurtling back out his mouth. But then, he still did what I had been dreading most out of this episode; point to Tyrion as he died, accusing him of his death. Wow, your final action had to be that, didn't it Joffrey! Fuck you too! Dontos also stole away with Sansa, if you'll notice at the end of the episode, which is a major plot point that I feel quite a few people will have missed as it rushed by rather quickly. But still, that final shot will forever be remembered as one of the most satisfying moments in television history, period.
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| Yeah, it's beautiful, I know! |
We may have been missing Arya/The Hound, Jon Snow and Daenerys, but that didn't downgrade the episode in the slightest. With massive twists, brilliant performances, and some of the most memorable imagery and scenes from all of Game of Thrones, this episode is an utter masterpiece.
Junkie Score: 10
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