Game of Thrones S8.03 — Holy shit
Wow, it happened. The battle that we have been waiting for, since the first scene of the pilot episode, has come to fruition and all I can say is, wow.
The episode, which apparently took 2 months to film, starts off where the last one ended. Everyone is nervously awaiting the battle, which they feel fairly certain they cannot win. They have a plan in place, but when does that ever work out?
The armies are set up: Dothraki screamers (with Jorah) at the front, Brienne & Jaime on the left flank, archers (including Arya and Sansa, until she goes into the crypt) above the wall, Jon & Daenerys waiting with their dragons, and the Unsullied as the last protection before the gate. They have a moat that they will fill with fire and stakes criss-crossed.
As the Army of the Dead approach, Melisandre rides in from…somewhere…and brings with her a spark of hope. She lights the Dothraki’s swords with fire and rides into the castle. Newly alight, the Dothraki run into battle as the camera pans up and out, creating an incredible long distance shot of the dots of fire running towards the wall of CGI dead.
Before you know it, the lights have gone out.
And the entire plan goes up in flames. They are no match for the overwhelming number of wights, and Jorah retreats with some of the Dothraki, though not enough. Seeing Khal Drogo’s people basically decimated, Daenerys takes off on her dragon, forcing Jon to follow. As they fly over the whitewalkers, stationed in a line, a magical storm brews and blows them off course.
Meanwhile, shit is going down on the battlefield. Even Sam is out in full force, attempting to do some damage. Our first casualty is my favorite character, Dolorous Edd, who dies protecting Sam. RIP Dolorous Edd — you were loved!
The humans realize they are not beating the zombies and begin to fall back. It’s time to light the fire moat…but the storm is too crazy and neither Jon nor Dany can see their symbol. Luckily, Melisandre steps up and, casually strolls out there. A little nervous, it takes her a while to get it up, but eventually she succeeds.
Too bad it wasn’t enough! The Night King is not dumb, so he gives the orders for the wights to build a wall of their bodies in the fire, making a place where the rest of them can go through. Damn, the humans cannot catch a break. In the sky, Jon, Dany, and the Night King have some dragon fighting, but nothing really happens.
In the crypt, Sansa & Tyrion share some kind words and it seems like they actually would have been a good match for each other, if the circumstances were different. Maybe we’ll see a bonding of those families when all of this is over.
Theon & Bran chat for a minute at the weirwood, Bran once again explaining that the actions taken (this time by Theon) are what led to this moment and that Theon is now home. That is the push he needed to know that he can and will protect him. Then, Bran is off to warg into some ravens. Does anyone know why he did that?
The wights break through the castle, with help of zombie Won Won (right?). Lyanna Mormont, everyone’s favorite, is caught off guard and knocked over by the giant. He picks her up and squeezes, but she stabs him in the eye, killing him as she is crushed to death as well. RIP Lyanna — we didn’t deserve you!
Arya is kicking ass and taking zombie names, but even she becomes overwhelmed and hits her head. Across the way, the Hound is having a literal anxiety attack because he is surrounded by fire and in order to snap him out of it, Beric points Arya out, who is struggling to survive at the moment. That works and together, they rescue her as she wanders through the castle, which is now invaded by wights.
They find themselves in a room with Melisandre (was she there the whole time?) who reminds Arya — “not today.” She also reminds her of the prophecy — she kills people with many different colored eyes, including blue. Duh, I thought, because she’s been killing wights this whole time. Arya runs out of the room (I guess there was another exit than the one they entered through) and Beric bleeds out. RIP Beric — eighth times the charm.
Jon & the Night King battle it out on their dragons, causing both of them to crash. Daenerys has a clear shot of the Night King and she lets the fire go, but he doesn’t even move. The ONLY THING that Bran didn’t know was if fire killed whitewalkers and turns out it doesn’t! He begins to walk away and Jon knows he needs to get to Bran quickly, because tbh, no one really believes that Theon and a couple Iron bros can hold off all of these whitewalkers with a bow and arrow.
Jon’s gaining on the Night King and, because he is delusional, he thinks he can take him. He is running for what feels like forever, and finally gets close enough to the Night King. But, when he does, he just casually raises all of the dead in Winterfell. Suddenly Jon is left to battle hundreds of zombies.
All of the soldiers who were killed, like Dolorous & Lyanna, become wights, so the main characters left standing in the castle have to battle them and the rest of the wights again. And the dead buried in the crypts, where all of the women and children and Tyrion are hiding, come to life, too. Sansa & Tyrion realize that they need to fight, which is great because Tyrion has been whining about not being in battle.
For some reason, Dany and her dragon are sitting on the ground and so obviously a bunch of wights start attacking them. Still unsure why she was sitting there, but the dragon is trying to get them off of him and knocks her off too. Lightened by all 100 lbs of her, he takes off, leaving her unarmed and surrounded.
Until Jorah arrives at the last second! This really was the episode of redemption. The two of them battle a bunch of wights, Jorah getting stabbed over and over again. In the end, it’s too much, and he dies. RIP Jorah — cause of death: unrequited love and zombies.
By the weirwood, Theon is still battling wights, though he’s out of arrows and just hitting them now. The whitewalkers, including the Night King, have arrived. Bran comes back from warging to tell Theon he’s a good man and to thank him. Theon makes one last attempt, running right at the Night King, before being killed. Obvious, but tough to watch. RIP Theon — your life was really shitty.
The Night King approaches Bran, ready to savor in killing him. A light gust of wind blows the luscious hair of a walker and then from behind, Arya is hurtling through the air, with Littlefinger’s Valyrian steel knife in hand. Is this knife also the one that the Children used to create the first whitewalker, who is likely the Night King?
The Night King catches Arya but she drops the knife into her other hand and stabs him in the stomach. He explodes into ice and so do the rest of the whitewalkers, the ice dragon, and the wights!
So…is that it? This whole storyline is basically neatly wrapped up and the real villain is Cersei? I mean, this episode was epic and obviously I loved every second of it, but it does feel a little convenient that they opened and closed this battle in this one ep. We don’t get any more info on the backstory, we don’t understand why they gained all of this power recently and if it can happen again, and we don’t even see if Bran knew this was going to happen the whole time.
I’m assuming the next episode will be a regroup, body counting, cleaning Winterfell ep, but I’m hoping we get some info at the same time. Melisandre also died in this episode, walking out into the sunrise, she removes her choker, so she dies of old age immediately. RIP Melisandre — you were very convenient today.
Without her, I wonder if we will be able to learn more about the prince(ess) who was promised or if they’ve basically given up on that prophecy. Or was it Arya, in the end?
Until next week!
Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on April 29, 2019.