Game of Thrones Discussion – Season 4, Episode 2: Till Death Do Us Part

Wow! So much to talk about! Finally, we got what we’ve been waiting for so long: the reappearance of our favorite contortionist, Pixie Le Knot! And some other stuff happened.

Plus: How Game of Thrones is like “Brokeback Mountain.” And was that really a reference to “The Ring”?

Have a slice of wedding pie — careful to pick out the bloody mangled dove wings! — and enjoy the perspective of three fans from very different perspectives: Laura Fletcher, a casual fan of the TV and book series; Corrin Bennett-Kill, a hardcore fan of the book and TV series (she has read all the books four times!); and Cheryl Collins, a TV show watcher who has never read the book series.

Please join the discussion in comments!

Cheryl Collins
So, obviously a huge episode.

Corrin Bennett-Kill
I started this episode with the song “ding dong, the witch is dead!” running through my head, and I ended the episode doing a little cheer dance on my couch. The little shit! I think this episode should have been called “comeuppance.”

Cheryl
There were no shortage of people who wanted Joffrey dead, of course, and he seemed to offend just about everyone at that wedding.

Laura Fletcher
As someone who knew what was coming and noticed that book author George R. R. Martin wrote this episode (as he has just a few others), I was thrilled with all the visual clues given in the wedding scene. We were certainly reminded of all the people who would want Joffrey dead and why, as he went into “Greatest Psychopath Hits” mode from the start.

Cheryl
Right! Let’s talk foreboding. Such as Olenna’s comment to Sansa: “Killing a man at a wedding … horrid. What sort of monster would do such a thing?” That was either prescient or arch. Another clue was the musicians churning out a doleful rendering of “The Rains of Castamere.”

Laura
Team Olenna. She’s such a badass scene-stealer. Relatedly, I loved the read-between-the-lines battle-of-barbs with Oberyn, Prince of Dorne and his mistress (excuse me, “paramour” gag) Ellaria Sand on one side, and Cersei and Tywin on the other.

Cheryl
I also noticed that while Joffrey and Margaery were being hitched, as the officiant (whatever he’s called) intones, “Cursed be he that dares to tear them asunder,” the shot focuses on Olenna, Loras, Pycelle, and Oberyn. Olenna seemed to have a look of concern throughout the whole wedding — there was no joy there. As book readers, do you feel that the wedding was given justice in this episode?

Corrin
The Tyrells have gone into the marriage with their eyes open from the start, Olenna and Margaery more than anyone else. They knew the devil they were hitching their wagons to and had hopes, I believe, of reining Joffrey in. Providing a balance to his madness. A softening effect, if you will.

Laura
I loved all the little reminders that Margaery was trying to rein him in throughout the feast. And it would only work for a second.

Corrin
I do like how the episode left it open as to the killer. I think everyone knows that it isn’t Tyrion. He is no fool and wouldn’t kill his nephew in such a blatant way.

Cheryl
Also interesting is that no one rushed to Joffrey’s aid as he choked.

Corrin
Everyone was content to watch him die … even his mother, to a certain extent.

Laura
Yeah, Cersei didn’t exactly clutch him to her breast. And Tyrion seems set up, for sure. I like how they did that. Tyrion wouldn’t yell, “I didn’t do it!” but his face said it all. And he surely wouldn’t rush to the little shit’s side.

Corrin
The Lannisters would never excise one of their own from power, rather they would try to control him. But they all knew what a monster he was.

Cheryl
Why is it called the Purple Wedding? I noticed that both Tyrion and Sansa were wearing purple — and that Sansa was wearing Ser Dontos’s necklace.

Laura
wiggles eyebrows at Cheryl Indeed she was. I thought it was called that because purple is a royal color? It’s a fan term, not an official one.

Corrin
The tears of Lys, the poison that killed Joffrey, makes the victim’s throat close up and their face turn a deep shade of purple! The tears of Lys are purple and gemlike in appearance, almost like amethysts. It’s also what killed Stannis’s maester when he tried to poison Melisandre.

Cheryl
And isn’t that the same stuff that they think killed Jon Arryn, the Hand before Ned, whose use Ned said shows a “woman’s hand”? And didn’t he think that perhaps it came from Grand Maester Pycelle? Maybe that’s why they showed Cersei dissing Pycelle — to show that they are not on great terms, and she would not have gotten poison from him. Master Qybrun, on the other hand …

A few other things of note happened, one of which is Cersei is still going around telling people she is queen. She can’t stand being pushed aside.

Laura
Her little dig at Margaery’s donation of the leftovers put THAT in stark relief!

Corrin
She’s a Lannister. They don’t give up power readily.

Cheryl
Yes, Cersei smiled at and praised Margaery while undermining her in the next breath, giving the food away to the dogs instead of the city’s poor.

Corrin
What did you think about the two asides, with the Lannister twins jealously guarding their territory: each other. First, Cersei confronts Brienne about her feelings for Jaime. Then, Jaime confronts Ser Loras about the possibility of his marriage to Cersei.

Cheryl
Cersei, clearly jealous, asked Brienne if she loved him. Brienne’s look was powerful: as if she never realized until that moment that she was in love with him, and she looked horrified by that realization.

Corrin
It seemed to me that, even as Cersei and Jaime are realizing they don’t want each other, they don’t want anyone else to have them, either.

Laura
My thoughts exactly.

Cheryl
Right. The two still can’t change the dynamic between them, which will be the only thing that helps them grow. This made me think of “Brokeback Mountain,” in that the two main characters are in a holding pattern in their lives, never able to evolve and grow as they are stuck in a hidden and shame-filled relationship.

Corrin
(I wish I knew how to quit you!)

Laura
What’s sad to me is that Jaime and Brienne might actually be happy together, at least in some alternate universe, whereas Cersei and Loras would clearly never work out.

Cheryl
And that scene between Loras and Jaime was staged at the mouth of the mockup lion — as though they were both stuck in the mouth of the family. (Maybe reading too much into that.)

Laura
Speaking of Jaime, that little training scene with Bronn was kind of touching, yeah?

Corrin
Wasn’t it? I was so glad we got to finally see the relationship between Tyrion and Jaime. They are the only two of that whole fam damily that actually love each other for who they are. It’s brotherly love at its finest.

Laura
Exactly. Of all the Lannisters, those two are the only two that actually help each other out.

Tyrion sending Shae away! So freaking sad.

Cheryl
What I did not get about that is why he didn’t just say “your life really is in danger now”? Why did he have to lie?

Laura
Well, he’d said earlier that he’d told her she’s in danger before and she never believed him.

Cheryl
I guess, but this time he knew that the queen had been informed. I wonder if this is the last we’ll see of Shae, and if she really did get on that ship …

Corrin
It reminded me of the first season when Arya had to make her dire wolf, Nymeria, go away for fear Joffrey would have her killed — which he did to Lady, Sansa’s dire wolf. Arya had to throw rocks at her and yell and scream so she would stay away for her own good. Shae just would not listen to Tyrion’s warnings. She refused to take it seriously. And since he actually DOES love Shae, he would rather know she was safe and hating him than dead.

Laura
Poor Shae really thought Tyrion had enough power to protect her. She had faith in him and couldn’t see how vulnerable she (and he) both were at all times.

Corrin
I have to reiterate how well the writers have done fleshing the Shae character out. She is pretty two dimensional in the books. Basically a place holder for the girl Tyrion loved and lost as a young man. The writers have made her an interesting and dynamic character, and the actress who plays her has given her true life. I care about her now in a way I never did in the books.

Laura
Seconded!

Cheryl
I agree in that the actress has really grown in this role, especially as her English language skills got better.

Laura
Despite all the “sexposition” and the torture scenes that we never really got in the books but that we get in the show in droves, the ways we get to know some of the female characters is far superior. I include Shae, Cersei, and Sansa in this club.

Cheryl
Shall we go back to the episode’s start … with that playful frolic in the woods?

Corrin
That’s a great segue to the bastard of Bolton. We don’t get very deep into Ramsay’s point of view in the books. He is always seen from Theon’s perspective. So we are getting more revelations as to his character (grotesque though it is), and his motivations for doing what he’s doing beyond the sadistic pleasure of it. Same for the dynamic between Ramsay and his father, Roose.

Laura
One thing on the Boltons: You know if Roose Bolton, who stabbed Robb at his wedding, thinks you’re kind of a sicko … that you’re a total sicko.

Cheryl
Also, what about after that scene with Theon and the Boltons, it was CUT TO a sausage being served Tyrion. Awful and hilarious.

Laura
Oh! I noticed that too and yelled at the TV!

Cheryl
Also, there were a couple of extreme close-ups of Theon’s face that made me wonder if he was as compliant as the Bastard seemed to believe.

Corrin
It makes Ramsay’s cruelty all the more awful that he KNOWS Theon is still in there. KNOWS how much it will hurt him to know Robb is dead. And deliberately waits until Theon has the opportunity to kill him to reveal that information. The depths of his depravity and his desire to hurt is sickening. It was also one of the first moments that my feelings toward Theon changed from pity to real compassion.

Cheryl
It seems that the Bastard is heading north to track down Bran and Rickon, along with his fellow sadist Locke. Hopefully, we’ll find out the fate of Rickon in the next episode. So Bran and his merry crew are starving in the north, and Bran has a very trippy vision at the base of that tree. Some of the imagery was hard to decipher.

Laura
Just as Bran’s buddies were amazed last season when he took over Hodor’s body (skinchanger!), I think they were blown away by the tree-whispering. And that voice: “Look for me beneath the tree.” Creepy.

Cheryl
And then “North.”

Corrin
This is where the translation from book to television gets tough. So much of Bran’s story line happens in his head: his visions, his experiences in Summer’s skin. Even having read all the books, the significance of Bran, his quest for the three-eyed crow, and what greater role they have with the fate of Westeros and the White Walkers is unclear. We know he’s important. Crucial even. But in what way, who knows. It makes his quest difficult to care deeply about.
Laura
And yeah, just because you read the books doesn’t mean you know what the eff is going on! (At least in the case of Bran.) Cheryl, what did you think?

Cheryl
I actually stop-started his vision to catch all the images, and besides that glimpse of his father, there was one weird shot of what looked like a mask of a face encased in ice, and of course, the shadow of a dragon flying over King’s Landing, which the show immediately cut to, to the wedding. It was as though somehow Bran’s visions bound up the fate of the Targaryens and Joffrey’s wedding all in one karmic package. As if it was all one cycle that was being completed, if that makes sense.

Laura
Right. Makes it all interrelated.

Cheryl
One last thing. There was a shot of the back of a small girl in the woods — which seemed hilariously like it came straight from “The Ring.”

Laura
Speaking of people I keep trying to care about, is Stannis and the events on Dragonstone.

Cheryl
What an uncomfortable scene: Stannis sharing a meal with his wife and his lover.

Corrin
I am glad that we are seeing a bit more of Stannis’ wife, Selyse, and his daughter. Stannis has received short shrift, character-development-wise, in my opinion. He’s come across as cold and closed off (which he is), instead of cold, closed off, and with deep feelings about himself and his family. Being reminded of the siege of Dragonstone and their current deprivations after the loss at Blackwater by Selyse seems to draw the veil of melancholy ever more deeply across him.

Cheryl
I noticed in the extreme close-up of Melisandre and her apparently almost sexual pleasure as the bodies were consumed in the fiery sacrifice.
It does seem like Stannis is trying to do the right thing by everyone, and not really pleasing anyone, in that cold, grey, sunless life he is living.

Cheryl
Oh, and did you notice the appearance of our favorite contortionist, Pixie Le Knot?

Corrin
Yes! With Oberyn and Ellaria Sand, and that awkward little moment with Tyrion! That was delightful!

Laura
And just as Ellaria gazed at the contortionist with, um, “admiration” let’s say, I loved that little moment where Oberyn caught Loras’s eye across the wedding banquet. Saucy!

Join the discussion in comments. But no spoilers, please!