'Game of Thrones' Recap: Season 4 'The Lion and The Rose'

Finally, Joffrey, the person most deserving of death, found it at the end of “The Lion and The Rose. It will be this episode that marks the turning point in the series, where Game of Thrones becomes less about throne battles and more about the disparate lives of broken people. Now, without a true “bad guy” – or really a “good guy,” for that matter – where does the show go?

Joffrey sure did go out with a bang, though, with a wedding reception that got to show off the truly heinous person he is. Even after completely destroying Tyrion’s wedding gift, a history book, Joffrey felt the need to humiliate his uncle further. No, midgets reenacting the War of the Five Kings wasn’t enough. Neither was Joffrey’s suggestion that Tyrion join in the fake fight. But somewhere in between Joffrey pouring wine on Tyrion’s head and requiring Tyrion to pick up the goblet that Joffrey continually kicked away from him was where Joffrey finally reached full monster status. His “cutting” of the pie was the last terrible act of Joffrey’s horrible reign and yet, unfortunately, Joffrey gets the last laugh as Tyrion is apprehended and blamed for Joffrey’s death by poison as Sansa is quickly spirited away by Dontos, the knight turned fool.

However, “The Lion and The Rose” has decided to at least play Joffrey’s death as a bit of a mystery. Tyrion didn’t seem to have enough time to slip some poison in Joffrey’s wine so who did? The chalice was placed on the Tyrell side of the reception but there were no hints as to who actually dunit. And Joffrey certainly had a great many enemies at his wedding reception, from the docile Sansa to the outwardly threatening Oberyn. In the book there are certainly insinuations of who murdered Joffrey, but I won’t spoil you with those.

The wedding reception, however, also had some very choice non-death bits as well. First Jaime and Cersei threatened off the assumed love interests of their opposite with Jaime threatening Loras first and then Cersei quickly threatening Brienne. Cersei, apparently feeling high and mighty after telling off Brienne, then goes to Grand Maester Pycelle to tell him to insure the leftover food goes to the dogs instead of the poorest citizens of King’s Landing, like Margaery had wanted – otherwise she’d feed Pycelle to the dogs. Then Cersei runs into Oberyn but Oberyn will have none of it. After some sniping between the two, Oberyn reminds Cersei that the Martells are takings care of her daughter Myrcella and when Tywin intervenes Oberyn puts him in his place too.

Before I leave King’s Landing it is important to point out the other two events that now pale in comparison to Joffrey’s death. First is that Jaime is training with Bronn to become, at the very least, an adequate swordsman with his left hand. Tyrion arranges Bronn as the tutor and it shows a nice moment between the two brothers, which usually does not happen too often. The other event is Tyrion sending Shae off across the sea. The secret of Shae was out and Tyrion, after trying his best to fake angrily break up with her, tries to send her away for her safety. Luckily, it didn’t seem as though Tyrion received any repercussions about Shae, for whatever that is worth.

But not everything happens in King’s Landing. This week Game of Thrones reminded the viewers of what Bran, Stannis, and Theon were up to. Bran is now clearly north of The Wall and seems to be losing himself in his warg abilities. He, Hodor, Jojen and Meera are all hungry but forge onwards. Bran finds a weirwood, the supposed God Tree of northern religions, and Bran gets a message of where to go after touching it. Multiple images flew through his head, most were from past events, but an interesting flash of a dragon shadow on King’s Landing roofs and the Iron Throne abandoned with snow or soot falling on it and around it. Bran then declares he knows exactly where to go when the tree tells him to “find me in the north.” Bran’s story still remains largely a mystery and it looks like he’ll be on the road a while longer.

Meanwhile Stannis’s patience with Melisandre and the Lord of Light seems to be wearing thin. After a sacrifice to the Lord of Light of which both Melisandre and Stannis’s wife, Selyse, are complete believers of Stannis becomes a tad annoyed. Davos is still trying to reason with him but Stannis doesn’t have time for him either. Mostly, Stannis just seems upset that he is being forced to spin his wheels, despite receiving a message about the white walkers at the end of Season 3. As Stannis’s belief in the Lord of Light seems to be waning, Selyse gets Melisandre to talk to Stannis’s daughter, Shireen, to sort of sell her on the Lord of Light. Shireen, however, seems fairly skeptical as well. Whatever the case may be it doesn’t seem like Stannis is too happy with his current idleness and that, perhaps, Melisandre’s influence is beginning to wear thin.

Last, Ramsay Snow, Roose Bolton’s bastard son, is one crazy dude. In fact, it seems like the show wants the viewer to push all Joffrey hatred on to the equally sadistic Ramsay who was Theon’s torturer last season. After Ramsay, his maybe love interest, and Theon chase a girl through the woods, hunting her for seemingly no reason, Ramsay and Roose chat it up. Roose is none too pleased about Ramsay’s methods of torture as he was hoping to trade Theon to the Greyjoys for passage through Moat Cailin as Roose tries to conquer the North. And while he still sends Ramsay out to try and broker this trade, Roose also sees how much of a servant Theon has become to Ramsay while also learning that Theon never actually killed Bran and Rickon. Roose sends his right hand man, Vargo Hoat, to go hunt down Bran and Rickon.

But “The Lion and The Rose” will be remembered for Joffrey’s death. The King we all loved to hate has finally received his comeuppance, and while it feels just and well deserved it opens up a whole new question of where exactly the show will go. Now that all the would be kings have either been killed or defeated (aka Stannis) where does the show focus its main plot arc? Sure, Daenarys is still looming in the East but it certainly seems like every episode she is in the farther away from attacking Westeros she becomes. In any case, the King is dead. Long live…