The season finale of Game of Thrones finally arrived, and with it came the winds of winter. Hands down one of the most amazing episodes this series has had so far, as beautiful as it was epic.
Lets start with the opening. Kings Landing. An amazing soundtrack plays in the background, with almost a Mozart feel to it. People have gathered in the High Sept. Margaery is there, her father, the priests and hundreds of citizens. The High Sparrow addresses everyone as Sir Loras is about to confess to all his crimes. But Cersei is not there. The king is not there. Sir Loras’ confession goes smoothly but still no King and mommy dears. Meanwhile, as King Tommen prepares to head there from the Castle, he finds himself stuck in his room with Mountainstein blocking the door. Cersei is up to something. The Sept starts feeling impatient. Margaery knows something is up. She tries to warn the High Sparrow but he doesn’t seem to understand what kind of person Cersei really is.
The music picks up. Things are starting to build up. Qyburn leads Pycelle to an empty room. Lancel, sent to find the queen, sees a curious child hiding around the corner, and ends up trying to catch him. Pycelle, questioning why he’s been brought there, is answered by a half dozen kids with knives in their hands. Qyburn’s little birds end Pycelle’s carreer. Lancel is down in some sellers, still searching for the kid, only to be stabbed from behind. He falls crippled to the flow. The music becomes even more dramatic. Margaery starts freaking out. She tells everyone to leave, to run. But the sparrows act as guards to keep people in place. Lancel is left in the dark, trying to figure out what is in the area, and it seems to be barrels and barrels on end, a think green liquid oozing on the floor. On the other side of the room, three candles are burning in a puddle of Wildfire, their wick almost to the bottom. Lancel tries to crawl toward them. Cersei looks out her window. Lancel gets closer but… The High Sparrow finally realizes something is wrong, and with that, the entire Sept explodes. The neighboring streets go up in flames. Hundreds upon hundreds die. And Cersie has won.
Cersei visits the Septa that would torte her, and now, sets her up for a world of hurt with Mountainstein by her side. And while she’s there, we are brought to another death, as Tommen, alone in his room trying to process what happened, takes his own life by jumping out his window. And Cersei does not seem too upset about this, which brings us to think if she knew something like this might happen… maybe in fact expected it (dare I say planned for it?).
On the other side of the sea Dany prepares to set sail for Westoros. She seems worried. Tyrion converses with her and brings things to perspective. Within the emotionally strong scene, Dany names him Hand of the Queen.
Sam and Gilly finally reach Old Town and what is basically the headquarters for the Maesters. With a little humor, he “checks-in” only for HBO to give us an amazing shot of what might be the greatest library anyone has ever seen. Sam seems in heaven.
Up in Wintefell, Davos reveals how Melissandre sacrificed Serene (along with Stannis) to Jon, who finds it in his heart to spare her life, but sends her south, never to return or he will have her killed. Later, he meets with Sansa to discuss how she kept the Knights of the Vale behind his back… but they are family, and they must trust each other. Their bond is strong and it will be interesting to see two Starks work together now.
Sansa meets with Littlefinger, who reveals he wants her, and to serve the Starks (who believes now has Sansa at the head of the table). Sansa will have none of it.
The Frey’s celebrate their victory now having finally taken the Riverlands, and Walder, the old f*ck, can’t give less of shit to anyone but himself, laughing off that he’s now a Kingslayer (Robb) like Jaime. We remember how Jaime feels about that, and in fact understand him (Aegon the Mad was obviously… mad). Even the lingering eyes of some young girl in the background do no change his mood, despite Bronn making a joke of it.
Later, Jaime is back in King’s Landing, only to walk into Cersei being coordinated as the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Clearly he’s heard of his son’s death, as well as what Cersei did – the very same thing he stopped from happening all those years ago, and now suffers to be known as the Kingslayer. He does not look happy at all.
But back at the Frey’s, Walder remains alone at the dinner hall. A servant girl (the same one eyeing Jaime earlier) comes to serve him a dish. Walder complains about his sons not being there. There girl explains they are there, referring to the pie. As the realization kicks in to Walder at what she means, the girl removes her face only to reveal herself as Arya. And the Audience cheers as she takes a name of her list. Single handedly, she’s taken out the Frey’s!
Down south, Lady Ollena has visited Dorne to strike a bargain against Cersei. And as they are coming to an understanding, Vary shows up to make an even bigger union.
And now we come to Bran. It seems they have reached the Wall, as Uncle Benjen explains how he cannot cross it… amonst the stone and ice that forms it, there is a magic that is meant to keep the “dead” out, and seeing that he’s stuck somewhere in the middle between the living and the dead, he is not able to cross it. He bids his goodbyes and leaves them to finish their journey on their own. Resting at a Wierwood tree, Bran decides it times to complete his journey into the past. He reaches out, and suddenly he is at the Tower of Joy. His father has just had the battle outside, and heads in. He follows him to the top, where we see Ned find his sister. Only she is laying in bed, covered in blood. The truth of history is finally revealed. She will not survive this blood loss. She leans in and whispers into his ear. You catch a few words, ending with Promise me, Ned. Promise me. She has given birth to a little baby boy… on bred out of love with Raegar Targeryan. Knowing that Robert would have it killed if he found out, she asks Ned to take the child. To Promise never to tell. That’s right, the long going theory of R+L=J is proven to be true. We see the face of the child, and the camera fads to a close up of Jon!
At the wall, the families of the North try to decide how to proceed. Little Lady Mormont is tired of hearing everyone complain. She has never given up on the Starks, and she’s not about to do so now. Jon has Stark blood in him, and in her eyes, he is the true King of the North. The other families follow suit, and before you know it, Jon is officially declared the new King of the North!
We end with Dany and he thousand ships sailing across the ocean. The dragons fly free amongst this ships. Toward Westoros they go, the end game of the show finally coming to a start.
That’s it folks… now we wait till next April/May for the following season of amazingness to come again. But before a go, some notes, rumors and theories should be mentioned for good measure.
Rumor has it, there will only be around 13 more episode of the show, split into two more seasons (so like 7 and 6?). Clearly, the very finale is likely to be at least 2 hours long. But this connects with the plans for only 7 books being written (though rumor on that as well is that 7 will be so big, the publisher will possibly split it into two books). Not a big deal as we see this happen with many shows (Breaking Bad, Mad Men).
Theories… I feel like the show will always remind the audience of some storyline, or hint at something as a reminder to certain scene that are meant to take place. i.e., Tyrion telling Dany about the Wildfire under the city; this worked as a subtle reminder to the audience about that, so it doesn’t come out of know where when Cersei does her deed on the following episodes. Similarly, I believe that Sam reaching the library was not only to show us the greatness of the Maesters, but I believe it was symbolic on how Sam has access to this almost infinite supply knowledge. Symbolic cause maybe it is Sam who’s going to be the one to somehow prove to everyone who Jon really is.
Just how Jaime had the Kindlsayer topic brought up earlier in the episode, only to have him see Cersei do that very hideous act.
If you think about it, Dan will end up sailing to Dorne, and get a safe landing out of it (considering they are no on her side). She has her Dothroki Barbarians, her Unsullied Spartans. Along with the Dorne army, as well as Highgarden in the West, Dany will probably march everyone up to Kinds Landing, while leaving the Greyjoys to their ships to attack King’s landing from there.
We don’t know what’s happened to Uncle Greyjoy, but wouldn’t it be cool if they ran into Dany while crossing the ocean and we get to have a huge ship battle?
Also, if the magic that kept the Whites out of the tree was dissolved ever since Bran got touched (and crossed the threshold, then wouldn’t that mean if he crosses the wall, the Whites would be able to cross as well… rut roh.
Anyway, that’s it for now. See you next year for another amazing season of Game of Thrones!
~Mozeus
