Denouement

To hell with the naysayers…I thought it a fitting conclusion.

“Game of Thrones” ended where we began, in the North, with our eyes on the Starks (and Jon, for all that Targaryean heritage, is still Ned Stark’s son). Sansa has proved herself worthy to be Queen of an independent kingdom, Arya will forever roam and Jon goes back to where he started from, but with a difference. No longer confined to the Night’s Watch, we end with him leading the Free Folk back to their home.

And Dany’s fate? Deserved, and by the one individual who was best suited to kill her (We know Arya was itching to do it, but Jon had dibs). Drunk on power as she addressed her troops—I almost expected her to burst into “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina”—she appeared not so much as a mad Targaryean, but one who had lost her moral compass. It was telling that Drogon, after seeing Dany dead, didn’t incinerate her murderer, but instead melted the Iron Throne, as if to say “You were the source of her downfall.”

I very much enjoyed the conclave leading to Bran’s election as King of the Seven Six Kingdoms (Nice work there, Sansa, cutting a deal for your people to remain independent). This time Tyrion got it right. One question though—how did Edmure Tully get there and where has he been? The last we saw him he was Jaime’s prisoner, so presumably he was freed and restored as head of Riverrun, otherwise he wouldn’t have had standing to participate in the council. It was rather amusing to hear Sansa tell him to sit down as he wound himself up to deliver true gas baggery. Some things just don’t change.

A few final thoughts:

Podrick is finally a knight! Long live Ser Podrick! And, not surprisingly, Sam as Grand Maester. This tale needs a scholar.

So sweet to see Jon and Ghost reunited, complete with direwolf nuzzles.

I didn’t realize that was Robin Arryn sitting with his council elders. The Lord of the Vale looks great now that he’s out from under Lord Baelish’s thumb. He’s still a teen-ager, though—all “Yeah, sure” as he cast his vote for Bran.

I’m so glad the showrunners left us with an image of Brienne completing Jaime’s written history. I was afraid our last glimpse of her would show her being pregnant with Jamie’s child, which would have been a big problem. Armor doesn’t come in maternity sizes.

I am so going to miss this show.

Penultimate

If gore, guts and burnt bodies are your thing, you must have had a ball during Episode 5 of this season’s Game of Thrones last night. However, I thought it somewhat diasappointing for a couple of reasons. Your mileage may of course vary.

Why should Cersei get such a relatively peaceful end when poor Varys, master of wine, secrets and witty repartee, gets dragon-fried for simply speaking the truth? She and brother/lover Jaime operatically ended up entombed like the leads in “Aida,” which is certainly not just desserts for all the evil she’s done. And Jaime deserved a more heroic finish, given how much he’s changed during the course of the show.

Is there any doubt that Dany has reached full Mad Queen status? Leveling King’s Landing and frying the people she presumably wants to rule is not good for business. Ruling by fear does not a long reign make, and it’s already emptied her bed.

A special tip of the hat to Peter Dinklage for playing Tyrion’s farewells to Varys and especially to Jaime so expertly. It’s amazing that he’s always seemed to find new depths in a character that he’s been playing for so long.

A few last thoughts before departure:

I’ll miss future installments of Travels With Arya and the Hound. Seeing their mutual regard on display was a high point of the episode.

The Hound’s long-promised confrontation with his brother did not disappoint. Nor did the end of that slimeball Euron Greyjoy.

I was frankly shocked that Arya survived. She’s been the Stark most likely to be killed for ages.

Finally, I hope we haven’t seen the last of the folks in Winterfell. Game of Thrones began in the North, and one way or another it should end there. Good storytelling comes full circle.

On to the end.

All in The Family

A rather somber Game of Thrones episode, don’t you think?

It certainly feels like we’re seeing final curtain calls now. We seem to be saying goodbye to one character after another, whether through death or departure.

So many farewells in this last episode. What a lovely gesture by Sansa to slide a Stark direwolf pin onto Theon’s armor as his corpse lay on the funeral pyre. Jon’s goodbyes as he left Winterfell were even more heart- wrenching: to Tormund, to Sam and Gilly, and–sob!–to Ghost. We’ve got two more long episodes to go, so I’m hoping we see some of these characters at least once more.

There was a contrasting type of farewell by Arya and the Hound. Due to unfinished business neither will see Winterfell again. The Hound looks to repay his brother, currently Cersei’s giant in armor, for tossing him into the fire as a child and giving him that scarred face. Arya’s mission, of course, is to complete her Hit Parade, which has always been topped by Cersei. If anyone has known her destiny, it’s Arya, who probably first proclaimed herself “Not a lady” at the age of three. He doesn’t think so, but with her self-knowledge she did Gendry a kindness by turning him down.

Speaking of which, now that Gendry is no longer a bastard but Lord Baratheon, doesn’t that put him on a par with Jon and Daenarys with respect to claiming the throne? Dany may have thought it was clever to ennoble him, but I think that move is going to bite her in the behind in the long run.

On a lighter note, I thought the Stark conclave was hysterical, what with Jon insisting “We’re family.” I was waiting for him to say “We’re family, but not the family you think, since I’m really your cousin, not your brother.” And so much for secrets—I was surprised Jon’s true identity hadn’t appeared on a billboard by episode’s end, given how much these characters blab. Speaking of which, too bad “loose lips” didn’t figure into Tyrion’s war strategy—knowing about those catapults in advance sure would have come in handy.

So now Brienne gets her second heart’s desire—Jamie. Aren’t they the oddest couple, though? Sansa and Tyrion, whom I’m still rooting for, make more sense, even though Brienne’s been pining for Jamie since Season 2. More than the romance, their last conversation, in which Jamie recounted his evil deeds, was shocking in its honesty. His final assessment of Cersei and himself— “She’s hateful, but so am I”—was another gut-wrench. Watching the evolution of Jamie Lannister from Cersei’s amoral pawn to the man he is now has been one of the highlights of GoT. I still expect Brienne and Jamie to die side by side in battle, with her telling him “Jamie Lannister, you’re a good man” before she goes.

Ah, Cersei—playing the baby daddy game for all she’s worth. She reached new heights–or depths, depending on your point of view–of cruelty in this latest episode. I don’t think we’ve actually seen a head lopped off on this show before, not even Ned Stark’s. Poor Missandei. At least she rallied the troops with that last “Dracarys,” though her execution may have sent Dany round the bend. What a strange expression on the queen’s face after she turned away from the death scene.

Three quickies until next week:

Paralleling Jamie’s evolution has been the growth of Sansa. I really disliked her at the start of GoT—her boy-craziness over Geoffrey helped set one tragedy after another in motion. Yet over time she’s become one of the most clear-headed characters on the show. This is why I’m hoping she ends up with Tyrion—they’ve grown into a great match for each other.

I am so going to enjoy Euron Greyjoy’s getting his.

If Lena Headey were to be paid by the sneer, she’d be the richest woman on TV.

To be continued.