Warning: contains plot details for Game Of Thrones season eight, Mad Men, The Wire and Our Friends In The North
With Westeros seemingly on the eve of destruction, no-one is truly safe. But when Ser Jamie Lannister decided to smash the patriarchy with the creation of its first female knight, it felt very much like the writers had stitched a target onto his cloak.
The chances of the Kingslayer surviving the soon-to-be-unleashed slaughter seem low. Not only could he be killed by the army of the dead, but Bronn’s heading north with a crossbow with his name on it. Plus there’s always the chance he’ll end up killed by Tormund’s love for the newly-created Ser Brienne of Tarth. Accidentally nudged from a wall by a near-giant’s erection is no way to go.
But if the end is nigh for the golden-handed twin, he’ll have achieved something quite unthinkable back in that opening episode. Jaime’s long been Game Of Thrones’ most interesting character (don’t @ me), but somewhere along the way he became one of its good guys – a transformation that would seem unbelievable if we hadn’t seen it happen with our own eyes.
It’s rare a series can make a character do the unforgivable and then come back from it. But here are some bad-uns that have done just that.
Jaime Lannister
Appears in: Game Of Thrones
Played by: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
When we first meet Jaime, he’s the spoiled son of a rich dude, living off his family’s connections like some sort of Old Etonian with slightly better hair and a back story about killing a mad king. Within an hour, he’s pushed a kid out of a window, breaking his back and setting off a chain of events that will ultimately lead to Brexit-type levels of political chaos.
Which is probably the apogee of his bad behaviour, unless you count the time he shagged his sister next to the corpse of their dead child. Because, oh yeah, he’s sleeping with his sister. Which will never not be horrifying.
Even when Jaime is taken prisoner by Catelyn Stark and spends an entire season lashed to a post covered in quite possibly literal crap, he puts on a display of dicksplashery that even Sterling Archer might consider a bit much. His only vaguely redeeming quality is that he loves his brother and to be honest, the sister thing sort of taints that.
So what changed? Cherchez la femme, right? It’s the series-long road trip with his captor Brienne that kick-started Jaime 2.0. Her earnest bravery, often in the face of overwhelming odds can do that to a person. And so it is that Westeros’ most selfish wassock finally stepped up to do something for someone he isn’t related to or working for (it’s called friendship, but it takes Jaime, and to be fair, many viewers a long time to figure this out.) And in doing so, he loses his hand but gains a lesson about having to live with the repercussion of his actions. And is never the same again. Four seasons and a fight with a bear later, he has emerged, free of his sister, his family, his name, his nickname. He’s surrounded by people who should want him dead, but have decided to let the past go.
Which is probably the perfect time to die. Bites fist.
Pete Campbell
Appears in: Mad Men
Played by: Vincent Kartheiser
Peter Campbell arrives in Mad Men like unexpected sick in your mouth, you’re not sure why it’s happened, but you know you don’t like it. Privileged, pushy, arrogant; he’s unfaithful to his wife, knocks up Peggy and by the end of the first series, he’s attempting to blackmail Don into giving him a promotion, threatening to ruin his life rather than wait a few years and work his way up. Total jebend, yes? And yet, when we wave goodbye to Pete, who is off to a glamorous new life with his gorgeous family, we feel nothing but happy for him. Which is a pretty drastic turnaround.
So what happened? The truth is, with Pete it’s not one thing. He doesn’t actually change that much. We just get to know him better. To realise that what might have appeared to be a privileged upbringing was rather cold and loveless. And that while he can’t keep his dick in his pants and he’s an overbearing whiner, in a lot of ways he’s a lot nicer guy than many of his colleagues. In an office rife with racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, Pete treats everyone pretty much the same. And he’s capable of great loyalty, to Don and to Peggy, which makes him human in a way we’ve not seen before.
In truth, Pete’s biggest problem is himself, a situation which comes to ahead in the best Mad Men episode there is, Signal 30, (no, you shut up) in which we learn that Pete is so busy comparing his life to everyone else’s that he is basically incapable of joy. And when he finally starts to work on that, including an unexpectedly successful move to California, everything else falls in to place. Which makes him one of the best-rounded characters in the series. Who’d have thought it?
Roland Pryzbylewski
Appears in: The Wire
Played by: Jim True-Frost
What an absolute tool Prez is when first we meet. So much so that his reputation precedes him. He’s lazy, ignorant and cocky and owes his job to his father-in-law. And it’s not long before he does the unforgivable: starts a pissed-up fight with some tower boys which leads to one of them losing an eye. I mean it’s a wide field, but if you’re looking for the worst person in the early Wire, you don’t need to go much further than this prat.
Prez’s redemption comes in two stages. Firstly, thanks to Lester Freeman, he starts to become good at a job that no-one else wants to do but everyone realises is vital. He punches his father in law in defence of his colleagues. He becomes part of the team. In fact, his rehabilitation is almost compete by the time he accidentally kills another officer. So much so that when his past comes up, it seems unfair, because this doesn’t seem like the same guy.
Which would all work very well as a story arc. Except The Wire didn’t leave it there and the arrival of Mr Prezbo, hard-working teacher in an unforgiving system moves him on even more. As he sets about the thankless task of having any impact on his students’ lives, witnessing a panoply of dysfunction along the way, we never really know how much of this is about him trying to make up for the past. But I’m not sure it matters, whether he thinks it or not, Prez is definitely one of the good guys.
Tosker Cox
Appears in: Our Friends In The North
Played by: Mark Strong
The striking thing about Tosker is how long he is a dick for. Years. He starts off a spoilt dick, who steals his mate’s girlfriend, gets her pregnant and basically ruins three lives. Then he’s a selfish dick who neglects his wife and kids. And then he’s a greedy dick who aims to profit off other people’s misery. And while the other male leads may be doing things that are illegal (FFS, Geordie joins an organised crime gang and Nicky joins a terrorist cell), it’s Tosker’s time as a slum landlord that marks him out as the absolute monster of the group.
So how does he turn that around? He loses everything. Well, not quite everything. His second wife, Elaine, sticks around and suggests that this time they work as a team.
And they do. And by the time we say goodbye to him in 1995, he’s rebuilding bridges, repaying kindnesses and looking like a new man. Well done that woman.
