Overall
Grade: B
So, I
think this episode is already showing a clear problem that we will be facing
with the rest of this season. As good as some of the scenes in the episode
were, there was just way too much going on. This isn’t necessarily a knock on
any of the players or the scenes themselves, just that with the lower episode
count for the season, more has to be crammed into each episode to start
wrapping it all up. For the most part, this episode seems like a sort of
continuation of the season building from last week. Characters are still
getting into position and figuring out their paths forward for the rest of the
series, but that plays against the show as a whole. If they wanted to do that,
then they shouldn’t have cut down the season length.
While a lot of the scenes in this
episode are good on their own, there’s a lot about this episode that just
doesn’t flow all too well. And the overall forgettable nature of some of the
scenes dragged down the episode as a whole in my opinion, causing for the B
grade. Other than that, the scenes were a bit jumbled together so the worst to
best will be broken into sub-scenes between the major characters
Dany and
Melisandre
Okay,
I’m not saying this is a terrible scene by any regards, but in the grand scheme
of things it’s just so…. forgettable. But it also plays a somewhat important
part into the episode which leaves it in this weird limbo scene. If Melisandre
doesn’t come to Dragonstone to tell Dany that the world needs the Prince That
Was Promised, which grants a bit of “translation error” to take place, then
it’s unlikely that Jon gets summoned to meet with Dany, at least this soon. I
don’t necessarily have a problem with them retconning the Prince That Was
Promised terminology, but it just feels so forced. Like they are trying to
create unnecessary future conflict. This is, of course, further established by
Melisandre refusing to actually say Dany is that Princess, but only time will
tell what will happen.
King’s Landing
Like
with most of the scenes at the bottom of this list, it’s not really that bad of
a set of scenes, it’s just so forgettable in the grand scheme of things. So
much so, that I actually had to backtrack and add this to the review before
posting it. I really hope that this isn’t a reoccurring theme this season, but
with how packed each episode is going to be, it’s pretty clear that I might
miss a thing or two in reviews as they happen.
Cersei
continues to try to rule through fear (Side
Note: This is something Olenna tries to convince Dany to do and she seems to
ignore her) and the meager group of people in her Throne room seems to indicate
this is a losing battle. The Tarly’s have been summoned to King’s Landing in an
attempt to peel away the Tyrell’s bannermen and at first it seemed like this
attempt was going to fail. That is, until Jaime stepped in. Jaime continues to
prove why I like him so much, showing that he can work his way into people’s
heads just as well as others and also showing that he knows how to work with
people. By appealing to Randall Tarly’s desires, something that truly didn’t
seem to exist up until now, he may have found a way to bring in extra troops in
the war to come.
The
other brief scene that we get involves Qyburn and very obvious foreshadowing to
the potential death of one of Dany’s dragons. He’s completely right of course,
just because they are dragons, doesn’t mean they are invincible, and his
showcasing of the Scorpion is impressive to say the least. But overall, the act
just doesn’t leaving a lasting impression, and I feel like it’s something
people will only bring up in hindsight if his weapon does serve its purpose of
bringing down one of Dany’s dragons.
Missandei and Grey
Worm
Do not
mistake the position of this scene for its quality. It’s an excellent and deep
scene for all that it is worth. BUT, with everything that is happening and
everything that needs to happen in this shortened season, it’s a bit out of
place. While it doesn’t give us a deep dive into how a Eunuch would even have
sex, though I’m sure it involves a lot of tongue, the scene is emotionally
touching and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm’s Actor) does an amazing job of
showcasing vulnerability of revealing his scarred body. In most other
circumstances, this scene could have been much higher on the list.
The
only argument that I can find for having a scene like this present, other than
further humanizing the Unsullied from the war machines that they were bred to
be, is because it’s unlikely that these two characters will ever see each other
again. I know, that’s a huge leap to make, but when you think about the
circumstances of it happening and the fact that this ties a bow on their
ever-growing relationship, it seems almost clear that Grey Worm probably isn’t
coming back from this siege on Casterly Rock. I really like Grey Worm as a
character, his lack of fear speech was incredible and just some spot on acting,
but the red flags were being thrown up all throughout this scene.
Dany’s War Council
Speaking
of the siege on Casterly Rock, let’s spend a short time talking about Dany’s
war council. This scene is a nice little boost for Tyrion more than anything.
It allows Dany to reassert her influence over all of her followers while at the
same time underlining the fact that Tyrion is her hand. I think the reason I
like this scene is because of Tyrion. Had it not been for him, it would have
probably been at the bottom of the list for me. This is mainly because of
Dany’s interaction with Varys. I’ve said it from the beginning, I don’t like
Dany. Her character is very one note and in almost any other case we would see
her as the villain of the story. Her interaction with Varys underlines this
point. She goes from thanking him for bringing the Dornish and Tyrells to her to
immediately threatening him.
Varys
is an interesting character in that he is almost the exact opposite of
Littlefinger. While Littlefinger lusts for power and control, Varys seeks to
make sure power and control are in the right persons hands. That means he is
always watching and ready to shake things up as needed in order to make sure
the right person has the power. So while it’s understandable for Dany to want
to assert her control over him, it comes off mostly as tyrannical. Varys does
get a good counter speech in, talking about blind faith, but this scene just
came off as ego stroking for Dany (something I have made very clear in past
reviews that I think is completely pointless.)
Other
than that, Tyrion is the winner of this scene, showcasing that he has a keen
mind for how the Seven Kingdoms work and also tentatively gaining the trust of
the others in the room. By taking the foreign army and throwing it at his
ancestral home, he’s showing that his only allegiance is to their connected
queen, though we’d have to be daft to not realize that he does hope to regain
control of Casterly Rock for himself. After all, he made it clear long ago that
he believes it is his by right.
Sam and Jorah/
Oldtown
This
scene is disgusting. Like, really disgusting. But that’s mostly cause I’m a bit
squeamish and the actors did such a great job at showcasing what was happening
on screen. There was definitely more that happened in Old Town, but I think the
majority of the point was getting Sam into the room with Jorah in order to
attempt to cure him. There’s a lot to be said about Jorah’s father, the former
Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, that we don’t really get to discuss since
he has long since died. He inspired a certain amount of loyalty and respect
from his brothers that still shows through all these years later. It’s why Sam
is so determined to cure Jorah after hearing his name. I’m not sure if it’s
going to work, but most signs seem to indicate that it will in order to get
Jorah back to Dany’s side and give him a shot at redeeming himself to her. It
will still be a long and painful road if the slow cutting was any indication.
Jon Snow and
Winterfell
While
there’s a lot that happened here, it also feels like very little really got
done. I was prepared for another episode of bickering when Jon received the
message from Tyrion, prepared for Sansa and Jon to be at each other’s throats
and arguing again about the way to take Tyrion’s message and invitation to
meeting Dany. So much so that I was actually surprised when that got flipped on
its head. Sansa makes an excellent point though, their grandfather had been
summoned to a Targaryen, just like Jon was being, and it didn’t end well.
Though it is interesting knowing that Jon is technically Dany’s nephew,
something that only Bran is currently aware of, and it will be interesting
seeing next week how the two interact together in the grand scheme of things.
Another
note that I feel needs to be touched on, is Jon’s tentative kingdom. He makes
it very clear that he hadn’t asked for any of this, he never asked to be king.
And while it seems like he’s falling into the same traps as Robb, he also seems
to have a bit of a clearer head on his shoulders. He knows that he has to
ignore his subjects request because he knows things that they don’t. Jon has
seen the army of the dead, something very few others can admit too, though
Tormund would have been one of them and he is very noticeably absent from the
room (this of course comes back to last week when Jon sent the Wildlings to man
the other castles on the Wall.) What ignoring his subjects does present,
however, is the chance to mend the growing tension between himself and Sansa.
By leaving her in charge, it reaffirms his trust in her, and hopefully strikes
any worry in her mind that he is just ignoring her and doing what he wants.
Now we
would have to be foolish to think this will go smoothly for him, especially
with Littlefinger still lurking in the shadows (pun not intended but I’m
leaving it.) I’ve already mentioned Littlefinger once in this review, and my
point still stands with him. He lusts for power, and the look in his eyes when
Jon names Sansa acting ruler just screams trouble to me. His following of Jon
into the catacombs also speaks to this and I was almost expecting for Sansa to
have been hiding around the corner to witness Jon threatening Littlefinger but
was surprised when this wasn’t the case. The problem stands that Jon still
needs the Knights of the Vale, and for the time being, Littlefinger controls them.
We will have to wait till next week to see if he tries planting ideas into
Sansa’s head, but my bets are on him trying to make Sansa seize control of the
North away from Jon, creating more tension where none needs to be.
Arya
I’m
actually not really sure how I felt about this set of scenes. Last week I
mentioned that it was hard to believe that Arya hadn’t heard about what
happened in Winterfell, but this episode seemed to serve to prove me wrong and
remind us about how big Westeros is. Of course, Arya had heard that Cersei was
queen while she was at The Twins, it seems like something that would have been
passed up there really quickly. So how did word of Jon becoming King make it to
King’s Landing (since Cersei clearly knew about it last week) but not to The
Twins? Honestly, while it seems a bit sloppy, it’s actually forgivable solely
for us to have the scene with Hot Pie.
Now
this scene is by no means perfect and actually exemplifies my point of
everything feeling so rushed. Hot Pie is just trying to sit down and catch up
with his old friend, and Arya just seems to ignore him and eat, eat, eat. Until
of course, that news about Winterfell does come up. I’m going to choose to
ignore Hot Pie giving food away for free, something I’m sure his boss wouldn’t
exactly appreciate, because the following bit of scenes plays so well. Arya had
been so focused and driven for so long, she had thought everything about her
past had been stricken and taken away from her, until she heard that her family
had taken their home back. Yes, she wasn’t told about Sansa, which I think is
leading up to a somewhat emotional scene in the next episode or two where the
sisters see each other while Jon is still away, and I agree with that plan
thematically. That is, if it’s done well.
The
other part of this scene is Nymeria. Last week in my Side-Notes, I mentioned
that I thought it was unlikely for her to reappear after so long, and yet here
she was with her wolfpack. It was a much more touching scene than I was
expecting, with Arya admitting she was FINALLY going home. But if that was the
only time we are going to see Nymeria for the rest of the series, I feel it was
a heavily wasted opportunity. My only hope is that this isn’t the last that we
have seen of her and her wolfpack.
The Greyjoys
I will
continue to give Euron shit for how he’s dressed and looks, because his costume
design is still a bit off, but I can’t deny that this first real action scene
is effective as all hell. There was an innate quality that was super hard to
follow, mostly due to the frantic nature of the battle, but I have to say I
enjoyed everything about it. Maybe this is mostly due to two of the Sand Snakes
dying, characters that some of you might remember me saying I disliked heavily
last season for ruining the Dorne storyline. But Pilou Asbæk
(Euron’s actor) is enjoying the hell out of his character and unlike last week
where he felt out of place, is completely in his element in the fighting scene.
If we can keep him out of the throne room and only acting like a swashbuckling
pirate, I might just have hope for his character in the long run.
But
that’s not quite what steals this scene. Ignoring the forgettable bits, really
I don’t care about Ellaria’s slow seduction of Yara it was pointless as all
hell, the real scene stealer here is Theon. He’s come a long way since being
Ramsay’s toy, but it’s easy to forget that he is still very much a broken man.
The cinematography here is wonderful as you can see his PTSD setting in from
everything that Ramsay had done to him, and that final decision to throw
himself overboard can be felt in his wordless actions. Just like Greyjoy
showcased his vulnerability earlier in the episode, Theon showcased just how
broken he still was, completely wordlessly, and on top of a beautiful fight
scene, it seals it as the episode winning scene to me.
Side-Notes
-I didn’t mention it in Sam’s section, but I was very much
ready to groan when Sam told the Archmaester he needed a new name for his
history of the recent war. Had he said “How about ‘A Game of Thrones’ I might
have needed to get up and take a break from the show for a little while.
Thankfully, that crisis was averted.
-Even with how rushed the episode felt, I wish we would have
gotten at least a small scene with Bran. Something easily could have been cut
out so that we could have gotten word of where he was going or what he was
doing. I’m expecting that to change next week, but it still is disappointing.
-I’m very squeamish in nature, and the cut between Jorah’s
surgery and the pie nearly had me wanting to vomit. Not much of a thought, just
something I felt needed to be shared with everyone. Take that for what it is.
-On that same note, the surgery that Sam was performing
actually reminded me a bit of Qyburn. In a way the two are bit similar in their
disagreements for the Maester’s teachings. Even though he was warned against
his actions, Sam went ahead with the surgery anyway (something we only hear
about Qyburn doing.) The big difference here is that Qyburn was doing it to
sate is own desires, whereas Sam is trying to save the realm and in this
smaller context, the son of someone he respected.
-Also, with Davos heading to Dragonstone with Jon, we are
almost sure to see a reunion between Melisandre and him. But because she
technically hasn’t returned to the North, will it be justified for him to want
to kill her still? I say yes, but it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays
out in the end.
Feel free to follow me
on Twitter @ZaneBixby where I tweet inane things about comics and
other nerdy stuff about my current writing projects.
