Warning: Spoilers below!
My lords, my ladies: I’m here to let you know that something spectacular happened during Episode 4 of “Game of Thrones” Season 8. (And no, it has nothing to do with resurrecting the Night King.)
After years of flirtation and undeniable chemistry, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) finally succumbed to their love. This was after Brienne played a drinking game with Jaime, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Podrick (Daniel Portman), and somewhat admitted to being a virgin. After she got up to use the bathroom, Jaime followed her into her chambers and, well, things got hot … literally.
Viewers and Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) understandably lost it.
“I’m happy that you finally got to climb for it,” Tyrion told Jaime when he learned of his brother’s new love affair.
And like Tyrion, fans of the show have been waiting for these two to get together since they first met back in Season 2. Lady Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) ordered Brienne to return her prisoner Jaime to King’s Landing in exchange for her daughters, Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya (Maisie Williams). But once both Stark girls vanished from the capital by Season 4, Brienne ventured off to find them, leaving Jaime to continue a relationship with his cruel sister-lover, Cersei (Lena Headey).
But then, after years of separation, Brienne and Jaime reunited at the Dragon Pit meeting in Season 7. Jaime eventually decided to cut all ties with Cersei and fulfilled his pledge to fight against the army of the dead in the North ― and he ended up side-by-side with Brienne on the battlefield.
Asked about Jaime’s intentions regarding Brienne following her knighting ceremony in Episode 2, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau told HuffPost that, yes, there is “a version of love” between them.
“The truth is she likes Jaime Lannister and she believes in him and the goodness in him, and he absolutely admires and believes in Brienne of Tarth,” the actor said. “When it comes to Brienne, he doesn’t have to pretend — he doesn’t have to fight her anymore, if you will. That whole game they’ve always played? [When he knights her] he’s like, ‘Yeah, well, I admire you.’ He has nothing but respect for her.”
In terms of walking away from Cersei last season, Coster-Waldau believes Jaime could no longer stand for the only thing she believes in: power.
“He understood that clearly if they don’t all work together they don’t stand a chance,” Coster-Waldau said of Jaime’s decision to fight the army of the dead. “The fact that he knows his sister saw and recognized the same threat and her calculations led her to the exact opposite result — it’s just shocking. I don’t know why it took him so long to realize what the rest of the world always knew — that she is a crazy monster — but he finally did. And then he left.”
Still, Coster-Waldau added, “She’s obviously always going to be a huge part of him,” he added, “and there won’t be a day where he won’t be thinking of Cersei.”
Well, that statement turned out to be true.
After finally letting himself be vulnerable with Brienne, Jaime leaves his new love in the North and heads back to King’s Landing ― amid the battle for the throne.
“You’re not like your sister. You’re a good man,” a teary-eyed Brienne tells him as he readies his horse. “Stay here, stay with me, please. Stay.”
It’s unclear whether or not he’s going to be with Cersei in the end or defeat her once and for all. What we do know is that Jaime is “hateful” like his sister … but perhaps in a different way.
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