Last year the Red Wedding sent the viewers of Game of Thrones into a frenzy, as
several beloved main characters were all hideously butchered in one of the most
infamous moments from the book series “A Song of Ice and Fire”. I had
deliberately not spoiled the Red Wedding for all of my friends who watch the
show, but haven’t read the books. Ever since that time I have avoided spoiling
the Purple Wedding, and now it has arrived – and the celebrations can begin!
But before we get to the major talking point (and it is a
major one) there are other plot details to explore first. There are no scenes
with either Jon Snow or Daenerys in this episode, but we do catch up with
Theon, Bran, Stannis and Melissandre before the festivities commence.
The episode begins with a reintroduction to Ramsay Snow,
indulging in one of his sadistic pursuits – game hunting, except with a human
quarry. Ramsay is in a playful mood at the start of his scene, with Iwan Rheon
looking and sounding like a demented Harry Enfield as he declares “If you make
it out of the woods, you win!” Aside from demonstrating Ramsay’s psychopathic
tendencies, the main purpose of this scene is to show how much of a broken man
Theon has become. He limps and staggers around, agreeing to everything that
Ramsay says, and allowing himself to be insulted and called by his ‘new name’
Reek.
Roose Bolton then arrives and is able to put Ramsay in his
place without ever needing to raise his voice (Michael McElhatton is doing a great
job). But Ramsay was able to show off his power over Theon – presenting his own
throat, along with a sharpened razor, and tormenting him with the news of Robb
Stark’s death. Theon/Reek is so beaten down by this stage he was unable to even
attempt to cut Ramsay’s throat. Theon also confessed that he didn’t really kill
Bran and Rickon, which set Roose Bolton to order a manhunt.
Tyrion and Jaime shared a scene together for the first time
since the first season (and really early on in the first season too – I think
it was episode 2) and Tyrion seemed a lot more like the Tyrion of old. Now that
Jaime is a crippled man, Tyrion has less to feel intimidated by – and he even
playfully lauds it over him. Jaime reveals in confidence that he can’t fight
anymore, and so Tyrion offers a discreet swordsman to help him train in secret.
In the books Jaime trains with Ilyn Payne, the King’s Justice, because Ilyn’s
tongue was removed, and so he is unable to tell anyone. However, due to Wilco
Johnson’s throat cancer, I can see why this change was made. Consequently we
now have a pairing of Jaime and Bronn – which is no bad thing.
Beyond the Wall, Bran has a really odd-looking dream; I can’t
help but think that this could have been made to look a little less… silly.
Especially the dead deer opening its mouth and saying “Hodor”. Things then
continue to get strange as Bran touches a heart tree and sees a trailer for Game of Thrones – or at least, that’s
what it looked like. It was nice to see a few glimpses of Ned Stark again (I
wonder if Sean Bean got any royalties).
There is also a scene on Dragonstone with Stannis continuing
to be sullen and distant. I really like the character of Stannis in the books –
even though he is a stern and humourless man – and I think that Steven Dillane
is playing the part well, but I can’t help feeling that the writers of the show
aren’t giving the character much credit. There is more to him than simply being
cold – he is a very intelligent man, who knows how to command and strategize,
but in the show he often comes across as ineffectual. There’s always time to
change this though.
Varys makes his first appearance this season – albeit a
brief one – warning Tyrion about the danger that Shae is in, especially now
that Cersei knows about her. This provokes Tyrion to take drastic measures and
have Shae smuggled out of the capital; for which he had to act as if he didn’t
care about her, that their relationship meant nothing to him.
But the bulk of the episode is given over to the wedding
ceremony – this episode was written by George R.R. Martin, a clear indication
that it will be a significant one. Tyrion presented Joffrey with a rare book as
a wedding present; in a rare moment of (surprisingly convincing) false
sincerity Joffrey pretended to be grateful, only to slice to book to pieces
with his new Valyrian steel sword: Widow’s Wail, and even threw in a reminder
about the fact that he ordered Ned Stark’s execution.
In amongst all the celebrations there were some enjoyable
exchanges, in particular between Lady Olenna and Tywin Lannister (a great
moment between Diana Rigg and Charles Dance), a tense hushed conversation
between Jaime and Loras Tyrell, and also a moment between Cersei and Brienne.
Oberyn got another moment to shine, standing up to Tywin and
Cersei at the same time (a rare feat) calling them both out for the fact that
his sister was raped and murdered by Lannister men. There are a lot of feuds
subtly building up once again – the War of Five Kings may be over, but the
killing is not.
The hatred for Joffrey took centre stage in the episode, and
many characters were given a motive to wish him harm. During the wedding
celebrations he was able to annoy, upset and antagonise a large number of the
guests, including Loras, Sansa and most specifically Tyrion. Joffrey seemed to
make it his priority to torment his uncle above all others, publically
humiliating him, laughing hysterically at the dwarf-led performance
representing The War of Five Kings, and then ordering Tyrion to join in, and pouring
wine over his head.
Finally, the episode came to a much anticipated climax as
Joffrey suddenly began to choke after drinking poisoned wine. The poison took
effect very swiftly causing his face to turn purple, and blood to pour from his
eyes and nose. There are many people who had a motive for wanting to kill
Joffrey (fans of the show included) but the man who has been accused is Tyrion,
as Joffrey’s final act was to point to figure of blame directly at him,
provoking Cersei to command the Kingsguard to seize him.
The tyrannical boy-king is dead: murdered at his own wedding
in front of hundreds of witnesses. This will certainly change the complexion of
the show going forward. There are plenty more big events still to come, but
this is a pretty major one – and one that a lot of people have been looking
forward to for a very long time.
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