The wine flowed red tonight on Game of Thrones season 4, episode 2! Check out our recap and share your thoughts on “The Lion and the Rose!”
Here’s what happened on Game of Thrones season 4, episode 2:
Thicker than water
Ramsay Snow and a young woman named Myranda use dogs to hunt a girl through the woods. Ramsay allows the dogs to rip the girl to pieces, because they earned it.
Roose Bolton arrives at the Dreadfort, and introduces his new Frey wife, Walda. Roose wants to see Ramsay’s “prize.” “I trained him!” Ramsay says happily, admitting that he flayed and mutilated Theon.
Roose is annoyed – he wanted to use Theon to trade the Ironborn for Moat Cailin. Now, Theon is… missing a few crucial bits. “You’re not a Bolton, you’re a Snow,” he reminds his bastard.
Annoyed, Ramsay reveals that Bran and Rickon Stark are still alive, devastaing Theon with the news that Robb is dead. Bolton orders Locke to hunt down Bran and Rickon. They believe they might find the boys with Jon Snow at the Wall.
“Take the moat for our family, and I’ll reconsider your position,” Roose says to Ramsay.
Warnings
On the way to Joffrey and Margaery’s celebratory breakfast, Varys tells Tyrion that Cersei knows about Shae. Tywin has threatened to hang the next whore he finds Tyrion with. At the breakfast, Tyrion watches as Cersei tells Tywin about Shae.
As a wedding gift, Tyrion gives Joffrey a huge, very rare book on the lives of four great kings. Joffrey thanks Tyrion graciously for the gift, shocking the on-screen and off-screen audience. But when Tywin gives Joffrey the other Valyrian sword, he hacks the book to pieces. He names the sword “Widow’s Wail.”
Broken
After breakfast, Shae meets Tyrion in his rooms. He says that their “friendship” must end, and that he has booked her passage on a ship to Pentos. There is a house waiting for her there. Tyrion insists he must do right by Sansa, but Shae insists that he is afraid, and that she is not.
Unfortunately, Shae is right.
“You’re a whore!” Tyrion spits at her. “I can’t be in love with a whore, I can’t have children with a whore.” Shae starts to weep as Bronn escorts her out the door, leaving Tyrion alone.
Burn, baby
On Dragonstone, Melisandre burns Queen Selyse’s brother and others in her nightfires to appease the Lord of Light. Selyse watches in rapture as the “infidels” sins (and bodies) are burned away. Davos tries to speak reason to Stannis, but he won’t listen.
Later, Melisandre goes to visit Stannis’s daughter Shireen at night. She tries to educate her in the religion of R’hllor, but Shireen – who is badly scarred by greyscale – is wary of the new teachings.
TreePS
Meera wakes Bran from a long wolfdream. He enjoyed the dream, where Summer feasted on meat, as the travelers have little food. Jojen tells him it is dangerous to stay too long in Summer – he’ll forget what it is to be human. “If we lose you,” Meera says, “We lose everything.”
Later, Bran is drawn to a weirwood tree carved with a strange face. He touches the tree and falls into a trance. He sees the three-eyed crow, his father, his own fall from the tower, and the shadows of dragons above King’s Landing.
“Look for me in the tree,” a voice echoes. “North.”
“I know where we have to go,” Bran says.
The wedding
Joffrey and Margaery are married in the great Sept of Baelor. “Cursed be he who would tear them asunder,” says the Septon. Joffrey drapes his cloak over Margaery, and kisses her as the crowd applauds.
The Queen of Thorns and Tywin discuss the prohibitive cost of the wedding as they leave the ceremony. “The Iron Bank will have its due,” says Olenna, though Tywin claims not to be worried about the bankers from Braavos.
At the wedding feast, Bronn assures Tyrion that Shae is off to Pentos. The Queen of Thorns gives Sansa her condolences about Robb and Catelyn. She fiddles with Sansa’s dress, and tsks about the bad manners of killing people at weddings.
Confrontations
Joffrey is bored and Margaery gives a speech, saying that Joffrey has decreed the meal’s leftovers go to the poorest of King’s Landing.
Loras Tyrell exchanges a sexified look with Oberyn Martell and then bumps into Jaime, who tells Loras that he will never marry Cersei. “And neither will you,” snaps Loras. Meanwhile, Cersei thanks Brienne for returning Jaime to King’s Landing. “I don’t serve your brother, your Grace,” says Brienne. “But you love him,” says Cersei, shocking poor Brienne.
Cersei moves in to spar with Maester Pycelle, and sends him to order the meal’s leftovers to the dogs, instead of the people. Because she’s awesome.
Tywin and Cersei run into Oberyn and Ellaria. Cersei is nasty to Ellaria for being a bastard. Oberyn says very pointedly that they are cool with bastards in Dorne, but not so much with rape and murder.
History in the making
Finally, Joffrey grows tired of the entertainment.
“A royal wedding is not an amusement,” he says. “A royal wedding is history – the time has come for us to contemplate our history.”
Joffrey has a troop of dwarves re-enact the War of the Five Kings, grinning maliciously at Tyrion. The dwarves spar. Renly’s dwarf is taken by another from behind, and Loras walks away in disgust.
“Pay each of them twenty gold when this is done,” says Tyrion. “I’m off to find another way to thank the king.” Sansa watches in mute horror as the dwarf-Joffery beheads and then gyrates against the wolf’s head worn by “Robb Stark.”
Joffrey almost rewards the dwarves, but challenges Tyrion to challenge “his” reign. Politely, Tyrion throws the challenge in his face. Joffrey walks over to Tyrion and dumps a cup of wine on his head. Tyrion tries to be diplomatic; Margaery calls Joffrey back, who orders Tyrion to be his cupbearer.
“Your Grace does me a great honor,” says Tyrion.
“It was not meant as an honor,” Joffrey says. He drops the goblet, kicking it under the table. Sansa picks it up and hands it to him. “Fill it,” Joffrey orders, and Tyrion silently does so.
“Kneel before your king,” Joffrey says. “Kneel.” When Tyrion remains standing, he yells, “I said, KNEEL!”
Delcious
“Look! The pie!” Margaery cries. Joffrey takes a sip, and cuts open the pie – filled with live and cooked pigeons – with his sword. Tyrion and Sansa try to leave as Joffrey eats his pie, but Joffrey orders them to stay. Tyrion brings the wine again.
Joffrey drinks, and starts to cough. He drinks more wine, and coughs again.
“He’s choking!” Margaery realizes.
Ser Dontos appears next to Sansa, ushering her away from the scene.
Jaime and Cersei run over to Joffery, who has collapsed, vomiting. Cersei cradles him in her lap as Joffrey goes purple, raising a clawed hand at Tyrion.
“He did this,” Cersei gasps, as Joffrey lies dead in the middle of his wedding. “He poisoned my son! TAKE HIM!”