‘Game of Thrones’ season 4, episode 4 review: White Walkers, Margaery and Tommen, and ‘Oathkeeper’
Sunday night’s “Game of Thrones” once again covered a great deal of ground, whether it be Beyond the Wall, the city of Meereen, or life in King’s Landing. Jon Snow became more of a leader than ever before, and Jaime tried to make us forget about that awful thing that he did last week to Cersei.
As with most of our “Game of Thrones” reviews, we’re going to take a look at this story via location, just to give you the right sort of insight into what is really going on here. One thing that is worth noting for all of you book fans is that there were many deviations in here. Luckily, we didn’t hate them nearly as much as we hated the one that took place with Jaime last week.
King’s Landing – First of all, let’s dive back into the investigation to find Joffrey’s true killer. Jaime was finally convinced for sure that Tyrion was not the guilty party when it comes to killing the former king. Meanwhile, Olenna clearly is at the top of the suspect list now after her little chat with Margaery, and Littlefinger is very much involved (though perhaps not as much as he wanted Sansa to believe).
When Margaery went to visit Tommen in his room, you could see in his face that it was pretty much the best moment of his entire life. Margaery proved yet again to be brilliant, and plus, he seems to be a much less awful alternative to Joffrey … even though there is the problem of him being a child.
One of the other great highlights of our favorite part of the show was the sad separation of Jaime and Brienne. He sent her on the mission to find Sansa and get her somewhere safe, fulfilling his promise he made to Catelyn. “Oathkeeper” tied into the name that she gave for her sword, which was originally the one crafted for Joffrey for his wedding.
The Night’s Watch – A ton happened out here this week, and most of it was interesting … save for some of the Jon Snow parts. There are factions, and the opposition in Karl is one nasty man. He has Bran, Hodor, and the Reeds now, and that is certainly bad news for them. (Poor, poor Hodor. Don’t kill him!)
The bigger thing visually we got to see in here was that the White Walkers still mean business with their rituals and their baby-stealing. A very fantastic end to this episode didn’t really provide many answers, but it was a nice little reminder that these people are still out there causing problems.
Danaerys – Meanwhile, Dany decided that she was going to be a fearsome ruler rather than one who was completely merciful. While she did free the slaves of Meereen, she also decided to kill all of the owners in as gruesome a manner as possible. A rough scene, but there were many rough ones throughout the episode (including more rape, sadly).
In the end, we wish that there was more that happened through this episode … or at least more from King’s Landing. The best here is still yet to come, and that still makes us very much excited. Grade: B+.
What did you think about this “Game of Thrones” episode? Share your thoughts below, and also click here if you want to read more news (including a preview of the next new episode). You can also sign up for more updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: HBO