GAME OF THRONES (S8E04) : "The Last of the Starks"

Summary
This episode begins with a funeral for all the dead who fell in the previous epic episode "The Long Night." We see all the survivors, looking sombre, about to set alight the pyres of their friends, lovers, brothers, sons, fathers, etc. However, afterwards, we see a huge feast occurring in the great hall of Winterfell, with everyone  (except Arya, who is called "the hero of Winterfell" in her absense) drinking and eating and making merry. Everyone in attendance is happy except for Dany, who notices how people seem to gravitate around her nephew/lover Jon Snow, even though an objective analysis would show that he did not acquit himself with much impact in last night's battle between the living and the dead. You can see the realization on her face that she could very well lose her claim to the Iron Throne to this guy. So she calls out Gendry Rivers, gets him to confirm in front of everyone that he is indeed Robert Barratheon's "bastard son" and declares that he is now Gendry Barratheon, Lord of Storm's End (the Barratheon homestead). It's a nice moment and everyone in the hall applauds the new Lord's good fortune. Lord Gendry, continues his search for Arya, who he finds alone, practicing her archery marksmanship. Being the silly dude he is, Gendry gets on one knee and asks Lady Arya Stark to marry him. She lets him down easy. "You will make a great Lord and you deserve to have the love of a great Lady. But I am not a lady. I never was, and I don't intend to be." Although we see the end of one couple in this episode we also see the consummation of the relationship between Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth, two episodes after he knighted her in "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

The title of this week's episode is "The Last of the Starks," presumably because of the scene with Jon, Sansa, Arya and Bran (the four surviving Stark children) meeting in the Weirwood, where Jon defies Dany (as everyone knew he would) and reveals the secret that only 4 people in the world know: his real name is Aegon Targaryen, so in fact he is not their adopted brother, he is their cousin (the son of their father's sister Lyanna Stark). Before he tells them he makes them swear not to reveal what he is about to say and then he tells Bran "tell them everything." Curiously, the reveal happens off-screen, as does the second reveal when Sansa tells Tyrion, who has come to try and convince the Lady of Winterfell to trust in his judgment that the Dragon Queen will be a just ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. "What if there were someone else?" Sansa asks him.

This cuts to the first of two pivotal scenes where Tyrion and Varys debate who should be the ruler of Seven Kingdoms that would benefit the most number of people. Tyrion, as one would expect from the Hand of the Queen, makes his case for Daenerys, while Varys, who having reached the inner corridors of power without ceding his connection to the common folk, wonders aloud if it wouldn't be better to have someone sit on the Iron Throne who has to be convinced to do it, instead of someone who believes it is their (her!) birthright. It's an interesting philosophical question which has echoes of modern day politics.

However this is a brief respite from the mayhem of the rapidly approaching battle for the Iron Throne. Many of our heroes set off by ship and Dany and her dragons are flying above them. Suddenly they are ambushed by Euron's fleet of ships and we see huge flying spears whizzing through the air, barely missing Dany on Drogon and connecting with Rhaegal in the wing. Two more spears come by and they catch the dragon in the throat, and he falls into the ocean, suddenly dead. Could Drogon and Dany be next? Happily they survive but it means that Dany is now down to one dragon. The new weapons by Qyburn not only can take dragons out of the sky, they can blast ships from several hundred feet away as well. Tyrion and Grey Worm barely survive and it turns out that Missandei is captured by Euron's company.

The inevitable showdown between Dany, Varys, Grey Worm, Tyrion outside of the walls of King's Landing as they watch Cersei, Qyburn, Euron, and a captured Missandei occurs at the very end of the episode. Even though it was very clear there was no way she would survive the situation, it was still shocking to see Mountain chop her head off as her lover watched. The look on Dany's face as she stormed away from the scene where one of her closest confidants was murdered as she mourns the death of one of her children was enough for us to know that the penultimate episode of the season (and show) next week will be the epic battle for the Iron Throne we have been waiting for since the show debuted in 2011.

Highlights
The highlights of this episode were:

• The best line of the episode (and maybe the season so far!) is Tyrion's response to Varys as they debate who they think really would be the best ruler of the Seven Kingdoms: "I don't think a cock is a true qualification." 
• The second best line is probably Jaime's "I've never slept with a Knight before." Of course Brienne's response is "I've never slept with anyone before."
• Most valuable player of the episode is Tyrion, who risks his life by trying to speak directly with his sister, Queen Cersei, to attempt to reach some human compassion at her core in order to try and avoid the bloodshed and horror he knows will result if the two Queens of the Realm battle for supremacy. He fails (of course), but the attempt was valiant. I was quite surprised he survived the effort. A close second would probably be Qyburn, who of course designed the new weapons which were used to devastating effect by Euron's navy to not only kill half of Dany's surviving dragons, but also obliterated a significant fraction of her existing naval power as well.
• The love scene between Jaime and Brienne was great, because it was a payoff for a relationship that has been in existence for several seasons. However the sight of Brienne in tears, dressed only in a nightgown, begging Jaime not to give in to his "bad" side and return to his evil sister/lover was heartbreaking. 

Lowlights
The primary lowlight was the fact that Rhaegal was taken out of the game so abruptly and brutally. There's no question that 6 episodes is simply not enough time to wrap up a story as complex and complicated  as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

Grade: 9/10.

GAME OF THRONES (S8E03): "The Long Night"

Summary
The third episode of Game of Thrones is called "The Long Night" and features the final battle between the Army of the Dead raised by the Night King and the assembled forces of humanity who have gathered around Winterfell. Speculation and anticipation before this episode was at a fever pitch and it did not disappoint in the level of drama and excitement.

Synopsis
The direction of this episode was very well done. The Army of the living seems huge: there's the Dothraki hordes, rows and rows of Unsullied, the assembled forces of the North, and Dany and Jon with their dragons watching from on high. We get a signal that things are not going to go well for the living when even though the Dothraki all have flaming curved swords (thanks to an assist by Melisandre!) they are routed by an enemy we can't even see.

When we finally do see the army of the dead they have overwhelming numbers and relatively quickly are able to use those numbers to breach the defenses of Winterfell, despite the clever use of fire by the good guys, both as deployed by Dany's dragons from the air and by Melisandre at important points in the battle.

Arya's fighting prowess is showed multiple times, but even she is almost killed due to the large numbers of undead wights that stream into Winterfell. Interestingly, after what seemed like the better part of an hour, one of the best sequences in "The Long Night" was when Arya was tiptoeing around a library infested with several undead creatures who suddenly appear to have superhuman sensitivity to sounds.

A quick word about Jon and Dany, who do not acquit themselves well. Dany abandons the plan of waiting for the Night King to appear and try to kill Bran once she sees the Dothraki massacred. This results in a thrilling (but also confusing) aerial dragon fight between Dany (and Jon) on Drogon and Rhaegar and the Night King on undead Viserion. She ends up putting herself (and Drogon) into mortal danger when she is stuck in the middle of the battleground after Drogon's fire appears to have no effect on the Night King despite sustained, direct application. Eventually Ser Jorah Mormont has to put forward a heroic performance to protect Dany from a multitude of wights, dying in the process.
Jon doesn't fare much better. He gets thrown from Rhaegal after a bout with the Night King atop Viserion and despite seeing two of his friends (Samwell Tarly in particular) in mortal danger, he continues forward into Winterfell to try to protect Bran and (presumably) kill the Night King. But Jon is thwarted repeatedly by the undead dragon Viserion, who is inside of Winterfell's main yard.

Of course the most important scene of the episode was the amazing (and surprising) death of the Night King at Arya's hand, who appeared to come out of nowhere, just as he was about to kill the Three-Eyed Raven (Bran) after dispatching Theon, by thrusting an obsidian dagger into him which effectively destroyed the entire army of the dead, including Viserion. Victory!

Highlights
The highlights of this episode were:

• The most memorable line of this episode was this exchange between Melisandre and Arya: "What do we say to the God of Death?" "Not today!"
• The second best line of the episode is also Melisandre's. As she approaches Winterfell, she says: "There's no need to execute me, Ser Davos, I'll be dead before the dawn." 
• Another memorable line is Bran's "Theon, you're a good man, thank you." This was said to Theon right before he redeems himself by charging the Night King and dying a noble death.
• Most valuable player of the episode is of course, Arya for killing the Night King and causing the concomitant destruction of the Army of the Dead. When it happened I stared at the screen with my mouth agape and then cheered. At that point, it didn't appear that the living were going to prevail and it really seemed like everyone we know and care about on the show (Jon, Tyrion, Dany, Sansa, Brienne, Grey Worm, etc) could possibly be dead soon.
• Another notable highlight of the episode was the way that Lady Lyanna Mormont died. Amazingly, as one of the smallest characters on the show, she was able to take out and destroy one of the biggest, an undead Giant, who she stabbed through the eye with dragonglass and then crushed her to death as it collapsed. 

Lowlights
The lowlights of the episode were

•  Although I didn't have a problem with the lighting of the episode I did have difficulty at times discerning what was happening at times during the more frenetic sections of the battle scenes. I saw the episode in HBO NOW using Spectrum wifi on a Roku-connected 55" plasma TV in a darkened room.
• What the heck was Bran (The Three-Eyed Raven) doing during the Battle for Winterfell? Warging into a raven? To what end?
• A slight lowlight is the fact that although there were deaths, none of them were of "top line" characters. The most significant is probably Theon's, since he was an adopted member of the Stark family, but the show has made him a bigger character than he is in the books. The other characters who died are: Lyanna Mormont, Jorah Mormont, Dolorous Edd, Melisandre, Beric Donddarion and The Night King.

Grade: 10/10.

GAME OF THRONES (S8E02): "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"

Summary
The second episode of the final season of  Game of Thrones is "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms." This is either a reference to Jaime Lannister or Brienne of Tarth. This is a "quiet before the storm" episode where the "storm" is the Army of the Dead led by the Night King and the White Walkers. The Seven Kingdoms are the North (home to Winterfell), the Vale (home to The Eyrie), Dorne (home to Highgarden), the Stormlands, the Reach, the Westerlands, and the Iron Islands.

In this episode we see how people will deal with the end of the world as they know it. They know the Night King is on his way to Winterfell kill everyone in the North and the writers use this episode to show us almost every imaginable pairing of characters. A brief list is: Sansa and Theon, Grey Worm and Missandei, Jaime and Brienne, Arya and Gendry, The Hound and Arya, Podrick and Brienne, Sansa and Daenerys, Sam and Gilly, Tyrion and Jaime, Tormund and Brienne, Bran and Jaime, etc.

The information that Jon received in the previous episode that he is Aegon Targaryen VI, the heir to the Iron Throne was relayed to Daenerys in this episode, but not at a moment where there's enough time for them to have  a meaningful conversation about it. The horn blows, indicating that the Army of the Dead is approaching Winterfell and we immediately cut to an exterior shot with White Walkers (although no appearance by the Night King himself) looking at Winterfell in the distance.

The most surprising (and controversial) scene . Only 4 episodes left!

Highlights
The highlights of this episode were:

• The best line of the episode is probably Bran's "The things we do for love" which he said when Jaime was being interrogated by Dany, Sansa and Jon for his crimes, to let the Kingslayer know that he was the kid who he had pushed out the window in S01E01 so many years before.
• The second best line of course belonged to Tormund Giantsbane when he said "Why the f*** not?" to the notion that a woman can't become a Knight.
• The best scene was almost certainly the meeting between Dany and Sansa, as Dany tries to convince Sansa to not be her enemy as she points out that they have a lot in common (primarily that they both love Jon Snow). Interestingly, there is some progress made, but still tension, as Sansa wants to know how the independence/autonomy of the North will be maintained in any new Targaryen administration.
• Second best scene was when Brienne became Ser Brienne, at the hands of Ser Jaime Lannister. The two have had a tumultuous relationship, but Brienne had stuck her neck out to save Jaime from Dany's wrath and revenge by convincing Sansa that Jaime is "honorable" and it was interesting to see how Jaime was able to "pay his debt" later in the same episode.
• Most valuable player of the episode is Podrick, who (again!) surprises us with his hidden talents. his time whipping out a surprisingly supple... voice as he sang the new song "Jenny of Oldstones." The look on his face when Brienne says "Oh I don't really want to be  a Knight."
• All the pairing (or couplings) were great but my two favorite were Grey Worm-Missandei and Arya-Gendry. However, as George R.R. Martin says, "If you think this story has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."

An amazing highlight was the original song called "Jenny of Oldstone" which was sung by Podrick in the show a cappella but the version in the credit was done  by the amazing Florence and the Machine. Listen to it below:

Lowlights
The only lowlight of the episode was the languid pacing and the lack of action, but I have no doubt that episode 3 will make up for that, with epic battle between the living and the dead.

Grade: 8/10.

Game of Thrones (S4E04) : "Oathkeeper"

Episode 4 of Season 4 (S4E04) of Game of Thrones is titled "Oathkeeper." It aired last Sunday and  even though I was able to see it live unfortunately it has taken me almost a full week to find the time to blog my thoughts about it, similar to what happened with the previous episode, S4E03's"Breaker of Chains."

Oathkeeper ostensibly refers to the name of the new sword given to Ser Jaime Lannister by his father, which was created out of part of the Valyrian steel supplied when the Stark family sword "Ice" was melted down by Tywin Lannister at the very beginning of S4E01's "Two Swords."

Summary
S4E04 contains some very important scenes that  are important turning points in the overall story that Game of Thrones is telling. First, it is revealed almost immediately that Petyr Baelish, a.k.a Littlefinger was involved in the assassination of King Joffrey Barratheon. He basically confirms this fact when he is lecherously boasting to Sansa Stark about his new friends that will protect him from Lannister wrath. Cut immediately to the Queen of Thorns, Olenna Tyrell speaking with her granddaughter Margaery, tacitly confirming her complicity in regicide by saying how she would not have let Margaery "marry that little beast" and then adjusted the necklaces around Margaery's neck. A clue to those in the know that it was the necklace worn by Sansa to the Royal Wedding procured for her by Littlefinger that carried the poison that killed Joffrey.

But, since this is Game of Thrones, finding out who killed the King is not the most important moment in the episode. That would have tp be the capture of Bran Stark by the odious mutineers now raping and pillaging their brains out at Craster's Keep. The same location where Bran's half-brother Jon Snow is on his way to intercept his former colleagues in the Night's Watch before they can let the secret out about how understaffed and unprepared the Wall is for an attack by Mance Ryder's Wildling army. The fact that Jon and Bran might meet North of the Wall, something that does NOT happen in the books is a very interesting development, indicating the television adaptation is diverging from its source material in surprising (and important) ways.

Highlights
There were many highlights of this episode

• Promise Keepers? One of the little-noticed moments in (S4E02) "The Lion and the Rose" due to other more shocking events was the meeting between Brienne and Cersei that led to Brienne realizing she is in love with Jaime. Jaime is the most famous example of an Oathbreaker in the seven kingdoms, because as a member of the Kingsguard as a teenager, he killed the Mad King in order to prevent the slaughter of King's Landing. After Jaime is reminded of the oath that he made to Catelyn Stark to find and return her daughters in exchange for her saving his life and releasing him from captivity, he gives Brienne the sword his father gave him as well as his brother's squire, Podrick Payne and tasks her with fulfilling his oath to find and save Arya and Sansa. Brienne names the sword "Oathkeeper," which is how she sees Jaime and she would like him to see himself. It's a momentous scene and after all the time they spent together in Season 3, you get the impression these two do not expect to see each other again.
• Slaves Are People Too! The episode began with a scene between Grey Worm and Missandei, two former slaves talking about their pasts, as Daenerys' erstwhile translator tried to teach the head of Daeners' army of former slave soldiers, the Unsullied. Later in the episode we see a conversation between actual slaves of the City of Mereen as they consider whether the "Breaker of Chains" can really be the means to the end of their servitude, or is she just the catalyst for another failed slave revolt. 
• Pussy Galore. The scene where Margaery enters soon-to-be-king Tommen's bedroom and seduces/befriends the pre-pubescent boy with her feminine wiles was spellbinding. And we found out Tommen has a cat named Ser Pounce!
• WTF? The  final scene of the episode was one of the most controversial for people who have read the books like me. We discovered that the White Walkers have the ability to convert the human baby children that have been abandoned in the snow by the evil Craster into more un-dead, glowing-eyed zombies with the touch of a finger! This was quite an astonishing reveal.

Lowlights
The only flaw in this episode I can think of worth mentioning is:

• Enough Already! Did we really need to see that the former Night's Watch guys who mutinied and slit Lord Commander Mormont's throat raping Craster's wives? We know that they are bad bad guys. The gratuitous nudity and sexuality in the show is becoming ludicrous.

Grade: 9/10 (A-).
Overall,  S4E04 was quite an important episode. We are almost half-way through Season 4, and the events told in Books 3, 4 and 5 are starting to show up. In fact, some people are speculating that the final scene was something from Book 6. Only time will tell!