Editor’s Note: The following contains full spoilers for Succession, House of the Dragon, and Game of Thrones.Nobody in the world of television throws a wedding quite like HBO, and almost all of them end with less-than-desirable results. This is most infamous in what is arguably the network’s most popular series,Game of Thrones, as well as its highly successful prequel series,House of the Dragon. Every single time the medieval fantasy series has a grand wedding ceremony, there are almost always grave consequences attached, with some ceremonies becoming so infamous to the point where they get their own titles. The Red Wedding and the Purple Wedding are only just two examples of chaotic marriage ceremonies, and even the ones that don’t immediately result in chaos and bloodshed typically don’t work out.
However,when it comes to creating the most shocking wedding episode of television ever made, HBO may have just outdone itself withSuccessionSeason 4, Episode 3, with the appropriate title of “Connor’s Wedding.” The episode has essentially become the talk of the television world and will likely be remembered for havingone of the most shocking twists of any show ever made. If you’re reading this, hopefully, you’re caught up onSuccessionSeason 4 and all ofGame of Thrones. If not, this is your final warning, as the rest of this piece will be packed to the brim with plot details that you almost definitely don’t want spoiled.
Still here? Alright then. Here we go.
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Connor Roy’s Wedding Doesn’t Go as Planned in ‘Succession’ Season 4
During Season 4, Episode 3 ofSuccession, it more or less looks like business as usual for the family and employees of Waystar Royco. The kids are on a yacht for Connor’s (Alan Ruck) wedding, Greg (Nicholas Braun) is still suffering socially with pretty much everyone, and Logan (Brian Cox) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) are still making moves while they’re airborne. Overall it’s the pretty typical mind games and backstabbing that we’ve come to expect from the series. That is until Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) get an unexpected phone call from Tom.
Out of nowhere, the Roy family patriarch and the CEO of the company Logan Roy, has had an apparent heart episode and is no longer breathing. The absolutely shocking event then takes center stage for the rest of the episode, with Connor’s marriage to Willa (Justine Lupe) now feeling like a complete afterthought.Connor already started feeling the bad omens of his wedding the night before, when Willa decided to go AWOL following the rehearsal dinner in the prior episode. Now, Conner’s beloved yet ambivalent father is dead, and the vast majority of the wedding’s guests (including Conner’s own half-siblings) don’t even show up to his ceremony as they’re more preoccupied with Logan’s passing.
While the audience is still grappling with the fact that the main character of the series is now dead, we also get to see a fundamentally different side of all four of the Roy children. For the first two episodes of Season 3, Kendall, Roman, and Shiv (Sarah Snook) hate Logan with every fiber of their being, believing him to be directly responsible for cutting them out of the business. However, the moment they discover that Logan may be terminally ill, they instantly act as if he is their kindhearted father who has never steered them wrong before. That’s typically the mindset that Conner has, who historically has been much more attached and forgiving of Logan, likely because he doesn’t work at the company as his siblings do. That being said when Conner gets the news of Logan’s passing, he seems to come to terms that Logan never liked him, andhe left this world thinking of Conner as a disappointment. That doesn’t sound too assuring, but Conner deciding to still get married that same day proves that maybe his dad never meant as much to him as he thought he did.
‘Game of Thrones’ Used to Be the King of Shock Weddings
Two weddings particularly stand out inGame of Thrones, those of course being the Red Wedding and the Purple Wedding.
The Red Weddingsaw the many heroes of House Stark make an arrangement for one of their family members to marry one of the daughters of Lord Walder Frey (David Bradley). Initially, Rob Stark (Richard Madden) was supposed to be the groom of the wedding, but he has since fallen in love with Talisa (Oona Chaplin). So instead, Lady Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) strikes a deal with Walder Frey to marry off their cousin, Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies). Frey seems to agree to the terms and the wedding ceremony goes well, but things take a blood-red turn at the dinner party.
As Walder Frey raises a toast to his new alliance, the Frey soldiers open fire on the guests of the venue, stabbing a pregnant Talisa in the stomach and hitting Rob with numerous arrows. The shocking ordeal leaves virtually everyone in the Frey’s dining room dead and bleeding, with only Catelyn Stark remaining to see the callous act of bloodshed in its entirety. Lady Catelyn does get one final chance at vengeance by killing Frey’s young wife, but ultimately finds her own throat getting slit in the process.
The Red Wedding is an event inGame of Throneshistory that lives in infamy, but sometimes weddings in Westeros can also give a little something back.The Purple Weddingsees the opposite side of the war get their just deserts, when the notorious King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) is married to Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer). At the following reception, Joffrey continues to act as callous as ever before taking a sip of wine, but there seems to be something in the high-end grape juice. Thus, one of the most hated characters in the entire series meets a painful and horrifying end as the poisoned wind causes him to convulse and ultimately die, but this does little to help Joffrey’s uncle, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), from getting blamed for the assassination.
’House of the Dragon’s Weddings Aren’t As Bloody, but They’re Just As Upsetting
Several hundred years before the Red and Purple Weddings took place, theHouse of the Dragonfeatures quite a few controversial betrothals. Most of these involve the peculiar Targaryen tradition of incest, where the family members of the House marry each other to keep their bloodline pure. Young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock/Emma D’Arcy) and her uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) end up following this path years later when the two get married to form an alliance against the power-hungry Hightowers. We also see Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) convince his daughter, Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey/Olivia Cooke), to seduce King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and marry him for their own political gain.
But althoughHouse of the Dragoncertainly has less drama-filled weddings, see Daemon and Rhaenyra’s quiet wedding at the end of “Driftmark,” there is one that stands out in the tradition of HBO ruining weddings. When a young Rhaenyra is celebrating her upcoming wedding to her cousin Laenor (Theo Nate), the wedding festivities take a turn for the worst when Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) kills Laenor’s lover Joffrey (Solly McLeod) in a fit of rage. Joffrey deduced during the party that Criston was likely Rhaenyra’s secret lover, a position that Criston is ashamed to have because it breaks the oath of celibacy as a Kingsguard. This piled on top of the fact that Rhaenyra rejected his offer to run away with him leadingCriston to bash Joffrey’s face in violently. As a result, Viserys marries his daughter off that night in a quiet ceremony with Laenor still in tears.
It simply isn’t an HBO wedding if someone doesn’t feel awful by the end of it.
