Summary: Jaime speaks with Brienne who wants to get Blackfish to surrender. Blackfish refuses to do so. Jaime sends Edmure into Riverrun, who convinces the soldiers to open the gates. The Lannisters take Riverrun and Blackfish dies. Brienne escapes. Tommen decrees that Trial by Combat is no longer a valid trial to Cersei's detriment. The Hound meets up with the Brotherhood and joins up with them. The masters attack Meereen with their forces but Dany returns in the nick of time. Arya goes to Lady Crane to heal. The Waif kills Lady Crane and chases Arya. Arya manages to kill her and finally escapes Braavos.
The Good: Some developments were really good. I liked The Hound reuniting with the BWB. We haven't seen Beric and Thoros in ages, and it's nice to catch up with what they have been up to. Presumably they will have a large role to play as the series approaches its climax. The dialogue between them and The Hound was really good as expected and I like that The Hound chose to join them, having lost his purpose when Septon Ray's community was murdered. A lot of the scenes during the Riverrun siege were very well done. I liked Jaime and Brienne's conversation as they interacted as both friends and enemies in battle trying to follow their own paths. I liked their conversation even though it didn't really amount to much (see: The Bad). Better than that was Edmure and Jaime's conversation. The acting was stellar from Nikolaj Coster Waldau and Tobias Menzies who both put in great work with the dialogue they were given. I thought that this was a terrific scene for Jaime who once again reverted to being the man he pretends to be in order to come off as cold and menacing instead of the good man that we know him to be. I like that Jaime turns to this personality to get what he wants and it was a good way to show that Jaime doesn't care about what other people think about him. He will do the right thing in whatever method necessary no matter the cost, just like he did when he killed the Mad King. Some other small things were pretty good. Tyrion's jokes were pretty funny and I liked that we got some jokes which are specific to the world of Westeros. I also loved the callback to Tyrion getting interrupted at the Eyrie back in season one. The reveal that Trial by Combat is banned is a significant development that puts Cersei back in danger which adds more drama to the King's Landing storyline. While I didn't like how it happened, I'm glad that Arya has finally left Braavos. That story was starting to drag after taking nearly two seasons to resolve itself. I like Blackfish's armour. It looks like fish scales which is really cool. The Bad: Arya's storyline in Braavos was terrible television. I felt like I was watching a really bad action movie throughout all of it. To start, The Waif is out of character and stupid as the villain. I forgot to mention this in the previous review, but The Waif's method of attacking Arya was stupid. Instead of slitting Arya's throat and quickly killing her, The Waif lets her suffer which is exactly what Jaqen ordered her not to do. Then she somehow knows that Arya survived the stabbing, which is totally implausible. And then after that The Waif slowly goes after Arya, losing sight of her and refusing to kill her like an incompetent murderer, not a trained assassin. As ridiculous as that is, nothing is dumber than Arya somehow moving around so easily despite having been stabbed multiple times in the last episode. It's implausible, unrealistic and saps the scenes of any tension they could have had. It's genuinely terrible. Worse than this is how it makes the Faceless Men appear like an idiotic organization. Arya used her wit to kill The Waif, yet somehow in Jaqen's eyes that makes her no one? Really. Then what was the point of all the other training she was doing if all she had to do was murder The Waif. Also, Jaqen looks like a fool for investing so much time in Arya only to let her leave without a fight or anything, allowing her to do what she pleases. He even smiles! It's beyond stupid and undermines any credibility the Faceless Men had. Tyrion's story has been really disappointing this season. I have enjoyed the dialogue, but I'm incredibly disappointed that it all led nowhere. The Tyrion/Missandei/Grey Worm stuff has led absolutely nowhere and failed to pay off of the time spent on it. Furthermore, I was really annoyed by Tyrion being wrong about the masters. If he can't do his job right, what is the point of him even being there? The whole storyline felt like a waste of a great character. The end of Riverrun's siege ended up being underwhelming too. While it led to some good scenes, nothing really happened. Nothing has changed for any character and the whole storyline feels like filler. Jaime, Brienne and Bronn did nothing productive at all and we learned noting new. The only thing that happened is Blackfish died, but he hadn't done anything since season 3 so his death made hardly any difference. The fact that such a big siege happened and had no bearing on anything is really poor. Tommen's motivations are bizarre. Why would he make life so difficult for Cersei doing a trial? He does realize that if Cersei is guilty, Tommen's claim to the throne is gone right? Surely Margaery wouldn't allow him to do this either as it will make her lose all of her power. The Unknown: Where is Varys going? What did Cersei have Qyburn investigate? Apparently there was more than she expected which is likely good for her. It's just a question of what she is referring to. Where are the BWB heading? What is their current goal? I've noticed that the nature of the show has changed this season now that they have left the books behind. The show doesn't feel quite like itself anymore and it feels like there is much more treading water in the plot than there used to be. Because of that, the show doesn't grip me the way that it used to. I won't call it bad because I'm still enjoying the show and I think this season has been better than season 5, but it is something I've noticed. Best Moment: Jaime and Edmure's conversation was great. Character of the Episode: Jaime. Conclusion: Some things were good in this episode, but other things were really bad. Sadly, the bad outweighs the good for this episode. However, things are still looking good for the final two episodes, and hopefully this season won't end in total disaster like season 5. Score: 55
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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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