‘Game of Thrones’ season 4, episode 3 reaction: Director on Jaime – Cersei scene

Usually, we are a staunch defender of TV series finding their own creativity … except when they do something that makes little sense at all. “Game of Thrones” did one of their most shocking twists to date in having Jaime literally rape his sister in front of their dead son Joffrey, and not only was it extremely unsettling to watch, but it made no sense at all. This scene was not played in such a way in the books, and this way it felt like the intentional attempt to turn Jaime evil again for no reason.

So since we are desperate for some sort of explanation or insight, we turn to the episode’s director Alex Graves. He also directed the Purple Wedding last season, and explains to The Hollywood Reporter that one of the motivations behind this act from Jaime, and doing it in front of a dead Joffrey, came out of the mere act of the kid’s creation in the first place:

“He is their first born. He is their sin. He is their lust, and their love – their everything. If he’s gone, what’s going to happen? Jaime is still trying to believe as hard as he possibly can that he’s in love with Cersei. He can’t admit that he is traumatized by his family and he’s been forced his whole life to be something he doesn’t want to be. What he is — but has to deny — is he is actually the good knight, like Brienne.”

Personally, what we wanted to hear is that Jaime did this out of an act of desperation, that he is struggling to cling to something and to get an old part of his old life back, with the glory that comes with it. He wants to assert a sense of power and authority that he no longer has over a woman who now thinks of him as a cripple. We cannot read the mind of a fictional character, but that is the only justification we can think of for this act … but we still don’t like it. As a matter of fact, it just about threw all of season 3’s character development in the garbage for Jaime and Brienne.

You can share your thoughts on this scene below, and to get a sense of what is coming up ahead on “Game of Thrones,” watch the preview at this link. Also, be sure to sign up for further TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: HBO