Well folks we are now beyond the half way point for Game of Thrones Season 8 and there remain only two episodes left of the entire series. So what happened after the climactic battle between the living and the dead last week? I’ll start by saying I enjoyed this episode more than last weeks which I felt a little disappointed by, in fact this episode was actually shaping up nicely until one or two strange decisions were made.
The episode begins with the remaining survivors at Winterfell burning the remains of their dead, where Jon makes a nice speech about how they must respect their sacrifice. Afterwards the survivors have some well-earned merriment as they all get a little drunk. Though it is clear Daenerys doesn’t like the way everyone is looking up to Jon, and she leaves soon after naming Gendry a true Baratheon and giving him Storms End to rule after the war, something I actually predicted just last week. However, I also predicted Arya would end up his wife, and then he actually proposed to Arya, only to be quite flatly rejected. Ouch.
Jaime and Brienne finally hit the sack together after all these years of sexual tension, and they appear quite happy afterwards, so we know that cannot last for long. Jon and Dany have a talk and Dany makes it very clear that she still wants Jon as a lover and is quite adamant that he must reject his heritage and keep it a secret. Jon almost gives into his lust, but the memory of the fact she is his aunt, stops him. He swears to Dany he doesn’t want the Iron Throne and he still supports her as queen, he just hopes they can all live together. Unfortunately Dany makes it clear that it is her way or no way at all and storms off. Yep, it’s been coming for some time, even though some like me refused to believe it, they are pushing Daenerys over the edge into madness here, and things just go from bad to worse for the dragon queen.
Sansa and Arya find out Jon’s true parentage in a quiet moment between all the remaining Starks’s but for some inane reason the writers/directors decided to cut away from the reaction to this earth shattering news. We only see Sansa later on approached by Tyrion looking concerned, Tyrion asks her what’s up and Sansa ignore Jon’s instruction to never tell anyone the secret and immediately blabs the news to Tyrion. As Varys comments later on in the episode, it’s no longer a secret now, pretty soon everyone will know. Sansa is trying to supplant Daenerys with Jon already, although one does wonder why she has such a dislike for Daenerys, given that I can’t really think of any reason for her to distrust the dragon queen, but distrust her she does. Then in my least favorite scene in this episode as Tyrion and Jaime are enjoying a quiet chat, Bronn manages to wander right into Winterfell carrying that crossbow Cersei gave him. He then threatens both Lannister’s with death if they don’t give him Highgarden, punches Tyrion in the nose to make sure we know he means business and then duly nips away again. It felt like such a contrived moment for them to nail that little plot point, because they had no room for it in the first three episodes. We also have to assume it’s going to be important before the end, or else it feels like they wouldn’t even have bothered trying to force it in there. Hmm.
Jon and his forces march down South, while Daenerys rides Drogon to protect her fleet as he sail back to Dragonstone. Meanwhile, The Hound Sandor Clegane heads off back to Kings Landing as well and is accompanied by Arya Stark. Clearly Arya plans to kill Cersei and Clegane has to be there for the start of Cleganebowl doesn’t he? Yep, seems like that fight is eventually going to happen. Dany’s fleet don’t have an easy time as Rhaegal is sniped out the sky by Noobmaster69 with a clearly hacked aimbot, sorry I mean Euron Greyjoy. Rhaegal plummets to his death from many scorpion arrows and we see Euron’s ships are full of them. Dany initially gets angry and heads straight for the ship, giving Euron a much easier target than the strafing Rhaegal did, but of course Drogon is protected by Daenerys’ plot armor, so no arrow can pierce him while she is on his back. Dany pulls away just in time and then, sort of flies away and leaves the fleet to be destroyed by Euron. This causes Missandei to be captured (off screen for extra shock factor) and the fleet to be wrecked as the soldier are all stranded on Dragonstone. Euron could have easily finished the job right there and taken Dragonstone, but he has to be back standing next to Cersei in 30 seconds time, so there’s just no time for winning the war right now.
RELATED: Game of Thrones: The Long Night Recap and Episode 4 Preview
Dany is pissed, I mean super pissed and she wants to burn Kings Landing to the ground, problem is that Cersei has filled it with human shields hoping to stop a dragon attack. Dany at this point doesn’t care and wants to burn everyone anyway, she has a total messiah complex going on now, which given what has happened to her in her life is no wonder. Tyrion and Varys talk about this after Varys declares to Dany that he thinks she’s making a mistake. Dany ignoring him, means that Varys is already trying to get her ditched in favor of Jon, who has the better claim and might not burn everyone to the ground to get his bum on the Iron Throne. Tyrion is completely conflicted, and well he should be, since it was Varys who convinced Tyrion to advise Daenerys in the first place. He suggest a marriage between Jon and Dany, but as Varys points out, Jon was raised in the North and likely won’t be into marrying his aunt, now he knows. Varys is on a shaky nail here, but we’ll discuss this more in this week’s Game of Theories, which I should have ready for tomorrow or Wednesday. Oh and Jaime says some hurtful things to Brienne who is devastated and leaves for Kings Landing, now, we are supposed to think he’s going back to Cersei, but I personally believe that was all said to make sure Brienne doesn’t follow him, because he is actually going to try and stop her, or even kill her (valonqar theory is back in play, woo hoo)
We then have my second scene I actively disliked to finish the episode off, with a contrived face to face between Dany and around twenty unsullied, with Drogon keeping back to avoid the many, many scorpions set up on the walls of Kings Landing. For some reason I can’t quite fathom Daenerys thinks it’s a good idea to offer Cersei the chance to surrender, I know Tyrion advised her of this, but it makes no damn sense. What also makes no sense to me, is that Cersei with one stroke of her hand could have wiped out probably Drogon, Daenerys, Grey Worm and those twenty Unsullied, it would have almost won her the war. She could have also killed Tyrion who she already sent Bronn to kill for her two episodes ago. Of course the reason for this little meeting was so they could dramatically kill Missandei execution style and really dial Dany’s anger and blood lust up to eleven.
What’s Next? Check out the preview below for Episode 5.
We can see Jon’s forces have arrived and it looks like a proper battle is about to commence for Kings Landing, are the forces of Cersei going to prevail, will Jon end up having to go against Dany and claim the throne for himself? When will Jaime, The Hound and Arya all arrive in Kings Landing, and what will they do? We’ll discuss what might come next in Game of Theories this week, where I hope to have some guest input from our own Seth McDonald (we rarely agree on our theories).
Till then, discuss what you thought about last night’s episode The Last of the Stark’s in the usual place below, I know I am seeing pure hate for this season in most places I visit, do you agree?
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