Last Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones was one of the
best I have ever seen, it felt like the two pillars of the series (fire and ice)
where finally getting things done, and instead of politics we instead got some
beautifully crafted action. Usually I recap every scene but in this week’s post
I’ve decided, due to the copious amount of action in this episode, to instead
give a short recap and review.
This post will
contain SPOILERS for those of you
who haven’t seen this episode, so go watch it when you have the time and then
come back here later. Got it? Ok, let’s do this.
Daenerys
V. The Masters
The episode opened with an amazing shot of a catapult
being launched from one of the Masters ships and the fiery bolder as it flies
through the air before hitting the city of Meereen. Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia
Clarke) is on her balcony high atop the great pyramid watching the chaos below
her, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) joins her in her quarters, and he tells
her everything that’s happened in her absence.
Dany is out for some blood, echoing the scenes we seen
earlier in the season of her Father she tells Tyrion that she will burn them
all, but Tyrion has a much better idea. Later both sides meet to discuss terms
of surrender, the Masters think that Dany is going to give up Meereen, but then
us viewers get a small glimpse of a dragon flying in the background, they have
walked right into a trap.
Drogon then flies overhead, landing on the tower behind
them, before swooping down to besides his mother. The Dragon stretches out his
wing so Dany can climb up on his back, and Dany takes flight on her much better
looking CGI dragon. Viserion and Rhaegal also get in on the action as they break
from the bottom of the pyramid and fly alongside their Mother and Brother.
The Sons of the Harpy are at the gates of Meereen
slaughtering unarmed citizens left and right. The Dothraki Khalasar, led by
Daario (Michiel Huisman), turn the corner and charge right towards the Harpies,
killing them left and right. They take the city from the hands of these
cowardly mask wearing barbarians. I understand how this statement could look,
the Dothraki might be barbarians, but at least they don’t hide their
identities.
Dany is current flying around the fiery boulders with her
three children, I can see where the budget went this season, and I love it (I
will try to keep my usual Where’s Ghost question to myself this week but I
better see him next to Jon by the end of this week’s episode). It looks truly breath-taking
as these beautiful creatures manoeuvre through the air.
Daenerys chooses a ship for her and her Dragons to attack
right in the middle of the fleet, which is a pretty smart move on her part, now
everyone can see what this fire proof lady can do if you cross her. The Masters
have no choice but to give up, but one of them must pay for crossing the Queen,
and two of them immediately single the low born one out to take the punishment.
The Master gets on his knees and begs Grey Worm (Jacob
Anderson) for his life as the other two Masters stand beside him. The Commander
of the Unsullied grants his request in one move by slitting the throats of the two Masters standing beside him. Tyrion walks over to the Master, puts his hand on
his shoulder, and tells him to relay what happened here to everyone.
Later in the episode Theon (Alfie Allen) and his sister
Yara (Gemma Whelan) have made their way to Meereen and have an audience with
Dany. Tyrion is talking about the last time he saw Theon (way back in show's first episode), he wasn’t very nice to him back them, and would make a lot of
jokes about Tyrion’s height.
The siblings explain to Daenerys why they are throwing their
support behind her, a surprise the Queen when Theon explains that he is there
to help his sister become the first woman to rule the Iron Islands as Queen.
They will support Dany as much as they can as long as the Iron Islands gains
its independence when she takes her place on the Iron Throne Throne.
Dany wants to know why she wouldn’t instead accept Euron’s
fleet, Theon tries to explain but Yara tells Dany the exact terms that would
come along with her Uncles offer. Dany asks them if they would have a similar
proposal, and Yara tells her that she is up for anything. I love the chemistry
between these two actresses, and I can’t wait for more scenes between them.
Yara brings an honest and fresh outlook to the Meereen storyline, just as
Tyrion did back in season five.
Also during this conversation the characters find out
that the Stark boys aren’t dead, Theon has changed, and that they might
actually have enough ships to all finally set sail to Westeros. Daenerys
accepts the terms of their offer, embracing Yara’s arm, and making a pack
together. I can’t wait for Dany to sail west; maybe she can pick up Arya on the
way over.
Jon
Snow V. Ramsay Bolton
The Stark council meets with the Bolton council to
discuss the terms of surrender, Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) thinks that Jon (Kit
Harington) is there to deliver his wife, and offers him immunity for deserting
the Night's Watch. Why Jon didn’t tell about the whole dying and coming back to
life thing really bothers me here, wouldn’t that fact not even intimidate the
monster that is Ramsay Bolton?
Ramsay runs his mouth off about the traitor houses that
sided with him, and we get to see Lyanna Mormont (Bella Ramsey) do the most
perfect growl back at him for calling her the traitor. Ramsay tells Jon to get
off his horse and kneel before him but Jon won’t do it, instead he proposes
they settle this the old way (one on one) and Sansa’s (Sophie Turner) face just
paints a picture of disgust and loathing. Sansa then sticks up to Ramsay
telling him to get a good night’s as he’ll be dead sometime tomorrow, then she
gallops away from them on her horse, all the while Ramsay looks like he enjoyed
(a bit too much) what she just said to him.
In the Stark camp Jon is going over the battle plan with
his council, the Bolton’s have to charge first as they would then be able to
break the line and circle them giving Team Stark the advantage. Sansa is then
left alone with Jon and has a few words she would like to say to him. Why hasn’t
he used her knowledge of the enemy, she has insight into how his mind works,
and she knows how to use that to her advantage.
Jon apologises for not telling her, I got a hint here
that he was being big brotherly here, and possibly didn’t want to put her
through hell thinking about Ramsay for a few military tactics, but I could be
wrong. Jon then asks her advice, she tells him to let go of Rickon (Art
Parkinson), Ramsay will kill him because as long as he lives he is a threat,
but Jon won’t have any of that. Sansa stresses to Jon to not do what Ramsay
wants him to do and at the time this doesn’t seem like advice but it ends up
being spot on.
Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) and Davos (Liam Cunningham) are
out walking back to the tents, they both talk about Stannis, and the Onion
Knight has to explain that his King had Demon but they weren’t physical ones.
They both talk about how they both got their following Kings, which didn’t end
well, but maybe now it will as Jon Snow is no King (*cough* R+L=J *cough*).
Tormund invites Ser Davos in for a little nightcap, some
hard ale, but Davos turns down the invitation as he can never sleep the night
before battle. Instead he just walks about until he’s far enough from camp that
the soldier can’t hear him going to the toilet, Tormund laughs at this and they
both go their own separate ways.
Jon Snow goes to visit Melisandre (Carice van Houten) to
ask her a few questions, like why wasn’t she at the war council, why is he
here, and does she have any advice for him about the upcoming battle. The Red
Priestess tells him not to die, she’s not a warrior and she does not know why
the red god brought him back. He could have been brought back to die tomorrow
for all she knows.
Davos ends him walk at a familiar little stretch of snow,
is that pile of wood what I think it is? Davos looks through the logs, he catches
a glimpse of something very familiar lying amongst the burnt pile of timber, and
it’s the stag he carved for Princess Shireen. Davos now knows exactly what
happened here, but just as he begins to get angry a horn can be heard in the
distance, the Bolton’s have come.
The fight is about to begin, Team Stark has lined up
against Team Bolton, but Ramsay has one last piece of business to take care,
and that is poor Rickon Stark who is being pulled behind his horse. Jon starts
to get concerned about his little Brother as he stares across the battlefield,
but it seems that Ramsay is letting the little wolf go across the field to Jon.
However there is a catch, he has to outrun Ramsay’s arrows.
Jon breaks rank on his horse and flees towards his little
Brother who isn’t even running in a zig zag pattern. They get closer and closer
towards each other as Ramsay fires one arrow after another, and in true Game of
Thrones fashion, just when you think Rickon is safe, the little Lord is killed
by an arrow right in front of Jon’s eyes.
Now Jon is in the middle of a huge field, he can either
go back to get his forces, or charge alone to take them all on. Jon is angry, I
don’t blame him, but he chooses to run alone towards the enemy, and I’m surprised
that it didn’t kill him. This act forces his army to run and save their
commander, his sister even warned him about this earlier, but Jon was so
consumed with hatred that we nearly lost him again.
Jon’s horse falls before he can get to the Bolton
soldiers, which saves his own life, as he now has to run across the
battlefield, giving his army on horseback time to catch up to him, and saving
him from being stampeded by Bolton horses. Then the battle begins, it’s crazy, there
are soldiers everywhere, both sides fire their arrows but when Team Stark think
they may hit their own men Davos tells them to stand down, as Ramsay continues
to order his men to fire.
We then see the battle from Jon’s perspective as he
dodges arrows, swords, and riders as he takes the Bolton side down. Jon is also
saved on a few occasions, but begins to lose it when his men are falling all
around him. A massive body pile starts to form with people standing on it
trying to fight, Davos then decides that they are adding nothing by just
sitting there so he takes his group into battle so he gets off his horse and
runs in to help.
Jon is trapped underneath the bodies of the dead, at one
point we think he is a goner (when his head is being stepped on), but he makes
his way to the top of the pile in a shot which looks similar to the shot of Daenerys
at the end of season three. Smalljon Umber (Dean S.Jagger) leads his men into
the fight claiming that they own the North, while in battle Tormund saves Jon’s
life and helps pull him out of the mud.
Wun Wun (Ian Whyte) joins the fighting alongside a bunch
of wildlings; the giant easily takes out a bunch of Bolton soldiers, and warns
Jon about the circle of Bolton soldiers that are about to surround them at any
minute. Team Stark are trapped (which to me looks similar to the end battle in
Return of the King), they have nowhere to go, and it looks as though our
favourite Northern side has lost.
Tormund is fighting with Smalljon Umber, our favourite
wildling is about to lose his life along with everyone else, but just when we
lose hope the Knights of the Vale show up, distracting Smalljon meaning Tormund
gets the upper hand, and decimating the Bolton soldiers surrounding Team Stark.
Jon looks to see Sansa who is side by side with the traitorous Littlefinger (Aidan
Gillian), I wonder what this means for the North considering he was sent by
Cersei (Lena Headey) to take Winterfell and bring her Sansa’s head.
I would have liked this to go a bit differently, I would
have enjoyed to see some Great Northern Conspiracy in the works, when Jon was
about to fight Smalljon part of me expect Lord Umber to throw down his sword
and kneel before him, while the rest of his army double crossed the Bolton’s,
but unfortunately I did not get that, which I can live with, but it would have
been a nice twist.
Ramsay Bolton is defeated, so he does the only thing he
can, he flees back to Winterfell. Jon notices him, he wastes no time running
after him, and is accompanied by Tormund and Wun Wun. Ramsay makes his way
inside Winterfell, one of his soldiers tells him they won’t win as they don’t
have the numbers, but Ramsay reminds him that Winterfell is a fortress, and
they won’t penetrate it.
Wun Wun then makes Ramsay eat his own words as the giant
breaks down the door after a few bashes. The three of them enter, Wun Wun is
covered in arrows but they manage to take all the Bolton soldiers out, as Jon
goes to thank Wun Wun the giant is shot in the eye by Ramsay, who now wants to
take Jon up on the offer of one on one combat.
Jon picks up a Mormont shield, deflecting every arrow
Ramsay sends his way, and then he is face to face with Ramsay who doesn’t seem
happy now. Jon then begins to punch him over and over, it’s like he is kneading
bread on Ramsay’s face, and Ramsay begins to look like he is actually enjoying
the pain. Jon then makes eye contact with Sansa, immediately stops hitting
Ramsay, and gets up.
The Starks banners are back inside Winterfell where they
belong, Melisandre is looking smugly from the balcony, and Davos (who is still
holding the stag he made for Shireen) is looking at her like he is about to
kill her. Rickon’s body is brought into Winterfell, Jon tells the men to take
it to the crypts (maybe when he goes down there he will open a certain tomb),
and then he tells Sansa where she can find her husband.
Ramsay is in the kennels, he said previously that his
dogs hadn’t been fed for seven days, so at this point (8 days) they are pretty
hungry. Sansa is watching him through the gate, Ramsay mocks her, tells her a
piece of him will always be inside of her, but she tells him his name and his
house will not live on. Ramsay tells her that his dogs could never harm him but
she tends to disagree because they are very hungry.
Sansa watches as the dogs start to circle him, the alpha
jumps on top of him, and begins licking the blood on his face. Ramsay shouts at
it to get down, but the dog will not listen, and the Lord Bolton is beginning
to sound as if he is scared. The dog lunges for his biting his face, while
Sansa watches from the other side of the gate, she begins to look away but she
forces herself to watch, she then begins to walk away and just as we hear the
noise of his windpipe being ripped out (it’s horrible) Sansa smiles.
Thoughts
and Predictions
That episode was pretty gruesome, I did say I thought
Ramsay being killed by his dogs would be a fitting end as he does hunt people
with them, but I think I need to rethink this whole vengeance thing. The
character deserved to die a million times over, and it would have been a disservice
to fans not to make it this gruesome but maybe I just don’t have that strong a
stomach.
I really enjoyed the accurate battle scenes, the reason
Saving Private Ryan is my favourite war film is because it shows just how
horrible war can be, and this battle was no exception. Commanders shoot arrows
at their own men, there are bodies littered everywhere, and it is not pretty to
look at but it’s realistic (or as realistic as a show with dragons can get).
My top predictions this season have been a bit of a mixed
bag, I thought we’d get Cleganebowl (wrong), I thought we’d get Lady Stoneheart
(wrong), and I thought that Coldhands/Benjen would appear to help Bran (correct).
So let’s talk about my predictions for the last episode of the season, and who
I think will die.
- Tower of Joy flashback will be revealed – I think this is going to happen in the finale but I understand if it is pushed to next season and revealed in The Winds of Winter first.
- · Arya will sail for Westeros/Meereen – I haven’t made up my mind on this one yet, we have a bunch of powerful house members visiting Meereen, but I think Arya will set sail for White Harbour immediately and try and get as close to Winterfell as she can.
- · Dany will sail for Westeros – I think this is far more likely, maybe by the start of next season, but I think the writers don’t want to waste any more time in Meereen now Dany has a bunch of ships.
- · The Harpy will be unmasked – I don’t think it’s Daario in the books, but I think he will be revealed as the harpy in the TV show, maybe it will be Quaithe who was trying to get her to leave Meereen and go east to Asshai.
- · The Great Sept of Baelor will be engulfed in Wildfire – This fire will be much more powerful than Cersei could imagine (the longer it is stored the more powerful it becomes) and the fire will become out of control taking characters out left and right.
- · King Tommen will die – and it will be due to his mother’s own hand with Wildfire. His wife may also die because of the wildfire. Sansa will also die/be betrayed by Littlefinger
- · The Frey’s and Lannister’s will receive a surprise visit by some intruder’s at their celebration feast – maybe the Blackfish survived after all, or Lady Stoneheart will appear to enact her revenge. I’m still holding out hope.
- · Varys will land in King's Landing – and he will do what he did at the end of a Dance with Dragons (subtract Young Griff with Dany).
- · The Wall will come crashing down – I’ve said this since the start of the series and I stand by my statement. I can see that it may not happen until next season, and I know it won’t be the entire wall as they’d like to keep it as a tourist attraction, but at least part of it will fall.
S
What are your predictions for the season finale? Do you agree with my tinfoil hat theories or
do you think none of my predictions will come true. Please comment below with
your thoughts and theories.
If you enjoyed this post then why don’t you try some of
my other posts below.
Game of Thrones: No One - http://mcqsviews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/game-of-thrones-no-one.html
Game of Thrones: Who Else Could Return From The Dead - http://mcqsviews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/game-of-thrones-who-else-could-return.html
Images courtesy of HBO
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