Summary: Cersei reinstates the Faith Militant and they punish sinners. Loras is thrown in jail, angering Margaery. Tommen tries to get him out but is too kind to properly utilize his authority as king. Jaime and Bronn arrive in Dorne. They kill a group that discovers their presence. Jon continues to adjust to life as Lord Commander. Littlefinger tells Sansa he has to go back to King's Landing. He tells her to use her new ability to manipulate to stay in control of Ramsay. The Sons of the Harpy attack Grey Worm's group of Unsullied. Barristan comes in to help. Both men are grievously injured or killed in the battle.
The Good: There remains a lot of solid build-up in this episode. There are more good moments that we have come to expect from this show. I liked Jaime expressing his anger towards Tyrion for what he did. Jaime feels guilty about what happened and disappointed that his brother would betray him like that after he set him free. It's good storytelling to show Jaime's emotions after everything that has happened in the last season. I thought the action set piece was pretty good, and it was my favourite in the episode. Bronn was consistent to his character, being sneaky in combat and smart as he lies seamlessly to the Dornish people. Jaime was very good too as we got to see the results of him training his left hand. One of my favourite moments in this episode was Jaime using his metal hand to save his life, showing him use his disadvantage to his advantage in a good way. I was pleased by the continued development of Cersei and Margaery's cold war. Last episode Margaery took the advantage, but now it's Cersei in control as she reinstates the Faith Militant to give herself some power. Margaery may have Tommen on her side, but his inability to use his power as king doesn't help her cause very much. I love how Tommen is unfamiliar with how to be king in this world, as he wasn't raised for royalty like Joffrey and is still passive, having not seen the horrors of Westeros yet. It also makes me hate Cersei more as she cruelly exploits Tommen's innocence to her advantage just to get back at Margaery for taking Tommen from her. It makes me feel satisfied to know that the Faith Militant will likely turn against her in the future but she is too driven in her revenge to see it coming like we can. The scenes at The Wall were fine. I liked Jon fulfilling responsibilities of Lord Commander and I appreciated that he signed off a request for men from the Boltons, showing his change in character. The scene with Melisandre was interesting (see: The Unknown) and I liked that she used Ygritte's line (you know nothing) as a last-ditch effort to get Jon to join her cause. Stannis' story to Shireen was sweet and a good showcase to Stephen Dillane though I had reservations (see: The Bad). I was pleased to hear Littlefinger's plan for Sansa to keep control in her wedding, though it did come a little late. I would really like to see Sansa manipulate Ramsay and get this psychopath to somehow listen to her, just like Margaery did to Joffrey back in season 3. The Bad: Sadly, I thought a lot of this was sloppy and rushed. The Faith Militant were reinstated shockingly quickly and I don't think I have enough information about them to truly understand their significance. The High Sparrow came off as kind and genuine, but the Militant are violent and brutal, which was an extremely odd inconsistency. I appreciated the embarrassing naked walk that the High Septon was forced to do as it was a fitting punishment from religious zealots. So to see the Faith Militant murder and castrate people for their sins was tonally inconsistent and didn't feel like a religious group at all. Furthermore, I'm confused as to why the City Watch doesn't do anything about this group. The Kingsguard seemed eager to kill all of them, so why don't the City Watch? The Sons of the Harpy attack at the end was disappointing too. This episode had three action set-pieces, and with this one being the final one, it tried to feel more epic than the previous two. But the grander scale ended up making this action scene feel forced and out-of-place in the story as it just happened without any real reason. The problem is that I understand the Sans of the Harpy even less than the Faith Militant. Why are they attacking? What are their goals? Without knowing important things like these, it makes a grand battle fall completely flat. Furthermore, the actual battle was really badly put together. The Unsullied are supposed to be professionals, yet they don't form ranks and just engage in a random melee with these untrained soldiers who somehow seem to be on equal footing with the Unsullied. Furthermore, if Barristan and Grey Worm were killed here, and it does seem that way, this is a really disappointing way for them to die. Especially Barristan, who had been hyped up as the greatest fighter of all time. Yet he is beaten after like 30 seconds of fighting against some untrained fighters in an alleyway? Talk about disappointing. I had issues with Stannis' story because it didn't serve much of a purpose. I predict that Melisandre will attempt to burn Shireen and I feel like this scene is just there to make us feel bad when she inevitably dies. It just doesn't serve much purpose despite it being a good scene. The other lengthy story in this episode was with Ellaria and the Sand Snakes who just aren't interesting at all so far. A story like the one Obara told can be a good way to introduce a character (see: Karl Tanner in season 4), but it didn't work here as the actress was dull and I didn't get any sense of how I'm supposed to feel about the character. The Tyrion and Jorah scene felt like a waste of time. I like Tyrion recognizing him so quickly, but I didn't like that the scene was played entirely to sum up Jorah's story. We know what happened, so it was quite dull. I also don't know what Jorah expects will come of him sending Tyrion to Dany, and I don't know why he thinks that this will prove his loyalty to her when she banished him. The Unknown: Will Margaery help Tommen learn how to be a king? Will the Faith Militant be taken care of? I was interested by the information given about Rhaegar and Lyanna. I'm still happy to get more history on Westeros and this is an interesting development to get. I wonder if that will lead to something? Are Barristan and Grey Worm dead? Best Moment: Honestly it was probably the Bronn and Jaime action scene as it was the best written. Character of the Episode: Jaime. Conclusion: This episode had more solid developments, but some story aspects were rushed which takes away from the experience. Score: 59
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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