Season 8, Episode 6: The Iron Throne

After three centuries, “The Iron Throne” is gone, melted down by the dragonfire that was used to craft it in the first place. Forged by Aegon the Conqueror, the first Targaryen ruler, the seat was made from the swords of the surrendered lords forced to bow to the invading dragon king. Aegon Targaryen wanted the seat to be uncomfortable, cutting all those who sat upon it in order to remind them of the weight of their responsibility.

Now, the consequences of his ancestor’s brutal decision to slaughter the innocent on the last road to the throne has led to its ultimate destruction. It’s Aegon’s namesake (raised under the name Jon Snow) whose difficult choice makes a grieving dragon annihilate the thing that destroyed his beloved master. Daenerys is likely the last of the Targaryen dynasty to rule over Westeros.

With the destruction of the brutal symbol of absolute power in the land– one whose very existence seemed to corrupt all who sought it– the people left over are given an opportunity to craft a new seat of power from the ashes. But in the end, have they done enough to fulfill Daenerys’s original grand vision of breaking the wheel?

Season 8, Episode 5: The Bells

In the penultimate episode of the entire Game of Thrones series, characters and audience members alike are forced to reckon with their expectations of the pivotal moment to which the show has been building all along. The moment the bells toll in King’s Landing, they signal one of the most critical decisions in the whole series– one that will force us to rethink everything that came before it and perhaps worry about the little to follow.

Season 8, Episode 4: The Last of the Starks

The battle with the dead may have ended in victory, but the perpetual war among the living is far from over. “We may have defeated them, but we still have us to contend with.” Tyrion tells Davos. Even though so many different people banded together to fight an existential battle with the dead, it’s already taken no time at all for them to start fracturing again.

I always thought one of the majors themes of Game of Thrones was that all people can change– can choose a different path– but maybe in the end it’s really telling us that it’s hard to fight our true nature. Maybe we don’t ever really change, not fully. Arya, the hero of all mankind, defeated the Night King, but is still trying to check the names of those who wronged her long ago off her list. Jaime found his honor but now renounces it, returning to his longtime hateful lover, Cersei. Jon chooses honor and honesty above all else, continuing to emulate his adoptive father Ned Stark even if it means he’s at odds with his queen, Daenerys. Varys is forever scheming against the ruler to whom he’s sworn. And Daenerys wants to return to her more ruthless roots, to a time before moderating advisers– to the days of much more fire and blood.

Season 8, Episode 3: The Long Night

The dead are here at last. When the White Walkers first appeared thousands of years ago, they called it the “The Long Night,” and it lasted for a whole generation (as Old Nan tells Bran in Season 1). This time around, the struggle of a generation (or even for all of humanity) occurs during one long night.

Season 8, Episode 2: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

On the eve of the biggest battle in Game of Thrones history, we say what feels like goodbye to many beloved defenders of the realms of men. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” refers specifically to the new Ser Brienne of Tarth, but each character featured has in some way found their courage, honor, and/or redemption in preparation to fight for the lives of all men. In that way, they are all like knights of the Seven Kingdoms, finding their own ways of being brave and just in preparation to defend the innocent against the dead.

Season 8, Episode 1: Winterfell

As Game of Thrones begins its final season, we arrive back where we started when the series began all those years ago: Winterfell, the episode’s titular setting. It’s fitting for the show to return to the northern keep in such tight focus after years of expanding and world-building; the showrunners now have only six episodes to bring everything together again, and there’s no more perfect place to highlight the passage of time than Winterfell.

This episode’s symmetry with Season 1, Episode 1 highlighted how far we have come in all these years, and how changed the characters are as they reunite with friends and foes before the advance of the undead menace. Both episodes start with a brown-haired Northern boy climbing to view the army approaching Winterfell and end on Bran and Jaime.

Named after their ancestral home, the episode fittingly focused mostly on the changes among the Stark children. Bran is no longer the climbing daredevil boy, or even really Bran at all, but a time-traveling seer called the Three-Eyed Raven. Arya is no longer the little tomboy her half-brother gifts a sword he never truly expects her to use. Sansa is not the frivolous girl who once feuded with her sister and dreamed of a life of comfort. Most importantly, Jon is not the bastard son that so defined his concept of self, nor even Ned Stark’s son at all, but the rightful heir to the Targaryen’s Iron Throne.

Season 7, Episode 7: The Dragon and the Wolf

In the final episode of the penultimate season, political intrigue replaced CGI-driven battles to bring us a classic episode, more of the sort that Game of Thrones made its name on. “The Dragon and the Wolf” saw siblings reunited and torn apart, alliances formed and double-crossed, monsters both living and dead, incestuous love affairs, big conversations in small rooms, and the bloody end of a major player in the game. For the last couple of episodes, I’ve been expressing some concerns about certain plot choices and how characters were behaving, but the finale was a satisfying conclusion despite some of the recent flaws. 

Season 7, Episode 6: Beyond the Wall

The second to last episode of the season, “Beyond the Wall” leaves the living in a far more perilous position for the wars to come. North of the Wall, Tyrion’s latest disastrous plan unravels quickly, and in the end they succeed only at great cost to their campaign against the dead. South of the Wall, Arya continues to misunderstand and threaten her sister, Sansa, tearing apart a great house that has only just begun to rebuild.

As they all face an uncertain future, many of the characters spend time discussing the past. The men beyond the Wall reminisce together as they march north to steal a wight. In nearly every case, their perspectives on the past differ (the Hound and Tormund on Brienne, Jon and Jorah on the true owner of Longclaw, Gendry and the Brotherhood on selling the blacksmith to Melisandre, etc.), but they reach an understanding and common cause as the dead bear down on them. Arya and Sansa also discuss the past, but their misunderstandings and resentments go unresolved, putting both of them in mortal peril.

Season 7, Episode 5: Eastwatch

In one of the final episodes of the season, “Eastwatch” sets up several unlikely confrontations for the few that remain. A caper is devised to convince the realm of the seriousness of the threat up North, while Littlefinger maneuvers the Stark sisters into a divisive battle. While we are treated to some unexpected reunions, the happy homecomings are cut short by “dark wings, dark words,” as Bran informs the realm that the White Walkers are on the move.

Season 7, Episode 4: The Spoils of War

“The Spoils of War” is named most directly for the centerpiece of this week’s major conflict: the Lannister-led loot train heading to King’s Landing from Highgarden, weighed down with Tyrell gold and supplies. In a broader reading, the title is a double entendre for all that has been lost after years of conflict, the characters coming to terms with how they have been forever altered by war and suffering.