GAME OF THRONES (S8E05) : "The Bells"

Summary
The episode contains the final resolution of the fight between Daenerys and Cersei for control of the Iron Throne and the leadership of the Seven Kingdoms. "The Bells" is the penultimate episode of the series and so a number of important characters meet their ends. The ones that come to mind are: Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Euron Greyjoy, Sandor Clegane, Gregor Clegane, Maester Qyburn, and Lord Varys.

The most prominent deaths of the episode are of the Lannister twins, Cersei and Jaime. Many, many viewers were very disappointed that the most villainous character in the story (Cersei) was killed not by another character, but by falling rocks. It was an interesting detail that Cersei's death did follow the prophecy that "the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." The valonqar is the younger sibling, which everyone (including Cersei) took to mean Tyrion, but in the end it was Jaime who had his hands around Cersei's throat as they were both crushed to death. Of course, ultimately it was Dany who killed them, by raking the Red Keep with so much fire that it collapsed, but it was a hollow death, since we didn't get to see any direct or indirect interaction between the two central characters.

The Lannisters' death came after Jaime had killed Euron Greyjoy, whose Iron Fleet had been completely destroyed by Drogon's fire. (Some people who watched the show were very annoyed that one episode after Rhaegal was killed by Qyburn's ballistas that suddenly the flying spears were completely unable to prevent Dany and her remaining dragon from dominating the airspace of King's Landing.) Regardless, the hand-to-hand combat between Euron and Jaime and the fact that they both were able to land fatal blows on each other was an important scene.

Meanwhile Dany was incredibly effective on Drogon, as she basically destroyed both the Iron Fleet and the Golden Company by herself, breaching the walls of King's Landing to allow her remaining troops (Dothraki and Unsullied led by Grey Worm and assembled forces of the North led by Jon Snow) to enter the city.

It's the scenes inside the city which make the episode so harrowing. Once they get inside and the defending Lannister forces realize that Dany can basically kill anyone from the sky they reluctantly surrender their weapons, but once the bells start to ring out and Dany continues her devastating fiery pillage of the city that animates Grey Worm who throws his spear directly at an unarmed Lannister killing him, that sets off the sack of King's Landing and the murder and rape of thousands of innocents. Jon slowly realizes that his attacking forces are committing horrible acts against the defensive forces and tries (unsuccessfully) to prevent the worst of the war crimes, going as far to kill a soldier from the North as he is attempting to rape a woman.

For much of the episode we (the audience) is following Arya, who tries to escape King's Landing while the two armies are battling each other and Dany is dropping dragon fire from the sky indiscriminately. Arya experiences the destruction of King's Landing from the perspective of the women and children of the city and it is terrifying, confusing and amazing. After all the important deaths (mentioned earlier) in the final scene of the episode we see Arya covered in grey ash with multiple injuries and improbably she finds a white horse nearby ready to be soothed and she uses it to ride out of the city to safety. How will she use the fact that she is alive and everyone on her kill list is dead? Only one episode left to find out!

Highlights
The highlights of this episode were:

• The best line of the episode is Lord Varys' heartfelt "I hope I deserved it. Truly, I do. I hope I'm wrong. " This is what he says right before he is executed by Drogon on Daenerys' command after Tyrion confesses to her that Varys doubts that she is the best person to sit on the Iron Throne.
• Another important quote in the episode was also done by Varys: "They say that every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin and the world holds its breath." The implication is that 50% of Targaryen's may be insane, which is problematic when Targaryens have been in the ruling class of the Seven Kingdoms.
• The direction by Miguel Sapochnik (who also directed the more controversial "The Long Night") was absolutely stunning.
• The aerial shots of King's Landing as the town was being devastated by Dany and her dragon were incredible. It's even more amazing that instead of filing in Dubrovnik as usual, the producers created a brand new set in Dublin just so they could destroy it!
• Cleganebowl!

Lowlights
The only lowlight of the episode was that we didn't get to see the face of Daenerys as she decimated King's Landing, thus we were provided any insight into her thought processes for killing so many people and destroying so much property after the bells rang out and (presumably) the city had surrendered. This result shocked a lot of people (not me) so hopefully we do get some kind of explanation in the series finale.

Grade: 10/10

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 (S8E01): "Winterfell"

After a nearly two year hiatus, HBO's Game of Thrones returned with the first episode of the eighth season on Sunday April 14th. This is the final season and will consist of only six episodes. As expected after such a long gap between episodes, ratings were extremely high. The episode (S8E01) is titled "Winterfell" and like a lot of first episodes in previous seasons, it includes a lot of place-setting and character check-ins. However, this first episode of the last season was notable for its mirroring of the first episode of the first season in various aspects.

Here, for completeness are the first episodes of the seven previous seasons of the show

• Season 1: "Winter is Coming" (Characters are introduced; Jaime Lannister pushes Bran Stark out a tower window)
• Season 2: "The North Remembers" (Stannis Barratheon is introduced as another claimant to the Iron Throne while Robb Stark vows revenge for his father's murder by Joffrey)
• Season 3: "Valar Dohaeris" (The title means "all men must serve" and comes after the Season 2 finale of Valar Morghulis which means "all men must die.")
• Season 4: "Two Swords" (Tywin Lannister melts down a Valyrian steel sword to make two swords, 1 for Jaime and 1 for Joffrey)
• Season 5: "The Wars to Come" (Jon Snow, Lord Commander of the Night'sWatch, kills Mance Ryder of the Wildings)
• Season 6: "The Red Woman" (Melissandre is revealed to be more than just a priestess of R'hllor)
• Season 7: "Dragonstone" (Daenerys finally makes it to Westeros, arriving at Dragonstone the ancestral home of House Targaryen kings)

Summary
The episode finds a way to check-in on almost every important surviving character in the series, with almost everyone either located at Winterfell or King's Landing.  In the North we see an insanely long line of soldiers walking past a crowd of skeptical northerners (and a bemused Arya) that includes Grey Worm and  Missandei, Jon and Dany and many, many Unsullied warriors. This, of course, mirrors one of the very first scenes in Episode 1, Season 1 when a young Bran and Arya Stark witnessed the procession of King Robert Barratheon and the Kingsguard on the way into Winterfell to try and convince their father to serve as Hand of the King. We see Gendry and The Hound in the procession as well.

When we get to the interior of Winterfell we see Bran, Sansa, Davos, Varys, Tyrion among other familiars. The first meeting between Sansa and Dany is tense, although the Lady of Winterfell does her duty by saying "Winterfell is yours, your Grace" but she doesn't look like she means it or enjoys it. Another tense meeting between siblings that occurs is between Yara and Theon, who after Euron goes to King's Landing to (successfully) woo Queen Cersei Lannister leaves his ship unprotected and vulnerable to a sneak attack by Theon to rescue his sister, who promptly heads him in the nose and knocks him to the ground when she sees him. (Presumably for running away and leaving her with their psychopathic uncle after he attacked their ship last time we saw them.) There's no physical violence when Sansa and Jon (or when Sansa and Tyrion) meet in the episode, but Sansa has developed the skill of using her words as dangerous weapons and does so to memorable effect in both meetings.

Later, we see the reunion we have been waiting for a long time, Arya and Jon (in the Weirwood, no less) and he realizes that she still has the sword he gave her so many years ago (Needle). "Have you used it much?" he asks, revealing how little he knows about the deadly assassin his sibling has become since he last saw her. We also see a reunion between Arya and Gendry (who is busy working the forges of Winterfell to create deadly weapons out of dragonglass that Dany brought with her from Dragonstone).

Probably the most important scene of the episode was between Sam and Jon (occurring in the crypts of Winterfell). After Sam has discovered that Dany (and her dragons) were responsible for the death of his hated father (and his dickish brother) he asks Jon if he knew that Dany had killed them and would he have done the same thing. (Interestingly, Jon doesn't really answer either question clearly, although his body language seems to indciate that he might have known about the incident). It's in this context that Sam reveals to Jon that the truth that fans have been waiting decades for. Jon Snow isnot a bastard, he is the true heir to the Iron Throne, since he is the son of Lyanna Stark and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (who were married at the time). Jon's real name is Aegon Targaryen VI and as the eldest son of the eldest son of King Aegon Targaryen (the Mad King) he has a better claim to the throne than Daenerys as the youngest (female) child of the King. This also means that Dany is also Jon's aunt, which should make their next intimate conversation very interesting!

In the final scene of the episode we see a stranger disembark from a horse in Winterfell and take off his head covering to reveal Jaime Lannister, and then pan out to see Bran Stark sitting in his wheelchair looking straight at him was a great surprise. And then when we see Jaime realize who it is he is looking at (the kid he cruelly threw out of a tower window after discovering he had seem he and his sister together) is a great way to end episode 1. Only 5 episodes left!

Highlights
The highlights of this episode were:

• The best line of the episode is probably Dany's slightly annoyed response to Sansa's question "What do dragons eat?" which was "Anything they want." 
• The second best line is probably Dany's "We're here to discuss your surrender, not ours."
• Most valuable player of the episode is Drogon, the largest of Dany's dragons. The look he gives Jon when Dany is trying to encourage him to "keep [her] warm" is a definite highlight of the episode. I also liked the Dany and Jon ride dragons interlude, although I can also see how some fans of the show might have gotten impatient.
• Reunions between Arya and Jon, Arya and Gendry, Jon and Sam, Tyrion and Sansa and Theon and Yara. 

Lowlights
The only lowlight of the episode was that we didn't actually see any white walkers or the zombie dragon Viserion.

Grade: 8/10.

And Now His Watch Is Rewarded! Game of Thrones Gets 23 Emmy Noms!

Woo hoo! It seems like just yesterday that Game of Thrones finished what was probably it's best season yet on Sunday June 26th with the blockbuster (most watched episode of the show) Season 6 finale "The Winds of Winter." Today comes word that last year's winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Drama series (and the most nominated show of 2015) is again the most nominated show this year, with 23 nominations.

Interestingly, the actors playing Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), and Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) were all nominated. So was Max von Sydow (for playing the Three Eye Raven).

Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series

• “The Door” (Jack Bender)
• “Battle of the Bastards” (Miguel Sapochnik)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

• Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)
• Kit Harington (Jon Snow)

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

• Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)
• Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister)
• Maisie Williams (Arya Stark)

Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series

• “Battle of the Bastards” (D.B. Weiss and David Benioff)

Outstanding Drama Series

• Game of Thrones

These nine just represent the Emmy nominations presented at the Primetime Emmy Award ceremony on September 18th on ABC. The show also got another 14 Creative Arts Emmy Nominations. See the full list at Winter Is Coming.