THE RIGG IS UP
How Oleanna’s ‘GoT’ exit will impact Westeros
SUNDAY night saw the last of the great Diana Rigg — aka Oleanna Tyrell on “Game of Thrones.” And that’s not a good thing for the show.
Having already told Daenerys not to rely on men like Tyrion (“I’ve known a great many clever men. I’ve outlived them all”), the no-nonsense Oleanna also predicted that Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) would not profit by his devotion to his sister Cersei (Lena Headey). “She’ll be the end of you,” Oleanna said to Jaime. With her own prospects bleak, why stick around? Offered a vial of poison by Jaime, Oleanna, seated alone in a vast room, asked if there would be any pain and, assured there would not be, knocked back a tainted goblet of wine — revealing that it was she who poisoned King Joffrey at his wedding to her granddaughter Margaery.
“Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me,” she said, before the camera panned away.
It was hands-down the best scene of the episode, entitled “The Queen’s Justice.” The high point was supposed to be the overhyped, first-time meeting of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), but the encounter between the Mother of Dragons and the King in the North was underwhelming, more noteworthy for the stunning scenery of the Dragonstone property than any dramatic sparks given off by the actors. They were so awkward with each other they could have been two teens on an unpromising prom date. And it made Snow, who ignored Sansa Stark’s (Sophie Turner) advice on staying put at Winterfell, look like a bit of a dope.
What will “GoT” do without the likes of Rigg, whose withering asides on the folly of the residents of the Seven Kingdoms gave the show a much-needed tart perspective? It must be said that she and theater veterans such as Jonathan Pryce — who played the High Sparrow and who enjoyed several sparring matches with Rigg last season — are such experts with dialogue and language that some of the regular cast look ... well, there’s really no other way to say it, lethargic or inattentive by comparison.
In Episode 2, Emilia Clarke had successive scenes with three separate characters — Oleanna, Varys (Conleth Hill) and Melisandre (Carice von Houten) — yet her expression barely changed from one meeting to the next. Did anyone in this formidable trio make her feel nervous, wary, superior, amused? There’s no way of knowing, because Clarke is a blank. How is the viewer supposed to root for Daenerys when the actress who plays her seems so blasé? Especially when her enemy, Cersei, can wipe the floor with her (dramatically speaking).
With Rigg, most fondly remembered as the sophisticated sleuth Emma Peel on “The Avengers” gone, we will have to rely gladly on Jim Broadbent — so good as Citadel high priest Archmaester Ebrose — to give some punch to the increasingly studied quality of the exchanges between the surviving characters. Their puzzled expressions seem to ask the question, “Are we still doing plot summary here?” We have only four episodes to go, and it’s time for “GoT” to kick it up several notches — or we might fall asleep before anyone finds out who will be sitting on the Iron Throne.