Squall

A lot of threads are just dangling there and we're left to pick up the pieces. Do the Dothraki leave for the east? Do they stay in Westeros? A wider angle is the whole Essos backstory. Was that just a plot device for Dany to travel across the land to the Khalasar, learn the ropes of conquering and governing in Slaver's Bay, endure hardships in Quarth? What's Daario's response to all this? Is he going to take revenge on Westeros with the liberated slaves? Doesn't Bran have to pay the Iron Bank? Their "investment" went belly up and I don't think the Golden Company's life insurance policy covers death by dragon fire...

I think most readers expect Dany to slowly descend into tyranny and perhaps madness as she deludes herself to be a righteous ruler. Of course it will take more than the infamous "bells" to turn her...

And Essos scenes have been missing for two seasons, outside of a few name drops. What will happen there? Will the former slaves come back to have revenge on the brutal murder of the Breaker of Chains?

I was surprised they remembered to take on Edmure Tully. I think most viewers have forgotten about him. And King's Landing seemed to be pretty cleaned up after two weeks when everyone was sailing away. I'm still a bit confused about Unsullied and Dothraki just going off and Sansa casually saying she'll remain Queen. I presume that's what rushing episodes gets you to.

Those awful BTS explanations touched on the Cleganebowl. It was just an epic event, nothing more. They always wanted to shoot it, it feels just as unnecessary as wanting that undead polar bear...

3/10 for technical execution and music. The plot rushing destroys the whole series. Varys had to end, but his entire arc was viciously cut short and he had a memorable talk last episode, truly a shame. And Jon Snow is useless again, all hope in that character goes up in smoke. Not only KL is burning but entire character arcs.The bell ringing madness was sadly hilarious. And Harry Strickland got 5 minutes of screen time only to die running away. That's not the man of the books, it's a mockery. The GC, a famed militia, just anonymously reduced to ashes. Scorpions are suddenly useless after making a quick kill of Rhaegal, it just suits the plot writing. Euron dies the cartoon villain death he "deserves". The death of Cersei and Jaime was a letdown, no special circumstances, just buried beneath the rubble. And there's a final mockery with small wildfire caches burning in the city. It's like saying "OK, you fools were right that wildfire would burn KL" Cleganebowl lasted a longer time than I thought but it's not really satisfying. And so also ends our beloved Qyburn, cut short like other characters. You almost hope this whole season was Bran's vision of unlikely events...

I gave it a 7, though tilting to a 6. Dany the Mad is heavy handedly foreshadowed. I liked it better than I feared it would pan out. Varys was more on point after several episodes of staring and glaring. But the thing is clearly rushing towards the end and conclusions were taken out of nowhere to advance the plot. And then that off handed remark about Dorne...almost insulting. I don't expect Dorne to show up, perhaps a Deus ex machina. Now that I think about it, that's D&D right there. The funeral was the best part of the episode and there were some more arcs closed like that of the Freefolk.

It seems they're laying it on thick that Daenerys will never be a Queen and she'll be killed for being mad. I don't necessarily see Jon as the King but perhaps he will be a saviour of the realm which is an important feat. I don't know how it exactly fits with him being brought back alive, perhaps it's nothing to do with kingship but being a hero or being an important connection in the chain of events.

I had hoped the NK would go more south and cause ravage there. He'll remain a vague myth for eternity now. I was right that killing him would immediately destroy the rest of the army but the final stab in the gut was rather anti-climactic. With so many of the main cast alive I expect them to play some kind of role though it could be as small as Melisandre's role which was saying a few lines and advancing the plot. And so we arrive at the battle for KL (in episode 5 I presume). I still hope that Jaime will kill her sister, that would be very fitting.

The tiles started from Last Hearth this episode and were slowly creeping to Winterfell. I expect the blue tiles will be in front of Winterfell next episode. As we have seen the WW in front of Winterfell that's hardly a spoiler. In episode 4 we will see where those tiles go, around Winterfell or through it.

8/10 Quite a decent episode, nothing happened we didn't predict earlier. Though the Wall still stands, I guess that's a surprise. The good Dany She's finally sailing for Westeros and her conversation with Tyrion was quite a change from her usual condescending aloofness. I hope she doesn't need to turn back to Meereen because Daario makes a mess out of it. The city doesn't have a good experience with placeholders. Cersei She really looked good in black costume. Tommen already died before he jumped out of the window, though I fear she won't have a long lasting reign. But it was quite a play from her. I mourn the loss of Margaery, she was a good rival to Cersei. Lyanna Mormont I'm glad she had a chance to speak up. Olenna I'm glad she showed those annoying Sandsnakes they're a thorn in our feet! The bad Lancel What was up with his slow crawl? Why did he follow that child? He only served as a PoV but there are other ways to achieve that goal. He seemed to act rather odd (from a logical perspective, it's fine from the D&D perspective). Bran He didn't do much besides providing the ToJ flashback. And we lose Benjen. If Bran's going through the wall the opening next season will be very surprising. Or nothing happens, we only hear that WW are coming but even when winter's here we don't see anything at all. Manderly Why make him a villain? I loved him in the books, now he looks like a coward. Oldtown Nothing makes sense here. Sam leaves Gilly without a word. Those white ravens are suddenly in the air, where did they get the news of winter? They certainly didn't hear about the new Lord Commander or the death of Aemon. What a worthless organisation! I'm sure they don't even read their own books, scheming behind Lords and Ladies chasing useless goals.

5/10 Well I'm afraid D&D are totally butchering it, and I'm not talking about visual blood and gore. The lack of a concrete GRRM manuscript seems to incite their imagination and it's not very good. I want a coherent story, not something where I and my friends are laughing the whole time with unlikely plot twists. The bad Arya At least she's going home because I don't know what she actually learned in Braavos. She let herself be fooled in Essos. Entertainment Weekly has an elaborate explanation that she finally managed to kill the Waif but if she had really learned, that woman would've died episodes ago. Riverrun There was no real reason to change the story from the books (at least that's one part D&D could've used the original story). Though it happens in the real world a hostage lord rarely commands his former troops to drop down their guard. The trailers were a red herring. We saw Frey troops marching in the night but they weren't doing any fighting, just moving into the castle. Blackfish seemed to leave Riverrun but he just dies a pointless death. King's Landing Making Tommen a teenager makes it really hard to make his gullability believable. Perhaps he's just very naive but I don't get why Kevan is supporting the FM. What's in it for him? And there's another red herring: Cersei chooses violence and some nobody bites the dust. Cleganebowl is out for now. Meereen We already had the failed joke scene, couldn't they delete it and put something else in it or just a short "good joke" "and good wine" and then show the slavers' ships attacking. The good Riverrun I liked the Brienne and Jaime interaction. I believe it will be the last time, they're going in opposite directions, but their talk is as close as they're getting with fucking (as Bronn suggests). Meereen The battle for Meereen is finally happening so my hope is on next episode. Dany seems intent on mopping up this messy situation. The Hound There's a nice exchange of thoughts with the BWB. But we already know that the Hound doesn't really belong anywhere, he'll always be an outsider and this confirms it again. Conclusion I'm pinning my hopes on the final episodes. But this seems to be a point of no return. The writing's bad and it'll be very hard to avoid "nitpicking" on plot holes. I don't expect visual spectacle with large battles but the story fails to engage me with all the suspensions of disbelief I just disconnect. I keep on watching, but for now I'm not really sitting on the edge of my seat for the next episode.

7/10 This was a decent "bridging" episode but I fear we get some more setup and bridging next week. Can we blame Bryan Cogman for it? I'm inclined to say: not really. I guess he had the leftovers after D&D had shred the story into chapters. Bran Perhaps one of the only things that could've been better. I can understand it's a "download" feel but 5 second switches would be less disjointed. I mean, people are already posting frame by frame screenshots, something's off here. Besides the revelation Uncle Benjen is back and that we see the Mad King, it's a bit thin on substance. Were did the WW go anyways? Is his mark obscured now? Sam It goes on and on, quite the roadtrip. I wonder when the sword will come in handy (season 8?). King's Landing That was easy for Margaery, I guess they wanted to move the plot forward, no time for convincing, we go for brainwashing. And the supposed confrontation we gleaned from the trailers ended with a whimper. Perhaps a meta-comment about this show? Daenerys We didn't learn that much, she needs 1000 ships. The ones that Euron is going to build in a few episodes. Arya I didn't mind the play and found Lady Crane quite moving. But there was nothing surprising or exciting about it: the Waif keeps hating Arya and Arya is still someone. Some people have hopes she'll leave Braavos, but I think she's still stuck there for quite a while (after Euron's boats show up). Walder Frey I guess he's reverted into this senile grumpy castle lord that'll make Jaime roll his eyes. It had a recap feel. "Remember Edmure?"

There are very good sequences in the series and the drowning with the Damphair ritual is very impressive but you have to tune out after Euron coughs up water. It's a shame the Ironborn story is very sloppy, it seems very unhinged: they have the location and the directing and then the writers went off with a half-baked script. It's difficult to grasp.

6/10 The Good Visuals: The weirwood helicopter shot, Vaes Dothrak panorama, location of the Kingsmoot with the banners on top of cliffs, they really upped the ante this time. Pacing: There's a lot of information in only one hour, during season 5 it was a crawl, but now it seems they're rushing for the final game. The Ironborn and the North plotlines are finally advancing. Hodor: His final significance is revealed and he seems to be one of the few purely good guys in the series. A rather tragic story. The Bad Kingsmoot: My only gripe is Euron Greyjoy leaping into first place, that needed a bit more exposition. As a bookreader I liked that version of events, but the show is the show, so I'll discount it from my opinion. Origin of the Others: That seems rather standardized bad guy origin story, it's not my kinda thing and I expected better from GRRM and D&D. I feel a bit like watching Pride and Prejudice... and Zombies. Something isn't entirely right about it. Time traveling and paradoxes: I'm not a big fan of it and like the previous point it seems a bit of a cop-out. It complicates matters and just raises a lot of other what-ifs. Bran can be responsible for everything that's gone wrong in Westeros or his (not entirely successful) attempts to fix it (and make it worse in the process). Arya: Is there anything more we learn than we know from the previous season? She's still someone and she's learning slower than Dany's learning Governance 101. Conclusion The production value is quite good and I like that we're going forward but D&D have butchered the story with this episode. I hope the later episodes will wash away this one or at least dilute the mess it created. I don't mark it down yet, it can still make sense in the broader arc. But if it really goes off the rails, well, let's not think about that for now...