By Zane Bixby
Overall Grade: C-
Going into a new season of Game of Thrones there's very obviously set up that needs to take place. Every season we sort of have to do a "check in" on the players of Westeros so that we know they are all alive and to start their plots for the season. Past seasons have worked, past seasons opening episode have made sense. This one? Not so much. To make it clear I'm going to break it down by plot line and in order of success of that plot line.
Davos and The Night's Watch:
This is probably the best or second best plot line of the episode. Davos is probably the most honorable character we have left in this show. But being an honorable character doesn't necessarily make his plot-line strong. It's his interactions with the Night's Watch members that are loyal to Jon still. It's seeing Jon laying on the table and watching Melisandre falter in her faith. While we can see Jon Snow is dead, what happens here to set up the Night's Watch Plot Line and the (more likely than naught) resurrection of Jon works. It sets up the players in meaningful ways, Thorne is very obviously the antagonist with Davos no longer a supporting character to Stannis but acting as the Protagonist in his own right. It's a grim place at the Night's Watch and it's only going to get worse with the impending Night's Watch vs Davos and his Rogues with the Wildlings. But the real nail in the coffin that makes this plot-line so great is Melisandre, for which the episode is named.
Melisandre, for everything we have seen of her, is 100% confident in herself, in the Lord of Light, and her cause. So when we see her stand over Jon Snow's body you can see part of that faith just break. Everything she had set out to accomplish has failed her. So when we get that haunting final scene, it works. Melisandre is broken, and while some may argue that what we see may just be a nightly ritual for her, the facts remain. We have never seen this before and, shock value aside, it means something in the long run of the show. Her faith is being tested, by everything around her, and, in the books at least, this is generally when Red Priest/ess are shown further guidance by the Lord of Light. I believe this scene alone is setting Melisandre up for the arc she will need to bring Jon Snow back to life.
However, the rest of the Night's Watch are the weak point of this plot line. The fact that Thorne is able to get away with what is 100% treason in its highest form with a simple "I did what is best for the watch" is asinine. While yes the Night's Watch is made up of Criminals and more, there are honorable people there. And even if we discount the people that were miffed with Jon for letting the Wildlings through he was still elected the Lord Commander by Majority vote. And even though Thorne simply says "I NEVER DISOBEYED AN ORDER!!!" let's face facts. Not killing your commanding officer is sort of an unspoken order. It's very hard to believe for a second everyone would just fall in line behind him.
Sansa, Reek/Theon, Brienne and Pod:
Sansa has really started to come into her own in the last few seasons. While early seasons we had just a wannabe queen dreamer who couldn't see 2 feet in front of her, she has slowly become much stronger and more "lady-like." Which is unfortunate because of the amount of hardships she has had to go through to get there. This story line, along with Davos' is my favorite of the episode, and only because it contains my favorite scene of the episode.
Brienne is a character that we have gotten to know over the past few seasons. And out of everything we know about her, the one most important fact and characteristic is her drive to serve. She NEEDS to be serving someone. It gives her purpose and drive. It's why when she initially offered her service to Sansa last season and she was rejected she didn't give up. She had given her word that she would protect Caitlyn's children, and since Arya is far lost beyond her knowledge she is sticking to the one child she knows is still alive. So when she sweeps in to save Sansa and Reek/Theon it's a wonderful scene. Should she have been taken down because of the sheer numbers? Maybe. But unlikely. What we know about Brienne is that she is indeed a good fighter, capable of keeping up with someone who was regarded as one of the best swordsman in Westeros (Jaime Lannister.) It's not unbelievable with that element of surprise that she could take a few of them down while Pod distracted. And Pod and Reek/Theon pulled their weight too! Now granted where did Ramsey's "Best" Hounds run off to? Well in the chaos it is believable that they were scared off with their handlers distracted.
Then you have the Oath scene. A great scene for everyone involved. Not only do you have Brienne able to finally serve someone again, but you have the look between Sansa and Reek/Theon. That look right there showed that Sansa trusts him, that she values his opinion, something that most would believe impossible after how wholey he betrayed her brother. Him throwing Myranda off the wall last season was the start of his redemption arc, and I'm very curious to see where it goes. Sansa is really coming into her own as a lady and a potential player in the Game.
Dany, Jorah and Meeran:
This is a plot line I'm honestly not sure how I feel about. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't great either. We were given a few stellar performances and lines, especially from Dany, but overall it was a very checklist style check-in. Tyrion and Varys are still in Meeran watching ship's burn in the harbor (looks like Dany isn’t going back to Westeros anytime soon!) and while Tyrion is set up her to be able to really rule like we all know he could do, it's going to be a hard track to take for him to make any progress, especially in Meeran where it's essentially a civil war between the former masters and Dany's contingent.
Jorah still has Greyscale, no surprise there, but a buddy search with him and Daario isn't the most compelling tale. Yes, we get a bit of "I admire you" between the two but otherwise it was a very bland scene.
Dany however was given a lot of strength here. From suffering in silence as she walked along the Khal's Khalessar. To staring down Khal Moro and proclaiming who she is. All of it screamed empowering woman. And while she isn't headed back to Meeran yet (it actually points to her heading back to Vaes Dothrak to sit with the other Khal Widows) this set of scenes does set us up for her Plot-line well.
Jaime, Cersei, and King's Landing:
"Fuck everyone who isn't us" – Jaime Lannister
Probably the most effective quote to describe the remaining Lannisters. While it's no secret that most people still despise Cersei, and what's not to despise, Jaime has very easily become a fan favorite among people. He has had a good redemption arc from the first season. Myrcella is dead, and Dorne is to blame. And while Tommen may be concerned about his imprisoned wife, honestly not much to talk about with that plot-line other than yup Margaery is still being held captive, Tommen probably isn't going to push for another war so soon after the last, even with his mom pushing it in his ear.
Other than this we really don’t get much out of the plot-line and thus it falls a bit flat. It’s very much a routine “Episode 1 Check In” and Cersei and Jaime pull their weight but it’s too early to tell if King’s Landing is going to work or not this season.
Arya:
Yup she's alive and blind. That's about it.
The Boltons and Winterfell:
This is easily the second worst plot-line of the episode. It exists for no other reason to remind us that Roose and Ramsey are dicks. Something I doubt any of us have forgotten. So why include it at all? It wasted 8-10 minutes of screen time that could have sorely been used elsewhere (I really wish we would have gotten more with Arya.) They could have instead just provided the Lannisters a quip along the lines of "That bastard Roose is making his play for the North through Sansa" and then cut to Sansa and Reek/Theon running from the dogs. But no instead we get to see Ramsey "mourning" over Myranda and then being ever the pragmatist by feeding her corpse to the dogs.
Only to be topped by the dickery that is Roose saying he hopes that Lady Walda is pregnant with a boy. We get it, the two are dicks. If they aren't going to actually add to the plot line let's use the time elsewhere.
And somehow this wasn't the worst part of the episode. Nope that achievement belongs elsewhere. Like.....
Dorne:
This is without a doubt the most horrid part of the episode. Every beat of it makes little to no sense and opens up huge gaping plot holes. But for the sake of this review I'll do my best to break it all down.
We will start with Doran and Ellaria. Let's say, in some off screen experience, Ellaria managed to get the entirety of the royal guard behind her, a SAND (read bastard of the south.) Now yes bastards in the South are not treated at all the same way as they are elsewhere in Westeros but that doesn't mean that the Royal guard is just going to line up behind them to kill the house leader. What makes this even worse is we weren't given a single scene of premeditation. A single scene of proof that Dorne and the guard were upset with Doran Martell. Yes we are TOLD that, but as always with this it's better to SHOW and not TELL. And even if he was wildly hated among his people you can't just go up and stab the leader of a city like that. If that was the case Joffrey would have died much earlier than he had. This scene would have been fine, HAD we been given a single lick of evidence that the people of Dorne were upset with Doran and how he was ruling. Instead we now have 4 Sands in control of Dorne, something that definitely should not happen, and more than likely an internal power struggle headed for Dorne now that the Martells are dead.
And if that wasn't the worst part, let's say the entire Royal Guard WAS behind Ellaria. Well that just opens a bigger issue, why did they even let Jaime leave? It's no secret that Oberyn blamed the Lannisters for the death of Elia Martell and her kids. And if the Royal Guard was behind Ellaria then it would have been very simple to just kill Jaime while he was in custody. Even better they could have killed Jaime AND killed Prince Doran and staged it as Jaime killed Doran to get Myrcella back just to have the Royal Guard kill Jaime in retaliation. This would have cleared up so much, even if it did rob us of one of the few remaining compelling characters of the series. But even this isn't the worst part of the Dorne story line. No that belongs to....
The boat in the Harbor of King's Landing. Obara and Nymeria Sands enter the chamber of Prince Trystane, but question. How did they get there? At the end of the last season when we saw Jaime leaving Dorne with the dying Myrcella it was show to us that Ellaria and the Sand Snakes were all on the pier watching the ship leave, even more proof of this is that THAT SCENE WAS SHOWN ON THE "LAST SEASON ON GOT" OPENING. Okay sure, let's throw logic out the window and assume that maybe those two got on another ship and followed them to King's Landing. This still doesn't make sense. Trystane doesn't question why they are there. Which would mean they have been on the ship the entire time, even though they VERY CLEARLY HADN'T.
Again, let's throw logic out the window and assume they were there the whole time. Trystane still should not have died so simply. It was an unjust death for a character that did not deserve to die. But even with that he is the first heir to Prince Doran. And as we have seen with EVERY OTHER FIRST HEIR he should have had at the very least training in arms. And generally speaking one of the first rules of this is, DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON THE ENEMY. And yet that's the very first thing he does. The scene could have been saved had he actually put up a fight, it would have been more rewarding of a scene. But no, all we get is him turning his back on Obara to be face-speared.
And that leads to the absolute worst offense. Obara and Nymeria themselves. After Obara "steals" the kill from Nymeria we get the throwaway quip "Greedy Bitch." What. The actual. Hell. This was their cousin, their family, and someone for all intents and purposes who was a good person. And instead of giving Obara and Nymeria complex characters with layers that may have actually struggled with kinslaying (something that even Roose Bolton believes curses you and if Roose Bolton has issue with something you know you're an asshole) we get this throwaway line that is supposed the be meant as a joke. It is an injustice to the source material (because by the way Dorne is given a much better presence in the book and Areo, Doran's body guard that is just killed with a dagger to the back, is a Point of View character so where the heck is the respect for the source material) and absolutely the worst part of the episode.
