Wow, what an ending. It’s been a long time since my jaw has dropped so dramatically at the unexpected climax of a TV programme.
A dry humoured over sexed dwarf, incestuous twins, a rock hard horse dude with great eye make up and a cute beard, and the brilliant Seen Bean (as my Mum likes to call him): drama doesn’t get any better than this. Unlike Spartacus (which was just an excuse to show all the different ways you could make blood splatter in pretty patterns across the screen) and The Tudors (was Henry VIII really as smoulderingly good looking as Jonathan Rhys Meyrs when he was a young man!?), Game of Thrones is intelligent, compelling and completely entertaining. I must admit, there are times when I don't always understand what is going on (there seems to be so many clans, unusual names and locations that we’re always jumping between) but I have my trusty interpreter (my hubby) and the luxury of a Sky box we can pause whenever I get confused! Fantasy drama this good seems very thin on the ground at present, and it is great to see the jump from book to screen hasn’t ruined the depth of the best selling books written by George R.R. Martin.
So, onto tonight's episode, I will try and make it a condensed review as it was pretty spectacular with lots going on, and gasps a plenty from me (including that massive jaw drop at the dying seconds of the programme I mentioned earlier.) Robb (Seen Bean's son) was still leading his huge army towards King’s Landing to rescue his father Ned Stark and his two sisters. Along the way he gained a pug-ugly wife in exchange for safe passage across a bridge (lesson: never let your mum negotiate on your behalf). This lead him to a spectacular battle with tens of thousands of men charging each other over rolling green fields (though obviously budget restraints meant we didn’t get to see said battle! So we just had to imagine that scene, it was probably bloody it's fair to say). Somewhere along the line Robb managed to capture the psychopathic, yet weirdly charming King-killer Jamie Lannister. This was a momentous point in the series as it showed Robb maturing, especially as he elected to save Jamie and use him for bargaining with the enemy, rather than just killing him.
A dry humoured over sexed dwarf, incestuous twins, a rock hard horse dude with great eye make up and a cute beard, and the brilliant Seen Bean (as my Mum likes to call him): drama doesn’t get any better than this. Unlike Spartacus (which was just an excuse to show all the different ways you could make blood splatter in pretty patterns across the screen) and The Tudors (was Henry VIII really as smoulderingly good looking as Jonathan Rhys Meyrs when he was a young man!?), Game of Thrones is intelligent, compelling and completely entertaining. I must admit, there are times when I don't always understand what is going on (there seems to be so many clans, unusual names and locations that we’re always jumping between) but I have my trusty interpreter (my hubby) and the luxury of a Sky box we can pause whenever I get confused! Fantasy drama this good seems very thin on the ground at present, and it is great to see the jump from book to screen hasn’t ruined the depth of the best selling books written by George R.R. Martin.
So, onto tonight's episode, I will try and make it a condensed review as it was pretty spectacular with lots going on, and gasps a plenty from me (including that massive jaw drop at the dying seconds of the programme I mentioned earlier.) Robb (Seen Bean's son) was still leading his huge army towards King’s Landing to rescue his father Ned Stark and his two sisters. Along the way he gained a pug-ugly wife in exchange for safe passage across a bridge (lesson: never let your mum negotiate on your behalf). This lead him to a spectacular battle with tens of thousands of men charging each other over rolling green fields (though obviously budget restraints meant we didn’t get to see said battle! So we just had to imagine that scene, it was probably bloody it's fair to say). Somewhere along the line Robb managed to capture the psychopathic, yet weirdly charming King-killer Jamie Lannister. This was a momentous point in the series as it showed Robb maturing, especially as he elected to save Jamie and use him for bargaining with the enemy, rather than just killing him.
Meanwhile, in horsey land across the sea where the rock hard horse dudes (more formally known as the Dothraki) live, a heavily pregnant Daenerys is riding with their army and her badly wounded husband Khal Drogo. He's pretty much had it and looks rough as a badger’s bottom. Desperate to save his life, she enlists the help of a crazy witch woman. This really peeves the second hardest horse dude, who doesn’t seem to care whether his head man dies or not. He clearly sees Khal Drogo as a failure because he's not strong enough to live (nice friend!). It's soon obvious that it's pretty much every man for himself and that when Drogo dies there will be civil unrest among the horse dudes. Daenerys knows that her life and status as their Khalessi (princess) are over once her husband and protector is dead. In her moment of desperation, she begs the witch to use any magic she can to keep Drogo alive. The witch brings in Drogo's steed and at this stage all viewers knew that something sacrificial was going to happen and it was not going to be nice. My husband pipes up at this point “They won't show anything happening to the horse, as surely they are not allowed to show animal cruelty on the screen” before he finishes his sentence the crazy witch lady has taken a knife and slit the poor horse’s throat. Cue lots of gushing blood and a banshee like screaming session: the spell is starting. We don't know whether the spell works, but the horrific noises suggest something is happening, and that perhaps the witch is being a lot more proactive than my local GP.
Daenerys is an interesting character, she's gone from ‘little girl lost’ to quite a figure in the show and I think we are only just beginning to see who she is. I imagine she's going to be a little on the twitchy side if Khal dies (the episode seemed to leave this open) but the next stage of her story should be really interesting. At the end of the episode we saw her go into labour, brought on by all the fighting and the Khal Drogo will he/won't he live scenario. She is supposedly carrying some terminator type baby who is going to be the next head horse dude and ‘mount the world’! I think the fragile little khalessi is going to turn into a beautiful dragon at some stage and kick some serious GoT ass.
I feel a whole big paragraph needs to be dedicated to the wonder of Tyrion Lannister. Give the guy his own show, I'd gladly watch! Even better, most recently he has been joined by Bronn, a fearless fighter type who is a bit of a loner, but who seems to have taken the role of Tyrion's right hand man and protector. It's great to see Jerome Flynn (yes he of the middle of the road duo Robson and Jerome who sold a ridiculous amount of records in the 90s (not sure how or why)) doing something actually good as he's been away for a while.. Needless to say, they both survived the attack by 2,000 of Robb's men and lived to tell the tale. The comedy duo live on, hurrah!
To the end then - Ned (Seen Bean) swallowed a whole lot of gruff northern pride and stood in front of the baying crowd declaring Joffrey (the evil boy king with scary blue eyes and all the makings of a dictator) the true heir and King and just for good measure admitting his treason and his plan to overthrow Joffrey from the throne. Of course, we all know Ned only did this to protect his daughters. What followed was some great television, as Joffrey initially suggested that he forgave Ned and that he would simply be banished to collect his pension like a gentle old warrior OAP but then unexpectedly commanded that Ned be executed (by the liberal method of beheading). . I'm sure I say this for the other viewers watching it but, OMG! They can't kill Ned, surely not!? Anyway, the scene which followed was very emotional, it didn’t need masses of blood, we all knew what was going to happen. The sword came up, Ned bent his head, and then we saw Arya, his youngest daughter’s face as she desperately tried to get to him but was held back. The whole scene was played out using her reaction to the atrocity she was witnessing. Before the credits rolled, you could just hear the thousands of Ned fans screaming their disbelief on every portal of social media they could. I imagine there is probably already a 'I hate Joffrey' Facebook page. But more important than this, Ned's death is going to hack a whole lot of Game of Thrones folk off, I predict a riot.
Seen Bean, thanks for the memories. May your son avenge your death and bring that crazy blue eyed child dictator down! I can't wait for next week's finale.
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