Why “The Laws of Gods and Men” is the best episode of Season 4

For the Best Episode of Season 4 poll, our staff argued for our favorite episodes of the season…

What makes Game of Thrones great? There are many symbolic reasons that get cited: swordfights, sexuality, battles, dragons, and huge scenes. For me, those things help, but they’re not where the greatness comes from. In order to have a foundation of greatness, Game of Thrones needs to consistently be able to pull off two straightforward, non-glitzy things—and “The Laws of Gods and Men” manages to do both.

First, Game of Thrones needs to have great dialogue scenes This is how it keeps its story moving and develops its characters. Thanks to a variety of good characters and almost uniformly great actors, it’s almost a given that Thrones will be good enough at its conversation scenes—but when it’s at its best, Game of Thrones might be the best show on television for taking any two (or sometimes more) characters, putting them in a room, and letting them dazzle us. From Robert and Cersei talking about their marriage to Varys and Tyrion talking about power to Arya and The Hound talking about, well, anything, to Jon and Alliser trying to get over their mutual hatred, there’s no shortage of these bits.

“The Laws of Gods and Men” has perhaps the highest quality of simple scenes of any episode in Season 4—and they’re almost all twists on a similar theme…

In the episode, character after character argues for ethical behavior from those in power. Hizdahr no Loraq approaches Dany’s throne, and makes an impassioned plea for some degree of mercy. Jaime Lannister does whatever he can to save his brother’s life from their father. Davos and Stannis argue for support from the Iron Bank.

Second, these scenes have to be meaningful. They’re not just conversations, they’re conversations with tension and meaning behind them. Violent action isn’t necessary, but characters learn something about each other, and are motivated to move in different directions. Dany is moved by Hizdahr’s plea, and suddenly her implacable revolution is compromised—everything about Meereen is different after that, even if it’s not immediately apparent.

And when these scenes are at their best? The show is awesome, and its fans and viewers reward it. Right from the start, “The Laws of Gods and Men” goes big, with the Davos-Stannis scene in the Iron Bank that almost singlehandedly won Liam Cunningham one of our WiCnet Awards. The most action of the episode comes when Yara tries to free Theon from Ramsay Snow, but the excellent scene in the North is a quiet one after that, with Ramsay attempting to reward the broken Theon—and much of another WiCnet Award is won there.

Oh yeah, and Peter Dinklage got his Emmy nomination for a little speech at the end of the episode. To cap off the best episode of the season for people talking, Dinklage drops one of the most memorable performances of the series. (And wins another WiCnet award for it!) It’s the perfect end to the wordiest episode of the season, demonstrating that Game of Thrones isn’t about sex and dragons, it’s about great acting, great writing, great directing, great production, and great characters. Let the other episodes have their flash. “The Laws of Gods and Men” has a smirking Mark Gatiss, a rampaging Ramsay Snow, a curious Oberyn Martell, and a destroyed Tyrion Lannister. Those are why I watch the show.

(Fine, there’s also an unbeatably cool dragon scene, too.)

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• Published on 12/28/2014 at 3:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 12/28/2014 at 3:30 PM CDT