Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 4, The Last of the Starks review: This game-changer was GoT at its rawest and most riveting
Warning: this review contains full spoilers for episode 4 of Game of Thrones, season 8.
Well that was dramatic. Coming off the epic damp squib that was the Battle of Winterfell – Winter was coming and then Winter was stabbed in the gut by magical flying Arya – Game of Thrones’s biggest aftermath episode yet needed to deliver. And that it surely did with 90 minutes of beheadings, betrayals and Good Jaime turning all Bad Jaime again.
Some may quibble with the execution – the dialogue was often creakier than the hand-rail that gave way and plunged Tyrion into the sea; could Euron Greyjoy truly have crept up on a fully-operational dragon etc? – but as a game-changer this was GoT at its rawest and most riveting.
Where last week’s fight against the Night King was an underwhelming exercise in box ticking – for reasons of storyline mechanics, the NK needed to exit and so he did – here GoT was returning to its machiavellian best. It was deliciously devious and completely upfront in its bleak view of human nature (people are horrible and will do anything to get ahead – especially when they have dragons on their side).
The headline news, obviously, was that Rhaegal was felled by Euron and Missandei beheaded by Cersei. As a result, Daenerys is mad as hell and not taking it anymore. As subtly signalled by the increased prominence of Targaryen red in her outfit and not so subtlety by the Flared Nostrils of Doom she debuted at the end, the Mother of Dragons (well, dragon) was way past being nice.
Henceforth she will take whatever steps required to have her revenge. It won’t be pretty – either for her or her supposed allies (whose loyalty is crumbling faster than the Wall when the Night King blasted it).
Where it is all heading has meanwhile been signposted without much nuance. Jon may claim to have little interest in the crown. But those around him (Sansa, Varys etc) are very clear that he’s a better candidate than his aunt and lover. How long before he comes around to their perspective? About two more instalments, is our guess.
Daenerys has certainly done herself few favours, with her foolhardy stand at the gates of King’s Landing – just her and a dozen Unsullied by the looks of it – and now it’s apparent she’s going to go full Mad Queen and burn all who defy (or even glance sideways at) her. That’s certainly set the cat among the pigeons. By “cat” we of course mean her one remaining dragon while the pigeons would seem to be anyone daring to stand between the Breaker of Chains and the Iron Throne.
Will Missandei’s death drive Daenerys mad?
The Mother of Dragons (Emilia Clarke) had been been fidgety the entire episode – her humour souring as she watched Jon hailed a hero at Winterfell. So when Euron (Pilou Asb?k) shot Rhaegal it was clear her Targaryen temper was soon to get the better of her. And then she lost her best friend in all Westeros, when the captured Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) was beheaded at the gates of King’s Landing by the Mountain. As Missandei’s lifeless body flopped earthward, we could see a switch flicking in Daenerys, who looked suddenly furious if not deranged. Forget about sensibly ruling the Seven Kingdoms. She will burn all around her. Can Varys and Sansa convince Jon to stand in her way and save the realm the thorough singeing she has in mind for it?
How will the death of Rhaegal impact on the balance of power?
How do you sneak up on an airborne dragon? Euron Greyjoy had the answer as his Ironborn fleet and their huge, beast-slaying bolt thrower caught Daenerys and her forces unawares and took out the MoD’s second favourite dragon. She understandably lost her temper – though not to the point of being goaded into a suicidal frontal assault.
The scene came as a shock even if it was slightly ridiculous that Daenerys and her forces would be caught unawares so easily. For a moment, too, it seemed Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) might he bound for a watery grave, as Euron demolished his ship – those giant crossbow were good for more than taking out dragons – and the imp went overboard. But no – he merely washed ashore alongside Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson). With Daenerys seemingly about to descend into a despotic frenzy, Tyrion has been spared and will have one last part to play.
Is Good Jaime Bad Jaime again?
Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) broke the heart of Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and rode south to be with Cersei. “She is hateful and so am I,” he revealed as he saddled up. It was strange and not especially satisfying to see Jaime reverse course having redeemed himself in the past several episodes. But perhaps this was truer to the Jaime we knew all along – a vaguely decent person unable to escape the deadly orbit of his sister.
Has Cersei triumphed by bringing out the worst in Daenerys?
Euron magically beamed back to King’s Landing where Cersei (Lena Headey, mirroring Daenerys with her own, Lannister-red, outfit) was revelling in Rhaegel’s death and lying to Euron about the parentage of her unborn child (and old trick from her Jaime–Robert days). She had also taken Missandei prisoner. This played to the ugly side of Daenerys who overrode Varys’s advice in favour of a frontal assault on the capital.
“Do not destroy the city you pledged to save,” said the one time Master of Whispers (now the Master of Hiding in the Shadows and Not Doing Much). “I’m here to free the world from tyrants… I will serve it no matter the cost,” she said. So King’s Landing will burn then.
Varys (Conleth Hill) wasn’t finished, however, and was soon trying to convince Tyrion to support Jon over Daenerys. Tyrion’s solution was for aunt and nephew to marry and rule together. But Varys was unrepentant about Jon’s superior qualifications. All the chatter has been of Tyrion betraying Daenerys. Might Varys be the one to sell her out?
What will Sansa do with Jon’s secret?
Ah but it wasn’t a secret, as Varys pointed out to Tyrion. Eight people, at least, were now aware of Jon’s hush-hush Targaryen lineage and claim to the throne. Soon that would become 800 – and then half the world. Already in on the bombshell were Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Ayra (Maisie Williams) and if the latter is too busy being weird to be much use, Sansa still has her wits about her. In one of the season’s neater examples of foreshadowing she told the Hound in Winterfell that Littlefinger and Cersei had taught her a great deal. We must surely infer that she’s plotting against Daenerys and will see her stepbrother on the Iron Throne whether or not he wants it.
Was Bronn ever going to kill Tyrion and Jaime?
What a massive letdown – almost as massive as the ornate crossbow Bronn (Jerome Flynn) had hefted all the way north from King’s Landing. Having travelled supersonically to Winterfell, Bronn charged in on a tankard-clinking Jaime and Tyrion and threatened to ping them with Joffrey’s wedding gift (Cersei was specific about wanting her brothers killed with Joff’s crossbow when she hired Bronn to rub out what remained of her family).
He obviously didn’t go through with it. Instead, having biffed Tyrion on the nose, Bronn spared the Lannisters’ lives in return for being named Lord of Highgarden. And then he said his goodbyes. Is that it for the sellsword-among-sellswords? It’s hard to see what more use the show will have for Bronn. Yet if this truly was the end, what a strange, muted send-off for one of our favourite characters.
On the subject of leave-takings, it was also an underwhelming farewell for Tormund and Ghost (headed off to be together north of the Wall) and for Samwell and Gilly. Unlike Jon and Daenerys they’re off for a happy-ever-after ending (Gilly is expecting). Which is all well and good. But if they were to exit the series why not milk it more effectively by having at least one of them die in last week’s battle?
The internet will be pleased Jaime and Brienne finally got together
Jaime and Brienne’s platonic friendship turned a whole lot less platonic as they became Oathkeepers-with-benefits during the post-battle shindig. “I’ve never slept with a man before,” Jaime sort of joked, a call back to the days when he was repulsed by his jailer, Brienne.
Yet no sooner were they together than Jaime was turning tail and riding back to Cersei – his decision prompted by news that she’d felled one of Daenerys’s dragons. Honestly, this seemed a strange motivation. But, then, Jaime’s redemption will have struck many as too clean-cut in the first place. It was satisfying, in a morally repugnant way, to discover his loyalty to Cersei had continued to burn and churn under the surface.
Likewise enjoying a post- battle snog were Daenerys and Jon, though the mood was killed when – awkward – Daenerys brought up Jon’s claim to the throne. “I told you I don’t want it,” said Jon. “It doesn’t matter what you want – you didn’t want to be King in the North,” was her sensible reply.
Daenerys had a level-headed solution. If Jon really didn’t want to be King, he must swear Sam and Bran to oaths of silence. Jon insisted he would have to tell Sansa – the latest of his many stupid ideas. “I’ve never begged for anything but I’m begging you, don’t do this please,” said Daenerys. This will not end well. Actually I’m going to go one further – this will end Very Badly for Everyone.
Is Arya Less Human than Bran now?
“I am celebrating,” said the terrifying Night King killer as Gendry (Joe Dempsey) happened upon her practising archery in the bowels of Winterfell. It was the night of the party to celebrate the defeat of the White Walkers (highlight: Gendry being legitimised by Daenerys and named Lord of Storm’s End). But despite being the hero of the day, Arya was not minded to bask in the glory.
Her seeming inability to experience human emotion was underscored when Gendry proposed to her and she snogged the poor fool and then looked at him scarily. “I’m not a lady… I never have been..that’s not me,” she said.
Did it have to be this way? It’s one thing to be dehumanised – but with each episode it’s ever clearer all there is to Arya is the facility for killing with remorse.
Her behaviour was just as unnerving when she and Sansa had a word with Jon. How, she and her sister demanded, could their brother prioritise Daenerys over their own flesh and blood? Cue Jon – who is Stupid Jon this season, lest we forget – blurting out the truth re: his heritage.
He actually left the blurting to Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), who, we are to infer, revealed Jon’s true parentage and its impact on Daenerys’s claim to the throne. This information will prove invaluable to Sansa while Arya will doubtless continue on her path to cyborg-hood. For her next trick she’s off to King’s Landing to slay Cersei. Well, what else can she do? She's just Arya the Killing Machine now.