"Game of Thrones": Battle of the Bastards
I'm still in shock about last night's episode of Game of Thrones. Not because any of the events that occurred in the riveting "Battle of the Bastards" — directed by Miguel Sapochnik — was particularly surprising (if anything, certain "surprises" came as a vast relief), but because it was so visceral and powerful to behold.
"Battle of the Bastards" was a brutal spectacle of blood, a dazzling orgy of horror and death, a masterpiece. By the old gods and the new, just wow: that episode was unlike anything ever to air on television. (The closest companion to it would be HBO's The Pacific, which also demonstrated the huge human cost of war.)
There were numerous shifts in the power structure of the show, as the Starks reclaimed Winterfell (but at such a high cost, including the inevitable death of one of their own) and ousted the Boltons; Sansa (Sophie Turner, so great here) got her revenge — horrifically rendered — on Ramsay (Iwan Rheon); Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) routed the Masters from Meereen; Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham) finally saw Melisandre (Carice van Houten) for what she truly is; and the Vale finally came through for the Starks (The North Remembers, after all) — or was this just a ploy to get at Sansa's hand in marriage and engineer a takeover of the North by Petyr Baelish (Aiden Gillen)? Hmmm.
"Battle of the Bastards" was, ultimately, staggering accomplishment of cinematography, preparation, execution, and brutality. I watched half of it through my fingers, screaming aloud. It's no surprise that Sapochnik started his career as a storyboard artist (on Trainspotting and other films) or that he directed last season's spectacle episode ("Hardhome"); in addition to the sweeping battle scenes and the gritty close-ups there were some gorgeous shots throughout the episode: Jon and Ramsay against the darkening sky, Ser Davos finding that whittled stag in the remains of a fire before he's silhouetted against the morning sky, etc. It was an episode of huge moments and tiny ones too.
ALWAYS LISTEN TO SANSA. Jon Snow (Kit Harington) — who clearly still knows nothing — fails to heed his sister's advice and is provoked into charging into battle against the Boltons. In doing so, Jon falls right into Ramsay's trap, even after knowing that he would try to use a pincer attack on the Northern coalition forces. And Ramsay did just that, painfully and brutally, after killing poor Rickon (Art Parkinson, now six feet tall), just as Sansa also said he would. He makes traps, after all, and Jon and Co. predictably fell right into his.
Thankfully, the Knights of the Vale arrived at the eleventh hour and Jon was able to retake Winterfell (poor Wun Wun!), a storyline building for what seemed like the last four seasons of the series. There has been some debate about whether Sansa ought to have told Jon about the possibility that Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale would come to their rescue, but I don't recall seeing Sansa getting a reply from the Vale, so I'm letting her off the hook for now.
I loved Daenerys' calm when dealing with the Masters and then mounting Drogon to destroy their entire fleet and reclaim Meereen, just as much as I loved the scene with Daenerys, Theon (Alfie Allen), Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), and Yara (Gemma Whelan), discussing their evil fathers and how their forebears left the world in a worse place off than when they found it. (Evil fathers seem to be an enormous underlying theme in the world of Game of Thrones, so it only makes sense that they'd all have this conversation on Father's Day, naturally.)
Seeing Daenerys and Yara clasp arms and pledge their loyalties — Yara promising to uphold Daenerys' claim to the Iron Throne and asking for the release of the Iron Islands from the Seven Kingdoms (hmmm) while pledging to end the Ironborns' "way of life" — was a fantastic moment of feminist strength, one that comes on the heels of last week's episode, wherein Arya (Maisie Williams) reclaimed her identity and killed the Waif, and in which Sansa, victim and object of lust and oppression, turned the tables on her former captor/husband and enacted her own brand of revenge.
Yes, between Sansa, Daenerys, and Yara Greyjoy, sisters are doing it for themselves.
