What I’m Watching: Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 4 “Oathkeeper” (B+)

After an episode that changed the perception of characters, we’re back to the old recent way of things, with Jaime being framed as a good guy trying to help his brother out while his evil sister wants to do everything in her power to behead him. It was good to see Jaime interacting with Brienne again, and to see him actually be a friend to Tyrion. As Petyr filled Sansa in on a few details about the murder plot, we got the juiciest one, which is that Olenna was behind it all. Telling her granddaughter that she never would have let her marry Joffrey before encouraging Margaery to seduce Tommen was fantastic, and she lived up to expectations, wowing the sheepish and quiet younger sibling of the late tyrant. It does seem possible that she could control him, much to Cersei’s certain chagrin. There was more violence than usual in this episode, and that’s saying something, but maybe it’s because of its sources and victims. Daenerys has unleashed her dragons before, but crucifying slavemasters is a brutal punishment, even if their crime justifies it. Bran found himself in an unfortunate bit of danger, and while admitting whose child you are is never a good idea – see “Lost” for a convincing argument – he did manage to save his life for the moment, and hopefully Jon and the other good guys won’t lose too much in the fight to get him back. Maybe we’ll even see more than one Stark family member together for the first time in a while. There isn’t anything quite as eerie as the white walkers, and I bet that baby is going to grow up to have some serious issues.