Game of Thrones S8E3 Recap (Spoilers): Winter Is Here

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We’ve waited for what felt like an eternity, but folks – it is here. It’s time. The FINAL season of HBO’s hit Game of Thrones is underway. Join me every week as I hit the highlights of the latest episode and discuss little news and notes you might’ve missed along the way. LFG – Winter is here.

RECAP (SPOILERS)

No wasting any time this week. The intro rolled and we got right into the battle for Winterfell. Melisandre shows up and lights all of the Dothraki meat hook things they use to slay people on fire. It looks nice, but doesn’t keep them from being killed easily by the Night King’s army. Yeah, Jorah makes it back to the castle, but that’s about it. And, we’re off.

The dead charge Winterfell and for a brief moment, it looks like the living might actually stand a chance. Though Jon warns her to wait for the Night King to expose himself, Dany hops on her dragon and starts torching the dead. But, an icy storm rolls in and no one can see anything.

We get our first big death when Edd tries to get Sam to get up and fight and takes a zombie sword right through the chest. Davos tries to signal the dragons, but they can’t see him from the storm. The living are in full-on retreat mode, but the dead won’t stop coming. It doesn’t look too good. They’re shooting arrow after arrow at the trench to light it on fire, but the arrows keep fizzling out. Melisandre gets out there and lights the damn thing up after failing to do so a few times. Gotta make things good and tense.

It stops the dead! The massive flames keep them at bay.

We get a nice moment between Sansa and Tyrion when she tells him, “you were the best of them,” referring obviously to her terrible track record with husbands. That’s followed by a nice moment during which Bran tells Theon everything he did brought him to this point after Theon attempts to apologize for everything (and Theon’s done a lot of things that would warrant an apology). Then, Bran wargs into some ravens.

Arya’s going around killing wights. Then, BOOM – the door to the castle comes caving in and a GIANT WIGHT comes barreling through. It grabs Lyanna Mormont and begins to crush her when she buries her Dragonglass blade in the giant’s eye, killing it. She doesn’t survive the damage, though. Pour one out for one real bad bitch.

We get a dragon fight for a bit, as Viserion and the Night King make their way to the battle.

Arya escapes a library full of wights thanks to Beric and The Hound. Here we go again – The Hound and Arya escape, but Beric doesn’t make it. The hide out in a room with Melisandre, who drops the classic Syrio Forel line on Arya, “what do we say to the God of Death?” “Not today.”

Back to the dragon fight, and it’s INSANE. At one point, the Night King falls off the dragon. Wouldn’t that have been a way to go? Alas, he survives the fall and Dany attempts to set him on fire. He just smiles back at her.

This is the darkest hour for the living. Viserion is setting the entire castle ablaze. The Night King raises all the dead northerners. Drogon flies off, trying to shake off a barrage of wights. Dany is left to fend for herself against a zombie army when Jorah shows up to save her life. He’s stabbed, and ultimately, won’t survive.

Theon is fighting off the dead like a man possessed. The Night King arrives in the Godswood and shit is real now, y’all. Theon essentially sacrifices himself and the Night King puts a spear through his chest. He then slowly makes his way towards Bran, taking his time, soaking in the moment.

As he reaches for his sword, Arya jumps OUTTA NOWHERE with a Valyrian steel dagger. The Night King turns, catches her by the throat. Arya drops the dagger, catches it in her other hand, and buries it in the Night King’s chest…right where Leaf shoved the Dragonglass in when the Night King was created. He gone. All of the White Walkers and wights he created are gone. The living actually won.

Melisandre walks outside the castle, removes her necklace, and turns to dust as Davos watches.

That’s it?

That’s it. We may have been expecting some big crazy twist with the Night King, but everything was laid out perfectly for us if we paid attention and wanted to accept it. He was created by the Children of the Forest to kill humans. The Night King had a mind of his own, and the White Walkers rebelled against the Children of the Forest, basically saying, “I do what I want.” They wanted an “endless night.” The Night King wanted to erase humanity from the history books. That simple.

And, we’ve been building to this moment with Arya and Bran throughout the entire saga! If not for Arya’s extensive training with the Faceless Men, there’s no way she would’ve been able to sneak up on the damn Night King! If not for Bran becoming the Three-Eyed Raven, he wouldn’t have been able to lure the Night King out the way he did. That entire scene happened because we’ve been building to it for EIGHT SEASONS!

Shit, Melisandre knew – we should’ve just listened to her! Regardless, I’m not complaining about this episode.

Notes

*Kinda feels like that might be it for Bran. He had to be the one to lure out the Night King because he was the one the Night King wanted. Now that that’s done, I expect he’ll just sit back and document history. Probably why that line was thrown in there in Ep. 2.

*I’m still not buying Cersei as the final villain. I’m still holding on to that thought that we’re going to end up with Jon vs. Dany in the back of my mind.

*People keep bringing up the Azor Ahai prophecy, but that’s rarely (if ever) been mentioned in the shows. I don’t know why we’re beholden to this idea if it’s never really been featured in the shows. Draw a line.

*Here’s a fun theory that posits that Bran is the Lord of Light.

*Remember Dany’s vision? Seeing snow fall on the Iron Throne? I’d be willing to bet now that that’s actually ash…not snow.

*Cleganebowl is still alive. Get hype.

Try to function this week – we’ll do this again next Monday.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley

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