SPOILERS ARE COMING!
And breathe! What an honour it was to watch such a fine-tuned, masterfully crafted, rousing and raucous episode of TV. Battle Of The Bastards (such a great name) was the fan’s pay off for a season that’s largely been setting the pieces on a journey toward the looming end-game. This episode was packed to the roof of Baelor’s Sept with awe-inspiring set pieces, tactfully placed dialogue and silences that were worth a thousand words.
Last week we left Mereen under siege(unfortunately no Steven Seagal in sight) with Dany returning at a moment where Tyrion’s hold on Mereen and the great city itself were teetering precariously to say the least. I felt for Tyrion as he’d tried so hard through out season six to tidy Mereen up and dust off its many problems. For the most part he did a good job but Dany’s return was the modern equivalent of getting caught on your phone at work by your boss – if you worked at MI6. After a wonderful shot of a ball of fire slung from a trebuchet tracking its way over the sea and the city walls, we cut to Dany looking down on her city that once held a short-lived peace, now burning and crumbling. After Tyrion offers an alternate proposition opposed to charring the bodies of any and all slave profiteers, the tone of the episode is set. The sequence with the Mother Of Dragon’s riding Drogon flanked by Viserion and Rhaegal was reminiscent of the great How To Train Your Dragon movies albeit with slightly more death and brimstone. A stunning sequence of scenes in every right. The panning camera following the flight with Mereen beneath in cinders, the horde of Dothraki in full berserker scream mode charging at the Sons Of The Harpy, Tyrion talking the talk to the surviving Master and of course the warship suffering from a severe case of Dracarys.
If that wasn’t enough Khaleesi goodness, the Greyjoy siblings turn up and fall in line with Dany’s queenly vision of Westeros which held some great clashes of words between Tyrion and Theon and Yara and Dany. I felt this scene was well needed in finally forging an alliance for Daenerys with a house from the Seven Kingdoms and equating to her getting a great fleet of ships for the journey west. I think I’m safe in assuming that season seven will finally bear us the fruit of a Targaryen rule; or just that Dany actually does get to Westeros before The Night King’s army turns it all to icy death. She has surely heard that Winter Is Coming?
The penultimate episode of a Game Of Thrones season normally amounts to something spectacular and the titular battle of bastards did not disappoint. In fact it blew me away. Jon asked Melisandre not to bring him back should he fall, he dismissed Sansa’s sage advice about the cunning and ploys of Ramsay and he witnessed Rickon fall in a sadistic game of Bros and Arrows. In Jon’s bold effort to save his brother he is lured into a killing field that Ramsay planned perfectly. Jon is safe from the barrage of arrows (perhaps by the Lord of Light’s will) but his horse is felled. He stands ready to fight after unsheathing Longclaw. The Bolton army charge at him on horseback. This is one of my favourite shots from the entire show. It captures Jon’s character perfectly and is simply stunning. It also didn’t use any CGI! In the Behind The Scenes show on Youtube, (which I recommend everybody watch) they show that it was actually Kit Harrington stood on a cold, muddy field as forty men on horseback charged at him. David Beinoff said that it was his favourite shot of this season and I have to concur.
What follows is a clash between the two armies of the likes I’ve never seen before. The scene consists of some wonderful sweeping, wide angle shots to give us insight into the geography of the battle but also some very intimate looks of the horror and death supplied by battle. Jon has a beautiful tracking shot where we follow his cutting down of foes with the stand out swipe being Jon spinning inward and striking a mounted Bolton with such force as to knock him from his horse. I made some sort of queer noise in reaction to it which is standard fair when I see anything awesome in film and TV. Although the field is flat the battle for Jon and his followers is downhill from here. Ramsay isn’t afraid to command volleys of arrows to be fired into the fray, taking out some of his own men to kill Jon’s. Davos and Tormund join the fight from the flank only to be trapped between three walls of shield and spear wielding Boltons and a literal mountain of death. What had been an epic clash of two sides takes a turn for the tense as the walls literally close in on what remains of Snow and the Wildlings (and the Mormonts!). By this point I was pretty breathless and didn’t know if I could face what would come as I just couldn’t call what was going to happen. Sure, I know what I wanted to happen but having that mindset in Game Of Thrones is just plain foolish.
As if I needed any more tension and foreboding, Jon is trampled under the weight of his own men as they try to scale the wall of bodies. These shots are short and sharp, similar to my breathing as I watched Jon drowning in scrambling men and the flicker of a gloomy sky that he needed to reach. With sheer determination and willpower he manages a foothold and gets somewhat free but to what end? He is still trapped. And then like Randy Orton The Legend Killer himself, The Knights Of The Vale come OUTTA NOWHERE to save the day led by none other than the puppet master himself: Littlefinger. A horseback army have saved the day a couple of times in Game Of Thrones but I’ve never needed it so much as now. The Vale’s Knights ride down the encircled army and we finally see that sadist smile melt from Ramsay’s face. We’ve waited a long time for that. In seeing a bloodied Jon, a battered Tormund and an arrow-riddled Wun Wun, Ramsay flees to Winterfell and what a sight it is to see his tail between his legs.
Wun Wun comes a knocking and the castle starts a rocking. Poor Wun Wun knocks down the gate only to be riddled with arrows. He’s backed up by the Wildlings and their own arrows that find their marks on the last of the Bolton men but I was genuinely affected to see that arrow fell Wun Wun – possibly the last of the giants- drawn from Ramsay’s bow. As if cutting off penises and raping Sansa wasn’t enough he’s now caused a species to go extinct. And then there were two. Ramsay takes Jon up on his earlier offer of single combat seeing the state that Jon is in but Ramsay underestimates Jon’s grit. Seeing Jon pace toward Ramsay blocking arrows with a shield was a moment of ecstasy, knowing Ramsay is finally gonna get a taste of comeuppance. Jon takes him down and lays waste to his face in a fury of punches. This scene was shot for ten hours. To make sure we got what we wanted. I certainly did in any case as I was kind of giddy seeing Jon Snow let go of all his chivalry and manners and sense and unleash the inner-wolf. He is sobered by a looming Sansa and ever the gentleman he realises Ramsay is not his to kill.
The final scene is perfectly played out by actors and writers as Ramsay still believes in his own screwed up sense of manipulation in being able to somehow escape. Until Sansa, talking minimalistically but eyeing the man who took so much from her with contempt and hate. She knows a hungry dog is never loyal and so Ramsay finally meets his end by his own tortured dogs. A bitter irony but one that goes down like a sweet wine. The shadow of a smirk as Sansa walks away is a perfect(DB Weiss’ favourite shot). She’s not rejoicing or taking fiendish pleasure from the dogs ripping away at Bolton but she allows herself that tiniest of smirks, solidifying that she is no longer a victim, she is a woman and a Stark woman at that.
The direction by Miguel Sapochnik was masterful. I didn’t think he could top the episode Hardhome but he has here with Battle Of The Bastards. Every scene mattered on a grand scale but felt intimate enough to have us there inside it with the characters. The entire battle will go down as one of the all time greats and I can not think of an onscreen battle of this scale that has had me this gripped and breathless. With many grand sword and sandal battles in film, one can normally guess the winner before the battle begins. With this however, I simply could not call it, a testament to the stellar writing of DB Weiss and David Benioff that always keeps us fans on our toes and serves us some deliciously dour dishes of disappointment. This will go down as one of the greatest episodes in television history, I have no doubt. Many films don’t build this much tension with an intimate thriller let alone one that features a sprawling battle. The crew, the cast and everyone involved that pour their hearts and souls into Game Of Thrones are a testament to its brilliance. Their passion is our pudding. Game Of Thrones continues to push the boundaries of storytelling within an episodic format and it doesn’t rely on cliches or rest upon its laurels, it paves the way as if mounted on a dragon.
The end is nigh for season six and there are many repercussions set to shake the world in next week’s episode. I just wonder how many times I’ll relive this episode until that comes about.
Captain's Blog - Stardate: 2018 