Episode 5

(side note: I’m posting this late but it was written before I watched the finale)

Varys is writing a note detailing Jon’s identity, how Ned hid him, and how he’s the true heir. It is unclear if this was the first note or if others got out. One of his little birds comes in (seen in Winterfell crypt) and says Dany’s men are keeping an eye on her. Varys says greater the risk, greater the reward. Jon arrives and Varys confronts him about claiming the throne. Tyrion proves again how dumb he’s been. He tells Dany about Varys even though she heard it from her spies first. She feels betrayed by Jon/Tyrion/Varys and is still grieving the loss of her dragon. Feeling betrayed and isolated certainly doesn’t help her sanity. We get a scene of Varys writing another note but he burns the evidence before we can read it. He also takes his rings off which I saw an article saying that meant something (didn’t actually read it though). Varys is escorted to the beach for his execution ceremony. Tyrion confesses he was the one who told Dany and Varys says he hopes he’s wrong about Dany being a mad queen. Tyrion and Varys’ friendships was one of the oldest surviving ones throughout the series and Tyrion does feel guilty for turning him in. Side note: is Dany still Mother of Dragons or is it Dragon now? Anyway, Drogon burns Varys and we move on. RIP another character. 

You can see Jon’s starting to have doubts about Dany. Dany and Greyworm are mourning Mesandai. Dany gives Greyworm Mesandai’s collar and he throws it into the fire. Greyworm and Jon switch places as Dany says I told you so to Jon. Dany talks about Sansa like she’s her enemy, which I guess she is. Dany kisses Jon, and again, Jon is the first one to pull away and Dany’s not happy about it. “Let it be fear”. Cut to war council. Tyrion is fighting for the innocent people, but Dany just wants to burn the city. Dany agrees to call off the attack once the bells ring in surrender. She tells Tyrion that they caught Jaime trying to return to Cersei – another failure on Tyrion’s part. Dany warns that his next failure will be the last one. With that being said, Tyion decides to let Jaime escape (parallel to Jaime freeing Tyrion). The stupidest Lannister – who got caught because he forgot to take off his golden hand. Tryion gives Jaime and Cersei an escape plan. Tyrion says if he gets executed for saving the people of King’s Landing from burning, it’ll be worth it. I’ll get into it later, but this episode’s getting a lot of hate. I honestly love how they dealt with the Lannister’s this episode. Tyrion loves his family and wants the best for Jaime, Cersei, and the incest baby. Jaime despite everything still loves his sister, and his sister loves him. They take it too far, but a loving family is a redeemable Lannister trait.

The battle begins at Blackwater with Dany/Drogon taking out the scorpions on Iron Fleet. At King’s Landing, we see the crowd of innocent people retreating to safety as the army forms up. In the crowd, is the mother and daughter we will see throughout the battle. Arya and the Hound are also there with Jaime a few steps behind them. Arya and the Hound make it into the Keep before the gates close but Jaime has to find another way. Tyrion again tells Jon to call off the men when the bells ring. Cersei is at her perch overlooking the city where the Sept used to be. The unsullied and northern men face the golden company waiting, until Drogon burns the gate from behind them and clears the path. There are dothraki in the scene? SOME SURVIVED? Greyworm kills Banker Boy. The Unsullied and Dothraki are leading the charge which is sending the foreign usurper propaganda Cersei was feeding the city. Maester Frankenstein delivers the bad news to Cersei that the fleet and scorpions are destroyed. Cersei says her men will defend her. Cut to shot of the men dropping their swords in surrender lolz. Dany/Drogon is chilling on a rooftop (open target if there was another scorpion, just saying). Everyone is screaming ring the bells for a few minutes until the bells actually ring – which should just be taken as surrender. Someone finally rings the bells to Tryion’s relief, but Dany decides to burn the city anyway.

Now my problem with this is obviously Dany killing innocent people for no reason. Is it revenge? Is it grief? Is it PMS? This show has done so well with strong women characters and then made Dany so emotional. I get it. It’s her crazy genes from her father, but she could have gone totally crazy on Cersei and the Keep. There was no need to burn women and children. At least this show never stabbed a pregnant women in the belly – OH WAIT…

Tyrion and Jon stare in horror at what is happening. Greyworm has gone mad himself and leads the attack on the soldiers who surrendered. Jon tries to order his men back, but they’re caught up in the fight (massacre). Davros and Jon are trying to help the civilians find cover. Jon saves a women from being raped by killing one of his own men. At this point Jaime is sneaking into the Keep through the exit path Tyrion told him about when he runs into Euron the annoying. After a while, Euron stabs Jaime, but Jaime is able to strike the fatal blow to Euron. Drogon (Dany disappears the rest of the episode) starts destroying the Red Keep and Maester Frankenstein convinces Cersei it’s time to retreat. Stores of wildfire can be seen exploding which is a nod to when Dany’s father attacked King’s Landing with wildfire.

Hound and Arya finally reach their destination, but Hound talks Arya into leaving so she can live. She calls him by his first name and I cried because I love their father/daughter relationship. Cersei and guard are retreating when part of the wall falls killing some of the men. The rest are killed by Hound when he shows up to challenge his bro. Zombie Mountain disobeys Cersei and Frankstein’s orders to fight his bro. Zombie Mountain kills his Frankstein creator is one hit and Cersei casually strolls past. IN ONE CORNER, WE HAVE THE ZOMBIE MOUNTAIN CLEAGANE. IN THE OTHER, WE HAVE TORTURED YOUNGER BROTHER CLEAGANE IN THE FIGHT OF THE DECADE. Hound gets some good stabs in, but Mountain doesn’t die. Mountain does his signature crush the skull through the eyeballs move (so much cringe). Hound finally tackles his brother and they both go over the edge. RIP 

*EDIT I was watching the after episode recap with the show runners and they had to point out the Hound died by fire which was his worst fear caused by his brother and I’m CRUSHED…

I think Arya is just trying to survive at this point, forget escaping the city. She sees the horrors of the burning bodies. She gets caught in a stampede as people are running over her. It cuts beautifully between Arya’s scenes and the Hound’s fight. Arya is saved by the young mother, but gets separated as more builds crumple. Arya gets knocked out by a blast and wakes up covered in ash and dust. She finds a hideout of people taking refuge and recognizes the mother and daughter. She convinces them to keep moving trying to return the favor of saving her life. They almost get run over by dothraki  but can’t out run the dragon fire. Arya takes cover as the mother and daughter burn. 

Jaime and Cersei reunite in the same location they last saw each other. They embrace and cry and I think I’m rooting for incest at this point? Jaime leads her to the escape through the dragon crypts, but the path is blocked. Cersei is panicking saying she wants her baby to live. Jaime comforts her saying nothing else matters but the two of them. They embrace as the ceiling crashes down and kills them. Now as I mentioned, this is getting some hate. People wanted a more violent death for Cersei or at least something cooler than getting burried in the crypts trying to escape. I liked how she left the world the same way she came in – with Jaime. I think that was even a prophecy? Maybe I’m making that up…I think we were all predicting Arya or Dany to kill Cersei, but the show needs to stay unpredictable. That’s why we love it. The problem is they gave us 10 years to think of ideas and build hype, and now they’re having trouble meeting that expectation. 

The episode ends with Arya waking up and finding everyone dead. Imagine post eruption in Pompeii. The daughter was carrying a white pony figure throughout the episode and Arya sees it in the charred remains of the mother/daughter. A white house appears and is probably a metaphor for something because they spend a lot of time on it. I read that it could be biblical – pale horse who represents death since Arya’s is pissed and going to kill Dany. It could be symbolizing honor and chivary – also biblical but more famous in mythology and medieval stories. Arya could have stayed and easy killed Cersei. She chose not too. She hasn’t used a face since she returned to Winterfell. As much as I love her killing people, I think that’s too predictable for the show. I don’t think she’s going to kill Dany.