Read the next entry in the series here.
6.10 “The Winds of
Winter”
Written by David
Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Directed by Miguel
Sapochnik
Commentary by David
Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Len Headey (Cersei), and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion)
Well, here we are. The end of season 6; the true end of any
claim to rewatching. The end of an era, almost, as something like 90% of the characters
get murdered in this episode. The rest of it is just wrapping up loose ends and
getting ready for season seven.
I don’t know if I talk up the good parts of this series
enough. The writing, plotting, and adapting might be terrible, the costuming
sometimes questionable, and the acting occasionally slippy, but usually the acting is really good, the
cinematography gorgeous, the effects well done.
And the music. You guys, the music. Ramin Djawadi is a
master. I’m still not tired of the main theme. “The Children” gives me goosebumps every
time. And in this episode, he completely changes technique and instrumentation
and gives us “The Light of the Seven,” which is a gorgeously melancholy piece
that plays for nearly 10 minutes over the extremely long opening of this
episode that leads up to the boom.
Near the end, the piano shifts to organ, which, combined with the introduction
of the main motif, adds menace, then shifts back to melancholy piano, then back
to organ, following the main beats of the scene.
Here, just listen:
This plays over a montage as the various King’s Landing
personages get dressed and prepare for Cersei’s trial at the Sept. The militant
collect Loras from his cell. Pycelle is stopped on his way to the Sept and
redirected elsewhere.
Loras’ trial is held first, and he confesses to sodomy,
perjury, depravity, profligacy, and arrogance. He agrees to renounce name and
title, to never marry or father children. Instead, he’ll join the Faith
Militant. They carve the seven-pointed star on his forehead, much to Mace’s
dismay. Margaery is angry; she reminds the Sparrow that he promised not to hurt
Loras. The Sparrow says he didn’t, much, and Loras is free to go as soon as
Cersei’s trial is over, and where is Cersei, anyway? And Tommen?
Cersei’s still getting dressed. Tommen’s trapped in his room
by a looming Ser Gregor Robert the Strong. Pycelle’s been led to Qyburn’s
lab, where the little birds stab him to death. Meanwhile, Lancel discovers
another kid running away from the Sept and follows him, discovering the racks
and racks of wildfire under the Sept.
Margaery takes stock of the Sept and figures out Cersei’s
plan. She tries to get everyone to evacuate, but gets pooh-poohed because
everyone on this show is an idiot. Just as panic starts to spread and the
Sparrow realizes that just maybe someone
besides himself can be right about something, the Sept explodes in green fire.
From the Red Keep, Cersei and Tommen watch the Sept burn.
Cersei goes downstairs to torment Septa Unella, who she’s
got tied to a table, tells her that sinning is fun and feels good, so ha, then leaves her with Gregor
Ser Robert, who starts stripping off his armor and frankly I don’t even want to
know what’s going on in there. Meanwhile, Tommen gives up on everything and
throws himself out his bedroom window. (Benioff and Weiss, of course, blame
Cersei for this plot point—if she “had been more focused on her family” instead
of torturing Unella, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. I—what? After all of
this, you’re telling us Cersei isn’t focused
enough on her family?! That’s all she’s
been focused on since episode one! Also, don’t even get me started on the issue
of Cersei as a bad mother being the reason bad things happen to her.)
So, rather than actually deal with complicated politics,
Benioff and Weiss decided to just axe the entire King’s Landing storyline by
getting rid of everyone but Cersei and Jaime in one fell swoop. Kind of like
they did with Dorne at the beginning of the season (so at least there’s some
symmetry!).
Jaime returns to King’s Landing and arrives just in time to
see Cersei in her new badass dress of badassdom ascending the throne. Qyburn
crowns her queen and everyone looks grim, including Jaime. Is he finally
realizing that Cersei is a Bad Person and that, by association, he’s a Bad
Person, too? Better late than never! (Martin got him there two books ago.)
It’s not just King’s Landing where death is happening,
either. Back at the Twins, Walder’s cackling about how Brynden was killed by
common foot soldiers. Jaime (who hasn’t left yet at this point) tells him that
he’s a bad leader and if the Lannisters have to keep giving him the Riverlands
because he can’t hold them, then they’re not likely to keep backing him. That
shuts Walder up for a second. Later, a serving girl brings Walder his dinner,
which just so happens to be Lothar and Black Walder very badly baked into a
pie. The serving girl, of course, is Arya wearing a face, and she opens Walder’s
throat while making her dead-eyed murder-face.
Now, the whole pie thing does happen in the books (not like
this, of course). However, I don’t understand why it’s happening here. In the
books, it’s set up with Bran’s story about the Rat Cook and how breaking
guest-right is an unforgivable sin. Then Wyman Manderly feeds the “envoys” from
the Twins—three Freys sent to keep him in line—to the Boltons at the wedding
feast for Ramsay and “Arya” in meat pies (after having the bard sing the song
about the Rat Cook to make it that much less subtle). In the show, there’s no
indication that Arya’s particularly familiar with the story; she’s probably
heard it, but Bran’s the one who loves scary stories. There’s no reminder of
the Rat Cook and the story’s theme about breaking guest right. It feels more
like Benioff and Weiss remembered this particular plot point and thought it
would be macabre, so they threw it in without any of its accompanying context
(because they’ve never done that before).
Benjen/Coldhands gets Meera and Bran to the Wall, leaving
them at the godswood where the Night’s Watch men say their vows. Bran wargs
into the tree again and goes back to the Tower of Joy, where he sees Lyanna
giving birth. There’s a hard cut from the baby’s face to Jon’s, and this
apparently confused a lot of people
because it wasn’t made clear enough that the baby was Rhaegar’s (some people thought he was Ned's by Lyanna and got rightly squicked out), so the major
R+L=J reveal was completely botched. Thanks,
guys.
The rest of the episode is really wrapping things up. Sam
and Gilly reach the Citadel, and Sam is introduced to the library, which he
totally abandons Gilly for because women and babies aren’t allowed in. Davos
finally gets to confront Melisandre about killing Shireen, which gets her
expelled from Winterfell. Olenna, Ellaria, and Varys create an alliance to
support Daenerys, who’s on her way after she dumps Daario, names Tyrion Hand of
the Queen, and gets on her Ironborn fleet with . . . Varys. Who has magically
appeared back at Slaver’s Bay The Bay of Dragons. I don’t even attempt
to keep up with the timeline/geography of this show anymore. Petyr corners Sansa
in the godswood and pervs on her, which she’s finally having none of, thank the
gods.
Finally, Jon gets to have the same argument with the
northern lords that he had with the Night’s Watch—they need the Wildlings to
help them fight the coming winter. Lyanna Mormont declares that Jon should be
King in the North despite so many reasons why he shouldn’t, and Sansa doesn’t
assert her own rights as the rightful
heir of Winterfell.
So that’s season 6, which might be the bloodiest season so
far. I’d argue it’s also the worst in terms of everything—characterization,
plotting, writing, pacing, internal consistency. As gleeful as Benioff and
Weiss were about leaving Martin behind and getting to tell their own story,
they sure made a hash of it.
RIP:
Grand Maester Pycelle
Lancel Lannister
The High Sparrow
Loras Tyrell
Margaery Tyrell
Mace Tyrell
Kevan Lannister
Tommen Baratheon
Black Walder Rivers
Lothar Frey
Walder Frey
Next week: Dany comes home. Jon can’t lead. The Wonder Twins
plot.
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