The internet is full of hot takes on GOT this morning, some of which are extremely well thought out and reasoned responses to the show runners continued use of rape as a primary and essential plot driver. I suppose by fault I also have to begin at the ending of the show. There are a variety of different lenses through which to view the scene of marital bliss that ends this past week's episode. My perspective is just one more lens. However, like many other people, I didn't find the scene useful. I have an MFA in creative writing and though I often censor myself, I'm not particularly a fan of censorship. It's pretty hard right now in the current academic climate to say anything meaningful or controversial without a backlash. See: Dunham, Lena. etc. etc. However, the failure of the scene from my perspective is a failure on the part of the show runner's to understand the narrative meaningfulness of Sansa's wedding night rape. Essentially, it had none.
If the point was to tell us that Ramsey Bolton was a horrible person who would treat Sansa poorly, particularly in the bedroom that fact had already been made clear from prior episodes, including the torture of Theon. If the point was to have something terrible happen to Sansa, well, that ship sailed when Joffrey paraded her around to look at the decapitated head of her dead father. And if it was to indicate that Reek was turning back into Theon Greyjoy. Congratulations that was achieved in the prior scene. The failure was aesthetic, and I won't say above all else, but that was certainly the dimension where I feel the freest to criticize. I'm certain that there are some very valid reasons why the scene wasn't necessary, and some equally valid reasons why the show runners felt it was necessary. However, it failed as a plot device and took away form time that could have been spent with other characters. It would probably be a more forgivable offense if the same show runners hadn't already slogged through many scenes of Ramsey torturing Theon and a couple of questionable rape scenes. As it stands, it was a poor narrative decision, and I'll leave the culture wars to others.
It's a bad thing too that this episode of Thrones was going up against Mad Men. A show who's penultimate episode reminded us why we often watch television--because we care about how the fictional lives of the characters turn out. This crucial fact, which spoiler alert: Betty's impending death brought home, is in stark contrast to an episode of television that spends its time almost solely on religious fanatics and sadomasochists. This episode seemed to largely forget that we are looking for reasons to hope. Or perhaps we're supposed to think like Kafka, "There is hope, just not for us."
Earlier seasons of Game of Thrones often had episodes like last week, heavy on exposition, or like this week: kind of grim. Luckily, thus far the end of the seasons have paid off, making grumbling about interior episodes seem short-sighted. However, this episode, by far the weakest of the season, didn't really lay much groundwork. The excitement over Arya's transformation is long since gone, as dead as the little girl she gave the poisoned water to. Whatever fan lust was making Ja'chen Hagar a dream boat was taken down a bit when he spent a few minutes whipping Arya. It seems to me that this episode was about transformation: for Arya, for Theon, for Sansa, but it came at too much of a narrative cost. I'm glad that Arya is ready to become someone else, and I'm certain from talking to book readers that it was more laborious there, however, pairing her grim scenes with Ramsey's scenes for the second time this season did not seem like wise work.
In King's Landing, the religious fanatics have taken over the streets, imprisoning nearly every member of the house Tyrell. It's unclear what purpose this serves beyond a temporary reprieve for Cersei as she loses control of nearly everything. Is King Tommen that ineffectual? I feel like we needed more Sir Pounce in this and every episode if we're to believe that a fourteen year old boy wouldn't be raging around the castle at his seductive new lady being taken away. This definitely feels like swallowing a frog to get a fly, particularly when the queen herself has been accused of incest.
I'm not entirely certain how this is going to play out, but it seems unlikely that it won't end with the Tyrell's pounding on the gate at King's Landing with a rather large army, not an army that Cersei will be able to defeat without the help of Kevan, which may just be how Stannis or Littlefinger rises to the top.
Unfortunately, this episode also continued the rather clumsily constructed plot line in Dorn. The Sand Snakes, poorly written and poorly performed, attempted an abduction during the middle of the day, in the center of the palace grounds, and were met at the exact same moment by Bronna and Jaime. This is the sort of coincidence type of thing that thrones has largely avoided, and with good reason for the better part of five seasons. It looks clumsy, and even the rather captivating Bronn performed in a rather strange and confusing fight scene. Was he poisoned? I'm not sure. But the scene's construction was weak and ill thought out. As it is, I'm rather glad that we're leaving Dorn so quickly. This plot line, not drawn from the books, is the sort of thing that gets people annoyed at television shows. A plot is hatched, quickly moved into and quickly diffused without any real sense of foreboding or meaning.
The traveling duo of Ser Jorah and Tyrion came to a rather quick end as well when they were picked up by a rowdy band of pirates, who, Tyrion, thanks to his wit, was able to talk into getting them into Mereen. Now they have a faster way! This particular plot twist, on the heels of Ser Jorah's grey scale was one of the few successes of the hour, a development that was genuinely open ended for the characters involved as well as being a surprise. What does it mean that Jorah has grey scale? What does it mean that Tyrion is a dead man walking? We don't know, and it's often that sense of not knowing, of surprise, which makes Thrones so interesting.
Meanwhile, our favorite con artist Littlefinger, manages to get the okay to start moving out the nights of the Vale. It seems unlikely that he'll be mounting Sansa's head on a pike, though he might be planning on mounting Sansa. In short, I don't actually know what he's up to lest we ever forget his speech about chaos and climbing to the top of the mountain. For the purposes of the show I actually don't mind the pacing of his attempt at ascension. He was biding his time in King's Landing for years, and now he's on the prowl trying to climb to the top of the mountain.
Interestingly, his polar opposite, Varus, is seeking to bring the realm to the top of the wall. The two of them started out as key statesmen in King's Landing, who I originally had a hard time separating. However, as the show has continued the two of them have moved further and further away until we have the two characters pulling in opposite directions.
In general, it was a fairly grim episode that didn't have substantial pay offs. Certainly as a viewer I'd have liked to have seen more of nearly anything more than Ramsey or Sand Snakes. I haven't given up on the show because of one rather untidy episode. There is still time for the various plot strands to come together as they often have. I'm not sounding the alarm, but I am watching closer as Beneioff and Weiss head off into the final two seasons on their own two man journey, unmoored completely from the source that has carried them through the twists and turns thus far.
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