6x10 The Winds of Winter

[8.6/10] Game of Thrones, as a series, is always going to exist in the shadow of The Red Wedding. More than Ned’s beheading, more than Joffrey’s demise, more than the battles of Blackwater Bay or The Wall or Hardhome or The Bastards, it is the event that defined this show in the popular consciousness. For a long time, it felt like everything up to that point was building to that moment, and everything that came after was a consequence of it. The third season of this show was a focal point, with that mortal bit of matrimony at its center.

Season 6 of the series has felt more like a sequel to that one than the extension of the work that the show did in Seasons 4 and 5. It is the season of resurrection, one where we’ve witnessed the returns (and often demises) of those we knew long ago: The Brothers Without Banners, The Blackfish, Osha and Rickon, Benjen, Walder Frey, and more. Whether it’s the freedom of no longer being constrained by George R.R. Martin’s novels, or the knowledge that the end is nigh, Game of Thrones spent much of its sixth year tying off loose ends, often in typically lethal fashion.

That culminates in “The Winds of Winter” a season finale of beginnings and endings. It is the close of one epoch of the show, one that spun out from that Red Wedding and scattered our heroes across oceans, as more and more characters were introduced. All the monarchs of the War of the Five Kings are dead. Winter is here, but now the future is coming.

Before it can though, the last of the old guard must be washed away. The wildfire of the Sept of Balon does not match The Red Wedding for shock value, but it is still one of the show’s most superlative sequences. There is something slow and measured about it. It unspools over twenty minutes, and never feels rushed, lingering on the impending horror.

It’s one of the series’ most beautifully shot and edited sequences as well. It’s a series of contrasts: the light, meticulous braiding of Margaery’s hair and dress, the soot black finery of Cersei as she prepares for darkness, the sleeve of the High Sparrow and that of the King, spliced together at opposite angle. Adherents file into the Sept in symmetry, Grand Maester Pycelle is led into darkness below, Lancel Lannister follows a little bird into the catacombs below where lucid green liquid pools and portends beneath those who stand opposed.

It is not The Red Wedding. It is the end of The Godfather, the final attempt by the individual attempting to maintain her family’s power and position in the face of those who would take it in one fell swoop. The burst of neon flame takes with it the daughter-in-law who threatened to replace her, the zealot who humiliated her, the relations that turned on her. This is her moment, her last move to triumph, the willingness to leave the enemies bathed in fire like The Mad King once did.

It is to be a cleansing fire, one that clears away the brush that has stood in Cersei’s way and clears a path to the end of all these machinations and threats. She taunts the erstwhile nun who tortured her and sees that the favor is returned. This is her moment of glory, her revenge, her ultimate victory.
But everything in Westeros comes at a price. For all that may be said about Tommen, his suggestibility, his weak will, his propensity to be manipulated, he is a young man who felt the weight of that crown, who never seemed comfortable carrying it. When he sees that smoking crater, smells the stench of the lives lost under his watch, the sensitive young man can take it no more. His end is swift, balletic as he plummets from his vantage point. Cersei has what she wanted. The throne is hers. But as the witch prophesied, it has cost her the things in her life she loved most.

But it is the end of the last external threat, the last separate obstacle the show threw in its characters’ paths until the main figures of this story were set to collide. The Sparrow is no more. The young Tyrells are gone for. The Baratheons have fallen. Ramsey is dogfood. Slaver’s Bay is settled. The Freys are derided and neutered. The Three-Eyed raven has died and lives again. All that is left is to settle the great game once and for all.

In one corner is Cersei. When Jamie returns from the Freys, he sees his lover sitting on the throne, wearing clothes of mourning and of battle. Gone is the woman who smiled in victory in the flaming perdition she unleashed upon her tormentors; gone is the woman who crumbled almost imperceptibly to see her last child with each ounce of life stricken from him. In their place is a dark-visaged queen with a ten-thousand yard stare, one with nothing more that can be taken from her. All she has now is the throne, and a heart that’s been bled dry drop by drop.

On another shore is Daenerys Stormborn. She sets sail with painted ships and her dragons overhead. But she doesn’t not travel with Daario, knowing the opportunity cost of bringing a lover to the Seven Kingdoms when political marriages are expedient. Instead, she travels with Grey Worm and Missandei, she travels with Theon and Yara, she travels with Spider (who apparently knows how to book it from Dorne). And she travels with Tyrion Lannister.

The moment she and Tyrion share is one of those that points the series toward its endgame. After traveling the Dothraki Sea, after being stranded in Qarth, after what seems like an interminable amount of time learning to rule Dragons (née Slavers) Bay, she is finally setting on the path to retake Westeros. It is scary, and she confides her anxiousness to Tyrion. Tyrion affirms her, the way she cuts through his cynicism, and validates her unease at the grave and great task that lay before her. In return, she makes him the hand of the queen. It’s a meaningful gesture, after Tyrion gave his all to defend King’s Landing and was branded an outcast and traitor for it. For once, the things he can do, the gifts he can offer, are valued and have placed him at the side of a champion.

But in the way of that champion sits the man we learn is, thanks to the Three-Eyed Raven, Daenerys’s nephew. Jon Snow is not the child of Ned Stark and an unknown mother, but of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. The cut between the face of the child in Bran’s visit to the past and Jon Standing before the great houses of Winterfell confirms the connection between those who may rule.

But Jon is not alone. He and Sansa have retaken The North and the lords and the Free Folk have pledged fealty to the White Wolf, the new King in the North (thanks to the irrepressible fireplug known as Lady Mormont). The Starks have been prepared for this moment from the beginning. The two of them have fought and suffered for this moment. Jon is uneasy in his father’s chair. Sansa has been through enough not to fall for Littlefinger’s pleasantries and manipulations. This is as much denouement from The Battle of the Bastards as it is a moment in its own right, but it is hard not to see these two young people who have seen so much, bracing for what’s to come, in front of raised swords and cheers that the North remembers, and not think them ready for whatever lurks in a murky future.

Amid all of this, Melisandre is banished for her hand Shireen’s demise. Lady Tyrell and the Sand Snakes form an alliance brokered by the Spider. Sam stands agape at the font of knowledge where he, like Tyrion, starts to believe that maybe the talents that seemed wasted in a hard world have a place somewhere. And there still lurks The Night King beyond the wall, the real battle that threatens to overtake any contest for the Iron Throne.

For once, Game of Thrones seems to narrow. While there will no doubt be more detours along the way, more unexpected turns and daggers in the back and marauders at the gates, the days of expanding this world are over. The Red Wedding is past. Its victims and perpetrators now a part of the same scorched earth. Too many have fallen since then. Those who survive now face the series’ end. The witch’s prediction comes to fruition; the Khaleesi sets sail for Westeros, and a pair of Starks preside over Winterfell once more.

After years of promises, seasons of teases, episodes and episodes of a telescoping world, winter has come; the board is set, and the last chapter of this story, the climax of it all, is about to begin.

I want to write a review but I feel like my brain can't form sentences right now. This season's writing felt kind of weak for the most part, making new stuff up is certainly harder than adapting something and it showed, but these last two episodes... maaaaan the best. This one in particular... loved it. Absolutely loved it. No filler moments, just non-stop pay off that leaves you with the desperate need of a cigarette. So many great revenge scenes. Yeah the dialogues and plots seemed smarter in the seasons that were mostly following the books, but Martin was hellbound on making guys we root for suffer and die and stupid cunts win and triumph again and again, but that's also why it's so refreshing and beautiful and actually believable (because it's diversity) to see good guys win and some retribution finally being served.

I forgave the writers for butchering Arya's storyline and I thought it would take a lot of time and work for me to do that. Her killing Frey was fucking beautiful. Not gonna lie, I got a sick rush from that scene. Which is kind of a tradition with this show tbh. But anyway can't wait for her to join her siblings. She's obviously a teleporter like Baelish and Varys are.

And fuck I totally predicted the wild fire thing but when it finally happened and the buildings were blown to kingdom come it still somehow shocked me. It was amazing but I'm bummed about Margery dying ngl. I didn't even know I liked her that much until she was gone. Maybe she had magic boobs. I mean Tommen saw them and then couldn't live without them. Poor guy. And while Cercei fucked up by driving him to suicide (and not putting someone to guard him for fuck's sake) and he was the only thing that truly mattered to her, I still got kicks out of her victory. Probably has a lot to do with someone finally destroying the sparrow fucks. Never been a fan of Cercei but that was badass and also long time coming. I'd totally be in her camp if not for other powerhouses out there. Winter is here but the dragons are coming. I'm all for that in the next season. Can't fucking believe that Dany finally moved towards Westeros. We've been literally waiting years for that. Hoping for her to go all Mad Queen (the signs are there), would be interesting.

But obviously the best thing ever is finally getting that R+L=J confirmation. I've been aware of that theory for some time now and once we were shown those flashbacks of Leanna (especially the one where she's screaming in that fucking tower like she's totally not giving birth), so 99% of me knew it's going to happen, but when it actually did I still freaked the fuck out and was so happy I nearly hyperventilated. Jon fucking Targaryen. Can't wait for him to fuck his aunt. I mean... to ride a dragon. Is that still an euphemism?.. Ahem. The King in the North!..

Everyone was wearing black this episode. Just putting it out there.

Update: Okay after some digesting of the episode I think Cercei left Tommen unattended on purpose. He betrayed her by siding with the faith and practically doomer her to death by forbidding the trial by combat. She thought about everything and took care of all of her enemies, she did not just forget about him. And that's why she wasn't particularly moved by the sight of his dead body. He was dead to her the second he betrayed her.