The ultra-sadistic Joffrey scene was pretty over-the-top, even by HBO's standards, and kind of unnecessary. I'm not sure if even book Joffrey would be that extreme. Since they've already established Joffrey as a cruel prick all over the place, I can't help but think that they're mostly just trying to push buttons there. Cool episode, though. They're definitely departing from the book a good deal more than they did for the first book, if I remember correctly, but it's worked so far for the most part.