By Zane Bixby
Overall Grade: B-
“No One” is by all means a strange episode, and one that could have theoretically worked under different circumstances. But as we near the end of the season this episode felt more like an episode stalling for time than something that would really add meat to the story. While thematically many aspects are carried between the stories, none of them seem to carry the weight that would drive a watcher to become invested in the outcomes. It becomes increasingly disturbing when some aspects of the book are thrown out the door in lieu of different interactions and it comes into question whether certain scenes were put into motion just to pull the rug out under book readers, but more on that later.
There really isn’t anything I’d consider a “best” scene in “No One” but I will rank them from worst to first as I believe they are.
Riverrun:
Jaime as a character, on the show at least, has always been able to be characterized by his undying love for Cersei. And this has been something book readers have scratched their heads at in these later seasons. The entire point of Jaime going to Riverrun in the books, served to isolate him from Cersei and allow him to continue to be disillusioned by what she had become. And while some thought it was possible the show was heading that way, this episode completely crushes that concept with Jaime and Edmure’s discussion. And while we do get what could be considered a touching scene between Brienne and Jaime it all feels sloppy.
Jaime knows that Brienne is in Riverrun when he sends Edmure to the gates, he knows what Brienne is attempting to do with the Blackfish and the army barricaded in the castle. We also know the level of respect that Jaime has for Brienne and the fact that, regardless of what Brienne tells the Blackfish, Jaime and Brienne are indeed friends. So everything here feels cobbled together and sloppy, right up to the Blackfish dying off screen. It’s actually a bit sad to see that particular fact be wasted when he could have served as a tactical mind for Sansa and Jon Snow had he just headed North with them. Although had Jaime been looking off over the Ramparts and saw Brienne, Pod, and the Blackfish sailing off it might not have been as pleasant of a wave goodbye.
Hopefully this small showing of friendship is setting up for them to one day be on the same side again but that’s not today.
Arya:
I didn’t want my suspicions to be true. Hell after I submitted last week’s review I had about half a dozen ideas of what Arya actually could be up to that lead to the events in that episode. The internet blew up in a storm with theories like, it wasn’t actually Arya. Or, Arya planned being stabbed to lure the Waif in. Each theory seemed possible or even probable but this week’s episode tosses them all out the window. Arya did indeed apparently lose half her memories of how the faceless men work and just happened to get caught by the waif. And while the scene with Lady Crane was touching most of us could guess the one and only way this would end, with Lady Crane dead and Arya and the Waif battling it out.
Yet it all felt so……. underwhelming. Near the end when Arya is leading the Waif toward where she has needle hidden was an almost predictable chase scene (punctuated by the fact that Arya’s big jump was already on display in the previews of this episode) but also by the fact that many of us knew Arya wouldn’t just be killed off, especially off camera this late in the game. So the slow pan through the House of Black and White felt like an unnecessary time killer that existed just to issue a small sensation of doubt in the viewers.
And the entire concept Jaqen pushes forward that Arya now truly is no one lacks any source of credibility. There was nothing that would lead us to this point of contention and it was a foregone conclusion that Arya would shun that instantly. This entire season, Arya’s storyline has been simultaneously all over the place and nowhere at all. But the point behind all of it was that for so long now Arya had lived under different identities, never getting to be herself. So that small declaration of who she is left me with a little hope. The Starks may have received the short end of the stick for a long time now, but now they are fighting back and reclaiming who they are.
Meeran:
Did anything really happen here this week? Yes, we got to see Varys leave Meeran for some unexplained reason, well mostly unexplained, he did mention needing allies in Westeros. Yet we already know that Yara and her portion of the Iron Fleet are on their way to Meeran anyway. While this requires a certain level of Meta Knowledge of the show it felt like a haphazard way of separating Varys from Tyrion to put him in the uncomfortable spot of talking with Grey Worm and Melisandei. And while their conversation was a bit fun, it lacked a certain amount of depth that we should come to expect from an episode this late in the season.
All of this comes to and end pretty quickly when it’s revealed that the Masters were attacked Meeran, against the deal that they had struck with Tyrion. Had this entire story arc been handled a little differently it could have been called amazing. Like I said, it requires a certain level of meta knowledge of the show but we already KNOW that the Iron Fleet was on its way to Meeran, and while we could argue that it still should take them a while to reach it, this season has been all over the place with how long it takes people to travel anywhere in this world. So had the Masters been attacking the city when suddenly they were flanked by the entirety of the Iron Fleet it would have provided for a wow factor that Dany making her “Grand Reentrance” just failed to do.
I know that Daenerys is a huge fan favorite, and Emilia Clark does an amazing job of bring the character to life. But she has been so under used and INCORRECTLY used since she stepped out of the flames again that it is rather disappointing. The cherry on top of the sundae appears at the end of their scenes this episode. When she walks in, Drogon flies away (we don’t even get to see a small bit of him shooting fire at the ships attacking Meeran in the background), and she says….. nothing. Absolutely nothing. Instead the scene cuts away and we are given no further knowledge this week of what is happening.
King’s Landing:
After last week started to iron out the plot of what was actually happening I became a bit more excited. With Sandor back running around it seemed likely that we were going to get the Cleganebowl. We were going to get this epic battle many of us have waited years to see. This episode (in more ways than one but more on that later) is the hype killer.
With a particularly short-sighted maneuver by Cersei, the Mountain reveals his true strength (which again these people should already know because THEY KNOW WHO THE MOUNTAIN IS) to the faith militant. This is easily the catalyst that drives Tommen to decree that Trial by Combat is now outlawed. With that one sentence the hopes and dreams of many of us were left slaughtered in the deepest hollows of King’s Landing. Yet it doesn’t make this set of scenes completely terrible. While Kevan Lannister deals a pretty despicable blow to Cersei, ordering that she must stand in the gallery with the other “ladies of the court” we know that Cersei is never one without a backup plan. And while we never hear what the “rumor” that Qyburn was investigating for Cersei, it’s pretty easy to guess based on the context.
Those of us who know the book have also heard the “Mad Queen” theory revolving around Cersei. The concept that she will do what the Mad King never did, burn King’s Landing to the ground. The rumor that Qyburn could have, and by context clues WAS, investigating. Were the sources of a large amount of Wildfyre in the capital. While the rest of this episode left disappointment around many of the turns hopefully this is one that won’t.
Sandor Clegane:
I was actually hard pressed to put this as the “best” part of the episode. And in most matters it is because it’s the least bad part of the episode. At the end of last week we knew that Sandor would be on a revenge trip to avenge Ray and the rest of the folks building the Sept. But this is all handled with a pace that is disappointing in many ways than one. We get to see him take out a small band of the group with a quickness that lacks any believability. Three of the men saw him approach and instead of grabbing their weapons they just…. let him kill them all off. While I get that Sandor is a bad ass this lacks so much believability it actually hurts.
But where this set of scenes becomes even further disappointing is when he finds the rest of the brotherhood. Many book readers have been eagerly waiting a reveal of SOME KIND of Lady Stoneheart, and the reintroduction of Baeric and Thoros of Myr was the perfect opportunity to do this. Yet as he stumbles upon this group, coincidentally about to hang the last of the “traitors” that attacked the sept, she is nowhere to be seen. And thus this episode could easily be retitled from “No One” to “Hype Killer.” While it’s possible that Lady Stoneheart will be revealed at a later episode, it seems highly unlikely to introduce her at a point so separated from where she should have been according to the books.
While it is nice that someone other than Jon Snow and his wildlings are concerned about what is happening to the North this set of scenes and the entire episode leaves a rather bad taste in the mouth that has been absent for the majority of this season. For now I’ll hold out hope, especially with the long awaited BastardBowl happening definitely in the next episode, so at least that hype train is still on it’s tracks.
About Last Week…..
- Literally the moment after I submitted my review last week I started discussing with some friends every possible theory that could be true regarding Arya. And each one of them was wrong. The writers just decided to make Arya act stupider just to justify the course of actions from last week’s episode.
- I mentioned last week how I was glad we skipped Meeran and Daenerys’ scenes last week and I almost wish we would have skipped them this week too. The writers haven’t really seemed to figure out what they are doing here and it is really taking a toll on the overall excellence of what the scenes could be. I understand they wanted to give Daenerys a big reentry scene to her council but it felt so underwhelming that it bordered on completely disappointing.
- Another this I mentioned last week was how it was completely impossible for Euron to build a thousand ships in any semblance of time that would make sense. It’s been a few weeks since we have seen him now and I have a sinking feeling that the next we see him he’s going to have a large number of those ships built and ready, which would require a HUGE suspension of disbelief. While this is to be expected in a show with magic and monsters, the suspension has to be bordered by genuinely good scenes to distract us from this. Right now the show isn’t providing us the scenes that would make this okay, hopefully it course corrects with these next two episode to end the season strongly.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter @ZaneBixby, I try to tweet during the show but often get to distracted or caught up in what’s happening. I also tweet about gaming news and complain about League of Legends eSports!
