Other than that insanity? Jon and Greyworm lead forces into King’s Landing, accept the surrender of Lannister forces, and then Greyworm attacks unarmed men when Dani ignores the bells of surrender and begins to burn down the city, much to Jon’s horror (though Greyworm does notice Jon’s reluctance). Davos is not happy about the current situation either and tries to help the people of King’s Landing escape the carnage, same as Jon, but few seem able to make it out of the capital alive.
Arya and the Hound get to the Red Keep as the city is being burned down by Dani/Drogon, and the Hound convinces Arya to let go of her thirst for revenge (especially since it is clear Cersei is doomed) and go home, which Arya does, thanking “Sandor” for his wisdom. We finally get the Hound vs. The Mountain, and even better, the Mountain kills Qyburn who tries to order him not to fight, though the Hound lets Cersei escape right past him, which seemed odd. The battle is decent, but the Hound is clearly over-matched as the Mountain is a zombie. However, the Hound seems to have gotten over his fear of fire (as seen earlier when he is not cowering from Drogon’s flames) and he kills the Mountain by sacrificing himself, tackling his brother through a wall and into a fatal drop down the side of the castle into a roaring, flaming demise below. And thus ends the Hound.
Arya meanwhile tries to flee the city, and despite having buildings and rubble fall on her (MULTIPLE TIMES), being trampled by frightened citizens, and being right in the line of fire (literally) during a Drogon attack on a group of people, Arya miraculously survives, seemingly the only person alive in the city by the end of the episode (Jon, Davos and the rest of our heroes have long since fled). How does Arya survive all this? NO explanation. It does not really make sense, but clearly, the show wanted to give her a hard time so she would have the motivation to kill Dani in the finale. Luckily for Arya, a magical white horse appeared in the street right at the end, which she then rode out of King’s Landing, ready to fulfill her plot device…I mean destiny.
As for Tyrion, he is haunted by the last words of Varys, who hoped that he was wrong about Dani. Tyrion begs Dani to accept the bells of surrender should it happen, and is horrified when she does not. Especially since the night beforehand he had freed Jamie from imprisonment in their camp (Jamie magically got to King’s Landing around the same time as Jon and the rest, despite leaving a few days later), and Tyrion knows his siblings will be killed by Dani’s attack. Arguably the best scene of the night was the Tyrion and Jamie reunion and farewell the night before the battle, hearkening back to the many times the brothers had freed/saved each other in the past, and reminding us of their special bond and love for one another. Tyrion is aware that freeing Jamie would cost him his life but still telling his brother to go find Cersei and flee.
Jamie does not make it to the Red Keep before the battle begins, and thus cannot convince Cersei to flee or surrender, so he tries to use the secret escape route Tyrion told him about to infiltrate the castle. Sadly for him, Euron had actually survived Dani’s attack and challenged him to a duel at the secret entrance (just because, you know, they gotta deal with Euron somehow). Jamie manages to end Euron, but not before taking 2 fatal stab wounds…. which barely slow him down, because it was most likely written by Martin that his death would come later, so fatal wounds like those inflicted by Euron do not matter.
Cersei does nothing but watch in shock, having no tricks, no traps, no secret army, no secret bombs, absolutely nothing up her sleeve. It felt like a waste that she was built up as this uber-villain holding all the chips, the ultimate challenge for Dani, (as was this battle) something that would be epic and evenly matched, and instead Cersei failed miserably to do anything. Jamie eventually finds Cersei after she loses Qyburn and the Mountain and they are reunited and it feels… unearned, again because Cersei has been so cold toward him, and only seems happy to have him there now because she knows she has lost and needs help. They flee toward the secret exit but find it now blocked by rubble, meaning they are doomed. Cersei cries and states she wants their baby to live, and she does not want to die, again, seemingly very out of character for such a strong woman. (Sorry, but it just really bugged me that they portrayed her as so weak this whole episode and I was frankly very unhappy that they had her simply sit by and watch as Dani decimated her people and her city.) In the end, Jamie and Cersei embrace as the Red Keep completely collapses on top of them, finally ending these two characters who it still feels like the show could never quite portray nearly as well as the books.
GAME OF THEORIES:
- Dani and Jon kill each other and Tyrion takes the throne. He was the only one concerned for the people from the very beginning of the episode, and this would be the only plot avenue left that would make me even somewhat ok with the terrible way the series is ending.
- Arya is going to try to kill Dani, and everyone will expect her to be able to do it easily, same as she did with the Night King, and she will fail and die (most likely killed by Greyworm)
- Davos will be forced to kill Greyworm, stabbing him in the back or something unexpected as Greyworm could easily kill Davos in standard combat.
I will say, despite the failings of plot and logic, credit should be given where credit is due. The actors are bringing their A game for the final season and are doing the absolute best they can with the writing they have. Also, the visuals were again spectacular in this episode, and lots of credit is due to the cinematographer and the visual effects teams.
Let’s just hope they deliver something better than this episode for the final episode. Season 8 has tarnished the legacy of ‘Game of Thrones’ (minus the Battle of Winterfell’s ending), and the sooner we get this over with the better. See you back here next week for my final review of ‘Game of Thrones.’
