It’s the bloodiest and most game-changing GoT finale ever
Boom.
Thrones normally only does a sustained focus on one setting for a battle.
In a way, a battle is exactly what this was, just a very unique kind.
Credit: HBO
And the entire tone, pacing, and score of this sequence are unlike anything we’ve seen onThronesbefore.
Have you ever wondered whatCerseiwould look like in armor?
That’s sort of what this is; she’s preparing for war and this is her battle-dress.
The Mountain blocks him from leaving.
The Mountain doesn’t say anything, but also doesn’t need to.
There has been so much speculation over The Mountain’s ultimate purpose this season.
Maybe he would fight The Hound?
But while fun to watch, that would have also been repetitivehe already fought for the crown vs.
The Viper inseason 4.
Pycelle gets a message that the king wants to see him, and he goes to Qyburn’s lair.
The Grand Maester has survived in the Red Keep’s court for a very long time.
He’s one of the few whose services go all the way back to the Mad King.
This time, however, Pycelle chose poorly, picking Tommen over Cersei.
He pays for it now.
The music now ramps up as the bloodshed begins.
NEXT: A Boom with a View
In the Sept, we see the major players have gathered.
There’s the High Sparrow, Lancel Lannister, Margaery Tyrell, and Ser Loras.
Ah, poorSer Loras.
He’s a broken man, ready to say anything to stop the pain.
He’ll be put out of his misery soon.
Loras says there’s no need for a trial; he’s ready to “confess” everything.
He’s willing to sacrifice his title and future to become a member of the Faith Militant.
The High Sparrow has their cult’s star carved into his forehead to help keep him on board.
He has a way of making whatever he wants sound reasonable.
But then,Margaerystarts to get concerned.
That’s not goodfor them.
“Something’s wrong,” she tells the Sparrow, who sends Lancel to fetch Cersei.
He takes a few Faith Militant to get her.
On the way out Lancel “catches” one of Qyburn’s “little bird” spies.
Lancel gives chase and he’s led to a dungeon by the Sept.
The Little Bird stabs him in his spine, which looks horrible.
This is the discovery by Qyburn’s Little Birds that he and Cersei discussed previously, all cryptic-like.
He almost makes it.
In a terrific shot, you see the green flash in the reflection of his eye.
Nobody is leaving their respective rooms!
She holds onto Loras as the explosion comes.
We see the High Sparrow obliterated.The entire Sept explodesin an orgasmic burst of green fire.
Margaery, Loras, Kevan Lannister, Mace Tyrell, the High Sparrowall gone.
Don’t mess with Cersei.
And then we see Cersei, wearing a little gleeful smile.
Green wildfire for her green eyes.
All her local enemies have been wiped out, all at once.
I wonder, if Cersei could have opted to spare Margaery from the fire, if she would have?
Actually, they’re notallher local enemies.
There’s one left.
And somehow Cersei made certain she wasn’t in the Sept when it went boom.
NEXT: Who will feed Ser Pounce?
In a dungeon, she has Septa Unella captive.
She promised Unella last season that her face will be the last she ever sees.
This scene could be the most guilty of guilty pleasures thatThroneshas ever served up.
Consider: A woman is tied to a table and being tortured.
We should be horrified.
Yet we’re almost as giddy as Cersei, who waterboards her with wine.
“Confess it felt good beating me, starving me,” Cersei says.
And then, Cersei herself confesses, to all her sinskilling King Robert, having kids with Jaime.
Oh academy voters, confess you loveLena Headey’s performance and give her an Emmy already.
Unella says she’s prepared to die.
Cersei assures this won’t happen for a long time.
Cersei is a complicated and oft-vicious character doing what she wants to survive.
She’s our Tony Soprano, our Walter White, our Michael Corleoneexcept a woman.
Her gender shouldn’t make a difference.
If it feels like it does, it’s interesting to wonder why it should.
Tommen, like Pycelle, backed the wrong person, and he knows it.
He picked his wife over his mother.
Instead, his beloved wife is dead.
Give the kid some credit: He’s been so indecisive so many times.
For once, Tommen knows precisely what to do.
Without hesitating, he takes off his crown andleaps off his balcony.
At least he gets to avoid an excruciatingly awkward chat with his mom.
Who will feed Ser Pounce?
Melisandre cursed the three kings (Joffrey, Renly, Robb) and each died.
Myrcella was more directly due to her actionsworriedly sending Jaime to rescue her.
And Tommen’s fate was the most direct cause-and-effect of all.
How much of this is prophecy vs. free will is left for us to figure out.
Cersei sees Tommen’s body.
She’s sad, but not surprised.
And, well, this actually presents an opportunity.
She decides to burn him, because that’s what she does now.
Jaime points out that Walder hasn’t really accomplished anything aside from murdering defenseless wedding guests.
Whenever Walder needs help he calls the Lannisters to bail him out.
A comely serving girl gives Jaime a couple looks, almost flirtatious.
That we later learn this girl is actually Arya Stark makes that so much weirder.
Later, when Walder is alone, the girl comes back.
Walder wants to know where his sons are.
The girl says they’re right here, and reveals they’re… cooked into the food.
I didn’t even think Arya had any baking skills.
(Also:Christ, Arya…).
It’s like a literal twist on Westerosi “guest right.”
Arya whips off her mask and reveals herself.
She’s very closely echoing Cersei to Septa Unella, which is quite interesting.
She slits his throatprecisely like how Catelyn Stark was killed.
This episode is rather big on evil smiling.
Dorne:Yup, Dorne!
We haven’t seen Dorne since theseason premiere.
Olenna says something quite foreboding: She’s not interested in survival.
That’s when that man behind the curtain,Varys, reveals himself.
“Fire and blood,” says Varys, the Targaryen words.
NEXT:Joy Revision(a.k.a R+L = OMG!)
She’s probably not getting any for a while.
Time enough at last, Samwell.
The Wall:Fans expected Bran to show up at Winterfell, but no.
They get to The Wall, and Benjen / Coldhands says he cannot stay with him.
Which leads us to think:Before this show ends, that Wall is so coming down.
Bran then goes to the weirwood tree.
They’re like Internet cafes for his vision-brain.
You know, the one at the tower?
Tower of Joy:We waste no time.
And everything happens basically as fans expected: “Promise me, Ned…” she says.
She whispers something in his ear.
We don’t hear what it is.
Around the world, fans are cranking up the volume on their TVs.
And then we see her baby.
Watching all this, Bran Stark is like our avatar, we see he’s realizing the implications.
Jon Snow’s mother wasn’t some rando battlefield hookup, but rather his aunt’s child.
Which means Ned Stark wasn’t Jon Snow’s father (We can assume that, right?
Even in this show?).
And it means, also presumably,Prince Rhaegar Targaryenis the father.
This also means he’s Dany’s nephew, so chew on that.
He tells Jon she had little Shireen burned alive.
We have never seen Davos so upset.
He says he loved Shireen like his own daughter.
His pain is magnified since he’s a man who lost his own sons to war.
So the loss of Shireen too, so senselessly, is particularly upsetting.
Davos wants her executed.
So he makes a compromise measure and exiles her.
But Davos warns: If he sees her again, he’ll kill her.
Not sure he can do that, but it’s a pledge that we suspect carries some weight.
And speaking of enemies coming between them, here’s Littlefinger with his version ofThe Secret.
He explains he’s got the Iron Throne on his vision board, with Sansa as his queen.
Darth Sansa is no fool.
More like House Grovel-er!
… ahem).Lady Mormontshames them; a 10-year-old girl chastises them as cowards.
She’s Jon Snow’s pint-sized bad cop, and terrific at it.
She rallies them to support Jon Snow"King in the North!
When we first met Jon he was an outsider in this hall.
He never felt loved and accepted.
Being Ned Stark’s true heir is what he always wanted.
Instead, Jon took the hardest road and earned all this.
Jon Snow isn’t an heir to Winterfell.
He’s an heir to the whole Seven Kingdoms.
Sansa is happy for Jon, then catches sleazy Littlefinger practically rolling his eyes.
Maybe a better question is how will ambitious Littlefinger react to Jon’s parentage?
Jon would suddenly be a huge threat to his plans.
NEXT:Queen of the Damned
Riverlands:Brienneand Podrick leave their boat at an icy riverbed.
The snow is coming hard since winter has arrived.
They trek through the forest, making their way toward Winterfell.
Suddenly they realize they are not alone.
Brienne takes out Oathkeeper, and she tells Pod to hang back.
Their breath turns icy.Uh-oh.
Through the trees, a hooded figure approaches.
She seems familiar somehow.
This is impossible, she thinks.
And yes, it is impossible.
in the run-up to everyThronesseason finale making everybody think it’s going to happen.
Still, though: No Brienne or Pod.
And no Night King orWhite Walkers, which is quite unusual for a finale.
Usually, there’s a “Great War to come” reminder scene.
Given how much ground the show had to cover, I suppose that’s understandable.
They see the ruins of the Sept and hurry to the Throne Room.
There the lords and ladies have gathered.
And Jaime seesCersei taking her seat on the Iron Throne.
Qyburn is her Hand of the Queen.
We thought Dany would become the first female ruler of Westeros, but no.
Cersei and Jaime share a look.
He’s like:What the f have you done?
The mood is grim.
The lighting is dark and menacing.
This time,no one claps.
Meereen:Dany dumps Daario.
Or is that too weird?
Not for Targaryens, right?).
He’s not getting what he wants and finally blurts out that he loves her.
All of Dany’s men say that when she sends them away.
He says their breakup must have been Tyrion’s idea, and she says it wasn’t.
But it seems like it totally was.Dany and Tyrion have a chat.
She’s wearing all black, which is unusualand just like Cersei.
“I’ve been a cynic for as long as I can remember.
Everybody was always asking me to believe in things …[But] I believe in you.”
It’s another mirror of Cersei in this episode (making Qyburn her Hand).
And then they set sail for Westeros.
Epic shots of the fleet.
It’s happening, at last.
Dany is going home.
We say goodbye to the pyramid.
Hell, we say goodbye to Essos, there’s nobody left on that continent that we care about.
Dany stands on her ship and looks out to the open ocean, excited for her future.
So much was resolved.
In another place, another time, these last two episodes could have functioned as theGame of Thronesseriesfinale.
What happens when the ships hitKing’s Landingcould have been left to our imagination.
It won’t be, of course, which is great, because our imaginations are lousy.
Will Sansa make a power play?
Where will Melisandre go?
Where will The Hound go?
What will Cersei do as queen?
Will Jaime accept Cersei’s actions or think of her as a new Mad Queen?
Willl Bran be able to stop the Night King’s advance on The Wall?
How many books will Sam read?
Will Brienne and Pod join Gendry in the sea of eternal boat-rowing?
TheThronesshowrunners' plan of having just two more shortened seasons after this year now makes more sense.
WithDany coming to Westeros, we’re really and truly heading into the final chapters of this tale.
Here’s ourconversation with Emilia Clarkewhere she makes some season 7 predictions.Director Miguel Sapochnikbreaks down that opening sequence.
Actor Finn Jones onSer Loras' sad fate.
There’s also apost breaking down that Tower of Joy revealin more detail.
Plus, we have another edition (but not the final one this year!)
