There’s a lot that I loved about this episode, and there was a lot that made me super angry for some of these characters. At some points the writing seemed like genius set ups for the rest of the season, and at others it felt like pure laziness. Let’s hop right on in.
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The episode opens with a funeral for the dead. We get the chance to finally mourn the fallen before moving on to the final battle phase of the season. True to form, Jon Snow gives a really moving speech that can reduce anyone to tears about the importance of what these fallen comrades stood for and the best way to honor them going forward. Getting drunk in the Great Hall of Winterfell seems the best way to mourn and celebrate the death of the Night King, and I’m sure it was great for healing many of those emotional wounds.
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The scene in the Great Hall was fantastic. Watching Brienne, Jaime, Tyrion, and Podrick all make the attempt at drinking each other under the table with a drinking game renewed my faith in this show. Gendry desperately searching for Arya after having his bastard name stripped and given land broke my heart. As much as I loved the chemistry between these two lovebirds (former lovebirds) I knew Arya would never agree to be the Lady to his Lordship. The girl is a trained assassin, saving the world. She don’t need no man. He wasn’t the only one to have his heart broken. Tormund finds himself completely tossed aside by Brienne, but he’s very quick to get over it and find someone else.
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It is in these scenes we approach the first moment that made my blood boil. The Hound approaches Sansa to tell her that all of the things that happened with Little Finger and Ramsey Bolton would never have happened had she left King’s Landing with him back in Season 2 during the Battle of Blackwater. She defends Little Finger and Ramsey by saying she needed those things to happen to her to no longer be “the same little bird.” First of all, no woman needs betrayal and sexual abuse to make them stronger. Second, are we forgetting that she had already been psychologically and physically abused for two whole seasons before the Hound leaves? And he played a part in it? He only saved her once, and it wasn’t from Joffrey.
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Daenerys makes a swift exit from the party after Jon Snow finds himself surrounded by northerners still proclaiming him as King because he can ride a dragon. I don’t blame her. Dany’s been riding Drogon for what? Three seasons now? I feel like the writers could have used this as a moment where Dany does make a stand for herself as Queen to these northerners, but instead they use it as tool to have her slowly start to deteriorate. When she re-enters, it’s just her and Jon Snow. The two start to go at it like they forgot they’re now related, and that isn’t even the one thing that is standing in Dany’s way? She can’t get past Jon’s true identity. She begs him not to tell anyone else, to hide this from his own family, just to protect her claim. The important thing here is that it is not the familial relation that is keeping them from loving each other, which is either a very good thing from a Targaryen perspective or very creepy from pretty much every single other perspective. More on this later.
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Bronn finally graces us with his appearance, wildly swinging around the crossbow that Qyburn gave him earlier this season. And what an entrance he had! Truthfully, I have never seen a scene in this show that had the same comical effect as this one while also being quite terrifying. I really thought he was going to shoot one of them in this scene. Tyrion is always thinking ahead, and he reminds him of his promise to always pay double. Cersei promised him River Run, so Tyrion and Jaime are promising him High Garden. The problem is as follows: Daenerys has to come out victorious, both Tyrion and Jaime have to live, and they would have to convince her to follow through on this. No problem for Tyrion to achieve, but Jaime is still the man who killed her father.
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The one thing I did love in this episode is that Jaime finally found out how to love someone that isn’t his sister. He drunkenly follows Brienne to her room after the party to finish the game. Brienne, not amused by this excuse, still goes through with sleeping with him. Jaime even decides to stay behind at Winterfell instead of going towards the fight in King’s Landing. For Brienne? Because he’s only got one sword arm? So at least one of the Lannister brothers can survive to give Bronn his land? I want to believe he stays behind for Brienne, until he finds out his sister is against the ropes. He immediately takes leave for King’s Landing, and Brienne tries to stop him but it’s a fruitless attempt. Jaime reminds her that he’s not the “good man” she’s come to know over the last several seasons, but a monster that pushed a boy out the window and strangled his own cousin. All for Cersei. This has become a minor moment of controversy in the episode, but I don’t think we could expect anything else from Jaime. Leaving Brienne crying in the cold, though, is not cool. Let’s just hope he’s going there to fix his wrongs and take out his sister. Once a kin(g) slayer…
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Before we get to King’s Landing, Jon Snow has an atomic bomb to drop on his former family. Under the Weirwood tree, he meets Sansa, Arya, and Bran. While Arya isn’t completely against Dany riding in on her dragons, she doesn’t trust her. We already know Sansa is pretty much over her presence in Winterfell, and neither one like the way Jon bows to her in strategy and planning. After swearing them to secrecy (yeah okay) he and Bran let Sansa and Arya in on their secret. Sansa didn’t wait to inform her (former?) husband of this little tidbit, and he runs and tells Varys. Sorry, Dany, but the secret is a secret no more. Varys already is questioning his allegiance to the Dragon Queen as soon as he finds out there is someone else, and this is an on-going conversation between the two after their plans are thwarted by the Golden Company.
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That’s right, as Dany and her fleet are sailing into King’s Landing the Golden Company is there waiting to take down her and her dragons. Every time she approaches to take down Cersei something goes terribly wrong. There’s that brief, victorious shot of Dany and her two dragons flying above her ships, and it is over faster than it starts. Rhaegal is shot down by Euron Greyjoy and the Golden Company. That’s not all they manage to take. Each of her ships is destroyed, leaving her unsullied and advisors completely shipwrecked. Missandei is the only one who can’t be found on shore because she’s been captured. I guess Cersei didn’t need those elephants after all.
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It’s the final minutes of this episode where I found the biggest problems with this show. The suggestion that keeps being brought up by Varys is that Jon and Daenerys can be wed and rule together. This would be absolutely nothing new to the Targaryen family, a step up even from marrying siblings. Varys thinks that alone Dany is dangerous, just a hop, skip, and a psychotic break away from being her father’s daughter. Tyrion thinks Dany is too strong for Jon or to share the throne. The books and show continually build up Dany as wanting help in ruling. When she notices she’s losing face in Mereen she makes a marital pact that she never follows through with. I would argue she’s been sharing her power with Jon since he bent the knee. She’s never turned away help, whether it was advisors or a witch who swears she can save her husband. All this does is build up to the moment where it’s no longer about who is going to kill Cersei but who will have to kill the other: Jon or Dany? We know they’re going for a controversial ending, and I believe this is the set up.
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At the end of the episode, Dany an Tyrion approach Cersei and Qyburn with each of their armies to establish a surrender, Cersei’s surrender to be exact. Daenerys, at least Varys, wants to avoid the bloodshed of innocent lives. Dany wants to make sure that if someone is blamed for the destruction of King’s Landing, it’s Cersei. Cersei refuses to surrender or release Missandei, and Daenerys will not surrender even if it means saving one of her trusted advisors. This scene was the most frustrating because it does absolutely nothing for the plot of the story. I’m sure it enrages Grey Worm to watch the woman he loves beheaded on the walls of the Red Keep, but he would be enraged in next week’s battle whether or not Missandei died at this exact moment. I’ve always said the deaths in this series were all for a purpose. They all played a role in the developing plot, but this was just a waste. Look at the glorious deaths they gave Theon and Jorah last week, both men who have had their fair share of horrible deeds died heroes’ deaths. More than that it doesn’t make sense for Cersei to kill Missandei, when keeping one of Dany’s trusted advisors alive in the Red Keep could prevent her from burning it to the ground.
image via time magazine
It looks like we are setting up for another big battle next week. The trailer gave us nothing to work with in terms of theories, so I want to know yours. My fingers are crossed that Jaime is returning to kill his sister, he’s probably the only one who can get close enough to do it. So many have theorized that Arya will Jaime and use his face to kill Cersei. Let’s face it, if there’s anyone that can kill the biggest threat to the realm twice it is Arya Stark. And if anyone deserves it, it’s Arya Stark. She is heading to King’s Landing for some unfinished business. One of the names on her list? Who knows…
