Season 6 of "Game of Thrones" Ends Its Run With Fire and Blood

Fire and blood, vengeance and tears, pins and pies, kings and queens, heart trees and heart-to-hearts, solemn pledges of fealty and dark secrets, and death and dragons. By the old gods and the new, what a finale that was.

There were some sensational moments throughout this week’s episode of Game of Thrones (“The Winds of Winter”) that made me feel that we are now moving into the final act of this narrative. Winter has most definitely come. 

I loved the scene between Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) in Meereen as she bade farewell to her lover Daario (Michiel Huisman) and then offered Tyrion the role of Hand to the Queen, literally pinning his future on his chest. There was a tremendous sense of having come full-circle here as Tyrion stepped back into the role of the Hand, a position that makes the most sense for the cunning and keen Lannister. While he’s been a murder suspect, a fugitive, a reluctant gladiator, a negotiator (and much more) during the last six seasons, this is the role that allows Tyrion to be his very best and it harkens back to Season 2 of Game of Thrones, when he saved King’s Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater. 

With Tyrion by her side, I don’t see how Daenerys can’t win the coming war… though of course there is the bigger war between the forces of good and evil on the horizon, as we move into the final two seasons of the series. I loved the new alliances that sprung up in the wake of the chaos of the last few episodes, as Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg), the last remnant of House Tyrell — decimated by Cersei (Lena Headey) — forged an alliance with Dorne, the Greyjoys, and Daenerys, one brokered by Varys. Fire and blood, indeed. The sight of their amassed fleet — accompanied by dragons Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion — ended the season on a note of both triumph and dread as Daenerys fulfilled her quest for the past six seasons and made her way to invade the Seven Kingdoms.

After so many false starts and setbacks, this was a huge accomplishment, both for Clarke’s character and for Game of Thrones itself, positioning the players in a new configuration on the board. That the war of man would seem to be that between two women, in Dany and Cersei, is a fantastic surprise for a show that has perhaps not treated its female characters that well over the years. Was this always meant to be a stealth feminist show in the making? Hmm.

Let’s hope now that newly crowned King-in-the-North Jon Snow will also join forces with Daenerys’ coalition of the willing and rout the Lannisters out of King’s Landing for good: that showdown seems to be coming sooner rather than later, though I am not entirely sure how the narrative will twist and bend to allow either Jon to get far enough south or Dany far enough north for the two of them to finally meet… and likely fall in love, finally joining the great houses of Stark and Targaryen, ice and fire, in a single union. (The dragons and the men would likely come in very handily against the Night King, after all.)

Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but be haunted by that look that passed over the face of Sansa (Sophie Turner, so fantastic this season) when she noticed that Lord Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen) was glaring at her brother. Littlefinger wants the Iron Throne for himself (his “pretty picture” of sitting upon the razor-like seat of power with Sansa by his side was creepily pathetic) and I fear that Jon will be the next victim of Littlefinger’s plotting. Come on, Sansa: take this guy out next. (We also learned that Sansa *did* know that Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale were coming to lend their forces against House Bolton, so now I’m even more confused why she didn’t at least tell Jon that they had allies coming. Odd.)

Cerise proved to be just as cunning and dangerous as ever this week, unleashing the vast caches of wildfire underneath King’s Landing to destroy the Sept of Baelor and immolate her enemies… before turning her thirst for vengeance upon Septa Unella (Hannah Waddingham) and delivering her to the Mountain for his pleasure. (Shudder.) It’s Cersei who crowns herself Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, mounting the Iron Throne just in time for Daenerys’ invasion… and for Jaime for return to King’s Landing and see what his sister has done.

(Poor Tommen, meanwhile, who opts to plunge to his death after seeing the explosion at Baelor's Sept. He really did love Margaery and his mother's act of vengeance is more than he can bare, knowing that she was behind the destruction of the sept. So the king, the first and last of his name, opts to take a very long walk off a very short windowsill.)

While taking out her numerous enemies and ascending to the Iron Throne, Cersei, aided by Qyburn (Anton Lesser), cleared the decks as it were, paving the way for the final act of the show by removing so many major players from the great game: Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce), Lancel Lannister (Eugene Simon), Mace Tyrell (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones, who looked so different in this episode that I swear it was a different actor), Kevan Lannister (Ian Gelder), poor aforementioned Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman), and Grand Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover), felled by Qyburn’s little birds.

But those weren’t the only deaths, as Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) was able, at long last, to avenge the Red Wedding, slaying many of the Freys and baking them into a pie, which she served to Walder Frey (David Bradley) before removing her face — one of the very best moments in a season finale loaded with them — and slit his throat, ending the reign of the Freys and finally enacting the vengence she’s been craving since Season 1. Arya’s list is long, but she crossed off a few names this week, thanks to the help of the skills she learned while in the employ of the Jaqen H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) and the Faceless Men. (Was that part of Jaqen’s plan all along? Who can say?)

It was an extraordinary moment of reversal that was well plotted by David Benioff and Dan Weiss and beautifully directed once again by Miguel Sapochnik: that Arya, in the guise of a serving girl, emotionally tortures Walder Frey by slowly revealing the fate of his sons was an exquisite moment of revenge, a dish literally served cold by our Stark-turned-assassin. The way the scene ramped up from the silence in the hall to Walder peeling back the crust of the pie to the glee with which Arya sliced open his throat and watched triumphantly as he bled out was as precise as it was impassioned.

This was one of the most satisfying episodes of Game of Thrones ever. That it followed on the heels of last week’s incredible installment only made this giant-sized finale all the more rich and textured. That we returned to the Tower of Joy, courtesy of Bran’s greensight, and finally — FINALLY! — got proof of R+L=J was really just the icing on a perfect lemon cake.

"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.

Hold the Floor

I couldn't help myself, really. The idea of Hodor holding that door — and the filibuster happening on the floor of the U.S. Senate — just seemed the perfect accompaniment to the hashtag trending on Twitter. When in doubt, a Game of Thrones reference will suffice. 

Now That Was the Episode of "Game of Thrones" I Needed

About 800 things happened in tonight's episode of Game of Thrones that I thought we'd never get to see — and, honestly, that makes me so happy.

As a book reader, it's good to be incredibly surprised and not 10 steps ahead for a change. It was also just a stellar episode of television all around: Momentum, reunions, vendettas, and reversals.

Plus, fire. So much fire. I loved it.