Image
  • Writing
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • About my Novels & Writing
    • All Writing Posts
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Scrivener – Writer’s Word Processor
    • iPad for Writers
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Books
    • Book Review Index
    • Favorite Fantasy Novels
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Short Story: Harvard Divinity
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • About the Book
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Games
    • My Video Game Career
    • Post Archive by Series
    • All Games Posts Inline
    • Making Crash Bandicoot
    • Crash 15th Anniversary Memories
    • World of Warcraft Endgames
    • Getting a Job Designing Video Games
    • Getting a Job Programming Video Games
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Movies
    • Movie Review Index
  • Television
    • TV Review Index
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • A Game of Thrones
  • Food
    • Food Review Index
    • Foodie Club
    • Hedonists
    • LA Sushi Index
    • Chinese Food Index
    • LA Peking Duck Guide
    • Eating Italy
    • Eating France
    • Eating Spain
    • Eating Croatia
    • Eating Vietnam
    • Eating Australia
    • Eating Israel
    • Ultimate Pizza
    • ThanksGavin
    • Margarita Mix
    • Foodie Photography
    • Burgundy Vintage Chart
  • Other
    • All Posts, Magazine Style
    • Archive of all Posts
    • Fiction
    • Technology
    • History
    • Anything Else
  • Gallery
  • Bio
  • About
    • About me
    • About my Writing
    • About my Video Games
    • Ask Me Anything
  • Contact

Archive for Episode 45

Game of Thrones – Episode 45

May10

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 45 – May 10, 2015

Title: Kill the Boy

Summary: Awesome episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

First off, this is one of those medium focus episodes, which are my favorites. By medium I mean that it covers a limited number of threads, but not just one (like Blackwater). I like these episodes that have some different threads to cut between, but enough time to lavish on more detail. Those that cover more than 3-4 threads tend to feel rushed.

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

Dany – Because we ended with Dany, we might as well start with her as the episode does. Or to be specific, with Missandei watching over an recovering Gray Worm — he breathes, so as we suspected, he is alive. Not so much luck for Barristan who is lying in state in the pyramid with Dany and Dario looking on. Hizdahr zo Loraq approaches. Dario suggests they retreat to the pyramid and lay waste to the rest of the city. Dany is the retreat type and has her men round up the leaders of all the noble families — including Hizdahr.

Down in the basement (of Diocletian’s Palace), she has the unsullied drive the nobles toward the two dragons that wait in the dark. One is push forward, roasted, torn in half, and makes a nice two course reptilian feast. Dany is in her “calm, cold, and pensive” mode, which I quite like, and she lets the others off easier with a bit of incarceration.

Three days later, Gray Worm wakes up, and Missandei is still there. He learns about Barristan and announces to her that he failed his comrade. Of course, being in love with him, and him being totally outnumbered and having survived, she isn’t in the slightest bit mad at him. He admits that he was ashamed that at the last minute he was afraid — of not seeing her again. She kisses him, thinking fondly of the smooth patch between his legs.

game-of-thrones-sons-of-the-harpy

Curtain call for one of these two

But as this is a good day for Missandei, she next visits with Dany who seeks her advice. Dany is open and receptive, and Miss tactfully points out that Dany sometimes takes her advisor’s council, and sometimes has to do it her own way. Which is quite apropos as Dany has another of her unorthodox solutions in mind. She heads down to Hizdahr’s cell and tells him she will reopen the pits and — this is way more exciting — marry him. Of course, in true GOT fashion she makes a nice joke of it. He, for his part, having assumed he was about to die is only concerned with cleaning up his linen tighty whities.

I might as well discuss here the elephant in the room. In the books, Barristan continues on living, has his own POV chapters in fact. And here the producers have decided to snip him out of the story. His thread was pretty boring in ADWD anyway, and this episode’s Dany section is the best she has been in a long long time, so power to them.

Jon and the Wall – Sam is reading about Dany (apropos) to Aemon, and he is bothered by his last living relative being out there alone in Meereen. Jon comes in to speak to the Maester, announcing he needs advice on something crucial. Aemon, ever wise and ever cheeky (he is a 100 year old Targaryen Maester with cold bones) tells him to do what he thinks best. But more poetically, like “kill the boy and let the man be born.”

100 year old man in the cold

100 year old man in the cold

So Jon has a little chat with Tormund where he asks him to go fetch all the Freefolk and bring them back to be let through the wall to settle. He makes a pretty convincing argument. Hey, who wants to end up as body part art? But even unchained, Tormund wants Jon to go with him to Hardhome. Jon promisses to talk to Stannis about borrowing the fleet.

Now, Jon has the unenviable job of telling his men — who of course think he is crazy. Befriend the enemy? I love how Stannis corrects one mans bad grammar too. The whole “we have to live with them or fight them as part of the army of the dead” makes reasonable sense, but it’s hard for people to give up on their hate. This is personalized in the form of Oly, the kid who killed Ygritte (grrr)  and lost his family to the Thenns. Since Oly is Jon’s steward, he get a glimpse into his hatred.

Gilly and Sam talk about the library and we have more nice bonding between the two of them. Sam points out that the Citadel has the largest library, and we are given a hint of its role training Maesters, which might mean that Sam, Gilly, and Aemon are headed that way after-all. Plus Gilly’s insecurity and Sam’s kind handling of it are quite nice. Stannis comes in and asks about the White Walkers and how Sam killed them, concluding that Sam should keep reading. This nicely shows Stannis’ pragmatic side.

We will miss them at the wall

We will miss them at the wall — oh, and can we say GRAYSCALE?

Then the king goes to talk to Davos to tell him its time they marched and he’s taking the queen and princess, so we cut to the next morning as they saddle up. Sam and Gilly watch and Davos chats with Shireen while the queen frowns (she doesn’t do much of anything else). Stannis and Jon have a few moments of mutual respect and wish each other well, then Red Lady in tow, a nice big column of CGI forces marches out.

Winterfell – Pod and Brienne spy on the castle from a nearby inn. Pod halfheartedly tries to convince her to turn aside, but Brienne is determined to support Sansa. A servant comes in and she questions him about the Starks, taking the risk of asking him to get Sansa a message. This is characteristic of her, like when she mentioned her mission to Hotpie.

Exciting things are afoot

Exciting things are afoot

Next, Ramsay admires his whore Myranda by the window. She’s quite thin, pretty, and very naked. The girl has some guts, as she expected to marry Ramsay before the whole Bolton thing and says as much. Ramsay is interestingly honest when he says “I meant it, but then I was a Snow and now I’m a Bolton.” Plus, she’s the Kennel Master’s daughter. He warns her about her jealousy and she has the good sense not to push it so far she ends up minus a few attractive body parts. He takes her by the window.

Sansa is in her room when a servant enters and passes her what might sort of be Brienne’s message — at least she is supposed to light a candle in the broken tower if she needs help. She wanders out into the yard and checks it out, it’s the tower where Bran fell, just with more  snow. Myranda approaches. She’s clever and has a pair on her (more than Reek anyway) in that she plays nice, apologizes for Cat’s death, and takes Sansa to see a “surprise” in the kennels. At the end. Sansa, against possible better judgement walks past the snarling beasts to find Reek/Theon at the end. She recognizes him and he only says, “you shouldn’t be here.”

Later, Reek is serving Ramsay when he clearly has something to say. It takes a moment and then he is out with the Sansa bit. Ramsay toys with him for a moment and forgives him.

Most awkward dinner EVER!

Most awkward dinner EVER!

This brings us to one of the oddest great scenes in GOT history. The Bolton/Stark dinner theater. Ramsay pours Sansa some wine, and his fat Stepmother’s. There is a comment about how it must be strange for Sansa, and she comments back that the place is home, only the people are strange. Reek comes in to serve and Ramsay plays the whole thing off as punishment for his “murder” of Bran and Rickon, even makes Reek apologize. This is one weird dinner. When it can’t get any weirder, he even suggests Reek give away the bride. Ramsay is a brilliant actor, but the character and the actor playing the character. Bolton however isn’t so amused and pulls the rug out from under his son by noting that his fat wife is pregnant — perhaps with another son.

Most awkward dinner ever!

Father/son bonding, Bolton style

In private, the two Bolton’s spar. Ramsay “wonders” how dad could “find it” on a girl that fat and Bolton is just straight up displeased with him. But he tells a grim Bolton-style story of how he killed the miller and raped the miller’s wife, then she showed up with the baby — only to comment on how he recognized the boy as his son — as he does now. Well, sure is true, Ramsay sure has a lot of the dad in him. Then Bolton, no dummy talks about Stannis and their defense of the north and Ramsay rises to the occasional again to offer his help.

Tyrion, thou are’t so amusing

Tyrion and Jorah – sail along in amusing contrast. “Long sullen silences and the occasional punch in the face: the Mormont Way.” Haha. Ty thinks better of it and apologizes — and asks for wine. But Jorah is more concerned looking ahead, and so Ty turns to see the myst (seems appropriate to spell it that way) and… dum dum… the ruins of Old Valyria, which is clearly the fantasy stand in for the Roman Empire. Apparently Jorah thinks this will make an excellent shortcut. It does look pretty, with giant Vietnamese/Cambodian style ruins, aqueducts, jungle, and mist (I meant myst). This is an awesome scene, gorgeous and moody with Ty reciting a poem telling of the Doom and Jorah finishing it. A nice bonding moment for two men who actually have a bit in common. Then Drogon flaps on by overhead taking it up to the next level. The camera lingers on him, and his appearance means different things for the two men. He’s huge, and perhaps reminds Jorah of all he has lost. And for Ty, well, he maybe didn’t even totally believe in dragons.

Too cool for school

Too cool for school

Then a handful of stonemen hop on into the boat. I knew there was way too much setup about stonemen, grayscale, and them being sent to Old Valyria to be a coincidence. Nice fight really, with the added zombie-style need to avoid touching them. Then Ty goes into the water, bound.

He wakes with Jorah on the beach. They seem to have lost their boat. No matter, too resourceful men like them can surely steal another one. But Jorah secretly checks his wrist and we see he’s sporting a small patch of grayscale. uh oh!

Jon Broods

Kill the boy!

All in all, a fabulous episode. Even without Arya for the second week in a row, all four threads were fabulous. The lackluster Dany storyline got a much needed stab in the gut and the ho hum north a bit of chilly change. But the Winterfell and Tyrion/Jorah threads were as good as it gets for this show — which is pretty darn good. Those whack job family moments in Winterfell, wow, and Old Valyria with Drogon flying overhead. What more could a fantasy junky want?

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Official HBO inside the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 38
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 43
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 45, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, Kill the Boy, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 5 Episode 5, World of A Song of Ice and Fire
Watch the Trailer or

Buy it Online!

Buy it Online!

96 of 100 tickets!

Find Andy at:

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe by email:

More posts on:



Complete Archives

Categories

  • Contests (7)
  • Fiction (404)
    • Books (113)
    • Movies (77)
    • Television (123)
    • Writing (115)
      • Darkening Dream (62)
      • Untimed (37)
  • Food (1,481)
  • Games (100)
  • History (13)
  • Technology (21)
  • Uncategorized (16)

Recent Posts

  • OOToro Double
  • Robo Eats – Anarbagh
  • Fred loves N/Naka
  • Major Major Major
  • Far East – Beijing Tasty House
  • Home Sweet Spicy Home
  • Quick Eats – Bafang
  • Quick Eats – Peking Restaurant
  • Quick Eats – MK BBQ
  • Wolfing it Down

Favorite Posts

  • I, Author
  • My Novels
  • The Darkening Dream
  • Sample Chapters
  • Untimed
  • Making Crash Bandicoot
  • My Gaming Career
  • Getting a job designing video games
  • Getting a job programming video games
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • A Game of Thrones
  • 27 Courses of Truffles
  • Ultimate Pizza
  • Eating Italy
  • LA Sushi
  • Foodie Club

Recent Comments

Archives

  • March 2023 (9)
  • February 2023 (11)
  • January 2023 (14)
  • December 2022 (11)
  • November 2022 (13)
  • October 2022 (14)
  • September 2022 (14)
  • August 2022 (12)
  • July 2022 (9)
  • June 2022 (6)
  • May 2022 (8)
  • April 2022 (5)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (8)
  • December 2021 (6)
  • November 2021 (6)
  • October 2021 (8)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (11)
  • March 2020 (15)
  • February 2020 (13)
  • January 2020 (14)
  • December 2019 (13)
  • November 2019 (12)
  • October 2019 (14)
  • September 2019 (14)
  • August 2019 (13)
  • July 2019 (13)
  • June 2019 (14)
  • May 2019 (13)
  • April 2019 (10)
  • March 2019 (10)
  • February 2019 (11)
  • January 2019 (13)
  • December 2018 (14)
  • November 2018 (11)
  • October 2018 (15)
  • September 2018 (15)
  • August 2018 (15)
  • July 2018 (11)
  • June 2018 (14)
  • May 2018 (13)
  • April 2018 (13)
  • March 2018 (17)
  • February 2018 (12)
  • January 2018 (15)
  • December 2017 (15)
  • November 2017 (13)
  • October 2017 (16)
  • September 2017 (16)
  • August 2017 (16)
  • July 2017 (11)
  • June 2017 (13)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (3)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (7)
  • December 2016 (14)
  • November 2016 (11)
  • October 2016 (11)
  • September 2016 (12)
  • August 2016 (15)
  • July 2016 (13)
  • June 2016 (13)
  • May 2016 (13)
  • April 2016 (12)
  • March 2016 (13)
  • February 2016 (12)
  • January 2016 (13)
  • December 2015 (14)
  • November 2015 (14)
  • October 2015 (13)
  • September 2015 (13)
  • August 2015 (18)
  • July 2015 (16)
  • June 2015 (13)
  • May 2015 (13)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (15)
  • February 2015 (13)
  • January 2015 (13)
  • December 2014 (14)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (13)
  • September 2014 (12)
  • August 2014 (15)
  • July 2014 (13)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (14)
  • April 2014 (14)
  • March 2014 (10)
  • February 2014 (11)
  • January 2014 (13)
  • December 2013 (14)
  • November 2013 (13)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (12)
  • August 2013 (14)
  • July 2013 (10)
  • June 2013 (14)
  • May 2013 (14)
  • April 2013 (14)
  • March 2013 (15)
  • February 2013 (14)
  • January 2013 (13)
  • December 2012 (14)
  • November 2012 (16)
  • October 2012 (13)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (12)
  • June 2012 (16)
  • May 2012 (21)
  • April 2012 (18)
  • March 2012 (20)
  • February 2012 (23)
  • January 2012 (31)
  • December 2011 (35)
  • November 2011 (33)
  • October 2011 (32)
  • September 2011 (29)
  • August 2011 (35)
  • July 2011 (33)
  • June 2011 (25)
  • May 2011 (31)
  • April 2011 (30)
  • March 2011 (34)
  • February 2011 (31)
  • January 2011 (33)
  • December 2010 (33)
  • November 2010 (39)
  • October 2010 (26)
All Things Andy Gavin
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
Programmed by Andy Gavin