‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 4 Spoilers: What Does Sansa Stark Necklace Mean? Episode 2 ‘The Lion And The Rose' Will Explain Its Significance

“Game of Thrones” fans watched in both shock and pure joy as Season 4 returned to HBO on Sunday night, but now that we have had time to process George R.R. Martin’s world of Westeros being back in our living rooms every week, it is time to break down the Season 4 premiere episode “Two Swords.” And despite the multiple characters and locations we visited, one scene stuck out in my mind as a bit peculiar but even more foreboding.

Warning spoilers for Season 4 of “Game of Thrones” ahead. Do not read any further if you do not want to know what will happen in the second episode of the forthcoming season.

As a reader of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song Of Ice and Fire” series, I was curious just how show runners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss planned to reintroduce Ser Dontos. Fans first met the knight turned Joffrey’s fool at the King’s name day celebrations in Season 3, and were reacquainted with the tense meeting in the Season 3 recap of the first few minutes of “Two Swords.” Sansa saved Ser Dontos life after Joffrey ordered him to die, the King was insulted that the knight had arrived drunk to his celebration and demanded he be given as much wine as he can drink, but the gesture turned malicious as Joffrey ordered his guard to force down Dontos’ throat nearly drowning him. Sansa interjected out of fright and disgust, but sensing Joff’s growing anger quickly changed her tone insisting that it was bad luck to kill someone on one’s name day, lucky for both Sansa and Ser Dontos, the Hound agreed and instead Ser Dontos was named Joff’s personal fool and allowed to live.

The scene which seemed to be significant in terms of displaying Joff’s surmounting aggression, anger and abuse of Sansa seems to have come full circle. Ser Dontos found Sansa while she was praying in the godswood of Kings Landing, and while the meeting was at first suspenseful, the interaction ended in a sweet exchanges of thanks. Dontos gifted Sansa a necklace that he said belonged to his mother, and was the last thing of value in his life, he wished to give it to Sansa to thank her for saving his life from Joff. At first reluctant, Sansa ended up graciously taking the necklace and assuring Dontos that she would wear the jewelry with pride.

This is not the last fans will see of the necklace, Sansa will wear the piece to the Royal Wedding in episode 2, “The Lion and the Rose.” The marriage between Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell will be short-lived due to Sansa’a necklace or more specifically what was smuggled in to the Royal Wedding in the stones of Sansa’a necklace from Ser Dontos. Joffrey dies at his wedding feast, by the hands of none other than Sansa, whom he tormented and abused for so long, however she did so unknowingly. The wedding feast of Joff and Margaery is a grand affair with performers for all over the Seven Kingdoms, at the affair the King’s uncle Tyrion Lannister and his new wife Sansa, are seated away from the other Lannisters and royal family. Joffrey proceeds to get drunk and continually antagonize his uncle, in a bid to provoke Tyrion; Joff introduces a pair of dwarf jousters, who impersonate both the slain Starks and Renly Baratheon, his deceased uncle. Joffrey then encourages Tyrion to join them, but the imp refuses and embarrasses the king, in retaliation Joffrey empties the large royal chalice of wine over his uncle and orders him to be his cupbearer.

Following this test of power, the feast continues, but later Joffrey’s wine is poisoned and after drinking deeply from the chalice he begins to cough violently. As Joff is choking to death, he claws at his neck in a desperate attempt to breathe, but in his last moments he points to his uncle Tyrion, seemingly indicating him as the poisoner. After Joff is confirmed dead, Cersei orders the arrest of her brother, Tyrion and Sansa Stark for killing the King. The murder plot slowly becomes to unravel, and surprisingly Tyrion was not involved, and Sansa’s only crime was wearing a necklace gifted to her by Ser Dontos. The poison is revealed to be “The Strangler,” it was disguised as amethysts on the necklace, Lady Olenna Redwyne, the scheming grandmother of Margaery is revealed to be the one to deliver the deadly dose of poison into Joffrey’s wine. But Lady Olenna is not the only one involved in this plot, Ser Dontos originally gave Sansa the necklace under the order of Petyr Baelish.