Synopsis of 5×08: The world is quickly changing as Arya learns how to be a Faceless Man, Cersei learns that no one is coming to save her, and Sansa learns what really happened when Theon took over Winterfell. Jon learns a far more important fact though when he witnesses the true power of the White Walkers.
Rating: ★★★★★
Soooooooooooooo this episode was pretty damn awesome.
I can’t even begin to describe how good this episode was. The cinematography was wondrous, the music was great, and it was just a beautifully filmed episode. By far the best looking episode of the season with a great story.
We were able to catch up with many of the women of Westeros this episode, starting off with Dany who was shell shocked to see Jorah in her city. While she allows Tyrion to stay as her advisor, she removes Jorah from her city after Tyrion convinces her that a Queen who kills to inspire will never gain devotion. Jorah is heart broken, especially since Tyrion accurately deduces that he would kill for her and that he loves her, and returns to the man who bought him to fight in the pits, determined to see Dany once more.
As they begin to load the boats with the Wildlings who want to join them, tensions are high and there’s a tender scene between a mother and her children and we all know that means only one thing; it’s about to go down.
But it went down in a way that I could not have expected.
The winds slowly begin to pick up and within seconds are blaring down the hills at alarming speeds. The Wildlings shut the gate leaving many of their kind in the grasp of whatever creature is coming for them and immediately the land becomes silent.
Which means IT’S ABOUT TO GO DOWN.
As one of the Wildling men leans in to peek through the cracks of the gates I yelled, “NOOOOO!” And then my screen cut to a scene straight out of the Walking Dead or something with these zombies and it turned to “YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” As the literally-just-seconds-ago-were-human creatures come barreling down the gate and crawling over to get the remaining living.
Jon makes eye contact with the White Walker King who changed Craster’s son and is watching above from a hill and makes his way to retrieve the Dragon Glass. When he enters the building we discover that one of the White Walkers is there to kill him. They begin to fight, and the Wildling who wanted nothing to do with Jon before decides to come to his aid to help fight, but ultimately succumbs to the fury of the mysterious man. Jon is able to kill him with the sword of Valyrian Steel, but it’s too late – the battle is lost.
Jon looks back at the many dead and the screams drown out in the background once the silence thickens. Looking back to the land, he sees the White Walker King is there now who solemnly raises his arms to the sky.
So yeah, this episode was probably one of the best of the series in terms of action. It was shot beautifully, the fighting was great, and the glimpses we saw of the other characters was good too. Over all, it was a really good episode and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season finally. Which is a damn shame cause there’s only 2 episodes left.