Game of Thrones
Episode Title: “Hardhome”
Channel: HBO
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Writers: David Benioff and D.B.
Weiss
Genre: Action,
Drama, Fantasy
Runtime: 55 min
Rated: TV-MA
Original Air Date: May 31, 2015
Let's get the smaller things out of the
way first. Sansa confronted Theon over his loyalty to Ramsay. It
wasn't the best scene of the episode, but it did allow Sansa to
discover that Bran and Rickon are still alive. I'm not sure what the
point of revealing this fact to Sansa was; it felt more like a
reminder to the audience that Bran is still out there. I understand
the motivation behind the reveal in that regard, since Bran has not
appeared in this season. What is Sansa supposed to do with this
information though? I suppose she can draw on it to find strength,
or something some other nebulous thing, but it felt a little clumsily
handled and transparent. Also in Winterfell, the Boltons were
discussing how best to handle the impending threat of Stannis' army.
The elder Bolton was content with staying behind their walls and
waiting the assault out, Ramsay on the other hand advocated a raid of
some sort on the advancing army. He claimed he'd need only twenty
men to hurt Stannis, hopefully setting up the character's downfall in
the upcoming episode; episode nine when all of the big stuff happens.
Ceresi is still locked away in a
dungeon by the Faith. Apparently they're withholding water from her
until she confesses her crimes. When she refused she was beaten.
Qyburn showed up and gave her an update on recent events in King's
Landing. Her uncle Kevan has returned from Casterly Rock and is
serving as the Hand to King Tommen. Tommen has locked himself away
in his chambers and refuses to eat or see anyone. Qyburn also
revealed that the work he has been doing is progressing well, teasing
the audience with whatever was under the sheet we saw in his
laboratory. If nothing has changed in that regard from the books
readers of the series will know what's in store. I feel like it's a
reveal that could go either way. If it's not handled well it could
come off as cheesy, otherwise it could serve as a chilling remind of
what Ceresi will do to maintain her power. After Qyburn's visit the
woman that has been interrogating Ceresi returned with another bucket
of water and a ladle. Ceresi continued making threats to the woman,
who proceeded to dump the water on the dirty floor of Ceresi's cell.
The sight of Ceresi greedily slurping water from the dirty stone felt
like she was finally reaping what shes sown, although it was pitiful
enough that one could almost feel sorry for her.
Arya's journey to become a Faceless Man
has progressed. She has come a long way since the days she couldn't
sneak a single lie past Jaquen. She has been spending her time
cultivating a character to play while she's out in the city, that of
a peddler of mollusks. She changed the path she normally walked at
Jaquen's request and met a man named only the Thin Man. When she
reported back to Jaquen he explained to her that the Thin Man was to
be her first assignment; someone who deserves to face judgment at the
hands of the Many Faced God. After making only miniscule jumps
forward in her story this season the last two episodes have made me
care what's going on with her again.
There was a brief check in with Sam and
Gilly at Castle Black. This was another segment of the episode that
felt unnecessary. Sam and Gilly briefly discussed how safe they may
be in Castle Black before Jon's steward walked in. Their
conversation gave Sam a few minutes to assure the audience that Jon
knows what he's doing, we just have to trust him. The quick scenes
with characters who are doing next to nothing otherwise that have
been so prevalent this season are interrupting the flow of the
episodes they appear in. Nearly every one of them have been for the
audience's benefit and not the story's.
Tyrion and Dany finally had their sit
down moment. Tyrion successfully convinced her to spare Jorah's
life, but didn't save him from banishment. Once Tyrion and Daenerys
got into a one on one setting things really picked up. He tried to
convince her of the futility of her return to Westeros, claiming that
no one would side with her. She retorted by explaining that she
didn't want the support of the ruling families in Westeros, she wants
to completely break the system of governance and remake it in a way
that's more fair to the common folk. It'll be interesting to see if
Tyrion can convince her that her goals are unrealistic, or if he'll
come around to her way of thinking. Tyrion seems too pragmatic a man
to think that the leading families of his homeland would be so easily
overthrown.
Nearly the entire last half of the
episode deal with Jon's mission to Hardhome to convince has many of
the free folk has possible to travel south and seek refuge on the
southern side of the Wall. He and Tormund arrived to a chilly
reception, but managed to convince some of the clan elders to come
with them. They began loading noncombatants on to boats to take back
to the waiting ships. Before the evacuation could be completed the
earth began to shake and clouds of ice and snow began pouring down
the surrounding mountainsides. I was sure that this was where we'd
leave the story for this week, leaving the threat to make its actual
appearance in next week's episode. You know, the episode that we've
grown so accustomed to looking at for all of the action.
Alas, I was pleasantly surprised. What
followed was an all out attack by the forces of the White Walkers,
reanimated corpses that move much faster than the last time we saw
them. I'm going to assume that their new found speed stems from the
Walkers' power growing. Jon, the men of the Night's Watch that
accompanied him on the journey, and the fighters of the wildlings
fought desperately to allow as many people to flee as possible.
After attempting to reacquire the pouch of dragonglass he'd brought
to the meeting Jon met one of the Walkers in single combat. He won
the fight and managed to escape on the last boat leaving Hardhome.
He and the apparent leader of the White Walkers engaged in a staring
battle, during which the Walker raised all of the dead that had been
left behind. With the numbers of the dead army increased following
the battle things look bleak for those south of the Wall.
Conclusion:
The writers surprised us with an epic battle in the eighth episode
of the season. The story lines that received the bulk of the time
were all served well by “Hardhome.” Although they weren't as
distracting as they have been, the one off scenes following
characters doing very little at the time were still present, and
still obviously there only to remind the audience of things they
might've forgotten. I chuckled a bit when the
animated skeletons of the dead army reminded me of the stop-motion
skeletons in Army
of Darkness.
Rating:
9/10
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