by Eric Blume
The Game of Thrones creative team are taking a very strategic approach into this final season. While last week’s premiere episode laid the groundwork to reorient the viewer and feature satisfying reunions for characters parted for years, they’ve used Episode Two to provide an emotional tapestry between the characters, with a meditation on mortality, before they go into the big battle episodes ahead. For loyal viewers, this episode served as a reminder of our attachment to these characters beyond the narrative, as well as a laser focus on the show’s main theme of honor.
We started with a killer scene where Jaime stands trial against the two families he has slain and wronged over the years, followed immediately by a tender exchange between him and his brother Tyrion (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage are always magical together)...
Then we're right into a fantastic scene with Jaime and Lady Brienne, one of the most interesting and touching relationships on the series. These three scenes, which feature multiple complex histories coming together for unity, are filled with all the doubt, tentativeness, confusion, and humanity you’d expect, and it’s exciting to see these characters come together.
We also get Theon and Sansa’s reunion, Arya’s vaguely disturbing deflowering, an almost-reconcile between Sansa and Daenerys, a quick direwolf cameo, and the highlight of the episode, the knighting of Lady Brienne by Jaime, played with just the right amount of emotion by the wonderful Gwendoline Christie.
Basically, this episode was a meditation on death, the entire show taking place during the last 24 hours before the great battle against the White Walkers. As each character faces his/her own mortality, we see actions and dialogue unfold in quiet, reflective fashion, nothing melodramatic but everything deeply dramatic. The cast of actors on this show have become almost freakishly superb at translating a host of feelings simply through a silent look (ripe for parody out of context, but within context, it’s stunning acting).
At the thematic heart of Game of Thrones is the notion that these characters, while in a primitive/timeless world, define their humanity through one quality: honor. The manifestation of this quality takes different forms, but in the reality of the show, it’s the way the characters form and execute their identity. Jaime explains at his trial that he although he has killed members of the families who are judging him, he would do it again, as it was defending the honor of his family, which, ironically the others understand.
One of the fascinating and complex things about the show, within this context, is that it allows the characters to redefine their concept of honor. Many of them have been pushed beyond their previous beliefs and have been forced to see bigger causes, and the need to change. In fact, some characters are in a desperate scramble to prove their honor in this final battle. It’s insanely difficult for these show creators, who have for almost a decade been telling the story of these families murdering and avenging each other over and over again, to unite in a believable way. By honing in on this concept of honor, and how it takes different forms that are sometimes inexplicable and sometimes tragic, they’re doing a beautiful job of making this final scene play out truthfully and powerfully.
Next up, Ben will take you to Episode Three, which promises some real fireworks. Happy viewing, my Game of Thrones family!