Game of Thrones: "The Lion and the Rose"

Spoilers Below:

So let’s get the obvious joke out of the way: it might not be such a good idea to attend a wedding in Westeros.  

There’s a reason for weddings being instances of seismic shifts in the world of Game of Thrones. Even if the shocking twist at the end of “The Lion and the Rose” hadn’t left Joffrey Baratheon First of His Name dead, presumably by poison, and Tyrion a soon-to-be-prisoner as suspect number one, the wedding would have created a new era for the Seven Kingdoms. Though Tywin has largely sured up power, last episode reminded us of the fault-lines in the Lannister power: Tywin can barely get his own house in order, Jaimie is a scarcely able to function as a soldier, Tyrion is stuck in a thankless marriage, and Cersei is a high-strung spring ready to snap (as she does at the end of tonight’s episode). 

Marriages are a microcosm of this world. They are carefully planned social contracts that help create and sustain power. They’re displays of pageantry and pomp that reinforce power and authority. They’re symbolic acts weighted with social and political expectations. Most importantly, they’re events where people’s public and private lives collide. We see this in all the small interactions where people dance around essentially how much they kind of don’t like and are hoping to use one another. 

The marriage between Margaery and Joffery was intended to be a moment in which Tywin took control of the cracks in the Lannister narrative and sealed them up. Its symbolism would have spoken volumes. How many could match the combined power of the Tyrells and the Lannister? With most other contenders for the Iron Throne non-existent or licking their wounds, the Lannisters should have had it all. Yet in the world of Game of Throne being too certain in your power is the quickest way to craft your own demise.  

The centerpiece of the episode is the Joffrey-Margaery wedding, and it is easily the best part of the episode. Even before we get to Joffrey’s demise, the sequence is great. The show has become much more confident in telling its story. The wedding sequence goes on forever in terms of this series (Just like last week's episode let the Arya scene go on a little long and have time to breathe and was also all the better for it). In this time, not especially much happens. But Alex Graves' direction and George R.R. Martin’s script capture with equal parts humor and pathos the many little power dynamics at play right now in King's Landing. Perhaps best of all is how this feels like the characters got really, really drunk and started saying exactly what’s on their mind. 

It reminded me of the wedding ceremony between Tyrion and Sansa last season in “Second Sons”, which took its sweet time and simply took time out to observe where different characters currently stood with a healthy dose of wine to help move things along. In both episodes, Tyrion gets super drunk and starts getting himself into trouble. Then it was with Tywin (who just wanted to see Tyrion stop making a fuss and get Sansa pregnant to ensure the Lannister hold of the North) and now it’s with Joffrey. 

Even before the triumphant and terrifying final moments, Graves and Martin amp up the tension by focusing in on Joffrey trying to take advantage of Tyrion. Tyrion, more than a little soused, responds as he does to most things in life by tossing back a witty jape, one that goes way, way too far. Everyone in the crowd waits with bated breath for this to completely blowup and end badly. 

I love how the series has fleshed out a pretty deep cast to draw upon. Outside of Kings Landing we could use a few more recognizable supporting faces, but here there are so many familiar faces to simply train the camera on, and observe how they react to something that’s minor (by modern standards), but that is explosive in this world of hierarchies, aristocratic manners and relationships, and power politics present in Game of Thrones. 

One of the criticisms Game of Thrones has received is that it is such a plot heavy series that it often fails in other areas of storytelling. And while the larger narrative often comes first and often at the expense of other aspects of the show, I’d counter that this criticism often does a disservice to what the series does well.

There’s no question that Game of Thrones is a plot heavy show, but what underpins the plot is far more nuanced. Joffrey dying has shock value, but it comes from an apparent character arc. This was not just a despicable person but a volatile one, and a person who was simply a bad king. In the parlance of this show, Joffrey played the game of thrones poorly. 

Put another way, this series has a psychological realism that supports it. Joffrey getting poisoned is exciting because we know him and what made him who he was, and in the hands of the excellent Jack Gleeson (who will be greatly missed) he always came off as never anything less than human. A monstrous one for sure, but one who felt real and who felt like a product of his society and upbringing, not merely a character for us to easily and conveniently despise. 

Beyond the psychological foundation, which is always so specific and well-observed, the series often comes off somewhat like a period piece. Recently I read of critics who enjoyed watching Game of Thrones more than Mad Men because the former is simply more “fun”. But Mad Men has a lot in common with Game of Thrones. Both are obsessed with power and power dynamics, both create inviting but also frequently disturbing worlds, both are highly interested in gender politics, and both vicariously allow us to enjoy, root for and often feel awful about a world set in the past but that too often resembles our own.

Strip away the dragons and the magic and some of the geographical specifics and Game of Thrones looks a lot like medieval Europe (not entirely surprising as the books are partly inspired by the War of the Roses). Mad Men puts us inside the headspace of its characters and forces us to wallow in how miserable or bored or lost they feel. Game of Thrones, instead, observes characters by way of plot. Hence why it’s supposedly more fun (that and it has far more swordfights and deaths – though both are death obsessed). 

Note the scene where a group of hired dwarfs re-enact the War of the Five Kings, and how the scene eventually stops being concerned with the specifics of what the fight means but rather how the characters are responding to it. Notably the scene lingers on Sansa who has become a walking ghost; she’s so withdrawn from the world that almost none of this registers a reaction. It acts as a reminder of her awful marriage. The show doesn’t need to do a lot of repetitious dialogue to get the point across. A few well-timed reactions from, say, Natalie Dormer as Margaery (“Look, the pie is here!”) help to convey what’s not being said here.

So, yes, it’s a plot-heavy show but its plot relies so much upon our sympathies and regards for the characters for this to work. Not only this but the series thrives by turning the miseries and shortcomings of its characters into what propels our entertainment (which really should make us more often a little sick but too often thrills us). Yes, Joffrey was awful, but he was a human being, and that is a feat plot on its own simply can't pull off. 

Elsewhere “The Lion and the Rose” was all over the place in terms of quality. I’m not sure what voodoo stuff is going on with Bran but it does feel as though the writers don’t exactly have the clearest idea where his story is headed (Though his trippy dream was pretty stunningly shot). Meanwhile, Theon’s transformation into "Reek", a person helpless to do anything but obey the command of Ramsay Bolton, doesn’t feel fully realized. However, the Dreadfort scenes, at least, provided us with the first interaction between Roose and Ramsay Bolton. Ramsay like all too many characters on this show has some daddy issues and is trying so desperately to please someone who will likely never be pleased with his child. 

Then there were the scenes on the Dragonstone, which served to remind us of Stannis. I don’t think it’s insignificant that one of the contenders for the throne appeared in an episode where the current king met his death. These scenes don’t just remind us that Stannis is a small but notable threat, but that his house is hardly in order. His supporters still haven’t entirely been won over by Melisandre and her new god. Meanwhile, his wife is slightly crazy and his daughter is scared and confused, and this isn’t helped by the fact that Melisandre is sent to assuage her worries. 

Last week’s episode felt fuller, but with a setpiece as exquisite and wonderful as the wedding, any shortcomings were largely easy to dismiss. 

Stray Thoughts:

-Another instance of great world building involves the deployment of Bronn, who here becomes Jaimie’s secret sparring partner as Jaimie tries to train his left hand in swordfighting. (For those who’ve read the books: I kind of like this change). 

-I’m not sure we needed that opening involving Ramsay viciously hunting a helpless woman. We get it: Ramsay is a sadistic, insane bastard.

-On the advice of the always practical Varys, Tyrion finally goes through with getting rid of Shae, and, as was to be expected, it ends very badly. Tyrion is forced to stoop to yelling that she's a "whore", and it was as painful in its own way as the later cup-bearing scene. It's an understatement to note that this was a really lousy episode for Tyrion.

-Ser Dontos informs Sansa that the chaos of Joffrey's death is a convenient opportunity to high-tail it out of King's Landing.

-This episode’s title is reminiscent of the great season one episode “The Wolf and the Lion”. That episode was the first to really have those “Game of Thrones moments” where the series pulls off something audacious and thrilling and it leaves you kind of breathless. We get that here too. Both are also about the reigning titular houses facing irreconcilable differences and, at times, coming to blows, and both are series' turning points that had large consequences for the future of the season (Well, presumably, but I have few doubts that this episode will get the major stories of the season rolling).

-I would have been fine with the episode just being the wedding. The episode is very slow and shapeless prior to the sequence, but it found its footing once it got there. I understand why it is difficult to have an episode that focuses only on one of the many, many stories as there’s simply too much plot to feasibly get through otherwise, but it’s odd watching something so well-integrated as last week’s episode, which oddly enough had far more plot, and then see this episode where the earlier non-wedding stuff often came off like an afterthought. 

-The strays could be made up entirely of moments from the wedding but I’ve already written a ton. Cersei and Pycelle. Jaimie and Loras. Olenna and Tywin. Oberyn and the Lannisters. Lots of people making clever, underhanded snipes at one another. 

Grade: B+