By the Old Gods and the New, what a finale. Perhaps the greatest one in the history of the series? It certainly went out with fireworks. Usually when I’m lost for words with Thrones it’s from unmitigated horror. This time it’s just awe. The plot takes enormous strides forward with each scene, before breaking into a sprint towards a finish line finally rolling over the horizon.
Miguel Sapochnick has once again proved that he’s by far the best director in the Thrones stable, and likely on television. After the smashing ‘Battle of the Bastards’ he’s followed it up with the spectacular ‘Winds of Winter’, but where ‘Bastards’ was planted at the Battle of Winterfell showing us the visceral action, ‘Winds’ soars across the span of the series, making excellent use of its 70 minute run-time.
We open in King’s landing and within the first 20 minutes the foundations of the kingdom have been knocked away. The opening 20 minutes are just spectacular. An incredible pace of a creeping build of intimate portraits to the tune of the the haunting Light of the Seven. It’s nothing short of a masterpiece. And the pay off? Good lord. All the cogs turn and we tick towards the explosion, but when it does happen I’m still shocked. The CGI on the explosion is incredible as great chunks of the Sept barrel through the streets, with a special mention going to that guy who was squashed by the church bell. So many characters dead and Cersei watches smirking. What a moment.
Cersei’s gone through a miraculous growth from a character I absolutely despised into one I’m actively rooting for. But unlike Jaime who become likeable through understanding, Cersei just needed an enemy I hated more than her. In the High Sparrow she received an adversary so insufferable that I’ve pivoted so far to Cersei’s side that I’m gratified that she just murdered the entire court. Hell I liked Margaery, but Cersei’s revenge was so bombastic that I cheered when they all went up in wildfire. Then she gives this incredible monologue as she wine-boards that shame nun about how she does things because she feels like it. And then she sets zombie Mountain on her. Damn Cersei is ruthless.
Then the cast takes another hit as Tommen tries to do an Assassin’s Creed jump in real life and it doesn’t end well. He goes splat, but Cersei’s just done with it all. She’s uncharacteristically cold to the death of her final child. And then Jaime comes home just in time to watch her proclaim herself Queen. Holy shit there is a stabbing inbound. Jaime can’t leave his psycho sister alone for 5 episodes and look what she does. Also on an unrelated note Cersei’s dress looked fantastic this episode. The costume department on Thrones is always incredible but she looked badass. Hopefully with the shearing of the cast we can afford more of Ghost in the next season.
Speaking of the lack of Ghost, The North was very busy in the finale. Liam Cunningham gave a great performance as the distraught Davos. The Red Witch is told to get lost, so it’s all up in the air where she’ll end up. Littlefinger tries to creep it up with Sansa because of course he does. She says no, thankfully, so him and his moustache get friend-zoned.
The real meat here is the council of Northern Lords. In a scene which mirrors the finale of season 1, Jon Snow is declared the King in the North amidst a roaring of hairy men and ringing of swords. But the star of the scene wasn’t any of those great hairy lords, but the return of Lyanna Mormont. That girl is incredible, and I hold out that we’ll see plenty of her in the next season. Also a brief appearance by Wyman Manderly which was kind of cool for book readers.
Stark fortunes continued to rise in the Riverlands when Arya finally made her grand return to Westeros. Shame that it had to come by killing David Bradley’s Walder Frey. Oh he certainly deserved it but I’ll miss him. Even his conversation with Jaime earlier in this episode where he proudly boasts about his status as a Kingslayer, something which has besmirched Jaime’s reputation for years yet Walder wallows in it. Little character interactions like these are always little gems littered through Thrones. But if Walder had to go at least we got Frey Pies.
Anything else Stark related happen this episode? Oh yeah R + L = J CONFIRMED!!! Years of waiting and confident assuming over. Now terrible clickbait websites can finally stop spoiling it because “It’s a theory not a real spoiler”. It was so close to being confirmed it may as well have been a spoiler. Whatever. Also worth mentioning is Benejn’s unceremonious departure. I hope we’ll see him again but I worry that he may be cut now that what happened to him is resolved. That would be frustrating but perfectly in line with what’s happened before (where’s Gendry even at?). At least he wasn’t killed in a terribly choreographed fight.
In Mereen Daenerys cut Daario loose and nobody anywhere cared. If this is truly the last we see of Michiel Huisman then he leaves the series with a hollow “Eh”. I remember the monumental amount of whining about Ed Skrein’s portayal of the character and how happy people were when Huisman was cast because he looked more like the characters from the books. Difference being though is that Skrein actually invoked what we were meant to feel about the character. In the books Daario is a machismo asshole who is clearly bad for Dany and her falling for him probably spells trouble. Skrein was that perfectly. Huisman was just bland and seemed like an okay guy. There was no edge to his performance. And if this does turn out to be the last time we see him, he was a superfluous character. Couldn’t have killed him instead of someone interesting like Barristan? No I will never get over that thanks for asking.
There was a lovely scene where Daenerys made Tyrion her Hand of the Queen. Peter Dinklage hasn’t had an awful lot of interesting things to do this season, other than those extended drinking sequences with Grey Worm and Missandei. Still, he brought the emotion to this scene and conveyed how much the position meant to Tyrion. And of course the finale with Dany FINALLY sailing towards Westeros with her eclectic conquering army of Unsullied, Tyrells, Martells, Dothraki and of course her scaly children.
And where did she get the allegiance of those Westeros lords? Well earlier in the episode we returned to Dorne for the first time since episode 1. I do wonder if the show-runners knew how badly received Dorne was from last season so stuffed all of it in the first episode so we could forget it existed until now. With the death of Doran there was not one character worth watching there, so they threw in Olenna. Having her just riff on the sandsnakes was satisfying, but doesn’t make up for everything else that happened in Dorne. Not even close.
And finally in a scene that most people probably forgot about, Sam got to Oldtown and went into their enormous library. Good for him.
And that’s it. No more Thrones for another year. Damn. What am I meant to do with myself now? Maybe I’ll just re-watch the entire show again and see how Season 6 stacks up against the rest? Re-read the books and complain about the difference between them and the show on the internet? Cry myself to sleep because The Winds of Winter still isn’t out? Probably all of the above. Until then. Night gather and now my watch begins.
