Game of Thrones Episode 4.08: “The Lion and the Viper”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

In many ways, this is the penultimate episode for most of our characters, as eppy 9 will only be set in one place. /zips lips So of course, the real nail-biting dramatic issue that the audience wanted to see handled was that SANSA AND ARYA ARE FINALLY IN THE SAME PLACE. :O (Aka, Arya and the Hound finally wandered into the Vale. ;D)

OK, so that’s probably not what most people were invested in. :P In keeping with their medieval, fight-obsessed superhero names, “the Mountain” is Gregor Clegane and “The Viper” is Oberynn Martell. Ostensibly, they are acting out either Tyrion’s guilt or innocence in Joffrey’s murder. More personally for Oberyn, he is trying to avenge his sister. I won’t say much, save that Pedro Pascal outdoes himself with his dramatic performance. The rest of the King's Landing actors are basically pushed to the side for this; it's his moment alone.

Other character situations also come to a head, for example with Arya and Sansa being in the same place. :P The wildlings bring their fight even closer to the Wall, leading to confrontations between folks on opposing sides. Missandei and Grey Worm continue their relationship from a couple of episodes ago. Daenerys is slightly involved, but then she has her own old issues to confront. Sansa and Littlefinger must explain themselves to the bannermen of the Vale in the wake of Lysa’s demise. Arya and the Hound deal with some repercussions from their time with Biter and Rorge. The former prince of the Iron Islands confronts his biggest test yet over whether he’s Theon or “Reek,” and Roose is back in the house (or on the fields, more accurately,) to treat with his bastard son. The Lannisters are deep into their own issues, I mean whatever, because did I mention Sansa and Arya being in the same place?? :P

I had my quibbles with the episode—even with one of the interpersonal character scenes, which usually they do so well. It was kind of a pendulum swing sometimes, with some stuff I was “meeeeeh, no” about, but other scenes I was quite pleased with. In fact, I’ve chosen my new favorite scene of the show thus far from this episode (click if you don’t mind spoilers,) though for as much as I enjoy it, there’s a legitimate eyebrow archy component that I’ll get to under the cut.

Overall there was so much hype for this episode, and it covered such significant events from the books, that it was bound to disappoint some from the fandom. I’d personally still call it above average.

( Episode Summary and Spoilers )