Day 8 : Game of Thrones - Beyond the Wall - Review

This is also an episode that was leaked much before the official airtime of the show. Except this time there was far less restraint from the fans. They all spoiled the plot and the deaths much in advance. I don’t really blame though, it was irresistible. And in all of this, if there really was someone to blame it was HBO. They’ve done a lousy job of putting their house in order this year. Hope it doesn’t get this bad next time around. So without much ado, let’s start with the episode.

The first plot point we have is at Winterfell where Littlefinger works his magic to isolate Sansa. The tensions between two sister’s intensifies ever since the younger sister discovers the other had sent a letter to their mother asking her to convince Robb to bend the knee to Joffrey and give up his title of King in the North. The two sisters are going at it hard. Then Sansa sneaks into Arya’s room to find her Bag of Faces. Arya enters the room and gives her the scare of her life. Sansa now for sure realizes her sister is a murderous psycho and she needs to keep her wits about if she expects to live with Arya under the same roof. She enlists Littlefinger’s help with this. Brienne is sent to King’s Landing to respond to call by Cersei Lannister. Not a good move, kid. 

Then we go to Dragonstone. Last time we were here the group had decided to capture a wight as proof to present Cersei to enroll her help fighting the Night King. Now however, Tyrion counsels Daenerys about her upcoming negotiations with Cersei. There is a little yap yap about Dany’s little crush on Jon. But all fun is sucked out of the room the moment Tyrion mentions succession. Dany’d said multiple times before in the show how she was prophesized to never bear any children. And Tyrion being the diplomat he is, is mindful of the transfer of power. Dany now rulers a substantial chunk of land in both Westeros and Essos. It would all turn to rot, if there is no one to take charge of her mission, somebody who shares the same moral compass as her. 

And then comes the main event of the whole episode. We are taken beyond the Wall, Jon leads a raiding party of people who have clear reasons to hate each other. But their shared hatred/fear of the Night King has brought them together. There is a lot of male bonding between them. The Hound and Tormund’s is the best. I would pay to watch a buddy cop movie with these too. After successfully capturing a wight, the group is besieged by the White Walker army around a small rock surrounded by an ice-capped lake. They also discover that when you kill a Walker, all the wights he’d turned also die. (loophole!) But right now they have bigger worries to take care of. Like how to get off that rock alive, and with that wight they’d captured. Jon sends Gendry to Eastwatch and send a raven to Daenerys to request for help. Thoros freezes to death out there on the rock, this means this is the last life for Beric Dondarrion. There is an amazing battle sequence which has Daenerys arrival and her saving most of the group with the help of her dragons. The Night King, jerk, throws an ice spear at Viserion, one of Daenerys' dragons, and kills it. Daenerys reluctantly flies off, along with the raiding party, but is unable to save Jon who till the very end is still flaying his Longclaw around chopping wights. Out of the blue, Benjen Stark arrives and sacrifices himself to allow Jon to escape on his horse. When Jon and Daenerys are reunited, Jon pledges himself and the North to Daenerys as Queen.

The Night King resurrects Viserion, making the dragon a part of his army. This was the highlight of the whole episode. The Others now have a dragon on their side. And it definitely doesn’t look like a fluke. The Night King clearly knows what he’s doing, he was waiting for and luring in the dragons. Notice the three spears, the iron chains, and the nice spot he got the Suicide Squad cornered? This was all pre-planned. He didn’t get the sweet job like leader of an undead army for nothing. He is a badass!

Day 3 : Game of Thrones - Dragonstone - Review

Winter has finally come, and none too soon. All the key players are where they are destined to be, including White Walkers. All the pieces are in place, things are happening all over the Seven Kingdoms and beyond. The excitement is palpable. 

So without much ado, lets get into details. (Obviously, spoilers ahead!)

You've been warned

The episode starts with a cold open in the Twins with Frey clan assembled for a feast, which Lord Walder himself starts by saying seems to be quite uncommon. They’d just had a feast when they’d recaptured Riverrun from Blackfish at the end of last season. That in itself should have ticked off your spidey-senses. It would have been justified. It was Arya all along, putting a glorious vicious end to House Frey lineage. With Sansa destroying the male line of House Bolton last season and Arya swiftly doing away with all of the Frey men in just the first five minutes of season 7. The time of cruel men in Westeros seems to have come to an end. If nothing else is to happen this episode, I’ll be just fine. Watching dead Freys are always satisfying enough.

Then comes the awesome theme of the show which obviously no true fan would ever skip. (Don’t even think of it!)

We are then shown a screen of all white, and cold, and ice. We are now obviously somewhere North, maybe beyond the Wall. But there is nothing discerning in the screen yet. Then we see a big storm approaching. It gets wilder and thicker each second, making you feel a bit uneasy. Again with just cause. That right there is the Night King approaching with his army of the Wights, only this time there are Giants in it. You recognize that one of them is Wun Wun. But he was supposed to have been killed in Winterfell. Have the Others already come over the Wall? Then shot back to Bran doing his white eye thing. Frigging Bran. He is with Meera, waiting to pass through the Wall. Initially skeptical Lord Commander Dolorous Edd lets him through. Good on you, Edd.

Then comes the moment we had all been waiting for, our favorite character. Lyanna Mormont. Sure, we are in Winterfell and that means Jon Snow and Sansa and Littlefinger are around. But honestly who even notices them when Lyanna is in the same room. And she is just as sharp as ever. Teaching honor and duty to Lords three times her age. Lovely kid. There is conflict between the Lords, and the monarchs on how to handle the Karstarks and Umber who had sided with the Boltons in the Battle of the Bastards. But Jon being Jon, forgives them gets them saying sons should not be held accountable to the sins of their fathers (*cough* Rhaegar Targaryen)

We then find Cersei and Jaime having their own little predicament. They have enemies riding towards King’s Landing from every direction. With the demise of Houses Frey and Bolton. They suddenly seem to have become short of allies. They have already made enemies of Dorne and Tyrells. Winter is here. And they can’t really ask their men to fight for them if they cannot feed them at the bare minimum. But Cersei seems to think she has the solution to all of this. Enter Euron Grejoy, the King of Iron Islands. Last season he was of the mind to come to Westeros to get with the Dragon Queen with all of her dragons. But since his niece and nephew beat him to it, he has to make to with just ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ (!) Cersie obviously declines the proposal. But Euron promises to win her heart with a precious gift when he next visits the capital. (please don’t be the Imp, please don’t be the Imp.)

Amidst all this we get a glimpst of the Good Clegance – The Hound. Just as last season he is still going through an identity crisis. But being brash and violent about it nonetheless. He also gets a look into the Night King’s army in Thoros of Myr’s flames. Just to put things into perspective for the big guy.

Then comes our favorite couple, Sam and Gilly. They are both in Oldtown, now that Sam Tarly is training to be a Maester which apparently is just like any lousy internship in our little world. He spends his days cleaning bedpans, serving sludgy stew and collecting library books to stow away. He also has to take care of the sick, who the masters look after and utilize in their medical studies. One such subject is our old friend from Bear Islands, Jorah Mormont, still hung up on his dragon queen. All Sam wants to do is get into the restricted section and get his hands on books on the Others. Not many in the Citadel believes his story about the walkers, these Oldtowners are a suspicious lot. He eventually does get his hands on (steals/borrows) a book where he learns that Dragonstone, Stannis’ one-time headquarters is built on top of a mountain of Dragonglass. Just what Jon needs to fight the Walkers. Hurray.

Well that’s not going to be as easy. As we get to know from the climax scene of the show. Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons <breather break> has FINALLY reached Westeros after six darn seasons! She, as has become custom in GOT, gets the last shot in the episode.

It was a good episode. It is clearly a build-up, just to show where everyone is at. But now that it is out of the way. The only thing left now is WAR. 

With just over a dozen episodes left in the series. I only wish they'd get on with it already!!