Game of Thrones S8.02 — Waiting…
Well, that was an underwhelming episode. Before it started, I was talking to a friend and we both assumed they would have to do the battle this episode, because it would not make any sense, even in Thrones for an entire episode’s amount of time to pass before the whitewalkers made it to Winterfell from Last Hearth. But, they proved us wrong!
Tonight’s episode had some additional reunions as well as important conversations, but it also had a lot of unnecessary chit chat and staring off into the distance. Jaime’s arrival in Winterfell causes a stir with all of the people he has wronged, but when Brienne vouches for him, Sansa agrees to let him stay.
When Daenerys asks Jon if he agrees, he says “we need every man we can get.” I mean, I guess, but haven’t we all seen how lame Jaime is on the battlefield now? And also, what is one man actually going to do for you guys? But, fine, whatever, I’ll let it slide in the hopes that he and Brienne get together soon.
Jaime finds Bran by the weirwood, where everyone goes to have creepy and unhelpful conversations with Bran. When Jaime apologizes for pushing Bran out the window, saying he’s not that man anymore, Bran basically tells him that action is what set this whole thing into motion. Without it, Bran would not have become the Three Eyed Raven and Jaime would, well, still be fucking his sister.
That hope for a Brienne/Jaime love affair grows stronger when he knights her while drinking wine by the fire with everyone’s favorite cast of characters — Tyrion, Devos, Pod, and Tormund — cheering them on. It was cheesy, but I teared up a little because it’s all she ever wanted! She never really shows any joy, so it was nice to see her genuinely happy.
Theon also returns to Winterfell, hellbent on protecting the Starks he once wronged. He & Sansa share a really nice moment of reconnection. At a strategy roundtable with all of the key players, Bran realizes that the Night King is looking to kill him, because killing the memory of men would bring on the endless night. They decide to use him as bait in the clearing by the weirwood. Theon volunteers to protect him with the the other Ironborn. Anyone else worried that they’re leaving their most precious person in the hands of someone with major battle-induced PTSD? I’m sure he’ll sacrifice himself for Bran though, which will be the ultimate retribution for taking the castle from the Starks before.
The rest will try to fight off the Army of the Dead. One interesting note: when asked if dragon fire will kill the whitewalkers, Bran said he didn’t know because no one had ever tried it. Here’s hoping it works.
Meanwhile, in the crypts (but I guess not the crypts where the women and children will be staying), Gendry finds Arya and finally gives her the weapon she asked him to make. It’s a version of her stick that she used when blind but it has dragonglass on both sides. She questions him about Melisandre and then they have sex, so she can “see what it feels like” before she potentially dies. I called it!
The mood is bleak at Winterfell, to say the least. Arya also briefly reconnects with the Hound, but it was one of those conversations where nothing really came from it, but the show runners needed to add more time to the episode. Dolores Edd, Jon, and Sam share a nice moment on the wall of Winterfell, reminiscing about old times, and also not saying anything of importance.
The episode ends with the conversation on everyone’s mind. Daenerys finds Jon in the crypt (again, I guess not the same one where the women & children are and also not the one where Arya & Gendry are), staring at the statue of Lyanna. She asks him who she is, he tells her, and then eventually, he tells her the truth about her brother.
She gets mad (obviously) because she thinks it’s convenient that he found this out from his brother and his best friend. Ok…but his brother is literally an all-seeing memory machine and his best friend read it in a book and was honestly, too thick to put it together himself. Daenerys says that it means he is the heir to the Iron Throne and before he can even say, in his moody Jon Snow way, that he wouldn’t want it, the horn blows saying the Dead have arrived.
An entire episode and nothing happened! They better blow our socks off with this battle next week.
Producer who loves TV, looking for my next opportunity to be creative & pet dogs. View all posts by lizziekreitman
Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on April 22, 2019.