Remember what I’ve said the last few weeks about Game of Thrones spinning its wheels and going nowhere? Yeah, well… forget I said that. I’m an idiot. I apologize. The final fifteen minutes of this episode, a strange mishmash of Lord of the Rings and The Walking Dead was probably one of the most brutal examples of stuff going down I have seen on a series in a long time and now I am positively dying (and rising from the dead) to find out what happens next. Winter has arrived.
I’m sure it will only take another season or two.
This season has been shaky and uneven, but with “Hardhome” I honestly feel like the old Game of Thrones is back and back in a big way.
Aside from the amazing fifteen minutes of the episode, there is so much more goodness to be had. For one, we have Cersie in prison getting a healthy helping of humble pie, but still just so deliciously defiant. Yeah, she’s a terrible person and she’s completely deserving this cell of her own making, but there’s always been a little thing about the queen that has made me root for her. For someone so manipulative and evil, she never seems to be in control of a single aspect of her life and her latest predicament is no different.
We’ve also finally got Tyrion and Daenerys together and their scenes are even more entertaining and glorious than I could have ever imagined. Wit and wit going after each other… these two totally need to end up in bed together eventually.
But, you know… even if everything before that final fifteen minutes was pure and total crap, I would still big mad props to “Hardhome” just for the final battle but, as it stands, this is the way Game of Thrones used to be before it became mired in its own narrative — encapsulating, engrossing, and exciting.
Winter is here and I’m bundled up and ready for more.
Jason Gaston 