Still, it would seem this sequences absence haunted showrunners David Benioff and D.B.
The event where the ice really hits the fan.
Granted, this version of the Westerosi Wild Bunch is a bit different.
Then again, who cares about the humans?
Tonight featured the stomach-churning vision of a dragon crashing to the earth never to breathe again.
Witnessing a dragon burn out is the television equivalent of staring into the Hindenburgs flames.
Its a sight almost as unholy as the desecration of Viserions body which followed in the episodes closing moments.
Along the walk, Jon Snow and Jorah Mormont have a heart-to-heart that is plenty overdue.
Its akin to long-lost brothers discovering one another.
Aye, Jorah was the son that Jeor Mormont begat while Jon Snow is the one he wanted.
Its an ignominious end for a great man, something that Jon can relate to.
At least Jeor had justice.
Jon attempts to give the Bear Knight his fathers sword, which is his birthright.
Comparatively, Jorah has an easy one, and he makes it again.
He will never have a child to pass Longclaw down to.
Ser Friendzone must keep to his post.
So Jon must pass it to his own heirs.
These two really are not using their time before the Long Night descends very well.
Perhaps because it is beginning to be the only subplot left.
This is all to say, it is whereGame of Thrones true heart lies.
Weiss, and yet perfectly in keeping with the Martin goal of making fans rue the idea of satisfaction.
Of course Arya does not see itonlythat way.
During their very first reunion this season, Arya begrudgingly asked if she must now call Sansa Lady Stark.
The older girl teased yes, but Arya didnt share in the laugh.
Tellingly, she has not called her sister Sansa this whole season.
Tonight, Arya more than hissed.
Seven Hells, I imagine Arya is not too far pressed away from giving Sansa the Reek treatment.
Sure, she is a damn good assassin.
Maybe the best given what she did to House Frey.
But she cannot see beyond power moves as reckless and as cruel as Walder Freys very own.
For whatever she thinks of Sansa, the Northerners are already growing weary of their absentee king.
At least in their first encounter about the letter.
And to her credit, Arya does have one point: Sansa craves power.
On a show likeGame of Thronesthat isnt necessarily a sin.
At times it can actually be a virtue.
As Sansa says after finally breaking her shell of false modesty, she won the Battle of the Bastards.
In so many words, she asks Arya to bend the knee.
However, desiring power and wishing ill on her brother are two separate things.
Its a grotesque thought and, again, a self-centered one.
Not that it proves ill-prudent.
Sansa is probably right to fear her little sister even before discovering the bag of gruesome Halloween masks.
And frankly, this sequence very well could have ended with Sansa getting to learn about Aryas needle work.
Of course this is a presumptuous reading.
Sansa and Arya are really two sides of the same coin.
One wanted to be like her mother, the other like her father.
They are more alike than they realize.
She also knows lil sis is cray-cray and might gut her like a stable boy.
With Brienne gone and Littlefinger whispering in her ear, does she order to have her own sister killed?
Instead, they will yet have thatThrees Companyconversation and lure Littlefinger to his doom.
Ideally before the statue of Lord Eddard Stark.
With that said, I wonder if the Stark sisters will ever be family again after tonight.
Although Tyrion certainly lays it on thick trying to get it there.
Yet things become less cordial (and more interesting) when the subject turns to strategy.
But I do think this whole sequence is laying some thick foreshadowing down for the end of the series.
Undoubtedly there remain those who speculate Dany will become Mad Queen Aerys III.
Instead, she is behaving like a Targaryen who could fall into darkness.
How do they prevent another monarch if she cannot have children?
Jon Snow, Jorah Mormont, and the proof she needs that the dead are walking are in danger.
And so she does.
Tyrion again perhaps wrongfully cautions prudence.
Alas then that we see the doomed reptile rise from his final slumber in this retroactively devastating moment.
It is Viserions wings that are the last to exit the frame, stage left.
For Daenerys flies as the raven doesat warp speedstowards the Wall and the chilling doom that waits beyond.
The action north of the Wall continued innocuous enough at first.
And honestly, the Brienne/Tormund shippers might have a point.
And why should he?
Sandor couldnt beat Brienne, and it is an open question if he could beat Tormund.
But he would bend the knee quite happily for Brienne, and allow her to be a queen.
Meanwhile, Jon Snows own fate is hinted again.
If it isnt serving the Lord of Light, Jon can still serve his people.
Thoros takes one for the Hound, which is both great and terrible.
As the Hound helpfully reminds Beric later in the episode, This is your last life.
If you kill him, you theoretically can kill them all.
Theyll simply wait for the water to refreeze and harden.
After all, its not like the Children of the Cold have to worry about frostbite.
But what if the Night King was waiting specifically for something?
He needs something bigger to go through it.
Or what if he goes over it?
Flies right to the other side firing buckets of ice, and opening the gate for his army?
Its something he could do very well with a wight dragon, but there are no dragons in sight.
On this continent?!
What if he simply is waiting for Jon also to be rescued!!!
He is the first to die, but it is only a matter of time before they join him.
He shoots the space here with often maximum width and imbuing the frame with funerary finesse.
One by one by one, they approach the bastion of living with the seeming inevitability of Death himself.
Being pulled by zombies toward the ice where they neednt eat him to watch his life expire was horrific.
But hearing Tormund, of all people, cry for help was what really made it unbearable.
For a death far more unexpected takes place if Daenerys dragons miraculously descend on the carnage.
I imagine Benioff and Weiss wanted viewers to speculate that the Night Kings ice spears were meant for Daenerys.
However, I knew upon seeing them it was the dragons whom he wanted.
What I thought we were about to bear witness to was the death of Drogon.
Staying behind while the one who loves him watches on.
Instead, the Night King proves that he is a showboater every bit as uber-cocky as Oberyn Martell.
I always feel for Rhaegal and Viserion; theyre clearly not their mothers favorite.
Then the light in the eyes goes too.
you might see something in her mind sink with Viserion.
A switch gets permanently disconnected.
Its Clarkes finest and most agonized moment onscreen.
Jon gives the Night King a look that promises one day Longclaw will scratch his smug icy face.
But in this moment, Jon Snow appears lost.
There is probably a viewer or two who even believed he was doomed when he plunged into the water.
But the TV tropes start to come not by single spies but in battalions.
First there is the surprise reveal that Jon pulled himself to the surface.
Martin did in season 1.
But Benjen surviving as a Daywalker (or Summerwalker?)
until season 7 just so he can offer Jon Snow a ride is less than ideal.
It can all be a bit tooLord of the Rings.
Im just happy Jon Snow is safe.
So the hour ends on a series of farewells.
The first is between the Hound and Beric Dondarrion.
Like Tormund he was kissed by fire, but he wont kiss it back.
The next goodbye is a temporary one.
It comes as Daenerys allows Jon Snow to get his rest and recoup after the hours trials.
But it isnt before some major revelations.
First Daenerys finally allows herself to crumble a little over the loss of Viserion.
And she doesnt do it before Jorah or Tyrion.
)and then Jon calls her his queen.
All but proposing marriage, Jon figuratively bends the knee.
I imagine many viewers are cheering as the Jon and Daenerys ship has finally pulled into port.
But Id caution to keep a weather eye on the horizon.
This episode highlighted, repeatedly, that she will never have children.
She has been touched by blood magic that has taken that away from her.
Perhaps his job is to also provide an heir for Dany that no other man can?
But as Beric warns, happiness is not meant for Jon Snow in this world.
… And then that final goodbye is to our ability to love Viserion.
This is a powerhouse cliffhanger.
One that reconfirmsGame of Thronesis in its final movements.
Weve been in the third act all season, but now were in a long climactic tension of action.
And it begins with a devastating punch to the system.
Rating:
5 out of 5
