As you might expect, this review is chock-full of spoilers. Turn back now if you haven’t yet reached this point in the show.
Following last week’s explosive turn of events, it was high time to return to the political intrigue of King’s Landing. Watching the brothers of the Night’s Watch take on a bunch of murderous mutineers packs its own punch and holds it own entertainment value, but it’s a safe bet that most viewers are more concerned with the fate of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). In this season’s “The Lion and the Rose” episode, the twisted King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) met his well-deserved end at his own wedding, an incident that was immediately (but not surprisingly) blamed on Tyrion. Since that episode (which aired almost a month ago now), fans unfamiliar with the source material have been waiting in fevered anticipation to see if the show’s most popular character will end up losing his head. Luckily, this week’s episode, titled, “The Laws of Gods and Men,” revisits Tyrion’s predicament, treating viewers to some great Lannister family interactions and what is arguably the best dialogue we’ve seen in the show so far.
“The Laws of Gods and Men” easily ranks as one of the most riveting and most frustrating episodes of the show to date. As stated before, the intense character exchanges seen here are the best in the show. Tyrion’s angry speech will undoubtedly go down in the show’s history as one of its most powerful moments, while Jaime’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) short chat with his father Tywin (Charles Dance) speaks volumes about the Lannisters and their admittedly reasonable motivations. Ensuring that the family name lives on for generations to come is a noble venture indeed, but it’s the Lannisters’ methods of making that happen that are (and always have been) the problem. On a completely necessary side note, we here at STARBURST have never hated Cersei more than we did in this episode. She is one of the most intelligent characters in the show (right up there with Littlefinger), but damn she sucks. Watching her rig Tyrion’s trial inspired a very special hatred for her as a character, a hatred that will burn hotter than any dragon fire. We are so ready for her to get her comeuppance, but something tells us that won’t happen anytime soon.
As usual, tonight’s episode ends on a cruel cliffhanger that will have you tearing your hair out and angrily shaking your fist at the sky. For more scandalous shenanigans in Westeros, tune in to next week’s episode, titled, “Mockingbird.” Until then, check STARBURST for all your genre-based needs!
