Recap: Game of Thrones S8 Ep5

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*SPOILERS AHEAD*

So, I guess we're going to call episode 5 the episode where Daenerys done f'ed up.

We begin with Lord Varys being EXECUTED just because he had the guts to spit some mad truth at Jon. SHE IS NOT FIT TO BE QUEEN! She has made too many mistakes to count, including being unnecessarily violent, example Varys. Varys was such a keystone character in this show and I think they did him dirty by giving him a 10 minute appearance ending with his execution. We've been through too much with him for that!

R.I.P. Varys.

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Despite being the whistle-blower on Varys' treason, Tyrion has one strike left with Daenerys before he ends up like Varys after Jaime is found trying to return to Cersei. Like Varys, Tyrion's faith in his queen is faltering because she doesn’t seem to care about all the innocent people Cersei has in the Red Keep. Tyrion begs her to wait for the bells and if they ring, the city has surrendered and she can call her men off. Daenerys tells Grey Worm to wait for her at the gates and that he'll know when to strike.

Tyrion, despite being very close to becoming a dragon flambé, lets Jaime escape in hopes he’ll go talk some sense into Cersei and get her to surrender. I love Tyrion, but he has way too much hope in his sister. Cersei will let the city and everyone in it burn to the ground before she surrenders. And guess what? That's basically what happens.

The Hound and Arya slip out in the middle of the night to go kill Cersei. The Hound has other plans, however. He wants to find his brother Gregor, aka The Mountain, and enact his revenge he's been waiting for all his life.

The following day, the battle for King's Landing commences. Drogon and Daenerys burn the Iron Fleet and bust through the walls of the city. At this point it was just soldiers getting brutally massacred. The Lannister army were being obliterated with seemingly no difficulty.

After several minutes of burning and bloodshed, Jon and his army near the doors of the Red Keep. Everything is quiet except for the screams of men to ring the bell and end the terror. For several seconds, we cut between Cersei, soldiers, Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys all waiting for the bells to ring. Finally, they ring.

If only this were the end. Cersei would surrender and Daenerys would take the throne.

But alas, that is not Game of Thrones.

Daenerys then goes berserk and flies off and begins her attack again. She flies toward the Red Keep, burning everything, and everyone, in sight.

SHE WENT FULL-ON MAD QUEEN!

Grey Worm knew this was his signal, and he begins fighting again. Jon, confused, tries to get his men to stop, but they won't listen. They are thrown back into unnecessary killing. Jon realizes that Varys was right.

"They say that every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin and the world holds its breath." -Varys

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Inside the Red Keep, Arya and The Hound see the towers crumble around them. He tells Arya that she will die if she continues on with him and asks if she really wants to be like him the rest of her life - constantly seeking revenge. Arya turns to leave, then turns back and calls him by his real name, Sandor, something she's never done before. She thanks him (awwww) and they part ways.

Sandor finds his brother, accompanied by Cersei and her hand Qyburn, who is killed by Gregor. They begin fighting and Sandor quickly realizes that his brother is basically indestructible. With the last bit of strength he has, he tackles Gregor off of the collapsing tower, plunging them both into the fire below. As sad I was to see The Hound go, I'm not surprised that he died. Also, it's an interesting ironic death as Gregor shoved him into a fire, burning him as a child, but the way Gregor dies is by essentially being pushed into fire by Sandor. It was a fitting ending for them both.

Meanwhile, Arya is trying to get to safety and gets caught up in the panic as everyone tries to escape the fire.

Cersei and Jaime find each other as she tries to escape. I thought Jaime would be upset with her after his run-in with Euron and finding out him and Cersei were intimate, but he instead grabs her and tries to get her to safety. When the two realize they’re blocked in, Cersei finally loses it and breaks down in tears, saying she wants her child to live. Jaime delivers the infamous line:

"Nothing else matters." - Jaime Lannister

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Jaime then holds her close as the walls come down around them. CERSEI IS DEAD Y'ALL! WOOOO! And on MOTHER'S DAY!

I know before I said that Arya could be the one to kill Cersei, but I now see that there was no way the writers would give Arya the Night King and Cersei. It would be too easy and predictable.

However, the fact that no one got to kill Cersei is shocking. I was really hoping that Jaime would prove he has changed, kill Cersei and go back to Brienne. Instead he died in an incestuous embrace, throwing all of the time the writers spent on his so-called "redemption" out the window.

Arya somehow survives, seeing the charred remains of the mother and daughter she tried to save, which is heartbreaking. She finds a horse among the carnage, rides off and the screen goes dark. Arya, for the first time since the earlier seasons, looks like a little girl again. While she parts ways with The Hound and when she's terrified trying to get out of Daenerys' line of fire, we actually see terror in her eyes. It was jarring to see at first, but it brought us back to realizing that she is a young girl who's been through so much in her life.

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If it wasn't clear already, I am officially 100% team Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen for the Iron Throne. I don't know how they're going to deal with Daenerys' tirade in the final episode, but I guess we will soon find out. I'm thinking Daenerys won't be alive much longer. Ah well, so much for a competent woman ruling the Seven Kingdoms.

See you for the final episode of Game of Thrones, premiering Sunday, May 19 at 9pm.