Welp, it's time again to re-set Game of Thrones's "Days Since Last Our Nonsense" counter to zero, because we've got - surprise! - more violence against young girls. As the season has been hinting since the very beginning, Shireen's the latest of Thrones's emotional thumbscrews. The scene was played for maximum suffering, as if orchestrated by Ramsay himself. As well as it has mastered the art of the chaotic battle scene (see Drogon the Burninator's timely reappearance for further examples), Thrones still seems to consider human misery to be its true wheelhouse. The scene was immediately followed by a lengthy discussion of The Way Things Are, with Hizdahr, Tyrion and Daenerys on the panel. It was another reminder from Benioff and Weiss that this is Westeros as it has been, for better or worse, and another promise that someday things will get better, though whether or not the show will actually make good on that promise remains to be seen.
Jon certainly seems to be growing and learning in a way that inspires optimism. His mission beyond the Wall was at least a partial success, but more than that, it was both pragmatic and compassionate. Doran and Ellaria also seemed to be on missions of mercy this week. It may be completely fucking dumb, after 49 hours of nearly continuous suffering virtually undiluted by person-to-person connection, but I'm still fanning a tiny spark of hope that this isn't all just philosophical discussion, that someday, hopefully someday real goddamn soon, Thrones is actually going to make good on that promise.
Maybe, now that things have gotten so dire in the North, Jon's model is going to become a little bit more of the norm. Interpersonal conflict doesn't mean a lot to Minty Fresh Darth Maul (aka The Night's King) and his frostbitten buddies. There are certainly some characters that seem beyond redemption (I have trouble believing Ramsay, for example, could put aside his personal beefs to save the human race) but maybe an ice cold dose of reality is just what some of the rest of these petty power-grabbers need to show some basic human decency. Call me naive, but that's what I've got to keep hoping to sit through some of this stuff.
DORNE:
So let's get into the recap and, as usual, get Dorne out of the way first. It's still not cohering with the rest of the show and the Sand Snakes are still falling flat, but this week was at least a small shuffle in the right direction. We get a better idea of who Doran is in this episode. He summons Jaime for an incredibly chill negotiation session/tea party. Doran's main goal is to keep the peace, despite Ellaria's vengeance campaign. He's willing to send Myrcella back to King's Landing as long as her betrothal to Trystane stands and he goes with her. This seems like a big tally in the loss column for the two young lovers, though they don't know it yet. Dorne is a liberal, lovely Eden. King's Landing is currently a raging dumpster fire. Hard to imagine it as an ideal spot for teen romance, especially as it's basically under religious rule. Trystane will also be representing Dorne on the Small Council. He flexes his judiciary muscles by deciding Bronn's punishment for clocking him in the face: everyone's favorite pie-loving mercenary gets repaid in kind. Seems fair.
Doran's second step on the Path to Peace involves wrangling Ellaria and the Sand Snakes. He's forgiving but stern. Ellaria's 180 from refusing to toast the health of her sad boyking to crying as she kisses Doran's ring is a bit jarring, but Indira Varma makes it work. Her olive branch moment with Jaime is excellent, another one of this episodes brief glimpses into what it might be like if people could put their vendettas aside. Ellaria dropping her vengeance campaign is basically unprecedented on this show, and it's one of the things that keeps me hoping. Of course, it remains to be seen how well she can corral the Sand Snakes after she's already let them off the chain. I honestly don't know how that's gonna go, because it's been nine episodes and I still know basically nothing about them. Dorne's been weird! However, given that their only real characterization has been vengeance-based, I'm willing to bet she's going to have problems getting them to toe the line.
BRAAVOS:
On the subject of vengeance, Arya's semester abroad in Braavos is finally paying some dividends. She's out selling seafood and side-stepping gross street harassment, making her way towards her target, when she comes across one of the names on her personal hit list: Meryn Trant. To refresh your memory, Meryn made the list back in season one when he, presumably, killed Arya's mentor, Syrio Forel. He's over in Braavos acting as the muscle for Mace Tyrell's diplomatic mission to, basically, beg for the mercy of the Bank of Braavos, which has called in the crown's enormous debt. Arya hesitates for only a second before she pursues the group. We see Mace's pitch crashing and burning, despite some literal song and dance numbers, but Arya has eyes only for Trant. She trails him to a brothel where he proves himself to be even more disgusting than we previously guessed.
The set-up here is that Arya is going to show up tomorrow and offer herself as sexual bait for this creep. I'm not looking forward to seeing that, but this entire plotline has been about Arya making herself a weapon. Her devotion has never been to the Many-Faced God or the House of Black and White, or even Jaqen. Arya's devotion is solely to crossing names of her list. This season has been a stepping stone on that path, and it seems like we're about to see some payoff at last.
Arya tells Jaqen that she'll return for the Thin Man tomorrow, but we get a shot of his face that makes it pretty clear he doesn't buy it. Given his apparent omniscience, it seems basically impossible that he wouldn't know what she was really up to all day. For me, something about that look gave a little bit of credence to the popular theory that one of Jaqen's faces might be a familiar one, but we'll have to see how that plays out next week.
THE WALL:
Other things to keep an eye on next week: Olly. That kid will not let up on this. He's mad about the wildlings and he wants everybody to know about it. After all these lingering shots on his glowering babyface, I'm expecting at least some kind of assassination attempt next episode. There's been too much unsubtle focus here. Something's gonna go down.
There's also a lot glaring from Ser Alliser, and a long tense moment, but in the end, he does raise the gates and let Jon and about five thousand of the Free Folk through to the questionable safety of Castle Black. Jon is upset that he couldn't bring back more, but Sam gives him a pep talk. Ser Alliser's reaction is considerably less peppy. "You have a good heart," he says, "you're going to get us all killed." The Hound said something similar to Arya last season and, indeed, the show so far seems to support that worldview, at least until now. So, Sam or Alliser? Who's going to get to say "I told you so" here?
THE NORTH:
Let's get this part out of the way so we can end things on a high note. All season, we've been getting our first humanizing scenes of Stannis, all of them involving his love and devotion to his daughter. On Game of Thrones, that's never a good sign. It's an even worse omen that Davos has a tender moment with her before he departs for The Wall on Stannis's orders. As we learned last week, having a tender farewell with children means someone's death is imminent. In this case, it's Shireen's.
When Melisandre floated the idea of sacrificing Stannis's daughter to the Lord of Light, I said I wouldn't be surprised if Stannis followed through, and I'm not. The impression I've gotten is that this is a character departure from the Stannis seen in the books, but from what I've seen on the show, I don't find it unreasonably shocking (though no less terrible for its predictability). He's already killed one member of his family in the name of his right to the throne, as well as a teenager (it's easy to forget, given what a monster he was, but Joffrey was still a child when he died). Stannis tells Shireen a man has to make choices, and Stannis has made this choice before. It's never been such a huge personal loss, sure, but he's proven that he doesn't shrink from human sacrifice if he thinks it will be worth it. Stannis values the Iron Throne more than anything else, even the only person he seems to love. Stannis thinks the Throne is worth her death.
If you were rooting for Stannis, this probably makes it hard to keep doing that. The scene itself is brutal. Shireen's screams will haunt Stannis just as much as they'll haunt the rest of us. Even Selyse, nobody's candidate for mother of the year, is moved. But no one can save Shireen. The situation was dire - his men were starving and Ramsay's twenty-man attack destroyed too many of their supplies for them to be able to retreat or go forward - but it justifies nothing, not for the audience, and certainly not for Davos when he comes back.
The title of this episode comes from the last book Shireen will ever read, an account of a civil war between two Targaryens. Like the discussion in Meereen, this brings up the themes of the brutality of the world, the performance of war and violence, the sacrifices made for power. It's a pretty name for an awful thing, the same way a "game" is a misleadingly fun term for the merciless ambition we've been watching play out for the last few years. It's all the same, like the wheel of the powerful Westerosi families Tyrion and Dany discussed last week. Until someone breaks the wheel, this same violence is going to continue to be the norm.
MEEREEN:
Over in Meereen, the wheel keeps spinning. The Great Games are underway and Daenerys is not happy about it. Hizdahr coaches her through the etiquette of the event while Daario noses around trying to undermine him. Both of these dudes are awful. The group plus Tyrion, who has apparently already merited dais-level status, have a ringside discussion about the role of violence in empire-building. It's kind of a surreal conversation for these people to be having, especially Hizdahr and Daenerys who have largely kept their hands clean on a personal level, especially on the heels of what just happened to Shireen Baratheon.
Tyrion sounds like so many of us watching at home when he says there's enough violence in real life without seeking it out in your leisure time. It's an interesting line to give to Tyrion, a character who is so often the voice of reason, when the show itself is seems to glory so much in being our own fighting pits, our own leisure pseudo-violence. It's easy, Tyrion says, for Hizdahr to excuse the violence, because it's violence that has kept him in power. (Ironically, for all his arguments in favor, Hizdahr is the only one of this group who meets a violent end in this episode.) Like Hizdahr, violence on Thrones is really all we've known. Tyrion hints that there's another way, that just because this is what we've become accustomed to doesn't mean this is the way it will be going forward. The fact that it's Tyrion saying it gives me hope, even though this show delights in the bait-and-switch of optimism. If there are only two seasons left, I have to assume we're going somewhere with this, somewhere new, somewhere worth the long and painful trip it took to get there.
Before we get to a reprieve, however, we have to get through some gratuitous pit violence. Daenerys grimaces her way through it, more or less, until Jorah shows up. She's visibly shaken, especially when Jorah seems to be having a rough time in a multicultural battle royale. Tyrion urges her to put a stop to it, but Hizdahr tells her it's against the rules. Daenerys sits there, paralyzed, and watches. Jorah makes it through, somehow, and he and his Khaleesi have a minute to stare at each other before everything erupts into chaos. The Sons of the Harpy are out in full-force and Daenerys's Unsullied guards are outnumbered. Tyrion saves Missandei, Daario and Jorah save Daenerys, no one bothers saving Hizdahr. The little group is trapped, a rapidly thinning ring of Unsullied all that remains between them and what looks like at least a hundred masked rebels, when Drogon makes his big entrance.
Despite the fact that it's Drogon doing most of the barbecuing and biting, Daenerys hasn't looked this strong all season. Standing upright in the face of Drogon's roar, pulling spears from his side, climbing on his goddamn back and going for a ride, this is the mythic Mother of Dragons that even a cocky idiot like Joffrey was a little nervous about. If she can get her scaly babies back on the team, Daenerys finally might have the power to back up her reforms in Meereen.
Then again, if Jorah keeps fucking grabbing people with his contractible disease hand maybe the entire place will succumb to Greyscale and we won't have to worry about its political problems anymore. Am I missing something about how this disease works? Why is he so cavalier about touching people?? Especially Daenerys! Maybe the show just thought we'd forget about it, but given how many scenes have been devoted to Jorah dramatically rolling up his sleeve and flashing his wrist like he's wearing an Apple Watch, viewers forgetting about his diagnosis is not super likely. Another question I have here is, um, did Daenerys just go ghost on her own squad? The fighting seemed to be dying down a bit in the wake of her takeoff, but I'm not sure if that was just a breather for everyone to say "holy shit" before continuing to murder each other or an actual end to the melee. If it's the former: rude.
Either way, this is three big allies Daenerys has gained/re-gained in the past two episodes: Jorah, Tyrion, and Drogon. She's gathering her forces, and things are coming to a head. It seems like there's still a lot to be resolved in the final episode (Stannis vs The Boltons, Arya vs Meryn Trant, the trials in King's Landing, the repercussions at The Wall) but I think it's fair to assume we're going to see a make-or-break moment in Meereen as well. Looking at that list, it's a lot to fit into one hour. Safe to say we're in for an action-packed finale full of long-term consequences. Let's hope the quiet moments of optimism of this episode weren't just talk. Let's hope some of the good guys win next week, or, in the case of Stannis and the Boltons, I guess we'll just root for the lesser of two evils.
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