WARNING: This review contains spoilers for Game of Thrones.
I think I can sum up this episode in two words: unfulfilled expectations. Now, normally when Game of Thrones goes against what the viewer is expecting, it makes for compelling television. It’s a smart show that keeps its audience on their toes. In this episode however, the moments that went against expectations only ended up leaving me disappointed. Arya fought Waif off-screen. There was no battle at Riverrun. The Blackfish died off-screen. There will be no trial by combat with The Mountain. The war in Meereen was introduced and then nothing happened. The whole speech by Brienne where she said she’d be honor bound to fight against Jaime ended up meaning nothing because she ran away. And I can’t be the only one that was expecting Lady Stoneheart to make an appearance when The Hound was speaking with Beric Dondarrion and Thoros. Things that have been building all season long ended in the most unsatisfying way possible. It’s a problem that the show’s been struggling with all season, but it was particularly disappointing in this episode because the trailer showed so much promise.
It wasn’t all bad, however. The Mountain got to rip a dude’s head off, and we got some fun fighting and dialogue from The Hound. I do hope he joins The Brotherhood; the banter between Beric, Thoros, and The Hound was really enjoyable this episode. The fact that we didn’t spend any time with Jon is promising, since that could mean episode nine will be focused solely on the battle with Ramsay. I’ve always enjoyed the episodes centered around one event, like the Battle of the Blackwater or the fight against the wildlings at The Wall. I’m also glad that Arya is on a specific path, now. I would have liked to learn more about the Faceless Men, but I’ve been struggling for a while about how Arya’s story would connect with everyone else. She’s been so isolated for so long. With her presumably back on the way to Westeros, I’m sure she’ll be in the thick of things soon enough.
There were some crazy theories online when it came to Arya’s position at the end of last episode. Thankfully, none of them turned out to be true because all of the ones I saw were dumb as hell. Some people were saying that Arya and Waif were the same person, and Arya was struggling with multiple personality disorder. Others said that some shadowy figure behind Waif in a promotional still was actually Syrio Forel, who had somehow survived his fight against Meryn Trant back in season one. Still others were saying that Arya let herself be stabbed so that she could fake her own death. People were clearly desperate to find some explanation for the end of last week’s episode. The issue is, these theories were created to excuse the general idiocy shown by Arya when she was stabbed. I complained enough about that in my episode seven review, but it seriously made no sense. And her actions in this episode felt the same.
Let’s talk about that chase sequence between Arya and Waif. Namely, let’s talk about how ridiculous it was. One of the most frustrating things about watching a bad fight scene is how inconsistent the injuries tend to be. A character will get shot in the leg, only to run away from the confrontation. They’ll be leaping over fences, running at a full-on sprint, and then when they take a breather, they suddenly remember that they were shot in the damn leg and then can barely stand all of a sudden. I understand the argument that adrenaline is a powerful thing, but you can only take that excuse so far. In this particular scene, Arya arises out of bed, barely able to stand, only to see Waif standing over the dead body of the actress from the past few episodes. This horrible experience turns Arya into a superhero, able to outrun someone with years of training, jump over walls and climb things, all with several terrible stab wounds to her gut. It’s completely absurd. Waif doesn’t make it any better, with her supervillain tendency to stand menacingly over her fallen prey instead of finishing the damn job. If I had a dollar for every time Waif let Arya run away, I’d be as rich as a Lannister. And on top of all of that, Arya was never even in any real danger. There’s no way the writers were going to kill off the most popular character on the show at the most pivotal moment in her story. The whole thing felt pointless. Nothing even changed for her character. Before being stabbed, Arya was herself again, and was planning on travelling to Westeros. After killing Waif and confronting Jaqen, Arya is herself again and is planning on travelling to Westeros. Her entire story in this episode served no purpose, except to pad things out and give the audience some bad parkour.
Thankfully, Tyrion’s boring story this season seems to be wrapped up. I was worried that with Dany gone, he’d end up just sitting on a throne doing nothing, and that’s basically what happened. There was some cute back and forth this episode between him and Grey Worm/Missandei, but it didn’t really serve any larger purpose. With Dany now back in Meereen, maybe they can get this show on the road and finally sail to freaking Westeros. We’ve only been waiting for that for SIX SEASONS. It was good character development for Tyrion’s plan with the masters to fail, however. His politics and manipulation have gotten him far in life, but things don’t work everywhere like they do in King’s Landing. I’m sure we’ll see how pissed Dany is at him next episode.
There were two little teases given this week, as well. I generally hate it when characters on a show are like “I’m gonna go do that thing you told me to do,” where they don’t actually name the thing. It’s a cheap way to tease an audience, and no one actually talks that way in real life. First there was Qyburn with Cersei. He said he had looked into the thing she’d asked him to, and there was more to it than they thought. There’s also the secret mission that Varys is going on for Tyrion. I don’t really know what either thing could be, and I kind of don’t care right now. Tell me about something when it actually matters. This show is crazy enough as it is, you don’t need to concoct ways to make me interested in the next episode.
I’m excited that The Hound will probably be joining up with the Brotherhood Without Banners. I was disappointed to see how they were portrayed last episode, and I was glad to see Beric and Thoros felt the same way. I do also want to know what’s going to happen with Cersei and Jaime. The way Riverrun ended felt weird. Jaime accomplished his objective, but now what? Does he just head back to King’s Landing? That doesn’t seem important enough. I’m thinking either Cersei will die before his return, or he’ll come back and she’ll have done something so horrible that he has to side against her. They’ve been laying on the whole “us against the world” thing pretty thick this season, which could only mean something bad is going to happen between them. I am disappointed to say that I’m no longer rooting for Jaime. He’s been a solid anti-hero since season two, but since he’s recommitted to Cersei, he’s become a pretty terrible person. My wife was conflicted between rooting for Jaime and for the Tullys at Riverrun, but I was fully team Blackfish. If Jaime dies this season, I’ll only be sad because he’s an interesting character, not because I care about him.
Obviously next episode is looking to be a doozy, with the inevitable fight between Jon and Ramsay coming to fruition in “Battle of the Bastards,” but it’s also worth noting that the teaser for this past week’s episode looked strong, too. We thought The Mountain was going to destroy the Faith Militant and he didn’t. We thought something big was going to happen at Riverrun and it didn’t. We thought that we’d see the final showdown between Arya and Waif, and we mostly didn’t. At this point, I’m tired of getting hyped for an episode based on the “next time on.” Fool me once, and all that. Still, there are plenty of interesting directions for the show to take, what with Bran being MIA the last few episodes, Yara and Theon being on their way to Meereen, and the fallout in The North. This season has been all over the map in quality, with some insanely awesome episodes and some highly disappointing ones. Let’s just hope everything wraps up in a cool way, and leaves a nice cliffhanger going into what’s likely to be the penultimate season of the show.
7.4/10
