The second episode of Game of Thrones season 4 featured one of the biggest moments in the history of the series, no easy feat on a show that routinely kills off major characters.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers about Game of Thrones. Do NOT read if you have not watched “The Lion and the Rose.”
NOTE: I have not read the books, nor have I read any spoilers from them. If you have, please do not post comments about them. This article is based purely on the TV series, written by someone who knows nothing about what will happen next.
At the reception following Joffrey and Margaery’s wedding, the king was poisoned and Joffrey, one of the most hated characters in TV history, died. It was an epic and glorious death, but one that left everyone, including fans, with one big question: Who killed the king?
Cersei immediately claimed that Tyrion murdered his nephew. After all, he was the cup bearer who gave him the wine that may have killed him. But is it that easy? Here are my top five suspects.
Tyrion
This would be too obvious and Tyrion is definitely smart enough not to get caught with the murder weapon in his hands, but maybe that’s just what he wants everyone to think. After all, he has slapped Joffrey around a few times and made no attempt to hide his disdain for him.
Sansa
After Joffrey made her look at her father’s decapitated head for hours and gloated about the death of her brother and mother, nobody at the wedding had a better motive than Sansa. We also saw that she handed Tyrion the cup after Joffrey kicked it away. That gave her the perfect opportunity to commit the crime.
Olenna
Who would suspect the sweet old lady? Me! Her comments to Sansa about how horrid it is to kill someone at a wedding came just before it happened, maybe as a misdirect. She was right next to the cup when Tyrion gave it to Joffrey for the last time and she was definitely open to hearing out Sansa regarding the evils of Joffrey. Killing Joffrey after the wedding also means her granddaughter is the queen, which could only help her family.
Margaery
Did anyone find it suspicious that she didn’t rush to Joffrey’s side as he died? Cersei and Jaime both ran to him (a fitting farewell for Joffrey with his true parents by his side). But Margaery stayed behind. She also served him the wedding pie. It’s easy to assume the poison was in the wine cup, but it could just as easily have been in the pie.
Dontos
The fool who was humiliated by Joffrey showed up after Joffrey was poisoned to rush Sansa to safety. Why was he so quick on the scene? It’s as if he knew what was going to happen and knew Sansa needed safety. It was established in the season 4 premiere that he was in Sansa’s debt, and maybe this was his way of paying that off.
Personally, I like to think it was Olenna. She’s so nice, but she’s proven herself to be quite smart. She could easily have pulled this off to help gain her family more power and keep her granddaughter safe from Joffrey’s brutality. Having Tyrion on hand as a scapegoat only helped her cause. And it’s common knowledge that poison is, more often than not, a woman’s weapon of choice.
Who do you think killed King Joffrey? Please avoid posting any book spoilers in the comments section.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9pm on HBO.
(Image courtesy of HBO)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
