Wow. So that was … a lot of information to process.
She killed them. She killed them all — the High Sparrow,
Margaery, Loras and all the religious people — in a jaw-dropping green
explosion of napalm-like wildfire and now Cersei crosses the moral event horizon.
Keeping King Tommen away from the sept looks something like
mercy but you have to wonder if Cersei wasn’t sparing her son just to make him
watch and know his wife (the only one in the sept perceptive enough to know
what was going to happen) died. Then the king puts down his crown and walks out
a window, a karmic counterpoint to the Lannister twins pushing Bran out the
window in the pilot. Did Cersei know he would despair enough to do that and
leave the throne open for her? She reportedly loves her children but her son
sold her out to the sparrows and her cold attitude toward his burial suggests
that she might have been done with him and resigned to his fate.
With all three children dead, the fortune-teller’s prophecy
comes closer to fulfillment. Queen Cersei seizes the iron throne, fulfilling
another bit of it. She has to know her reign will not last for long. Destroying
the sept was the biggest power move ever in Game
of Thrones but she must know nobody will follow her, as she’s become as mad
as Aerys II. He didn’t go through with his promise to burn King’s Landing with
wildfire; she did.
Cersei has destroyed all her enemies in one fell swoop but
she saves the most delicious punishment for the shame nun, leaving her to the
tender ministrations of the Mountain. “I killed my husband because it felt good
to be rid of him” and slept with her brother for the same reason, she finally
confesses (looking fabulous in black,
I might add). Mocking the septa with chants of “Shame” was absolutely
magnificent, such a guilty pleasure. She’s evil but so much fun to watch. The
queen regent who one season ago endured humiliation by the common people now
sits on the iron throne.
One season ago, Jon Snow’s soldiers stabbed him to death.
Now, the remaining houses proclaim him king of the North, thanks mainly to Lady
Mormont’s fiery intercession. Can I just say I love her and need to see more of
her? It’s impressive to see a little girl silence a room full of tough warriors
and provide some perspective on the coming wars. I was skeeved out to see
Littlefinger mention marrying Sansa after pining for her mother and marrying
her aunt and heartened by her telling him “It’s a pretty picture” and walking
away. The last thing Sansa needs is another messed-up marriage while still in
her teen years. Plus, she must know that Littlefinger is implying that he wants
to kill Jon.
The show also confirms the longtime theory of Jon’s
parentage. He’s not an illegitimate Stark through Ned but through his mother,
Lyanna. This also makes him a Targaryen and makes him as legitimate an heir to
the throne of Westeros as anyone. It also brings another dimension to Ned’s
character: He besmirched his own honor and let Catelyn think he fathered a
bastard so he could protect the baby of his enemy family. The other Targaryen
with a claim finally, finally, makes
her way to Westeros with the help of the Iron Islands rebels. It was touching
to see Daenerys offer Tyrion the position of hand of the queen. It will be so
nice leaving Meereen at last and getting this show on the road.
It was also nice to get a look at Old Town, which I’ve only
ever heard about. It was sexist of the guy at the desk to bar Slackjawed Sally
from the library but what was she going to do in there, dust the spines of the
books?
Season six was confusing because certain events seemed to be
stretched out, like Cersei’s and Loras’ trials, but now it makes sense that
with an event as momentous as the destruction of the sept, they had to save it
for a finale. There were also the weird time shifts when you consider how long
it would really take people to cross continents. All this makes a lot more
sense if you don’t take it literally and see events as sort of happening at
once and that the show is portraying them when it needs to portray them.
Another event that was long in coming but that worked better
when saved for the finale was Davos finally finding out what happened to
Shireen. His anger was impressive and heartbreaking, and Melisandre dropped her
mask and looked devastated, knowing that she was wrong all along to burn the
girl at the stake. “If he commands you to burn children, your lord is evil,”
Davos tells her before exiling her. Bingo. The irony is now that Tommen is
dead, Shireen Baratheon would have a good claim to the throne, if only they
hadn't sacrificed her to gain absolutely nothing.
Jamie escaped death twice this episode, being away from the
wildfire in King’s Landing (returning in time to witness his sister’s
coronation and infer his son’s death) and then leaving Riverrun and escaping
Arya’s revenge. I had a feeling nasty old Walder Frey would die since nothing
good ever happens when he sits down to dinner in that hall. I was kind of
surprised to see a disguised Arya killing him. It’s kind of a stretch when you
start wondering how many people she had to kill to serve the Frey sons in that
pie. By the way, that was completely disgusting, even for this show. It was
satisfying for the orchestrator of the red wedding to die but that mincemeat
pie makes me wonder if Arya is crossing over into the evil side.
The alliances are all set for season seven of Game of Thrones. Daenerys and the
Greyjoys will try to conquer Westeros. The houses of the North have united
under the Starks. Olenna will rally what’s left of the Tyrells and ally with
the Martells. Cersei sits on a hollow throne, gaining it at a great price.
That was a hell of an episode, almost too much to absorb at
once. It will be hard to wait almost a year for the next chess moves. As the white raven says, winter is finally here.
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