Game of Thrones Episode 8.01: “Winterfell”
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scifi_rewatchWeeelll, this has been a long time coming! The beginning of the end of my coverage of Game of Thrones.
The season finale first aired on May 19, 2019, and it is now over two years later. Seems like enough time has passed for me to get my thoughts around how it all went down. That, and maybe the emotions from the rest of the fandom (and let’s face it: a large swatch of anyone who watches television) died down.
That being said, the fire’s been snuffed out, but the shape of the dragon-glass is pretty absolute. General consensus seems to be that Game of Thrones crashed and burned in the final season. Most fans marked a steady decline since a couple of seasons prior, but this was the show’s final chance to “redeem” itself. And it failed to do so, in the eyes of many critics.
My feelings are a bit more complicated, though I do think that overall it was a weak end. It’s a shame how that then becomes the narrative, over the rousing success of the first few seasons. Over the fact that it inspired lots of non-fantasy fans—including my own parents—to watch. But that in itself is a double-edged sword. Game of Thrones got a bit too big for its britches. I mean to say that in some ways, I think the show got too big to succeed. I discussed it all much more succinctly in a blog post I made after the series finale, here.
Still, I think the first episode of the season was a pretty strong one. Some people don’t like the “set up,” but to me it’s all about the characters. And this hour was chock full of reunions—folks awkwardly dancing around old history as they try to devise the next step forward. Daenerys, on the other hand, was meeting people for the first time, and such meetings proved that “making friends” in the North would be far different from “making friends” in Essos.
In King’s Landing we check in on Cersei, now that she’s more alone than she ever has been before in her history. And we sneak up on the White Walkers, by way of seeing their carnage slink ever closer to Winterfell. Lots of balls up in the air here—including the next step of the Jon parentage reveal!
I’ve decided to do away with the “spoilers” section of my reviews, because quite frankly, we’re far removed from the books here. Maybe I should have my geek card taken away from me, because I’m less certain of outcomes anymore. I guess I still trust my “head canon” with regards to what might show up in later books, but eh. I had pretty strong feelings about the plotlines this season that didn’t come to pass. I’ll discuss my thoughts on each as the show gets to them. But I hope these reviews impart a friendly vibe for all show watchers. We’re all in this together!
Summary
WINTERFELL:
In a move mirroring Arya from season one (and also observed by current-day her,) a rambunctious young boy craftily finds a way to watch royal proceedings enter Winterfell. This time, of course, it’s Daenerys and Jon, riding side by side. Arya herself sees some familiar faces in the crowd: from her brother to the Hound to Gendry. Tyrion and Varys spend their time being snarky in a cart. :P Missandei, riding alongside Grey Worm, notes the chilly reception from the northerners, which Jon vocalizes. The dragons get a less restrained reaction, unsurprisingly.
Jon has a stronger reaction to Bran than Bran has to him. He interrupts Sansa’s very cool welcome to Daenerys with a recap of the Night King’s activities. During an open meeting of the Northern houses, Sansa squares away provisions with the banners while Lyanna Mormont challenges Jon’s decisions. This invokes speechifying from the main male cast, unsurprisingly. It doesn’t really go over well, especially when Tyrion tells the North that they’ll be fighting alongside the Lannister army.
Tyrion and Sansa start this season’s bout of awkward reunions. They acknowledge each other’s survival skills, but Sansa lands a blow with regards to his faith that Cersei will keep her word. Second awkwardish reunion goes to Arya and Jon, with the former sneaking up on the latter at the weirwood tree. She surprises him more by taking Sansa’s part against Daenerys, claiming it’s defense of House Stark that drives the two sisters.
As Davos, Varys and Tyrion watch more northern banners arrive, the former says Daenerys must earn their loyalty…by way of a marriage alliance! Said lovebirds visit the remaining two dragons and go for a ride, which lead them to a waterfall. A few more callbacks to Ygritte surface, except, of course, for the dragons, who make strange-looking eyes at Jon.
Arya decides to awkward-reunion the Hound and Gendry at the same time, as they prep and inspect dragon-glass weapons. She and the Hound glare at and insult each other, then she and Gendry get to their brand of flirting.
As the Glovers back out of their duties, Sansa blames Jon for giving up his kingship, leading to an argument about titles vs survival, love and legacy. Daenerys visits the library with Jorah to thank Sam for saving him. Daenerys awkwardly realizes that she killed Sam’s father and brother, so the meeting ends less charitably than it began. He runs into Bran, who deigns that Sam should tell Jon about his parentage ASAP. Sam finds Jon in the crypts, where he basically goads Jon into saying he’d be a more merciful king, and then he drops the news.
Tormund, Beric et al kind of hilariously run into Dolorous Ed et al at the Last Hearth, formerly home of the Umbers. Unfortunately, the place has fallen prey to the Walkers, complete with the young Lord Umber now as a wight. The army of the dead is now between them and Winterfell!
Speaking of Winterfell, Jamie arrives from the south, where upon disembarking his horse, he locks eyes with none other than Bran. And thus we end the episode with the most awkward reunion of them all!
KING’S LANDING
Qyburn breaks the news to Cersei that the dead have broken through the Wall; she’s hopeful that her enemies will destroy each other. The Iron Fleet lies in the Blackwater harbor, and Euron takes a moment to taunt his niece and prisoner, Yara. He then accompanies the leader of the Golden Company, Captain Strickland, to the Iron Throne where they tell the Queen of the numbers of men and etc she can add to her command. Cersei consents to sexy times with Euron, not at all happily.
Bronn’s sexy times with three working women are more festive, at least by way of gossip about the dragons. Qyburn interrupts with an offer from the Queen: take money and a crossbow and kill her treasonous brothers!
Cersei rebuffs Euron’s arrogant post-coital talk so she can be alone with her wine. But while the Greyjoy king is on his way back, Theon and his men free Yara! But afterwards, sister gives brother permission to go north to fight for the Starks, while she attempts to take the Iron Islands back from their uncle.
Thoughts
I guess I’ll go through this character by character. Starting at the top.
Jon’s highlight, of course, was a little romance with Dany. We had to show the good times before the relationship entered a clusterfuck. Of course, the second part of the dragon ride, and Drogon’s(?) knowing glances at the Bastard of Winterfell afterwards was a nod to what we the audience already knew: dude, you a Targaryen!
His relationships with his “siblings” are all over the map. Bran was pretty much a non-starter. The show has made clear that the Raven Formerly Known as Bran Stark lives on another plane now, so there’s little need delving into the lack of human connection. Other than for Bran to state the obvious to Sam that bad news should come from him. Arya was the most surprising, because after the touching part of their reconciliation, she took Sansa’s cause. This is an obvious first in the land of the Stark sisters, and I suppose it was meant to be the natural progression from their truce last season. (I’m still salty about their arc in season seven, but let’s try to move on, self!) I feel like it’s natural to Arya as well. She doesn’t trust outsiders. She’s very tribal. The only reason her dislike of Daenerys isn’t more palpable is because she isn’t a political player.
Sansa, of course, is a political player, and her relationship with Jon is similar to how it’s been this last season or two. They love each other, but generally find themselves on different sides of the aisle, as it were. Jon has his head in the clouds with the Big Picture about the White Walkers (and the show did take the time to remind us that they’re close!) Sansa is more of a granular planner. She has to make sure Jon’s vision gets realized (and her people are safe) by the nuts and bolts. They clash, but I also think it’s paramount that they truly love each other. Their relationship is founded on a lot of shared experiences that were documented on the show. It reveals, perhaps, how siblings who didn’t like each other as kids can rebuild their relationship as adults.
So, the only real thing left here is the Aegon Targaryen reveal. I think the show handled it with aplomb. They had to find a way to make this information “new” to us in some way, and they had this unresolved business, of a sort, between Sam and Daenerys. Poor Jorah was just a conduit in this mess, and kinda sad to see his relationship with Sam take a hit after last year. But Sam, unsurprisingly, isn’t thrilled when Dany decided to kill his father and brother. It puts him firmly in Team Jon as King, where he might have wanted to stay out of it before. He reminds us of Dany’s rigidity and Jon’s ability to compromise, which is certainly something we want to keep in mind for the rest of the season. /spoilers
He probably also makes Jon feel squicky about having relations with his aunt, but hey, this is Game of Thrones, after all. In their case, they didn’t know!
Speaking of the other big “incestor” on the show, Cersei finally decides to take Euron to bed. It’s a bit of an uncomfortable scene, cos you know she doesn’t want to, but he’s one of the only friends she’s got left at this point, so there’s motive for keeping him happy. That, or maybe she wants something other than wine as company for once. Plus, she’s still smarting over the elephants that the Golden Company didn’t bring her and let’s face it, that would’ve been cool to see on screen. :P
I’ll just go ahead and wrap up the rest of the Greyjoy plot, too. Euron is trash talking with Yara, whom he has tied to a post in his room, ick. Honestly, this character wasn’t too bad this episode, but there’s only so much of a walking hardon I think most of us can take. Plus, I spent all of that time wondering why Yara didn’t stink (or maybe she did) or why her muscles hadn’t atrophied (maybe her uncle takes her for walks sometimes?) In any case, this scene was just meant to confirm that yes, Yara is still Euron’s prisoner, and wuddaya know, the third Greyjoy is a badass after all! (That axe in the face special effect was total Game of Thrones.)
After Yara exacts her punishment on Theon for abandoning her in the first place, of course, the siblings seem to have found their peace. Except…they part ways again! It makes sense, of course. Theon feels loyalty to the Starks and wants to help them fight the White Walkers. Yara wants to take back the Iron Islands. A couple of years ago Yara would have called Theon a traitor, but now she respects her brother more, and she lets him go. It was a moving scene—especially because it was foreboding. I don’t have to spoil anything to say that people die in wars.
Tyrion might be the disappointment of the episode. Many fans don’t like that he essentially lost his “cleverness,” to use Sansa’s word. Why couldn’t he see through Cersei last season? Why did he still insist his sister was on the level? A nice interpretation might come down to Tyrion wanting to see the best in people. Especially when they collectively faced down a wight last season. Otherwise, well, he seems to have forgiven Sansa for the Purple Wedding incident. It was perhaps a call back to his “Lady Stark…you may survive us yet” moment from season two when he told her now that most people who underestimated her are dead now. The Jon/Arya reunion had that tenderness of two outsiders who loved each other in formative years coming back together again. But Sansa/Tyrion is also interesting, for two people who always had more respect for each other on the show than they did in the books.
But speaking of Arya’s other reunions….well, they were mostly placeholders, but there’s a lot of fire there. Including the unfinished business between her and the Hound (unlike Tyrion, the Hound doesn’t forgive,) and the flirtation between her and Gendry. It was there before, when last they saw each other, but they were much younger at the time, and also they were fugitives. Whole different ballgame, now that Arya is an adult and the two of them are at Winterfell.
Otherwise…well, Cersei sends Bronn on a mission, by way of Qyburn, to kill her “treasonous” brothers! It’s a special knife to the heart, because obviously Bronn has an affection for both Lannister boys. I found this to be far more interesting than the usual GoT sexual theatrics of that scene. Still hate how this show turned me into a prude. :P I mean, this gratuitous nudity and “sexposition” wasn’t even too over the top, but obviously, by this point, the show was like: you know, fuck it, we’re staying on brand.
Another “on brand” element is the Northern chilliness to outsiders. This is another one of those organic plot developments, because we’ve been dealing with northern obstinacy ever since Robb was crowned. I’m sure most fans appreciated Lady Mormont taking Jon down a rung or two for giving up his title. This basically leaves the old men—Varys, Davos, and Tyrion (he’ll object to the title, of course)—to try and brainstorm ways to get these two cultures to get along. With a Jon/Dany marriage off the table, do they really stand a chance? Even before they know that’s a doomed proposition, they don’t sound so optimistic about happy endings. They must be watching too much Game of Thrones. :P
The season finale first aired on May 19, 2019, and it is now over two years later. Seems like enough time has passed for me to get my thoughts around how it all went down. That, and maybe the emotions from the rest of the fandom (and let’s face it: a large swatch of anyone who watches television) died down.
That being said, the fire’s been snuffed out, but the shape of the dragon-glass is pretty absolute. General consensus seems to be that Game of Thrones crashed and burned in the final season. Most fans marked a steady decline since a couple of seasons prior, but this was the show’s final chance to “redeem” itself. And it failed to do so, in the eyes of many critics.
My feelings are a bit more complicated, though I do think that overall it was a weak end. It’s a shame how that then becomes the narrative, over the rousing success of the first few seasons. Over the fact that it inspired lots of non-fantasy fans—including my own parents—to watch. But that in itself is a double-edged sword. Game of Thrones got a bit too big for its britches. I mean to say that in some ways, I think the show got too big to succeed. I discussed it all much more succinctly in a blog post I made after the series finale, here.
Still, I think the first episode of the season was a pretty strong one. Some people don’t like the “set up,” but to me it’s all about the characters. And this hour was chock full of reunions—folks awkwardly dancing around old history as they try to devise the next step forward. Daenerys, on the other hand, was meeting people for the first time, and such meetings proved that “making friends” in the North would be far different from “making friends” in Essos.
In King’s Landing we check in on Cersei, now that she’s more alone than she ever has been before in her history. And we sneak up on the White Walkers, by way of seeing their carnage slink ever closer to Winterfell. Lots of balls up in the air here—including the next step of the Jon parentage reveal!
I’ve decided to do away with the “spoilers” section of my reviews, because quite frankly, we’re far removed from the books here. Maybe I should have my geek card taken away from me, because I’m less certain of outcomes anymore. I guess I still trust my “head canon” with regards to what might show up in later books, but eh. I had pretty strong feelings about the plotlines this season that didn’t come to pass. I’ll discuss my thoughts on each as the show gets to them. But I hope these reviews impart a friendly vibe for all show watchers. We’re all in this together!
Summary
WINTERFELL:
In a move mirroring Arya from season one (and also observed by current-day her,) a rambunctious young boy craftily finds a way to watch royal proceedings enter Winterfell. This time, of course, it’s Daenerys and Jon, riding side by side. Arya herself sees some familiar faces in the crowd: from her brother to the Hound to Gendry. Tyrion and Varys spend their time being snarky in a cart. :P Missandei, riding alongside Grey Worm, notes the chilly reception from the northerners, which Jon vocalizes. The dragons get a less restrained reaction, unsurprisingly.
Jon has a stronger reaction to Bran than Bran has to him. He interrupts Sansa’s very cool welcome to Daenerys with a recap of the Night King’s activities. During an open meeting of the Northern houses, Sansa squares away provisions with the banners while Lyanna Mormont challenges Jon’s decisions. This invokes speechifying from the main male cast, unsurprisingly. It doesn’t really go over well, especially when Tyrion tells the North that they’ll be fighting alongside the Lannister army.
Tyrion and Sansa start this season’s bout of awkward reunions. They acknowledge each other’s survival skills, but Sansa lands a blow with regards to his faith that Cersei will keep her word. Second awkwardish reunion goes to Arya and Jon, with the former sneaking up on the latter at the weirwood tree. She surprises him more by taking Sansa’s part against Daenerys, claiming it’s defense of House Stark that drives the two sisters.
As Davos, Varys and Tyrion watch more northern banners arrive, the former says Daenerys must earn their loyalty…by way of a marriage alliance! Said lovebirds visit the remaining two dragons and go for a ride, which lead them to a waterfall. A few more callbacks to Ygritte surface, except, of course, for the dragons, who make strange-looking eyes at Jon.
Arya decides to awkward-reunion the Hound and Gendry at the same time, as they prep and inspect dragon-glass weapons. She and the Hound glare at and insult each other, then she and Gendry get to their brand of flirting.
As the Glovers back out of their duties, Sansa blames Jon for giving up his kingship, leading to an argument about titles vs survival, love and legacy. Daenerys visits the library with Jorah to thank Sam for saving him. Daenerys awkwardly realizes that she killed Sam’s father and brother, so the meeting ends less charitably than it began. He runs into Bran, who deigns that Sam should tell Jon about his parentage ASAP. Sam finds Jon in the crypts, where he basically goads Jon into saying he’d be a more merciful king, and then he drops the news.
Tormund, Beric et al kind of hilariously run into Dolorous Ed et al at the Last Hearth, formerly home of the Umbers. Unfortunately, the place has fallen prey to the Walkers, complete with the young Lord Umber now as a wight. The army of the dead is now between them and Winterfell!
Speaking of Winterfell, Jamie arrives from the south, where upon disembarking his horse, he locks eyes with none other than Bran. And thus we end the episode with the most awkward reunion of them all!
KING’S LANDING
Qyburn breaks the news to Cersei that the dead have broken through the Wall; she’s hopeful that her enemies will destroy each other. The Iron Fleet lies in the Blackwater harbor, and Euron takes a moment to taunt his niece and prisoner, Yara. He then accompanies the leader of the Golden Company, Captain Strickland, to the Iron Throne where they tell the Queen of the numbers of men and etc she can add to her command. Cersei consents to sexy times with Euron, not at all happily.
Bronn’s sexy times with three working women are more festive, at least by way of gossip about the dragons. Qyburn interrupts with an offer from the Queen: take money and a crossbow and kill her treasonous brothers!
Cersei rebuffs Euron’s arrogant post-coital talk so she can be alone with her wine. But while the Greyjoy king is on his way back, Theon and his men free Yara! But afterwards, sister gives brother permission to go north to fight for the Starks, while she attempts to take the Iron Islands back from their uncle.
Thoughts
I guess I’ll go through this character by character. Starting at the top.
Jon’s highlight, of course, was a little romance with Dany. We had to show the good times before the relationship entered a clusterfuck. Of course, the second part of the dragon ride, and Drogon’s(?) knowing glances at the Bastard of Winterfell afterwards was a nod to what we the audience already knew: dude, you a Targaryen!
His relationships with his “siblings” are all over the map. Bran was pretty much a non-starter. The show has made clear that the Raven Formerly Known as Bran Stark lives on another plane now, so there’s little need delving into the lack of human connection. Other than for Bran to state the obvious to Sam that bad news should come from him. Arya was the most surprising, because after the touching part of their reconciliation, she took Sansa’s cause. This is an obvious first in the land of the Stark sisters, and I suppose it was meant to be the natural progression from their truce last season. (I’m still salty about their arc in season seven, but let’s try to move on, self!) I feel like it’s natural to Arya as well. She doesn’t trust outsiders. She’s very tribal. The only reason her dislike of Daenerys isn’t more palpable is because she isn’t a political player.
Sansa, of course, is a political player, and her relationship with Jon is similar to how it’s been this last season or two. They love each other, but generally find themselves on different sides of the aisle, as it were. Jon has his head in the clouds with the Big Picture about the White Walkers (and the show did take the time to remind us that they’re close!) Sansa is more of a granular planner. She has to make sure Jon’s vision gets realized (and her people are safe) by the nuts and bolts. They clash, but I also think it’s paramount that they truly love each other. Their relationship is founded on a lot of shared experiences that were documented on the show. It reveals, perhaps, how siblings who didn’t like each other as kids can rebuild their relationship as adults.
So, the only real thing left here is the Aegon Targaryen reveal. I think the show handled it with aplomb. They had to find a way to make this information “new” to us in some way, and they had this unresolved business, of a sort, between Sam and Daenerys. Poor Jorah was just a conduit in this mess, and kinda sad to see his relationship with Sam take a hit after last year. But Sam, unsurprisingly, isn’t thrilled when Dany decided to kill his father and brother. It puts him firmly in Team Jon as King, where he might have wanted to stay out of it before. He reminds us of Dany’s rigidity and Jon’s ability to compromise, which is certainly something we want to keep in mind for the rest of the season. /spoilers
He probably also makes Jon feel squicky about having relations with his aunt, but hey, this is Game of Thrones, after all. In their case, they didn’t know!
Speaking of the other big “incestor” on the show, Cersei finally decides to take Euron to bed. It’s a bit of an uncomfortable scene, cos you know she doesn’t want to, but he’s one of the only friends she’s got left at this point, so there’s motive for keeping him happy. That, or maybe she wants something other than wine as company for once. Plus, she’s still smarting over the elephants that the Golden Company didn’t bring her and let’s face it, that would’ve been cool to see on screen. :P
I’ll just go ahead and wrap up the rest of the Greyjoy plot, too. Euron is trash talking with Yara, whom he has tied to a post in his room, ick. Honestly, this character wasn’t too bad this episode, but there’s only so much of a walking hardon I think most of us can take. Plus, I spent all of that time wondering why Yara didn’t stink (or maybe she did) or why her muscles hadn’t atrophied (maybe her uncle takes her for walks sometimes?) In any case, this scene was just meant to confirm that yes, Yara is still Euron’s prisoner, and wuddaya know, the third Greyjoy is a badass after all! (That axe in the face special effect was total Game of Thrones.)
After Yara exacts her punishment on Theon for abandoning her in the first place, of course, the siblings seem to have found their peace. Except…they part ways again! It makes sense, of course. Theon feels loyalty to the Starks and wants to help them fight the White Walkers. Yara wants to take back the Iron Islands. A couple of years ago Yara would have called Theon a traitor, but now she respects her brother more, and she lets him go. It was a moving scene—especially because it was foreboding. I don’t have to spoil anything to say that people die in wars.
Tyrion might be the disappointment of the episode. Many fans don’t like that he essentially lost his “cleverness,” to use Sansa’s word. Why couldn’t he see through Cersei last season? Why did he still insist his sister was on the level? A nice interpretation might come down to Tyrion wanting to see the best in people. Especially when they collectively faced down a wight last season. Otherwise, well, he seems to have forgiven Sansa for the Purple Wedding incident. It was perhaps a call back to his “Lady Stark…you may survive us yet” moment from season two when he told her now that most people who underestimated her are dead now. The Jon/Arya reunion had that tenderness of two outsiders who loved each other in formative years coming back together again. But Sansa/Tyrion is also interesting, for two people who always had more respect for each other on the show than they did in the books.
But speaking of Arya’s other reunions….well, they were mostly placeholders, but there’s a lot of fire there. Including the unfinished business between her and the Hound (unlike Tyrion, the Hound doesn’t forgive,) and the flirtation between her and Gendry. It was there before, when last they saw each other, but they were much younger at the time, and also they were fugitives. Whole different ballgame, now that Arya is an adult and the two of them are at Winterfell.
Otherwise…well, Cersei sends Bronn on a mission, by way of Qyburn, to kill her “treasonous” brothers! It’s a special knife to the heart, because obviously Bronn has an affection for both Lannister boys. I found this to be far more interesting than the usual GoT sexual theatrics of that scene. Still hate how this show turned me into a prude. :P I mean, this gratuitous nudity and “sexposition” wasn’t even too over the top, but obviously, by this point, the show was like: you know, fuck it, we’re staying on brand.
Another “on brand” element is the Northern chilliness to outsiders. This is another one of those organic plot developments, because we’ve been dealing with northern obstinacy ever since Robb was crowned. I’m sure most fans appreciated Lady Mormont taking Jon down a rung or two for giving up his title. This basically leaves the old men—Varys, Davos, and Tyrion (he’ll object to the title, of course)—to try and brainstorm ways to get these two cultures to get along. With a Jon/Dany marriage off the table, do they really stand a chance? Even before they know that’s a doomed proposition, they don’t sound so optimistic about happy endings. They must be watching too much Game of Thrones. :P
