5 things we learned from Sunday's episode of 'Game of Thrones'
Including a wild fan theory about Arya.
Before we get into this, do not read it unless you’ve watched Episode 4 of Season 8 of the hit HBO series Game of Thrones. As usual, it contains spoilers. This is your SPOILER ALERT.
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILERS AHEAD!
All good? Let’s go.
The Battle of Winterfell is over, leaving the remaining characters who didn’t perish to shift their focus to King’s Landing and Queen Cersei, who has been preparing for Daenerys, Jon Snow and others to come for her Iron Throne. A celebration in the North turns into a plot that gives us the roadmap for the final two episodes of the series. Here’s what we learned:
1. Is Daenerys the right leader for the throne?
This, to me, was the biggest takeaway here. You have Sansa questioning her judgement. You have Tyrion and Varys arguing whether Jon Snow — the cat’s out of the bag that he’s actually a Targaryen — is a more fit leader. And the last shot we saw of Dany at the end of the episode was of what many construed to be “the Mad Queen, activated” after Cersei had Dany’s best friend and translator Missandei executed.
The problem here is what the Mother of Dragons can do now. Cersei’s put her into a corner: Either Dany loses her best weapon in her last dragon, gets what’s left of her army destroyed, or she somehow finds a way to torch the Red Keep and the countless citizens of King’s Landing who are now there thanks to Cersei’s brilliant thinking. It’s a no-win situation.
2. Jaime and Brienne got together
I figured their mutual admiration for each other would only go as far as that sweet moment from Episode 2 when he knighted her. But nope! After Tyrion reveals some very personal information about Brienne, Jaime and her get together for some post-Battle of Winterfell canoodling.
Eventually, however, he leaves for King’s Landing. But I think he told Brienne he belongs with Cersei to mask what he’s really going to do: Attempt to take his sister’s life, fulfilling everyone’s prediction the Kingslayer would become a Queenslayer.
3. RIP Missandei, Rhaegal
It’s sad that we have only six episodes to wrap everything up in GoT. I wished they had given more time to the shock and horror of another dragon biting the dust.
4. Tyrion tried to do his usual Tyrion things
I enjoyed seeing Tyrion getting back to what he does best: Talking and strategizing. He attempted to appeal to Cersei’s humanity — is there anything left of it at this point? — by reminding her to stop this madness by thinking about her unborn child, which she claims is Euron’s but is it really? It didn’t work, but maybe his conversations with Varys and this moment turn into him figuring out the right way to get Dany to the throne.
5. Arya and The Hound reunite to do some killin’
The pair of frenemies set off for King’s Landing, with The Hound FINALLY giving us all The CleganeBowl we’ve been waiting for.
But let’s talk about Arya — who turned down Gendry’s proposal — for a second. Presumably, she’s setting her assassin eyes on Cersei.
But there are theories going around that she has her assassin eyes on someone else. Let’s remind you of Melisandre’s prophecy: That Arya would kill people with brown eyes, blue eyes and green eyes. The “blue eyes” belonged to the Night King. Cersei has green eyes … but so does Dany. And it seems like the Starks are pretty miffed about how Jon is siding with Daenerys …