SPOILER WARNING: I'm gonna be talking a lot about things that have happened on the show, and vaguely hinting at things to come based upon the remaining two books yet to be adapted. If you haven't caught up, and don't want to read between the lines about potential future events, please save this for another day.
It's a day later, and I've had a chance to process yet another season finale of HBO's Game of Thrones. I've made peace with no appearance by Lady Stoneheart. Upon first thought, I was disappointed, because it seemed like her reveal would be an exciting note to end the tumultuous season. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized the set up for the character (who is underutilized in the books) would have distracted from an overstuffed episode. At this point, I'm willing to concede that ending the season with Arya looking forward across the sea to Braavos, instead of back at Westeros, was the right call.
As for the rest of the episode? I enjoyed it a lot. The story at the wall may finally have picked up some steam, now that Stannis has decided to put his lot in with the Night's Watch against the terrors of winter coming up behind the desperate wildling army of Mance Rayder. Perhaps now that she's up at the wall with Stannis and Jon, Melisandre will have more to do than speak of prophecy while taking baths.
In the span of one episode, Bran and the Reed's story went from turtle to rabbit speed. If you were waiting for somewhat standard fantasy elements to come roaring into Westeros, these scenes were for you. Personally, I'm fine with the understated design of "the Children" and the Last Greenseer. After all, this is a TV show, and the probability of a complex makeup or CG character solution working would be relatively low. Apparently JoJen won't be important for future events, as his end was a change from the books (where he's still clinging to life as of the most recently released book).
Speaking of book to show changes, my favorite scene of the night was made up solely for the TV show. In one tense, ugly, and majestic fight, it set Brienne and Arya or their proper course for their stories, without completely contradicting the story of The Hound. The moment Brienne walked up and spotted Arya practicing with Needle, the tension of the scene ratcheted up. Unlike some of the big scenes (i.e The Red Wedding, Blackwater, The Purple Wedding), I had no leg up on anybody without book knowledge that was watching with me. For all I knew, The Hound was going to finish off Brienne, or vice versa. I sat there enthralled through every rough jab by elbow or fist, every attempt to wound with their powerful swords, and even through Brienne pulling a Mike Tyson on The Hound. For the most part, I feel the changes Benioff and Weiss have made for the show have been improvements, and this is definitely one of their finest changes.
Of course, the climactic scene of the episode was one I'd been waiting on since I had read Storm of Swords. Although there were a couple differences, the scene was still very powerful and tense in its own right. Tywin's end works like something out of No Country for Old Men, in that it is both random in circumstance and inevitable given his actions and treatment of Tyrion. His murder of Shae was a bit more problematic, in that Tyrion on the show has been kind of held up as more of a "good" character than he was in the book, and Shae's motivations have been much more ambiguous in the show than they are in the books. Nonetheless, it was a fitting end to the latest chapter of chaos that has defined Kings Landing on the show, and opens up new possibilities for where the story can go from here. For one, I am glad to see that Varys apparently is heading across the narrow sea with Tyrion, which means we might see that sneaky bastard again next season.
Of course, there was one last story that was dealt with, and that is the slow descent into a ruler's nightmare that Mereen is becoming for Daenerys. In what constitutes a bad day for a Queen, Dany gets a harsh lesson in the nuanced mess that happens when you completely topple an existing social hierarchy / economic system. This is followed up by another supplicant who shows her the charred remains of his daughter, the result of one of her dragon's latest attacks. This leads her to make a choice to lock the two dragons that she can still locate up in the catacombs of the city (despite the fact that it was their more powerful sibling that murdered the child). This scene is played very well, as it both symbolizes Daenery stifling some of her power, while also making you feel bad for the poor dragons, who make some awfully pitiful sounds for giant fire lizards.
Like each season finale, this episode sets the table for next season. I have many questions about how they are going to handle A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons on the show. These are Martin's weakest books in the series, even though there are still many things worth reading in both of them. There's an awful lot of fat in these books, particularly at the Wall and across the Narrow Sea. Will they try to keep some of the disparate stories afloat, or will they cut any of them out*? Frankly, I hope they do some significant hacking at them**. After all, it's unlikely that this is going more than seven seasons, and there are two more books worth of events to follow the two remaining books that currently exist. The show runners have a tough job ahead of them, but I remain confident they'll find a way to keep things going.
* I wouldn't be surprised if the King's Moot from the Iron Islands is cut entirely. The show hasn't shown any inclination to care much about this part of the story, outside of Theon's role in it all.
** That story that you think is going somewhere, but ends with carbonized Dornishman, is one I would not lament getting cut.
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