Game of Thrones: The Long Night Recap and Episode 4 Preview

 

Well, finally we got to see the Battle of Winterfell that we have all been waiting expectedly for this season and I know from social media already that many fans were unhappy with what they got to see, but we shall get there. I don’t think I need to say spoilers are in this article since it’s clearly an episode recap, duh! But just in case, there will be! I’ll get into the bulk of what this all means in this week’s Game of Theories piece later in the week.

So what actually happened then, Cam?

We had a massive big battle for pretty much the whole episode is what happened, folks. Just like we expected it would be. The dead had arrived and everyone was ready to face them. The Dothraki screamers were dispatched with relative ease by the dead in quite a chilling off-screen depiction, and then they advanced on the people who have actual names, that we know.

To begin with, the dead were clearly pushing back the living pretty well until Dany started torching dead man kebabs for supper. The Night King could have chased her off with Viserion, or the threat of those javelin spears, but he didn’t. Oh and that reminds me, Dany really needs to teach Jon how to say Dracarys, as Rhaegal I don’t think breathed fire once. Instead, Jon just flew around not knowing what he was doing for some time. And then we had our first meaningful death of the episode, Dolorous Edd got stabbed in the back whilst telling Sam get up off his backside. To be fair this is exactly how I thought Edd would go, unlucky and far too soon.

As the battle intensified for some reason the dead only sent in their wights while all those super strong White Walker just sat outside waiting for the inevitable win that never came. Maybe they were scared of all that Dragonglass, who knows? Our heroes have to retreat into the castle and Melisandre who seems to just appear out of nowhere like she has been having tea with the Night King manages to ignite their fire trenches, which in reality weren’t that well designed. It was supposed to be Dany who did this (remember Jon doesn’t know how to say Dracarys) but the dead also brought with them a freezing snowstorm weather effect which really reduced the visuals of the dragon riders. It also really reduced the vision for the audience, but again, I’ll get there.

As the fight moves on we see Clegane crapping himself until he sees Arya in danger and then he and Beric, I guess, fulfill their appointed tasks by saving Arya from certain death, which is important. Clegane survives but Beric is stone cold dead. We then had another death as Lyanna Mormont died whilst sticking it to an undead giant. Melisandre meets Arya again and tells her what she did many seasons ago that she will kill people with brown eyes, green eyes and blue eyes and Arya seemingly understanding what she has to do, heads off on a mission.

Meanwhile, Jon, Dany, and the Night King are playing peek-a-boo in the clouds, dragon style. Jon and Night King’s steeds are locked together with Rhaegal dealing quite a serious blow to Viserion, enough to knock off the Night King before he could use that javelin arm of his. Dany is also ultimately knocked off Drogon who is then swarmed by dead causing him to have to leave Dany and shake off all the dead. But Jorah Mormont is there to protect his queen, for now.

Jon chases the Night King who just raises some more dead people to stop him as he heads inside to get Bran as expected. Jorah has to defend Dany from many wights and takes a nasty sword in the stomach. Jon tries to catch the Night King, but he cannot come up against him, with wights and then an injured Viserion standing in his way. As the Night King gets inside, finally his White Walker homies join him on the way to Bran, Theon Greyjoy and his men try to stop anyone from getting to Bran, they fail. As Theon dies quite heroically there is now nothing between Bran and the Night King.

In the crypts where everyone is supposed to be safe, the obvious happens and the dead things in the crypt start to crawl out and attack the defenseless folks inside, who for some reason seem to just scream and run instead of just fighting back. Varys stands in a corner looking at people, for the third episode in a row, but I do think Tyrion and Sansa had quite a nice moment together, with perhaps a little foreshadowing of the politics to come. Then just as the Night King goes for his weapon to cut down Bran, Arya Stark jumps from whatever cloud she must have been hiding in and seems to come at the Night King from about three feet above his head, he turns and catches her and we think Arya may have met her end, then she drops her Valyrian steel knife and stabs him through the chest, killing him instantly. As established last season, the death of the Night King as the first White Walker insta-destroys all the other White Walkers as well and the dead go back to being… dead. It was like Thanos had snapped his fingers in Avengers: Infinity War.

We then get our final death with Jorah Mormont passing as Dany weeps over his dead body. Jorah is a main player, like Theon, but those were the only two leading cast members to perish this episode. Oh no, they’re not (kinda), as Melisandre decides she had enough of this and walks off into the snow and takes off her red jewel thing. She turns into that old creepy lady from Season 5 and then just dies, probably from the cold as she goes naked again. She really doesn’t like wearing clothes, does she? The threat of the dead are over, the living have won and it’s now time to get back to the real villain of the show Cersei Lannister in next week’s episode.

I don’t normally review the episode as such in these recaps, but I think I have to point out that people are angry about this episode on social media and various online forums. As with all media, it’s all down to personal interpretation, I enjoyed the show despite them going with the least favorite of my three predictions of what would happen. Many are disappointed with the Night King and the dead being gone so quickly, and whilst I can understand this, I have my own thoughts on this to be discussed in more detail later.

I do have one actual criticism of this week’s episode and it’s the lighting. It was at many times just too damn dark, without enough light sources to illuminate the action. I got up at 6 am to watch the episode today and even with that level of sunlight through closed blinds I was still struggling to see some of the action. It does really highlight to me that by Season 8, HBO should have really been filming in 4K. Or they should have just used more light or went for wider angles in some of the shots. I have read a lot of complaints about the lighting for this week’s episode.

Remember to check out this week’s Game of Theories (when it arrives) for some real analysis of what went down and what comes next on Game of Thrones. In the meantime check out the preview above for Episode 4 and as always tell us what you think in our own crypts of the dead below.

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