Diana Rigg offers clues about Season 5 scene

One of the big reveals for me in the Season 5 trailer on Friday was the appearance of Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell. After all, the last we saw of her was “Breaker of Chains” as she quietly hightailed it back to Highgarden. She may have committed the crime, but she didn’t stick around to watch an innocent man take the fall for her.

But with that  trial over and the Lannisters destroying themselves from the inside out, the Queen of Thorns will be heading back to King’s Landing this season. On The Jonathan Ross Show this weekend, she was asked about her experience on the show, and she shared details of her most memorable upcoming scene for the season.

Video, then some spoilers, below….

Here’s the main quote, delivered with Diana Rigg’s style:

Rigg: “So I walk into this whorehouse that has been trashed. And I’m surrounded by bits of dildo, because they decided that dildoes in those times were made with clay, so there’s bits of clay dildo everywhere. And I thought, “This is rather nice. I could have a photograph taken and use it in my next birthday card.”

Spoilers ahoy!

In the books, once Lady Olenna exits King’s Landing, she doesn’t come back. It’s not until after Margaery’s wedding to Tommen that she leaves for good.) Though I heard rumors during filming that Rigg was seen in Dubrovnik, and I was hoping she would return to attend Tywin’s funeral, I took it with a grain of salt. I certainly wanted it to be true–Lady Olenna is an amazing character, and an actress of Diana Riggs’ caliber is something you don’t want to lose if you don’t have to. Her return is one of the biggest things I am excited for this season.

But now, let’s move on to this scene she’s describing, keeping in mind that–outside of Tywin’s funeral and Tommen’s wedding–nearly any scene at this point forward that includes her is created for the show.

• A brothel: so far, we’ve only seen one brothel, and that’s Littlefinger’s. Despite my insistence that there is probably more than one damn whorehouse in the whole of King’s Landing, we’ve never seen another. Add to that the knowledge that Littlefinger will be leaving Sansa and the Eryie and heading to King’s Landing at some point this season, it’s probably a good guess that it is in fact his brothel she’s talking about.
• Said Brothel has been “trashed.” (Sounds like a very good reason for Littlefinger to need to return to King’s Landing, if he’s not already there, no?) As for how and why, we cannot be certain yet, but we do know that the Faith Militant, which are restored by Cersei to please the new High Septon (known as the High Sparrow) at one point trash a market in King’s Landing as part of taking a stand against greed. That riot could easily extend to taking out “houses of sin,” like a brothel.

Dame Diana Rigg may not think she’s giving away any spoilers, but I would disagree. And the scene she’s describing (which I do hope she makes her next birthday card) only increasing my curiosity for next season and all the ways the show is going to deviate from the books.

• Published on 02/03/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:06 PM CDT