Recap: Game of Thrones S8 Ep4
- Gabby Oliver
- May 6, 2019
- 4 min read
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I was NOT expecting the amount of broken hearts we saw in this episode.
After Gendry leaves the celebration and finds Arya, he proposes to her. Big surprise, she turns him down (can you sense my sarcasm?). He must not know her at all if he thought she was going to drop everything to be his lady in Storm's End.
Daenerys loses her beloved Rhaegal after he is shot by Euron Greyjoy's fleet and plummets into the sea. That makes two dragons down for the count, and only one remaining. Unfortunately, my guess is that Drogon will join his brothers by the end of the series. I hope I'm wrong.
After the long awaited hookup between Jaime and Brienne happens, Jaime runs off to go back to Cersei, leaving Brienne alone and heartbroken. Just when you think Jaime has changed, he reinforces how terrible of a person he is and rides off to rejoin the evil queen. I honestly believe that deep down Jaime is a good person, but he's so connected to Cersei that he's willing to throw that away and return to her in a moment's notice. He has convinced himself that he is a terrible person and cannot change.
Grey Worm has to watch in horror as Cersei orders his love Missandei's death via beheading. This relationship was one of the few in this entire show that I actually cared about so I did NOT. APPRECIATE. THIS. Besides Grey Worm, Daenerys had to watch one of her most trusted advisors and her closest friend die at the hand of her worst enemy. This definitely fueled Dany's desire to take Cersei down.
Last night's episode began with the funeral of the fallen heroes of the Battle of Winterfell. Many characters weep over those who have saved their lives. Daenerys cries over Jorah, Sansa over Theon, Sam over Edd Tollett, and Arya, while tearless, stares somberly at Lord Beric.
Seeing all the pyres of bodies really puts into perspective just how horrific and disastrous this battle really was. The Long Night was quite long, indeed.
After lighting the pyres, there is an epic celebration of their triumph (can we consider it a triumph?) over the Night King and his army of the dead. Tormund drinks excessively, Tyrion, Jaime and Brienne play some drinking games, Gendry becomes Lord of Storm's End, and of course the night ends with someone losing their virginity.
While at the celebration, Daenerys realizes her dream of sitting on the Iron Throne is in serious danger. While most people still don't know that Jon Snow is actually a Targaryen, he is the more favored ruler in the North. He is the dependable, intelligent, brave war hero that led the North out of a terrible situation. Daenerys can't compete with that. She pulls Jon aside and makes him swear he won't tell anyone about his true name, but of course Jon tells his family and swears them to secrecy, which then leads Sansa to blab to Tyrion. I can't imagine this secret will hold much longer, and after word is out, Daenerys is screwed.
Daenerys' army once looked indestructible, but as Varys put it, "The balance has grown distressingly even." Dany wants to immediately return to her plan to take over King's Landing, but Sansa speaks up and explains that the troops are tired and wounded and are not ready to fight again. Sansa and Dany have clashed before, which is probably why Dany doesn't really take her concerns into consideration and presses on with her plan. After some coercion from her other advisors, she reluctantly agrees to try and appeal to Cersei, so when they do rain fire upon King's Landing, the subjects will blame Cersei, as she had an opportunity to avoid conflict.
This, of course, leads to the ambush by the Greyjoy fleet, the death of Rhaegal, and the capture and gruesome execution of Missandei. However, Daenerys leaves with a fiery determination to destroy Cersei, which could pull them through all of this.
Euron Greyjoy returns to King's Landing to tell Cersei the good news. Cersei has some good news of her own to reveal to Euron as well. She's pregnant! I'm calling for a paternity test here Jerry Springer-style because that baby is DEFINITELY Jaime's. Euron, you are NOT the father!
Something even more troubling than Daenerys' lack of reason is that Varys and Tyrion are starting to falter in their once unwavering faith in their queen. Varys states that above all else, he is loyal to the realm and will always act in their best interest. Tyrion tries to talk him down and reinforce their support for Daenerys as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, but Varys doesn't seem convinced. He believes that Daenerys is heading down the path of becoming like her father, and that Jon might be the better ruler.
In all, this was not one of the best episodes, and I would like to point out a few details about this episode that I was not-so-happy about:
1) Ser Bronn of the Blackwater showing up and threatening Tyrion and Jaime to give him a higher title
I personally did not think this was in keeping with Bronn's character. Yes, we've known that Bronn acts in his own self-interest and is very greedy, but there is no way he would actually kill his two friends for his own personal gain. I did not like this AT ALL.
2) The conflict between Euron's fleet and Dany's army
We see Rhaegal go down and the fleet attack Dany's ships. Tyrion then jumps ship and gets knocked out. THAT'S ALL WE SEE. The next shot is them washing up to shore, and we find out that Missandei had been captured. Why didn't we see the fight? Maybe they shot it and had to cut it later, but it seemed very abrupt and left me disappointed.
3) Bran not being a part of the battle plan
Bran literally has magical powers and can see the world through a bird and yet no one is using him? He continues to prove me right in that he does absolutely nothing to help progress the story or help the other characters. USE HIM!
Overall, out of the four episodes of season 8, this ranks fourth. Hopefully the show picks up again next Sunday.
Kommentare