Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 10 Review
Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale Recap: Facing the Music
Jon and Sam's last conversation. Photograph: Helen Sloan/HBO
"I'1000 glad the end of the earth is working out for someone."
Judging by my Twitter feed, information technology seems that last night's finale, "Mother's Mercy," may be the terminate of Game of Thrones for some viewers. A long, drawn-out scene that mingled sex, violence, and voyeurism; intense gruesomeness; a billion plots; the "shocking" cliff-hanger death of a dearest graphic symbol — it was every bit if showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff decided to double down on all the things viewers criticize most about the testify. I could literally feel people out at that place recoiling and throwing their remotes.
The episode begins with what feels like an ending: Stannis surveying the results of his horrible decision to sacrifice his daughter to Melisandre's visions. The first shot is of melting icicles, which should be a sign of promise — a sign that the thaw has arrived, and that Shireen's death has had the intended effect of easing her father's passage to Winterfell. Simply the shrinking icicles seem to convey how Stannis himself has been macerated by his act. Half of his men accept deserted him. His wife hangs herself in the wood — wracked with guilt, presumably, for having felt those first pangs of mother'south mercy a split second as well tardily. Lady Melisandre has ridden out of the military camp.
This episode had a curious, fascinating rhythm — enough so that I almost wish I had the stomach to watch information technology again to pick autonomously the editing. Despite it being an hour that was packed to the gills with Stuff Happening, there were all these foreign ellipses and moments of silence. Stephen Dillane's Stannis seemed half-dead from the very beginning, his reactions so slow, his face so ragged. His siege on Winterfell arrives stillborn: Just every bit he announces that they'll storm the castle at sunrise, he looks upwardly to meet the Boltons' regular army advancing in one long, snaky line. A long crush, a look down, and then he pulls out his sword to face the fate he knows he must. We in the audience go no big battle scene; the activeness jumps straight to the aftermath of the rout. (The way the ii armies were shot from high above, as if they were swarms of black ants, contributed to a feeling of dreamlike detachment; we're watching ghosts that accept already passed.) By the time Brienne arrives to terminate him off, her revenge is merely a formality.
Stannis knows he's got what'south coming to him. When Brienne accuses him of killing his brother with blood magic, he just confesses. What would be the betoken of denying it at this point? If the besides-many-plots-ness of the finale worked better for me than it did for Vulture'due south livebloggers, I think information technology's considering in that location was a sense, through many of the story lines, that what we were seeing was the consequence of by actions — non always justified consequences, for sure, but the beats didn't feel every bit random as they exercise in many super-plot-heavy GOT episodes. "Don't arraign me for your crimes, Mormont," Tyrion warns Jorah the Andal. And indeed, several cardinal characters final night had to expect at themselves and face things they themselves had set into move.
In Arya's case, she literally had to face herself. Several viewers last week predicted that Arya would notice her way into the Braavosi brothel, making use of Meryn Trant'due south sense of taste for young girls. I definitely didn't need to come across Meryn actually beat those children, nor did I need to see Arya's savage attack on him one time she revealed her true face to him. (Though I liked, if I tin can use that word here, which I'm not sure I can, the way her slow slitting of his throat echoed the way her female parent died — every bit if she were subconsciously seeking a poetic revenge for a scene she didn't actually witness.) But when I take the scene as a whole, something about the awfulness of those moments felt answered, or mayhap acknowledged, by the scariness of the ending. (Giving the writers besides much credit? Entirely possible.)
Again, there's a long, silent trounce as Arya returns to the Hall of Faces to hang upwards the skin-face she'd been wearing as a disguise. (Was it the confront of the girl she gave the gift of the Many-Faced God to in episode six?) Her smile is short-lived, every bit she's quickly caught by the Waif and not-Jaqen, who tells her that "a debt is owed" for taking a life that was not hers to accept. (Which brings upwards the question of how the Faceless Men decide whose lives are okay to dispense with, but that's some other piece.)
Information technology looks for a second like non-Jaqen is going to poisonous substance Arya, but and then he drinks it himself. For perpetually abandoned Arya, this is a surprising and terrifying outcome — not-Jaqen has non ever been warm or kind, just he is an adult who's sheltered and tutored her. Quickly, though, this lesson dissolves into something uncanny; the waif transforms into not-Jaqen and tells Arya that the dead man now lying before her, wearing his face, is "no one — simply as a girl should have been." Arya frantically pulls a series of faces off the dead torso until, finally, her own is revealed. Suddenly, her vision starts failing, and she seems to go blind — shades of Macbeth ("What hands are hither? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. / Will all bang-up Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?") but also an echo of the penalization she just dealt Meryn. It was hard to watch Arya, one of the most love characters on the show (and, yes, nonetheless a kid), undergo such a terrifying transformation. But a brutality has been building in her for many seasons now, and this seemed like a fitting outcome of that.
Over in Male monarch'south Landing, another character faces "what she had coming," in no less dramatic fashion. A cleaved-down Cersei confesses her sins to the High Sparrow — though unlike Stannis, Cersei clearly hasn't reached total stone bottom; she admits to sleeping with Lancel only flat-out denies those Jaime rumors. The Loftier Sparrow promises a trial that volition "prove" her innocence (I doubtable something of the if-she-floats-she's-a-witch variety), just first, to absolve for the sins she has admitted to, Cersei must walk from the Sept of Baelor to the Cherry-red Keep … naked. And Lord, it is a long walk. The scene was an excruciating one to watch, what with the septa smugly tolling her bell and chanting "shame," and the crowd turning into these horrible, brazen participants, throwing garbage and waggling their naked bodies at her.
What kept this scene balanced on the knife's edge of exploitation, for me, was Lena Headey's performance. With her long, gloriously blonde pilus all shorn, Headey'due south face, especially her incredibly expressive mouth, seemed to fill every frame. As with Stephen Dillane in this episode, y'all could see the enormity of what was happening writ across her face and body; with every step, it became etched more deeply. I haven't loved a lot of the decisions the writers accept fabricated with Cersei this season — she's been a cartoon more often than she's been a person — simply at to the lowest degree this granted Cersei some humanity within her humiliation. It's a walk of shame, but also of strength — and not the dragon-lady strength of Cersei when she's in high-camp villain mode, simply that of the real, embodied woman who fourth dimension and over again has shown she can forge steel from pain. (I loved that shot when she finally arrived at the Red Keep, just after she's finally let herself cry, when Qyburn'southward "new Kingsguard" picks her up; she'southward so tiny and limp against his massive frame, you can almost experience her sense of release.) I imagine that even viewers who feel Cersei deserves all the retribution Westeros can throw at her felt at to the lowest degree mildly conflicted about that desire, once they were forced to walk a mile in her blank, bloodied feet — which is ane more small way I got myself comfy with that painful scene.
The story line that capped off the theme of actions and consequences was the Big Shocker of the dark: the bump-off of Jon Snowfall by the Night'due south Watchmen. Olly comes into the Lord Commander'due south chamber with news that one of the Wildlings says Jon'due south uncle Benjen was spotted live, and that he knows where to find him. Benjen Stark was once First Ranger; he'southward also the 1 who start advised Jon to take the blackness, way back in flavour one. Only and then he went ranging n of the Wall and was never spotted again. Jon rushes out to hear the news of this illustrious relative — and like a previous Lord Commander, Jeor Mormont, he's summarily killed past his own men, with a crying Olly delivering the terminal stab. (Between Stannis's deserters and Jon's tribal traitors, we brainstorm and cease this hr with a mutiny.)
Did it work for you? Were you surprised? I have to admit, despite Olly basically having a giant neon sign pointing at his caput all season that said I'M GONNA Impale JON Snow ANY MINUTE At present, I still jumped when that first dagger went in, and didn't finish gawking till information technology was over. It came as a surprise, but it didn't feel like a cheap shock to me, probably because — like Robb and Ned Stark before him — it was articulate that Jon's actions led him to his fate, unjustifiable as information technology may have been. Though how distressing that it came just as his one friend left him — and how sad it will be for Sam when he realizes he unwittingly made a Samwell's Choice by choosing to save Gilly and Little Sam over his blood brother. Jon Snow, I was only kickoff to believe in you! (For theories on how Jon might withal be alive — and Kit Harington's promises to the contrary — check out Jennifer Vineyard's post.)
Three concluding story lines to run through, and then we can rest and recoup for the inevitable White Walker onslaught that'southward sure to make a lot of this human Sturm und Drang seem moot, come up flavour six:
Sansa:For all the rut it produced early, the Sansa story line this season ended on a fizzle-out. Not every woman needs to exist a blazing heroine, but it was disappointing to see Sansa grow into this crackling, wily, witchy person — mirroring, in a mode, the sort of transformation her sister was undergoing — merely to watch her ultimately take a backseat to the main drama. Yes, she escapes her chamber in the confusion of the Stannis-Bolton clash, and when she lights a candle in the broken tower to no avail (Brienne having abased her vigil in favor of grabbing the opportunity to impale Stannis), she heads out on her ain. Just I wanted her to do more than than confront death (in the shape of Myranda, begetting a bow and arrow) with a stoic, "If I'm going to die, let it happen while at that place's still some of me left." (As a side note, having a graphic symbol gleefully describe sexual torture of a woman doesn't go whatever less gross or more interesting when it's a woman doing the describing.)
Littlefinger told her to stop existence a bystander, just ultimately, it's Reek/Theon who overpowers Myranda and leads her to the ramparts, from which they'll leap to their freedom. It's not just that I think active Sansa is better than passive Sansa — though I do think that, in an episode that was all about characters dealing with consequences, it was unfortunate that Sansa didn't fifty-fifty become that kind of agency — but that growth and change are more interesting than stasis and repetition. Complimentary Sophie Turner in season six!
Dorne: Start off, let's have a moment to honor the worst scrap of dialogue ever uttered on Game of Thrones, and a buss-off to the incomprehensible Bronn-Tyene business organisation: "You want a good girl, merely you need a bad pussy." Seriously. Someone wrote this, and so someone recited it, so someone filmed information technology and someone edited it. Think of ALL the people involved in you hearing that line terminal night.
Okay. Terminal calendar week, Ellaria Sand seemed to hint at a radical approach to all the fighting in Westeros: What if we just accepted that sometimes people go caught upwards in things that are out of their command, and nosotros all opted out of the endlessly transitive cycle of revenge? But final nighttime, we saw that this was all for show, as Ellaria's lingering goodbye kiss to Myrcella leaves a slow-interim toxicant on the young princess'southward lips. Only before Myrcella dies, on the ship ride back to Rex's Landing, Jaime begins to tell the girl, haltingly, how complicated people can exist, and how we tin can't always choose whom we dear — though Myrcella stops him and tells him she knows that he'southward her father, and she's happy for it. My notes hither are all about how gorgeous and frothy Myrcella's pink gown looks in this scene; defenseless in an errant sunbeam, the illuminated princess looks like she stepped out of a different type of fantasy story entirely. And there'south something of this other fantasy, too, in the speech communication Jaime gives her — the undercurrent of which is, "your mother and I couldn't help ourselves." In an episode that was all about choices having consequences, Jaime's attempts to excuse his behavior were noticeable. Information technology'due south non as if there's some vivid line between this bit of cocky-deceit and the death of his daughter — who dies, for maximum feels, juuuuust after their tender reconciliation — merely her expiry is a rejoinder to the notion that anyone in this globe tin can escape the webs they've built for themselves.
Now Jaime's got to be the one to tell an already-broken Cersei that nonetheless another of her children has a shroud of gold. And of course, Trystane is notwithstanding aboard the ship and bound for King'south Landing — an example of Ellaria cut off her family unit's nose to spite her confront? Or part of her continuing rebellion against Trystane's father, Prince Doran?
Meereen:Total shake-up in Dany-land, now that the Queen and her dragon have flown the coop. Daario and Jorah decide to form a country-music duo search political party to find their queen, concluding seen headed n. Tyrion tries to get along, but Daario argues that he tin can better serve Dany by belongings down the fort in Meereen, along with Missandei and a wounded but walking Gray Worm. I don't fully understand all the logic hither — someone argues that just the Unsullied can keep the peace in Meereen, which is why Grayness Worm should stay, but hasn't the whole Sons-of-the-Harpy revolution matter pretty much proven that that's not the instance? — though I'm eager to come across whether Tyrion tin revive this plotline, and whether ruling will, in turn, revive his character. We've gotten to see fiddling flashes of Tyrion's one-time cunning and quick-thinking in the past few episodes, and it's high time nosotros got more. Varys shows up out of the blue and is like, "Did you miss me, bro?" Information technology was full fan-service ridiculousness, and I, for one, own't mad.
Daenerys, meanwhile, has been flown to God knows where by Drogon, who only wants to accept a nap despite Dany's insistence that she has to go dorsum to Meereen. Every bit she heads down the mountain in search of some food, she hears a horse'southward neigh, and before you can say, "Out of the frying pan, into the middle of a whooping Dothraki horde," she'southward surrounded by what seems similar a whole khalasar of Dothraki riders. The scene cuts out earlier we can see whether or non they come up bearing a equus caballus eye of friendship.
Will Drogon come salve Daenerys a second time? What was that pearl ring she dropped as the riders approached? And no, seriously, is Jon Snow actually dead? Lots of questions to keep us all occupied until flavour half-dozen drops. Until then, valar dohaeris; over again, it'south been an honor recapping for yous all.
Source: https://www.vulture.com/2015/06/game-of-thrones-recap-season-5-episode-10.html
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