Game of Thrones Recap Spectacular! Season 8 Episode 3 - "The Long Night"
A big ol’ hello and welcome to our ones and ones of readers! Well, we’ve all just seen what was possibly the most anticipated event in TV television history this weekend, and… well… how do you even begin to recap it? It seems like a fool’s errand, but luckily for you, ones and ones, you have three fools right here who are gunning to dive into this fracas.
So, let’s do this thing, shall we?
Essie: Immediately after last week’s episode, I started emotionally and mentally preparing myself for Episode 3, because that’s where my level of excitement and dread was going into it. I then did a full rewatch of Episode 2 right before this episode began, and I was already crying by the end of Pod’s song. The opening credits begin for The Long Night and I was about ready to vomit… just during the opening credits. (Speaking of the opening credits, did you notice the trenches they added in around Winterfell? God, I love that shit a tad too much. Anyway…)
My first question to you both, dear friends, is a bit out of the ordinary for our recaps, but it’s something I’m very curious about.
How did you feel going into this episode?
Personally, I’m certain I’ve never been so excited, afraid, nervous, or worried about anything else I’ve ever watched in my life… TV show or movie. I found it amazing that someone as hollowed out and dead inside as I am can get ALL OF THE FEELS about this episode before I even saw a stitch of it. I also felt the world shared in this feeling of foreboding suspense. So I want to know purely about how you felt going in, and then we can have a summary of how it measured up to you at the end.
Jim: When rewatching this episode so I could give my all in this recap (you’re welcome, Reader), I noticed the episode description: “Arya looks to prove her worth as a fighter.”
Understatement of the year.
I was certainly nervous and concerned for all our favorite characters heading into this week but I must confess that deep down, in places you don’t talk about at cocktail parties, I was kinda hoping for a high body count.
Lacey: I also just rewatched, the birds chirping outside my window were a weird counterpoint to the action on screen, and yes, HBO description writer, have you ever watched this show? Did you come here from, perhaps, the Reese Witherspoon & Murder Funtime Hour?
As for feels, there was fear, trepidation, excitement, apprehension, worry for my girl Arya, because normal patriarchal media rules don’t let a newly unvirginated queen live, pre-rage for the possibility of the death of Tormund, and a lot of other things. There were definitely a lot of feels going into this bit of TV time.
Essie: It’s interesting they start with Sam and he’s shaking because he’s one of the few people who actually knows what’s coming. The episode opens with no dialog and just pans around to show everyone in their places. And the first bit of dialog we actually do here is Edd talking to Sam, already annoyed with him. Maybe he knows Sam will eventually be his downfall? Then we get someone showing up just in time for the party. Guess who’s back… back again… Mellie Mel… tell a friend… or, you know, light hundreds of weapons on fire in what is just a gorgeous shot of the blazing weapons suddenly roaring to life. We get a feeling from our heroes at this point that they are ready to take on anything… and we quickly find out how sorely mistaken they are. The one good thing here is that Mellie Mel is the real hero of the episode in that she brought light to what is a REALLY dimly lit experience. So much of what I read today was about how people couldn’t see the scenes. I jacked up my television’s brightness settings and that helped. I rewatched today using the HBO GO app and it looks about 300% better, especially so because apparently my cable company is shite and doesn’t take advantage of the giant 4K TV I have (which I have because I need to escape the horrific reality that is my life in the best and cleanest way possible)… the app does… and it’s wonderful. So, if you want to rewatch, I highly recommend the app for doing so.
15 minutes in and we have the scene with the Dothraki charging and I already can’t even… and I especially can’t even thinking about a zombie Ghost.
An absolutely beautiful scene... and a horrifying one as the lights slowly start to go out and we realize everyone there is now the deadz…. Although some come back, and, of course, Jorah is one of them. It may have almost been better and raised the stakes much more if he didn’t.
So, after that long and winding intro, my questions: Do you agree with my assessment about thinking everyone in the charge died and it would have been a real “OH….SHIT” moment if we never saw Jorah again? Did you think when Mellie Mel said “valar morghulis” to Grey Worm that meant he was definitely dying? Were you concerned more for Ghost or Jorah during the charge? Also, wouldn’t you think Ghost would be with Sam and Edd? What up with that?
Lacey: Big agree on the streaming service having a better picture quality, even on my humble HD screen of a ratio aspect I don’t remember, it looked great on my rewatch. Dark yes, but beautifully so, and the moments of really bright light, via Mel & the Dragons kind of just served as reminders of the darkness our homies were facing this week.
It would have been an oh shit moment if Jorah didn’t ride back, but I also never trust that anyone is dead on TV anymore if I don’t see their lifeless corpse, so I would just assume that we wouldn’t see him, until later, when his Khaleesi has need of him. I still think Grey Worm might die at some point during this episode and I’ve seen it twice, he deserves a long-ass vacation after this battle. And I’m still worried about Ghost, I know that we’ve got a whole lot of CGI budget eaten up by the dragons & the dead, but like, where in the actual fuck is Ghost?
Finally, it’s some toxic masculinity bullshit that made Sam go out to the front lines, he’s not suited to fighting. He’s too sensitive, smart enough to be paralyzingly afraid, and couldn’t even bring down the wight that killed poor Edd. I think it might have been a better move to have him down in the crypts, then do some real heroics when things got crazy down there, but I’m not paid many monies by HBO to make this show, so what do I know? I’ve only lived with these characters for, like, the last 12 or so years. I’ve killed too many brain cells to remember exactly when Essie handed me the first book and said, “You have to give it 60 pages.” but it’s been at least that long.
Jim: I rewatched on my computer and had to turn the brightness on my screen up to full so I could, not just see things clearly, but understand what I was seeing.
Mini rant: HBO and the showrunners can talk until they are blue in the face about how they wanted to convey a sense of chaos and help the viewer feel what it might be like for the characters but the simple truth is - they dun fucked up. Don’t get me wrong, they accomplished all of those things they say they were going for, and did so beautifully, however, when you edit and color grade and then watch it back on a $7,000 monitor and/or TV that they are certain to have access to, and don’t consider how your audience is going to view it - you fucked up. When viewers need to adjust the brightness of their screens all the way to see & understand the action the way you saw it on your high end monitors, which then takes the crispness out of the black parts of your frame - you fucked up.
You know how I know I’m right? Imagine if it had been the sound that was too low to hear and you had to jack it all the way up to even understand what anyone was saying or what was happening. Would we all be like well they were trying to convey that it’s a big battlefield and you can’t hear everything all the time? Nah, son.
This show has BRILLIANT sound design and this episode might have been its best ever in those terms - think about the silence in the first 10 minutes, the distant noises. Perfectly set the mood.
TV is a visual medium and you can’t leave the audience in the dark, literally. Think about the previous week’s episode and how beautifully lit that dark scene in the Great Hall by the fire was. This episode was so epic and had flashes of brilliance in it visually...but I couldn’t tell that until the second time around. On a different screen. With the brightness turned all the way up.
Rant over. Guess that wasn’t so mini though. That’s what she said.
Essie: After the retreat we have the Charge of the Deadz and they quickly run through and over the ground troops, who all seem to be bowled off their feet… Jaime saves Brienne… and then the dragons and their respective riders seem to give the troops a good bit of help by scorching hundreds of wights at a time. The look on Arya and Sansa’s faces as this is happening is wonderful. And the only reason this even happened was because Jon got the script flipped on him… he’s usually the one not sticking to the plan and completely improvising on the battlefield, but Dany is seeing her army get slaughtered and she’s the one who tells him “The dead are already here” ditches the plan, rushes off, and mounts up… Regulators style… only Billy the Kid and them didn’t ride dragons, but I digress. This only gives our heroes momentary hope, though, as they are rapidly getting overwhelmed. Edd is the first one to get got and I was SO sad when that happened, especially so because I knew that the characters who die would increase in import as the show went along. With all that said… questions:
I thought for a moment when the lines got overrun that we immediately lost like six main characters in an instant. Would this have been better or worse? Would it have been more of a “HOLY SHIT ALL BETS ARE OFF!!” moment if a major character bought it first rather than Edd (as much as I love Edd, so I’m not trying to slight him here). Also, why would you meet the Army of the Deadz in the field anyway? Why not just man the walls five people deep and defend that way? I mean, to have that many people get instantly slaughtered, you’re just giving their army a LOT more troops!
Lacey: Poor, poor Edd, but I literally said aloud, “First death, fairly minor.” to which my watching partner said, “Yeah, fairly.” It really would have upped the stakes to have a major character go early, we’re not playing that game, gotta save something for the last 3 episodes, I GUESS.
You have a force coming at you that is unrelenting, can’t feel pain, and essentially replenishes their ranks with every one of your team they take down. Meeting them in the field was such folly. Would have been better to do several rings of trenches around Winterfell that would slow their advance and maybe some covered pits too, but the fighters of Westeros, and even those from across the Narrow Sea, are playing by traditional rules of engagement. We basically saw a 1700s British regiment face off against some Viking Berserkers, except the Berserkers are dead, and you sacrificed the greatest mounted calvary known to man for no gain. Maybe they’ll take some of what they learned here into the next war? This is where my thousands of hours of military documentary watching on the History Channel would finally come in handy, I suppose.
Jim: Olaf, Berserker! I would posit they were outside the walls simply cuz cavalry is (normally) a huge advantage and cavalry can’t do its thing behind the walls. I concur with Lacey’s several rings of trenches defense and as such confer to her the title of General Lacey Organa Tobias. May the Force be with you.
Also, the methods of the day were to march your armies out and die in droves, so the cannon fodder really did their jobs here. Maybe they thought if they let them march right up to the walls that Dany & Jon couldn’t unleash dragon fire without torching Winterfell in the process?
I’m not sure of that, but one thing I do know is they employed South Park’s Operation Human Shield with the Dothraki - that all-important first wave.
And poor Edd...done in by Sam’s inability to help himself in that moment, which only makes it funnier later in the episode when Jon Snow does a double take at Sam, screaming on the ground, yet again, and just keeps on truckin’.
Essie: Not long after The Deadz attack, everyone is forced to retreat. (Again, why did they meet them outside of the walls?) In another gorgeous scene, we see a wide overhead shot of the Unsullied in formation guarding the retreat, and I’m wondering if they had a bunch of extras do that or if it’s all CGI… but I don’t know that I want to know the answer to that; I just want to enjoy it for what it is.
During the retreat, Arya gets a chance to take out the Hound, but actually saves him instead. The look in Grey Worm’s eyes as he’s watching the Unsullied get overrun while he’s yelling to light the trench is fantastic, especially since we know that the Unsullied are supposed to fear nothing. The Deadz have a way of shaking even the most unshakable of characters, and we see that again as the episode goes on.
Due to the Night King or the White Walkers… I couldn’t tell who was channeling Storm from X-Men… bringing in a blizzard out of nowhere, they can’t get the trench lit around Winterfell. So here comes Mellie Mel to save the day, and we get some great subtle acting from Carice van Houten. The shot of the flames burning in her eyes as the trench ignites is another beautiful shot in an episode full of them. And, of course, the Hound enters Panic Mode when he sees all the fire, so we lose one of our heroes for a bit as chaos burns around him, but that burning is keeping the Deadz at bay… for now. Question: Why didn’t they start riddling them with dragonglass arrows while all the wights were just standing by the fire? This seems to be like something that may have helped a bit, you know?
But the Deadz start using their numbers to snuff out and smother the fire, and they are now assaulting Winterfell itself. The tension building when the wights were climbing the walls was just unreal. My heart was beating out of my chest… and my only thought during this scene was, this is going to be SOOOO bad. We get a bunch of our heroes getting swarmed and saving each other (I was certain that Brienne was going to die here when she rushed to save Jaime), and we see Arya go all Faceless Man on about a 20 wights. The look Davos gives Arya after this is almost as good as the look he gives Tormund during his story about killing a giant and suckling at his wife’s breast.
Arya eventually gets overrun (even my Wolf Girl can’t hold off a whole army of monsters), and her struggle is what Beric points at to snap the Hound out of his fugue state. We know the Hound has a soft spot for the Wolf Girl, but does Beric know that this is his part to play? Is that why he chases her? Also, I don’t have any other specific questions here, but your thoughts on this whole sequence?
Lacey: A moment of silence for the bad-ass, super-disciplined Unsullied that were essentially used as cannon fodder. That beautiful shot of them opening and closing ranks to protect the retreat was something else. Also something else, Grey Worm’s intense feelings in the moments before he pulled the rope to create the trench, literally leaving scores of his brethren to die. Hot damn, that was some wonderful work by Jacob Anderson.
Another thing that might have helped, is if Dany & Jon had just brought the dragons down to strafe the front lines of wights with fire, but I digress. The subtle panic in Mel’s eyes as she’s starting to think the magic isn’t going to work this time, is also quite wonderful, when the fire catches and her faith returns in full, like seriously, how does a human fake that? I work in the service industry, so I know a little bit about pretending to have feelings, but real actors create true wonder for me.
I feel like maybe the blizzard was a Night King power, or maybe he & the Ice Dragon were way up high in the clouds, blowing ice fire into them, creating the weather? A friend I was watching with, was like, “Oh, they literally bring winter. This is the winter that was coming.” Which is also possible, I guess.
The women do so much damn work in this episode, Brienne saves Jaime, Dany saves Jon, Arya does EVERYTHING, including pulling the Hound out of his PTSD fugue state. If only Westeros had some therapists to help him with his issues surrounding fire, life in a world that only has fire for warmth & light would be so much easier for him. But as someone who suffers from anxiety, those spiraling thoughts can literally paralyze you, adult coloring books help me, helping Arya be a badass gets the Hound through it. Also, I think Davos was mentally drafting adoption papers while watching Arya fight those dead folks.
But the sequence where we start following Arya was wonderful, the lighting got brighter with her triumphant music cue, we get to see her use the weapon that Gendry made her, and exactly what she was thinking, and how she’d fight with it, it was wonderful. I also loved the call-backs telling us that Arya has been training for this day her whole life. Her archery scenes from Season 1, Episode 1, and her saving the Hound with a perfectly placed arrow. Giving Sansa a dragonglass blade and instructing her to “stick them with the pointy end”. Using her knowledge of Winterfell to flee from the encroaching dead, it was all pretty wonderful.
Jim: To go back to your earlier question, I think Melle Mel’s “Valar Morghulis” to Grey Worm may have been in anticipation of the moment when he had to make the final call to leave the rest of his boys out there to die and cut them off from the retreat. All men must die, indeed.
I’m not sure Beric was conscious of his purpose to save Arya or if he was just trying to inspire the Hound to not be such a Debbie Downer. And damn, if you’re looking for heroic inspiration to get you fired, it doesn’t get much better than Arya Fuckin’ Stark. Amirite, Gendry?
I thought certainly Jon could do a bit more dragon work before parking it on the castle and flipping on NPR while he took a coffee break. But I do enjoy that pretty much all of our GOT heroes are not infallible. From Tyrion’s missteps to Jon & Dany’s impulsiveness, it raises the stakes when you know that no matter what they do, they’re not always gonna be right and victorious.
Essie: Three words: Lyanna Fucking Mormont. This badass gets her own question. Best death of the episode (Beric is the only other one that comes close for me) or best death of the series?
Jim, will you say your boy Theon instead?
(And you’re not allowed to say the Night King here, because that’s a bigger moment.)
Discuss.
Lacey: Ho. Ly. Shit. Lyanna Mormont has been a total boss since the moment we meet her, that she would go out with such power and bravery is no surprise, but yes, possibly best heroic character death of the series. She knows she’s fucked, but she also knows that EVERYONE is fucked if this giant continues to rage around Winterfell, so she goes for it, and sticks a dragonglass axe right in the giants eye. The ladies of Bear Island have a long history of being warriors, but she takes it next level here. First of her name, long may it echo.
Jim: David and Goliath has now become Lyanna and Wun Weg. Teach the children.
And I’m not emotionally ready to talk about Theon just yet. I may have been ugly crying.
Essie: Let’s take this moment to examine the crypts in total. It starts off with Sansa walking down there with a we’re-all-gonna-die look on her face, which, very unsurprisingly, leads Tyrion to drink. And he’s also all butt-hurt that he’s not out there helping. But Sansa tells him what is probably the truth (well, if the writers didn’t go a tad Hollywood with this episode with people surviving, but we’ll get to that), and that truth is that he would be dead. She also tells them that the bravest thing we can do right now is accept that we can do nothing. Tyrion suggests they should have stayed married, and she tells him, “You were the best of them,” but that it wouldn’t work out because of his allegiance to Dany, which sets Jim’s girl Miss Andi off.
Later, after the Night King raises the deadz, ALL the dead Starks come bursting from their graves in the crypt. How is it that NO ONE sees this coming? My thought when this happened, Oh, looks like they went THERE, though they came up short of showing a headless zombie Ned Stark… from what I could tell anyway. Do you think they should have? Why didn’t anyone think this about the deadz in the crypt? Also, if these zombies are punching through stone crypts, how does ANYONE have a chance against even one of them?? Did you expect more from this scene? I mean, a couple people got dragged off and killed, but mostly there was lots of hiding and Tyrion and Sansa having a few moments. Was that the point of it all? Were you expecting Tyrion to do more since it was such a big deal that he was placed down there? Like, did you expect him to think a way out of the predicament… or the same with Sansa? This all just seemed like a bit of a lost opportunity to me, but how did you two feel about all of the crypty stuff?
One takeaway I do have from this episode, Tyrion’s conversation with Jaime in the last episode, and just his non-whoring in general, is that either he got his fill of whores after the whole Shae Incident and/or that he takes his marriage vows very seriously, even if Sansa does not. Your thoughts? This episode was also the most I liked Sansa in any episode AND I think I’m shipping these two a little bit. Do either of you share my feelings about this?
Lacey: Firstly, general zombie rules apply, I’m guessing, and the headless can’t be raised. I’m also pretty sure that the sword that killed Ned Stark was Valyrian steel, but I could be wrong there. Secondly, after the crypt was mentioned as the “safest” place in Winterfell for the 20th time last week, you had to know it was going to come into play.
I was disappointed by the crypt action, we see nothing but people hiding & dying. Sansa doesn’t stick anything with the pointy end, and the usually stupidly heroic in battle Tyrion also sticks nothing with the pointy end. Also, we should have had a shot of that little girl that Davos & Gilly shared a moment over doing something cooler than sitting next to Varys bloodspattered. I feel like any of these things that were shot were cut for time, which is sad.
I don’t think Sansa was talking about Tyrion’s political loyalties to the Dragon Queen, I think she was talking about his romantic loyalties to her. Tyrion’s whoring days are over, not necessarily because he’s grown out of them, but because he’s in love with Dany, who I think he believes is more his equal than any woman he’s encountered before, except perhaps current-day Sansa. And, while Missandei is right, this was a little bit of none of her beeswax. Tyrion married a much different Sansa, and was still banging Shae while she was Sansa’s handmaiden, so the marriage vows were not all that serious. He feels a very real affection for the child Sansa he was married to, and a growing respect for the grown-up Sansa he’s encountered now, but he’s in love with Dany. I think Sansa’s been through too much to trust any man lightly, even if it is Tyrion, the best of all of her shitty husbands, I see her as being a powerful, independent woman who doesn’t need, or want, a man in her life, not at this point anyway. [Ed. Note: So very interesting, because I didn’t read that Tyrion’s in love with Dany, though I’m also not saying he’s not. I also thought he stopped everything with Shae once he married… though he was keeping her around, so who knows? Great take, though!)
Jim: I concur that more could’ve been done with the crypt scene - namely, once and for all, ridding us of the scourge that is Gilly! Is calling it a missed opportunity too harsh?
I was thinking about the why didn’t anyone think about the dead in the crypts and all I could really come up with is perhaps they didn’t really know exactly how the Night King’s powers work? Meaning, were they aware they could just command all the dead to rise without being anywhere near them?
It would’ve been much more badass and stressful if the dead backed our main crew into a corner and Sansa had to stab one or two and Tyrion would be on the verge of being overwhelmed by them until Arya shuts all that shit down. But I guess it wasn’t to be...a time situation like Lacey suggested makes as much sense as anything else.
Essie: Arya’s scene in the library and the subsequent chase scene literally had me sitting bolt upright with a blanket clutched around my face. I thought about three different times my girl was going to get it (even though I picked her in my GoT pool to be the one to kill the Night King… yes, I know). Some great tension and a scary chase, and she is saved by Beric, ultimately leading to his demise, as he sacrifices himself in so many ways and takes about a dozen stab wounds in the process, going so far as to hold himself in an archway to keep the wights at bay, even though they are repeatedly stabbing him.
Arya then gets holded up with the Hound, a dying/dead Beric, and Mellie Mel, who then tells her that the Lord of Light kept bringing Beric back for a reason, and that reason was to save Arya. Does it seem like Mellie knows more than the 3ER (not to be confused with Jim’s rave fave band 3EB) sometimes? She seems to know the future, but it’s unclear whether the Three Eyed Raven does. As a friend astutely pointed out to me last week, it’s only really ever mentioned that 3ER can see everything that happened in the past and everything that’s happening now, but he can’t see the future. Do you think this is an accurate assessment? It seems like 3ER knew enough to give Arya the dagger, and that he knew Theon was going to die when he did (though that one may have just been obvious, and we’ll get to that). But who has more power here, Mellie or 3ER? The Red Woman certainly did more to help than tripping-his-face-off Bran did. She also knew exactly where in Winterfell she would find Arya in the midst of all that madness, just so she could tell girlfriend about Beric and ask her, “What do we say to the god of death?” in the middle of a wonderful hero shot of Arya with Mellie and the Hound behind her, which led to me getting the SUPER tinglies. Just FANTASTIC. I even got a little tingly just typing that line. Do I love the Wolf Girl a bit too much?
A couple things: Did you notice that Mellie was almost talking in the same cadence as Jaqen H’ghar at points? Mellie mentions that Arya will shut brown eyes, green eyes… and blue eyes. We now know the blue eyes, there’s a theory that Walder Frey is brown and Cersei is green. Do you buy into this theory? Do you think that it’s Arya that brings down Cersei based on this Mellie comment?
Lacey: I was trying to lay a framework for Mel being Jaqen H’ghar, but she was at Dragonstone while Arya was training with him and the Faceless Men, so my theory was short-lived. I think her ability to see the future was maybe seen by the 3ER? Like, because she saw a vision of Arya doing this stuff, Bran as 3ER could know that Arya was going to do this stuff? But that he can’t see the future himself.
The bit with her in the library was a tonal shift to almost a horror movie situation, which was pretty cool. Again, she uses her knowledge of her childhood home to outrun death, which is another sign that she was born for this. We call back to her training with Syrio Forel, which is another reason I thought Mel might be Syrio/Jaqen, with “What do we say to the God of Death?” and her time of developing her murder list from the last time Mel saw her, with the “brown eyes, green eyes, blue eyes” bit. It’s possible that Cersei is green eyes, I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point. I also may have talked myself back into believing that Mel is Jaqen.
The Lightning Lord really did serve his purpose, with all his resurrections, the Lord of Light brought him to the right place at the right time, which is like, of all of the gods on this show, maybe the Fire God is the one to bet on.
Jim: I’m not one to make assessments like Essie, but I think not seeing the future is definitely part of 3ER’s bit. They made a point last week of mentioning that the Night King wanted to get rid of Bran because he is literally man’s history which he wants erased.
Big ups to Beric Dondarrion sacrificing himself in the traditional Jesus Christ Pose in the hallway to save Wolf Girl. I thought he’d have something to say when he finally collapsed in the room but we were deprived of parting words from both him and Jorah later on. I thought we’d get at least one final “Khaleesi” from Jorah.
When it comes to Smoke Baby Mama, she seemed awfully sure of herself this episode after so being so spectacularly wrong with torching Princess Shireen and the whole Stannis fiasco. But it seems that Melisandre pulled an epic George Costanza and went out on top. She got several things correct this episode & she wasn’t sticking around to find out if the Lord of Light was only toying with her. I’m Melle Mel and I’m out.
Baller Move.
Essie: DRAGONS ARE FIGHTING!! DRAGONS ARE FIGHTING!!! Is it ever explained what the Dragon Formerly Known as Viserion is spewing… ice or fire? If fire, Dany should be able to absorb that shit, right? I thought for a minute here that Drogon bit Wightserion’s head off at one point, but no dice. The Night King gets knocked to the ground, Rhaegal hits the ground (I thought he may have died at that point), Jon gets thrown, and Dany chases the Night King and tries her fiercest Dracarys yet, but after spewing flames for about 30 seconds, the NK comes out of it no worse for wear, and even has a grin on his face as he readies his ice spear. Dany has to flee.
Jon, on the ground, draws his sword and runs after the NK. The NK don’t sweat that shit, though, and is like “Oh, you want a piece of me? You gotta go through ALL my boys first,” and he raises a whole new army from EVERYONE who died outside and inside Winterfell… including the crypts.
Jon’s literally surrounded, and I don’t know how he even lasts as long as he does before Dany shows up, not to get rid of her other-heir-to-the-throne problem, but to save his life, and then almost gets her and Drogon killed in the process… and yes, I was literally terrified Drogon was going to die when he was covered in wights… much less with Jon or Dany, because plot armor (though I desperately wanted to see if Jon was also Targaryen fireproof in that scene, but while writing this I remembered that he got burned saving Lord Commander Mormont from the wight in Season 1). But she does ultimately get Jorah killed, who goes out the only way he should have… protecting his Khaleesi. Annnnnnd that’s it for House Mormont.
I will accept any thoughts you have on this, though will ask specifically about the death or Jorah the Andal. I found it didn’t carry the weight I thought it might, even though he’s probably the biggest character (debatable with Theon) who died in this episode. Did you feel the same? Do you feel that Dany vowed right then that the first thing she would do after taking the Iron Throne is to establish an annual celebrity softball game to fund a college scholarship in his honor? I mean, that’s what should be done, right?
Lacey: We decided that it’s cold fire, my friend’s nerdier than I roommate had a specific name for it when we were watching, because they specifically use it to blast & break rock, which extreme cold would make brittle.
I am also concerned for Rhaegal, but I’m just going to assume that he’s hurt, but generally okay, behind the lines of the dead until proven otherwise.
Never have I ever seen anyone so down for another person as Jorah was for Dany, that is some legit ride or die shit. I noticed on my rewatch that he hears a not great dragon noise, and goes running off to find her. And, Dany isn’t completely useless in this fight, she picks up a dragonglass sword and fights hip-to-hip with Jorah as much as she’s able to. His death was a little sad, but not unforeseeable. He’s gone out of his way to protect her so many times, this was just the final bit, which means maybe she’s going to need him and have him not be there and have it cost her dearly sometime in the not so distant future.
I called Jon a “true-born son of Ned Stark” when he did the second dumbest thing he did all episode by trying to facedown the Night King in a field full of dead folks. Of course Dany saves him, that’s what you do for for your nephew-lover.
An exchange during the scene with Dany spitting fire at the Night King:
Friend: I bet he’s still there.
Me: But the music cue is triumphant.
Friend: Maybe.
Me: Oh.
Friend: The motherfucker is SMILING!
And scene. Thanks for the fake out show runners & composer.
Jim: I loved the death of Jorah the Andal. This is how it had to end for him, defending the woman he loves. Again, I would’ve enjoyed some final words on his way out the door...something along the lines of “Khaleesi, loving you is killing me!” I don’t understand how I was never hired to punch up these scripts.
Trying to make sense of Jon Snow’s decisions during battle is a fool’s errand but damn, if it isn’t fun to talk about. He’s awfully singular in his focus sometimes but I guess you could also say “what else was a brother gonna do?” His dragon was gone, but hopefully not dead, and everywhere he went were dead people, so he did the only thing he could do, which was go straight at him.
Essie: I skipped over a couple scenes, but I wanted to save this all to near the end. Let’s talk about Jim’s boy Theon and his story in toto. Earlier in the episode, he apologizes to Bran, but the 3ER is not having it. He tells Theon that everything he did lead him to where he needed to be, “home”. Then 3ER wargs into a bunch of crows, but I’m not entirely sure why. What’s he doing back there? I never know what he’s doing.
What was 3ER doing with the crows? Is he even helping at all other than, you know, sitting around doing Three-Eyed Raven things, being bait, and looking chill?
Later, Theon is the last Iron Born standing as he’s making Jim proud and fighting off wight after wight. But the Night King shows up and the party is coming to a close. 3ER has enough Bran and human being in him left to tell Theon he’s a good man and he thanks him, and Alfie Allen’s face in this scene is heartbreaking, and I think Theon’s actually turns out to be the most emotional death in the entire episode. What an incredible story arc for this character, and there is so much to be said about it, but I’ll let you two do that. Please, proceed…
Lacey: Theon’s death was certainly the most emotional for me. After feeling not quite part of the Stark family for most of his life, Jon, Sansa & Bran have shown him that they have always considered him their brother, even as weird as Bran as 3ER does it, he tells Theon that he’s home. It warms my cold, black heart. I can’t imagine how proud Jim was of his boy for being the last Iron Islander standing, and making that stupid run at death. But he did it, Theon’s redemptive arc was so totally complete as far as character development went, it was *chef’s kiss* perfect.
I think Bran warging into the birds (crows? ravens?) was so that he could track the progress of the battle, and more specifically the Night King. His birds are flying all over the place, but specifically tracking the movements of el jefe.
Jim: Imma need a minute. If I was standing while watching this episode I would’ve had to take a knee at this point. My man Theon Aloysius Greyjoy Stark stood tall and made the Iron Islanders proud. That’s not his real middle name, obvs, I just thought it should be for the sake of my sentence.
It was super dusty while I watched this scene unfold, even though I knew it had to play out this way. And though it was honorable enough just to have Theon try to his very last to protect Bran, let’s not forget it also provided a bit of extra time for Wolf Girl to get into position to do her thang to the Night Kang.
Theon - I’m glad I stuck with you through all of Essie’s ridicule and hatred over the years. That’s what pals do.
Just gonna throw this out there but I also follow Lacey’s rule of if I didn’t see someone specifically die on screen, I am skeptical and the very last shot we see of Theon, he is still alive, though certainly on his way out. I’m not saying it means anything...
I’m beginning to think the 3ER has no specific power except that of context. Like a historian, he helps people understand where they are in a particular moment of time and that their actions for good or ill, have now put them in a position to do something extraordinary. It’s a beautifully hopeful thing in a shit show of a world like Westeros.
Essie: And we come to the climax of this super-sized whirlwind of death… and Arya gets the kill. When I heard her bones crunching I expected her to die while killing the Night King as well. I was surprised when she lived, and when she looked at Bran after, I was half expecting him to say “That was awesomeeeee” in a stoner voice…. Because dude did look stoned. What did you think about her getting to kill the Night King? Does this now make her the Prince(ss) Who Was Promised? (And yes, I did go online to look up the prophecy after the episode aired… because, as we know, I am a GEEK.) I’m just going to leave this open-ended so you two can go wherever you like with it, as I thought this might be the outcome all along, just due to the fact that Arya had the dagger that was pictured in the book Sam found at the Citadel, and she’s a master assassin, so who better to take out one person… if you can call NK a person?
Lacey: Like I said, Arya was born for this, and has been training for this fight her whole life. If she wasn’t the best character in the whole series, I’d be worried for her. Bran should have said it was awesome, because it was really fucking awesome. “Arya Motherfucking Stark” was said many times, the world over, and I’m pretty sure it’s the new character name. Homegirl isn’t just a boss, she’s THE boss. Period. No one better. Gendry should take her last name.
A note about Bran, I’ve read that Isaac Hempstead Wright never wears his glasses on set. That’s literally 90% of his acting, just looking around, but not being able to see anything which is, just a big shrug.
I don’t know that Arya is the Prince Who Was Promised. There’s some talk that Bran is, or possibly that the 3ER is actually the Lord of Light. I’ve seen so many random-ass theories and bullshit sexism about this in the last day that my brain hurts. Neck-bearded nerd bois can’t handle her being the hero, so they are working overtime to discount or discredit my girl. I’m just going to bask in the glow of an incredibly well-prepared woman doing exactly what she trained for and getting the job done.
Jim: From. Where. Did. She. Jump? I am always a major proponent of an unnecessary jump like a jump punch or in this case a jump stab, i’m just a little confused about the logistics.
But certainly, who gives a shit, cuz the moment was a thing of beauty. I love that Arya was the one that killed the Big Bad and not just because before the season started I told my sister that Jaime was going to kill Cersei, rip off his face to show it was Arya all along and hand the Iron Throne to Sansa. That batshit crazy theory is still in play!
But I digress. This scene cements Arya’s status as one of the great heroes of all time. Simply epic.
I even typed that sentence while scratching my neck beard.
Essie: So, to bookend this whole thing… What did you think? Did the episode live up to your expectations? Personally, I don’t think anything can live up to the kind of hype it got, and I do think there were a few missteps and a few missed opportunities in here that weren’t fully exploited, and I was also expecting more major deaths, especially so because there were SO many scenes where Jaime, Brienne, Pod, Tormund, Sam, Grey Worm, and everyone else seemed to be up against IMPOSSIBLE odds and on the verge of dying. So a lot of that seemed tame and Hollywoodish to me in a sense, and I feel that George RR Martin, if he ever gets around to finishing the book series, will kill off WAAAAAY more people in the War for the Dawn.
I will say this, in spite of any criticisms I have, I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole episode, and the hour and twenty minutes of it FLEW by for me. It was gorgeous, riveting, and had a big payoff (at least in my eyes). Your thoughts?
One last thing I did want to mention here, especially so in regards to Theon, Beric, even the Hound (who was told a few times that the lord isn’t finished with him yet) and some other characters, is that it seemed this episode, and parts of the last, and maybe even the series as a whole, is one big exploration of predestination and how we’re all pre-determined to be where we should when we should be despite the horrible things that happen to us along the way. It’s a very romantic notion and it delves into a type of belief system that only those with a strong faith may have. It’s about how we all have a part to play in god’s… or fate’s… or the universe’s grand plan. Though, with that said, why did Bran save Jaime in the last episode and tell him that if he let them kill him, he wouldn’t be able to help. I guess he did save Brienne at one point, and then she saved him, but was he that important to the battle, or did the 3ER just share Jon’s opinion of “We need e’rry mahn we cahn get!”
What do you think about the deeper meaning to this show as we enter the final episodes, or is there even one? Does it speak to you on any such level or I have I taken too many English classes where diving into the deeper meaning of the writing is a must?
Jim: I’d say this series is wholly about predestination, but not so much that the players have no say in what happens. Meaning, you can be destined for something (Arya) but she still had to take the steps to get there (go get trained as an assassin). The characters aren’t just meandering downstream, going wherever the universe takes them. There is still free will in there somewhere.
I think.
But what the F do I know?
Perhaps Jaime’s value to the battle was knighting Brienne beforehand and cementing her confidence just a tad more to see her all the way through the long night. But to stick with my theory above, I don’t think Bran knows the future, he just contextualizes and he for sure was on the side of we need everyone we can get. Perhaps if Bran was still Bran he wouldn’t have thought that way, but he’s enough 3ER now to look past it.
And lastly, I want to give some major props to the composer on this episode - the music was brilliant. Even better than the score for Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
Lacey: Firstly, I don’t think Jaime is done yet, he’s got a role to play in the next battle and think he may die taking out Cersei, which is a poetic born together/die together thing. The Hound has got to take out The Mountain in Cleganebowl, so that Jaime can get to Cersei, so there’s that.
There’s a chance this is all a big exploration of the faith of predestination, although, I think Mel says a some point that her visions aren’t always set in stone, or perfect *cough* Shireen *cough*. So maybe it’s more we have a path, and it’s up to us to use it correctly? I’m not sure. Also, the Night King has been said to represent the existential threat of global warming, which kind of makes the US, in its current state, Cersei, who is either denying it exists, or actively not giving a shit, while the rest of the world comes together on it. Sigh. Examining the text for larger themes and meanings can sometimes ruin a thing for me, so I don’t want to delve too deep into this, lest I spoil the last 3 episodes completely by searching for meaning. I’m ruining my personal life enough by doing that.
Anyway, I’ve got to skedaddle, I’m completing the geek’s emotional destruction weekend gauntlet by going to see Avengers: Endgame. Wheeeeee, the tears are just extra salt for my popcorn.
