Recap: Season 4 Episode 2 of ‘Game of Thrones’ – The Lion and The Rose

This is a recap therefore there are ALL THE SPOILERS

Please note that I recap from the point of view of not having read most of the books.

The episode The Lion and the Rose opens with something that has sadly become a Game of Thrones staple – gratuitous violence against women to prove just how terrible a male character is. It’s not like they spent half of last season showing us just how terrible that character is you know, since we have been treated to him flaying and castrating someone.  Apparently that wasn’t enough. Now you have to watch as Ramsay and one of his ladies, Myranda hunt a girl with dogs and arrows. The scene was gross and gratuitous and ends with the girl being ripped apart by dogs off screen.  It could be argued that the scene serves to illustrate that Ramsay is not the only sick and twisted one in the Bolton household, but I am unconvinced.

Lord Bolton is similarly unimpressed with Ramsay’s sadistic tendencies and makes no bones about telling him so indicating that Theon was more valuable whole as a hostage. He puts Ramsay back in his place as a bastard reminding him that is name is Snow, not Bolton and that he has taken liberties he was not entitled to. However Lord Bolton sees things a little differently after Ramsay displays the unhesitating obedience of the thing called Reek that was formerly Theon Greyjoy by having him shave him – giving Reek ample opportunity to kill him, something Reek cannot do even when he finds out about the murder of Robb Stark.  Bolton is impressed with the information Ramsay has managed to glean from Reek and gives him the opportunity to redeem himself by riding out to capture a vital Northern base Mount Cailin. Also of note is the man who chopped of Jaime Lannister’s hand, Locke is quite chummy with Ramsay.

Speaking of said Lannister, Jaime is unsurprisingly having trouble adjusting to not being the warrior he once was. It is nice to see a depiction of a character dealing with a sudden disability in a realistic way. Too often all we see in pop culture is the unrelenting positivity and determination of the newly disabled to succeed so that they can be inspirations to all of us currently able bodied folk.  Depression is a normal reaction to suddenly having to figure out how to work with the body you have rather than the one you used to and it is really nice to see that on a mainstream television show. I also thought it was interesting how he says that he can fight with his left hand but that his instincts as a swordsman are all off with it, illustrating that rehabilitation is about more than just learning how to use the left hand in the way he used the right. .Jaime believes his reputation as Kingslayer puts him at risk in King’s Landing if he cannot defend himself the way he was once able to so Tyrion lends him Bronn to help him train to be as proficient with his left hand as he once was with his right.

Tyrion is only at the beginning of what will turn out to be a really really bad day. Varys “The Spider” informs him that Shae’s comings and goings from his rooms have been spotted and that Tywin has promised to behead the next whore he finds him with. Tyrion comes to the grim realisation that he can no longer protect Shae in King’s Landing. His speech to her ending their relationship, to convince her to get on the ship he has prepared  to take her to the safety of a comfortable life is a piece of masterful acting by Peter Dinklage. It captures his grim determination to ensure Shae thinks he is as vile as possible to ensure that she will leave while simultaneously being unable to hide the love for her that seeps out from behind his eyes. We never actually see Shae leave, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she turns up again although Bronn swears to Tyrion that she has definitely departed.

Today is the wedding of Joffrey to Margaery Tyrell and that means another strenuous social occasion for the more marginalised members of the Lannister household. Joffrey continues to needle Sansa wherever possible with references to the murder of her father and brother. The Pièce de résistance is a mock war of the seven kingdoms by a theatre troupe made up of little people that manages to insult not just Tyrion and Sansa but anyone who was ever fond of Renly Baratheon. Tyrion’s continued refusal to play ball goads Joffrey into ever increasing demonstrations of his superiority, the last of which is to force Tyrion to act as his cupbearer and bring him a glass of wine.  This is apparently a fatal mistake as not long after Joffrey expires, bleeding from the eyeballs and choking. It is quite a satisfying death for a character that has been rather one dimensionally vile. The culprit may not have been poisoned wine but the wedding pie which happened to have some dead doves in it. Or maybe it had something to do with the quest for the perfect necklace for the bride to be to wear. Such a juicy mystery! At the moment my money is on Lady Olenna, she is sufficiently crafty and well connected to pull of such a plot. The accusation that fell upon Tyrion also provided the opportunity to quietly spirit away Sansa.

Aside from the main event of the wedding there were some interesting side notes. Lady Olenna and Tywin Lannister have a conversation that brushes on a number of things 1) The Tyrells are very wealthy and 2) that the Kingdom is still in debt to the iron bank which is likely to come a calling soon. I cannot get enough of Lady Olenna; she is sharp, hilarious and always always gives as good as she gets.

Cersei Lannister, the woman who nearly had it all, what most woman in Westeros can apparently only dream of, real power over her own life and the lives of others, has watched it all slip from her fingers before it was even quite hers. Jaime is no longer the man she once loved although she will probably engineer the demise of any woman who goes near him. Her son who she hoped to influence turned out to be a socio-path and instead of marrying the biddable Sansa he will take the formidable Margaery Tyrell as his wife.  She is reduced to enforcing her will on Maester Pycelle to have the left-over food from the wedding fed to the dogs instead of the poor to assuage her growing fears regarding the loss of her position as Queen Regent. She and Oberyn Martell also engage in some extremely cutting banter that reminds us of the cultural differences between the Dorinish and the fact that her only daughter is in the keeping of the Dornish who luckily frown upon the rape and murder of innocents as much as they here in King’s Landing look down upon the low born.

Elsewhere it is revealed that Bran can move in out of his wolf, Summer’s consciousness at will and that he must go North. He has a vision that seems to imply that his powers are connected to the weirwood heart trees in the Godswoods.

Overall I thought the episode was excellent and I can’t wait to see the next one. One of my favourite things about GoT is theorising about who might make what moves next. At this point anything could happen. I expect the Tyrells will endeavour to secure their position and an alliance with the Martells seems like it could be an option. It has not escaped my attention that the show has killed off it’s most horrible character only to replace him with someone perhaps even more terrible in Ramsay Snow. I am also not very hopeful that Tyrion will survive the aftermath of Joffrey’s death as usually as the show giveth it taketh away.

Gaayathri Nair is currently living and writing in Auckland, New Zealand. You can find more of her work at her blog A Human Story and tweet her @A_Gaayathri.