We may have defeated them, but we still have us to contend with.
So says Tyrion Lannister regarding the plight that faces the people of Westeros and the show that chronicles them. Yes, the dead are no more. But will the living choose to exist together as one? Or will they return to killing each other as they always have?
These questions haunt this weeks episode, titled The Last of the Starks. Written by co-creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss and directed by series mainstay David Nutter, it starts of in a celebratory mood, as the survivors of the Battle of Winterfell bid farewell to their fallen comrades and then drink and screw themselves into a stupor. But it ends with the gloomy, gut-wrenching prospect of even worse horrors to come because this time, the killers will be humans.
Game of Thrones Close-Up: Lesser of Two Evils
'Game of Thrones': Hear Composer Ramin Djawadi's Triumphant Song 'The Night King''Game of Thrones' Close-Up: To Kill a King18 Great Bruce Springsteen Collaborations25 Songs That Are Truly Terrifying
The hour-plus begins with the exhausted veterans of last weeks apocalyptic battle burning their dead in pyres. Theres something beautiful about Jon Snows eulogy here, in that he delivers it like its a call to arms. In a way, it is. Wracked by grief and loss to the point of sounding angry, hes effectively begging the disparate forces gathered together to remember what these men and women died for. Its some of Kit Haringtons most inspiring work.
After that? Party time! The long celebration sequence that follows the funeral ceremony comes across like a one last kegger before college teen-movie thing, with various characters opening up, hooking up or breaking up depending on the pair in question.
Arya Stark, for example, lets her one night stand Gendry now officially Lord Baratheon of Storms End thanks to Daenerys down easy. She cant be his lady, because shes never been a lady at all. The youngest Stark chooses to ride south with the Hound to cross the last names off their respective lists. (Cleganebowl is coming!) At least Sandor has a chance to reconnect with Sansa Stark, the little bird hed tried to save long ago, before he departs.
Elsewhere, Jaime Lannister fills up on liquid courage and finally makes a move on the one woman who truly sees him for who he is: Ser Brienne of Tarth. Hes never slept with anyone other than his sister. Shes never slept with anyone at all. The heat that results even reduces poor Tormund Giantsbane to tears. (He cheers up the moment a Northern girl looks his way, however.)
To the extent that theres dissension in the ranks, it centers on Jon and his Dragon Queen. Daenerys knows his sister Sansa doesnt trust her. She also knows that if he tells her shes not his kin at all, because hes actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and thus the rightful Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, that mistrust will only deepen. Jon and Bran tell the Stark sisters the truth. And over their objections, the Queen of Dragons commands the Northern army to join the march on Kings Landing, to defeat Cersei once and for all.
As Dany takes to the skies with her dragons and Jon rides south with the armies, Jaime elects to stay in the North with Brienne. Why not? She loves him, he loves her and he and his brother Tyrion have bought themselves a little insurance against their old pal Bronn by promising to make him Lord of Highgarden if he refuses Cerseis order to murder them. Its all rather cheery.
Of course, the mood changes a bit when the dragon gets shot out of the sky.
No sooner does Danys fleet swing around her ancestral home of Dragonstone than Euron Greyjoy lets fly with the biggest scaled-up crossbow the world has ever seen. The bolt that pierces Rhaegal takes the beast down in a gurgling gusher of blood; they then turn on the Targaryen fleet, smashing its flagship to smithereens. A weapons-eye-view shot as the pirate king switches targets from the sky to the sea provides the ambush with a dark oh shit! thrill on the level of the army of Mordor rolling out that big-ass battering ram in The Return of the King.
From that point forward the episode is one long anxiety attack. Dany and her council debate whether to sack Kings Landing outright. Tyrion and Varys debate whether to cast her aside and raise up Jon in her place to avoid further slaughter. In the North, Sansa sneers at her rivals misfortune, while Jaime abandons a devastated Brienne to ride to his sisters aide, convinced in the end that hes as irredeemable as she is.
Over it all hangs the threat of Missandei, one of the best and brightest people in the whole World of Ice and Fire; shes been taken captive by Cersei, one of the worst. This seedy, almost noirish atmosphere of secrets, skullduggery and cold-blooded murder provides a grim counterpoint to both the cheerfulness of the opening half and the operatic horror of last weeks battle.
When Daenerys and her forces come to parley with Cersei at the city walls, they find Khaleesis right-hand woman at the walls edge, awaiting execution. Unless the Queen of Dragons surrenders immediately, her closest friend and advisor will die on the spot. So they learn from Qyburn, the creepy Hand of the Queen. With a dazzling sunlit backdrop, the mad maester talks to his counterpart the Imp about the sound of children burning alive like its an annoying song that gets stuck in your head rather than a war atrocity.
In a last-ditch effort to keep the peace, Tyrion risks the arrows of the Lannisters hired soldiers and pleads directly to his sister in the name of her unborn baby. (Cersei had told Euron the baby was his; hes gotta be wondering how word traveled this fast.) But in this contest of wills there can be no bargain.
Offering Missandei a chance to deliver her last words Dracarys, she defiantly growls the Lion Queen signals to Gregor The Mountain Clegane. He takes the prisoners head off with a stroke and sends both Grey Worm and Dany into paroxysms of grief and rage.
Only two more episodes remain. The show has a visual confidence that seems way more impervious to criticism than dragons are to scorpion bolt, with last weeks symphony of flame and darkness replaced by madness in broad daylight. It hasnt missed a step thematically, moving from humanitys need to stop killing itself and face a common threat to its compulsion to annihilation even after seeing what it can accomplish as a united front. And as two Queens threaten to destroy everything around them, the focus is on individual relationships: family, friendship, love. Thats how you play the game.
Previously: The Battle of Winterfell