‘Game of Thrones’ S8E4: ‘The Last of the Starks’ (Analysis).

This week’s episode of Game of Thrones presents some of the most striking what-the-fuckery that this series has ever seen. I don’t know whether to be pissed off, or just confused.

Political status quo.

What in the actual fuck?

To be honest, I haven’t got the foggiest idea what’s going on here. The forces that survived the Battle of Winterfell are considerably depleted and exhausted, but it is difficult to ignore the fact that in spite of that, they still survived. They survived the Night King. They survived thousands of mindless, walking dead men who slaughtered thousands of their comrades. It doesn’t matter that they all owe Arya their lives; they will see the victory as theirs, and rightly so. The logical conclusion of this is a boost in morale, and therefore, in performance. I therefore find it a tad surprising that all it takes is one attack by Euron Greyjoy, and people are washing up on beaches and everything is shot to hell again? Come on! (and please don’t tell me that that’s the point of the show. Game of Thrones usually provides a logical reason for ruining our lives). How can Jon, Daenerys and their allies have survived a threat as significant and as deadly as the Night King, only to get their arses handed to them by Cersei Lannister? It doesn’t make sense.

Also, how is Qyburn’s scorpion magically working now? Why is Euron a considerably better shot than Bronn when they are both experienced archers and battle hardened lunatics? Is it because archery is more prevalent in the Iron Islands than in mainland Westeros? Or is it just lazy storytelling? It just seems a tad too convenient that a weapon that was useless on land is suddenly capable of deadly accuracy at sea.

Jon and Daenerys’ competing claims to the Iron Throne.

This week, Jon made the somewhat catastrophic decision of telling Sansa and Arya the truth about his parentage, and I am starting to have almost as many questions about the state of his sanity as I do about Daenerys’ (see below). How on earth can Jon have witnessed Sansa’s evident dislike of Daenerys and obvious desire for Northern independence and still think that telling her this was a good idea? How could he have believed that she would keep this information to herself when sharing it has so many advantages? This is probably the most tragic example of Jon’s tendency to underestimate Sansa, and the one that is going to have the most far-reaching consequences.

Best scene: Opening sequence.

A beautifully filmed, emotional tribute to the fallen, shot with striking contrast between the darkness of the wooden pyres and muddy snow, and the brightness of the torches; between Daenerys mourning someone she knows so well, and Sansa mourning someone she has come to know too late. It is also deeply ironic; a show of unity and morbid celebration of people overcoming their differences to fight a common enemy, when the issues dividing these allies could rip Westeros apart.

Best scene: Honourable Mentions.

Daenerys begs Jon to stay silent.

To me, this stunningly acted scene is more than just a ruinous conflict between two people who love each other; it also demonstrates why Daenerys would be a better ruler than Jon. Daenerys declares her love for him, and how desperately unhappy the knowledge of his parentage has made her, but pushes aside any attempt he makes to assure her that he doesn’t want the throne:

It doesn’t matter what you want. You didn’t want to be King in the North. What happens when they demand you press your claim and take what is mine? (…) swear your brother and Samwell Tarly to secrecy and tell no one else, or it will take on a life of its own and you won’t be able to control it or what it does to people. No matter how many times you bend the knee, no matter what you swear.

She is absolutely correct.

Even though it is coloured by her own desire to be queen, Daenerys’ sophisticated understanding of how Jon will never be allowed to refuse the throne stands in stark contrast to Jon’s utter naivety, here and elsewhere in the episode. Daenerys understands how quickly an idea can spark into an inferno. She’s seen it herself and done it herself. The fact that Jon does not understand this, and does not even try, makes him look like some country bumpkin that the Game will eat alive. The same goes for Jon’s trust in Sansa. Daenerys’ urging him not to confide in Sansa is motivated not just by dislike of her, but by the knowledge of ‘what they’ve done to her’. Daenerys’ ability to understand her enemies far outstrips Jon’s here.

Emilia Clarke is fantastic in this scene, and perfectly juxtaposes Daenerys the queen and Daenerys the woman: she’s powerful, imposing, desperate and dreadfully human.

What the fuck?

Jaime leaves Brienne.

For less gutwrenching Jaime and Brienne stuff, see below. In the meantime, it has to be acknowledged that this scene is absolutely heartrending. While it’s obvious to anyone who knows him at all that Jaime is doing that thing that Lannister men do – i.e. make the person they love hate them to keep them safe – it doesn’t make it any less devastating for Brienne. She has finally let him in; finally trusted him enough to open up to him completely, and he’s responded by breaking her.

The undisguised self-loathing of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s voice and facial expression makes for riveting, if emotionally destructive viewing, and Brienne’s guileless pleading, tears and insistence that Jaime is a good man are searing to watch. Gwendoline Christie’s performance is so emotionally honest that it is similarly difficult to endure.

Characters.

Daenerys.

In the light of every shitstorm that has occurred this season, Daenerys is trying desperately to hold onto her sense of self-worth and longs for the respect and love that she was once shown. This is demonstrated when she feels the need to legitimise Gendry: why go to so much trouble to gain the loyalty of a microbe? She is searching for any source of self esteem that she can get, and it is heartbreaking. Accumulated grief is killing her – Viserion, Jorah, Rhaegal, Missandei, and soon, Jon – and her fragile state of mind makes her more likely to make mistakes: apocalyptic mistakes. In having to be reminded of the fact that she does not wish to be queen of the ashes, Daenerys demonstrates that she is moving closer and closer to becoming what she swore she never would. She’s starting to embrace the idea of killing thousands of innocent people, if it will only get the bloody business over with.

Is she going to go mad? At the rate she’s gaining, yes. It would be precisely the kind of Red Wedding bullshit that GRRM usually pulls.

What the fuck?

Sansa.

I will say whatever I need to say to ensure the survival of our House.

In the course of this episode, Sansa reminded me an awful lot of the ‘queen of the ashes’ concept. Surely she must have known what would happen if she told Jon’s secret to another soul. Whatever her intentions, Sansa’s betrayal of Jon’s confidence ripples outwards throughout the episode like a disease, killing everything in its path, from Jon and Daenerys’ relationship, to Varys’ belief in Daenerys. It has always been obvious that this could lay the Seven Kingdoms low; Jon’s upbringing as Ned Stark’s son is proof enough of that. Why on earth did Sansa do this? For whom? For herself? For her homeland? For her family? Is she really willing to do something this destructive, and see the Seven Kingdoms burn, just to get what she wants?

What the fuck?

Jaime and Brienne.

In the ocean of what-the-fucks provided by this episode, none is worse than how this one ends up, but for now, let’s concentrate on what happens before the shit hits the fan. We’ve been watching Jaime and Brienne together since Season 2, and seen them develop a deeply intimate bond, forged by their horrific experiences together. We’ve seen them argue endlessly, stopping only to jump into bear pits and stare cautiously but longingly into each other’s eyes. And we’ve seen them apart for long periods of time, each missing the other desperately, each expressing this in different ways (the most moving example by far being the scene where Jaime sails past Tarth).

The scene between them which ends with their first kiss is every bit as touchingly awkward as every other interaction they’ve ever had: Jaime talking nonsense, Brienne exasperatedly rebuffing him, both terrified of silence, and of what it might mean. The shedding of their shirts is a moving moment of absolute trust, especially for Brienne. True, they have seen each other naked during the bath scene in Season 3, but this is the first time that either has fully embraced the thought of their body being pleasing to the other, or something that the other could desire, or love, and they kiss as hungrily as two people who’ve wanted this for years and almost died the previous evening, which, of course, they did.

Then Jaime. Fuck it, Lannister. What is wrong with you? You decide to stay in the North, which you hate, at the home of Ned Stark, whom you hated, to be with this one woman and then you decide to leave?

The general spirit of Game of Thrones is that if you get too happy, you die, so maybe Jaime leaving is a good thing. But what if he’s going to kill Cersei himself, and Brienne only realises too late what’s happened, and she arrives too late to save him, and he dies in her arms?

What the fuck?

In Memoriam: Missandei

A cruel, useless death that only serves to highlight the dreadful futility of this miserable war, Missandei’s passing has a desolating air of nothingness about it. There’s something so horribly nihilistic about that small, fragile body toppling off the walls of King’s Landing like a rag doll. How easy it is to snuff out her life, and to make it as though she never even existed. An intellectual, a realist, a romantic, a kind soul, and she’s beheaded like an animal…for what? Her last words, Dracarys, seem horribly empty. The dragon has no fire left, or at least, none that really matters.

Random ramblings (renamed WTF for this week).

• Sansa saying she’d still be an innocent little bird if she wasn’t raped (I mean, seriously?).
• The feast at Winterfell was beautiful and nostalgic and heartwarming and sad. Hail the victorious dead.
• Gendry proposing to Arya. Good Lord – since when does one toss in the hay mean that a girl wants to get married? He’s a complete and total innocent, and proves, through this touching but singularly silly action, that however much he may ‘love’ Arya, he clearly doesn’t understand her.
• I’m thrilled that Arya said no. She’s known who she is for a long time, and is standing by that.
• Why did Jon not say goodbye to Ghost? WTF?
• Why is Tyrion still making speeches telling Cersei that she is not a monster? This approach is not working, my lord Hand!
• Tyrion and Varys conspiring left me in a state of utter panic, and it was made all the worse by the haunting expressiveness of Peter Dinklage’s face. How quickly the tables turn. How quickly rats desert a ship. I’m also sceptical about Varys’ sudden preference for Jon’s temperament. He claims to serve the realm, but it’s hard to deny that Jon’s even temper would make him far easier to manipulate than Daenerys.
• Bronn is never getting Highgarden or Riverrun, not in a million years, and I’m rather disappointed that he imagines either to be a possibility.
• What the fuck is up with Cersei and this fucking baby? Is it Jaime’s baby? Is it Euron’s baby? Is there even a baby? What if Brienne is carrying Jaime’s baby? Why are there all these babies?
• I like the idea of Arya and Sandor on the road together again. It is a pleasant reminder that men and women can be really good for each without sex or romance being involved.

Thoughts on Next Week.

Next week’s trailer doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know already. Excuse me while I crawl into bed and cry.