[2] In the episode, the residents of King's Landing deal with the aftermath of Joffrey Baratheon's murder; Daenerys Targaryen continues her conquest of Meereen; Sansa Stark and Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish sail in the Narrow Sea; and Alliser Thorne agrees to let Jon Snow take a group of volunteers north of the Wall to eliminate the mutineers at Craster's Keep.

Jaime sends Brienne to find and protect Sansa and gives her armor and his Valyrian steel sword, which she names "Oathkeeper," and Podrick as her squire.

He tells her that Joffrey's death will help him and his new allies grow strong, referring to House Tyrell, and that the missing stone in her necklace contained the poison used for the murder.

Reviewer Walt Hickey of FiveThirtyEight notes that the episode "contained the final scene of Jaime Lannister’s ninth "Storm of Swords" chapter.

These deviations, notes Kain, "leave both readers and newcomers to the story of Westeros and its motley band of heroes and villains entirely uncertain as to what's coming next.

The site's consensus is that "If it's a bit more subdued than its predecessors, 'Oathkeeper' is nonetheless a rock-solid installment of Game of Thrones – one that features assured direction, strong action scenes, and intriguing plot developments.

Though Goldman and Cornet indicated that significantly diverging from the books could be detrimental to the show, they credited "Oathkeeper" with adding an element of surprise and intrigue for all viewers.

[15][16] St. James commented that the scenes between Jamie and Cersei "seems to truly want us to think that what happened last week wasn't, in any way, rape" and wondered "whether the show is going to acknowledge it at all.

Bringing up other reviews and analysis from the AV Club, Slate, Jezebel, and the Washington Post, Attewell states that there "is a huge divergence between how the scene appeared on the screen and our understandings of these two characters, how they interact, and how they are developing as people.