Game of Thrones Rewatch: Season Four

Leading up to the April 14 premiere of the final, six-episode eighth season of HBO’s massive hit series Game of Thrones, Pop Culture Maniacs will be rewatching the entire series (season by season) and writing on how each season fares in light of all that we know now (and thoughts about how the major plot points that came before might impact the great battles still to come). Each season article will contain spoilers for the entire series through season seven, so you have been warned. Any speculation on what might happen in the upcoming eighth season is merely that: speculation.

We’ve passed the halfway point, ladies and gents, and are hurtling toward the actions packed end of our rewatch! However, before we see The Wall fall and the army of the dead stream into Westeros, we still have several (pretty boring) seasons to churn through. Once I made it through season three, I officially began dreading the next three seasons of the show. But my fear was premature: I really enjoyed most of season four. There aren’t a ton of watershed moments in the season, but so much of what happens directly impacts the journeys of our remaining characters that it was hard not to be riveted throughout most of the ten episodes.

The major moment in season four is, of course, the Purple Wedding, which came a hell of a lot sooner than I remembered. It was also much easier to follow exactly what was going down from the plotting side of things (the necklace making its way to Sansa, Lady Olenna snagging the poison pill, Olenna slipping it in the cup). However, looking back, I still don’t quite get Littlefinger’s reasoning for conspiring with the Tyrells. Sure, he thinks they are the allies he needs (which, considering that, at the end of season seven, there are no more Tyrells and no more Littlefinger, might have been shortsighted for the second sneakiest man in Westeros), but what’s his endgame? To get Sansa to marry him? Why does he later sell her to Ramsay? I really don’t get his total thought process. For a character we’re taught to believe is several steps ahead of most, this was where his plan started to get a bit too murky to really understand. I suppose the argument could be made that his love for Cat, transferred to Sansa, led to him getting thrown off his game, but I’m not sure I buy it. Anyway, the Purple Wedding didn’t disappoint.

Also still a complete joy? The friendship between Jaime and Brienne. I had forgotten that Cersei confronted Brienne about her feelings for Jaime (which I’ve never really seen as truly romantic – she’s still pretty hung up on Renly at this point – despite fully recognizing that she never had a chance with him, being the wrong gender), and had also forgotten how well Brienne handled being under Cersei’s scrutiny. I certainly assume that the relationship and deep trust between Jaime and Brienne will come into play in season eight (who better to vouch for him once he reaches Winterfell than the noble Brienne, who has the trust of both Sansa and Arya?), and I really hope they both get a chance to interact with Cersei together one more time. There are only a few things I’m really wishing for in the final six episodes, and a resolution to the Jaime/Brienne friendship (before one or both of them die, preferably in the vicinity of the other) is at the top of my list.

Season four was also great for turning Tyrion into the character we all now know and love. One of the things I’ve been most impressed with during this rewatch is just how complex of a character Tyrion is. I used to scoff when Peter Dinklage would win Emmys (often because it seemed like Thrones was just winning because it’s the most popular series out there), but boy, his work in season four – particularly in the finale – was incredible to watch. I always loved Tyrion, don’t get me wrong, but I never really stopped to appreciate how he went from drinking and carousing with whores in episode one to becoming one of the most trusted advisors to Dany by the end of season seven. So much of what happens throughout season four crafts Tyrion into the brilliant strategist he is at the start of the final episodes.

He’s seen how bravado can cause death (Oberyn Martell, you cocky idiot), how money and power can corrupt, how those with the lowest of beginnings can claw their way to the top, and how some will remain loyal no matter how bad things can become. He’s also discovered his own strength. Sure, he drinks and knows things, but he also can read people and politics in a way that the next king or queen will need. I cannot imagine Tyrion not making it to the end of the series in (mostly) one piece, living on to advise the next occupant of the Iron Throne. Killing Shae and Tywin were instrumental in shaping Tyrion into the person he is right now. He has lost his naiveté, his hope that his father would become who he wanted him to be rather than the man he was, and he lost hope that he could be loved. It was a hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one for Tyrion to continue to grow and evolve over the next few seasons.

The story arc that didn’t play well this time around was good old Jon Snow’s. Sure, book readers knew how much of it would ultimately turn out (Ygritte’s death, Tormund’s capture, Stannis riding in to save the Watch from slaughter at the hands of the Wildlings), but there was still interest in where Mance Rayder’s arc was headed, how Stannis would factor into the battle for the North, what would happen with the Night’s Watch. Knowing the disappointing answers to these questions (that Mance would be killed and largely forgotten a season later, Stannis would also end up dead after failing at everything, and that the Watch would just stay the Watch . . . until the Night King showed up to The Wall), these sequences just felt dull and pointless. And that brings me to one of the major problems with parts of season four and most of five and six: it’s clear that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss spent most of these seasons spinning their narrative wheels hoping against hope that George R.R. Martin would finish his sixth novel and they would have more story to work with. When it became clear in season six this wasn’t about to happen, things suddenly started moving along. But, in the interim, story’s lagged, plots stalled, and characters weren’t allowed to evolve (which also led to the strangely quick pace in season seven that took most fans by surprise).

This problem shows up in Jon’s season four arc most clearly in the Watch’s siege on Craster’s Keep (an event I completely forgot occurred, yet which wasted an entire episode of his story). At the time, it was a chance to tease us with a meeting between Bran and Jon (and to let us worry that Locke might just take out someone important in his attempt to eliminate the Stark threat). Looking back, it’s a waste of most of an episode on a battle that has zero bearing on the show. None of the mutineers matter. Bran meeting Jon at this point in the story would have hurt it more than helped it. Locke was a red herring. It was just an opportunity to show how horrific the mutineers were (and to show some poor women getting raped, yet again). I hated everything about it. But, it’s in the books, and at that time, no one knew if it might have a lasting impact down the line. But, this is the first of many moments in Jon’s arc that can be written off as not all that important in the grand scheme of things (which, naturally, doesn’t mean that all of his season five and six story is, just that many tangential elements were).

Final Thoughts:

— The Sansa/Baelish relationship is just as crazily creepy as it was the first time around. Although, as was the case with each of the past seasons, Sansa remains one of the most interesting characters in the series. I don’t relish getting into all the abuse she’ll suffer at the hands of Ramsay, but like Tyrion, I can’t see Sansa not coming out on top in the game of thrones.

— I didn’t get into much of the Arya/Hound relationship, but man, what a fun season. Sure, the bulk of it is simply a quest to get Arya on that boat to Braavos (and two seasons wasting away in the House of Black and White, sigh), but what a duo. Also, the fight between the Hound and Brienne is one of the greatest things in all of Game of Thrones. Far too often, fights are over choreographed and don’t feel like characters legitimately trying to kill each other (see this epic fight from Deadwood for TV’s best ever one-on-one fight). But this one? A true fight between worthy adversaries. I’m truly excited to see Brienne, Arya, and the Hound fighting together in season eight.

— The attempted rescue of Theon by Yara might not succeed, but I think it’s an important moment to take note of in light of Theon’s upcoming recuse attempt in season eight. I suspect that his attempt will end a bit better than Yara’s (I can’t see Yara being dead, and I have a feeling she will play some role in the upcoming battle(s), seeing as she’s the only other person with real sea battle experience left in the show).

— I touched on it a bit above, but boy, was Tywin’s death satisfying. Charles Dance did something pretty spectacular with the role, and it was a shame to see him go, but what a way to go.

— The scene where Jaime and Cersei “have sex” next to Joffery’s corpse has aged even worse than I thought it would. It caused quite the stir when it originally aired (and the writers made it even worse by trying to claim that was a consensual action and not rape . . . because it was definitely rape), but is even more glaring upon a second viewing. Jaime raped Cersei, there’s no way to interpret that scene any other way. It was bad for the Jaime redemption tour, and it was an awful scene – especially because the show simply pretended it never happened. One of the worst sequences in the series, and boy, does it feel awful to watch it now.

— Finally, Dany has entered the Meereense Knot, which she will not be able to unravel until season six . . . which means we’re in for a long slog through much of the same stories for another season. And that we’re also almost done with the arc of the best knight of all, the great Ser Barristan.