Eight years ago, at the end of a slow-moving first episode, it was Jaime Lannister's (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) failed murder attempt against Brandon Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) that piqued most of the viewer's interest to continue watching the world's most expensive TV series Game of Thrones
The second episode kicks off with Jamie facing questions with regards to his sister -- who is also his lover -- Cersei Lannister’s (Lena Headey) betrayal as she lied about helping Starks fight against the dead by sending an army. Jamie stood before Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and others, unapologetically accepting his mistakes as something that even the good-hearted Starks would do. Despite sharing the least screen-time together, Bran and Jamie appear as if they had a transcending connection. But that’s just one of the highlights.
>>GoT Season 8 Episode 1 Review: Final season kicks off with uneven grandeur
Jon Snow (Kit Harington) has a telling conversation with Daenerys about his secret parentage. While she immediately questioned the authenticity of the information, her reaction further hints at what to expect either during or after the Battle of Winterfell. “If it were true, it would make you the last male heir of House Targaryen... You’d have a claim to the Iron Throne,” Daenerys expresses unhappiness rather than sadness.
Jon and Daenerys look poised to fight side by side, likely riding the two remaining dragons, in the Battle of Winterfell. But after that fight is over and if they make it through, they will have to decide who has the best claim to the throne — and most importantly, who gets to rule.
This warm-up episode did not deviate even for a second away from Winterfell and elegantly rotated between the characters to show how much they grew in their journey. A case-in-point would be Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). She was once a sulky little thing who donned disguises to avoid capture. Now she dons different disguises to complete her ‘kill’ list. If one takes a trip down the memory lane, who would have thought that Arya would grow up to be a dominating person, owning her sexuality so much so that she would take her own virginity in a dominating fashion. The scene is just one amongst many others that stood out.
The conversation Daenerys has with Sansa (Sophie Turner) gives out glimpses of an upcoming 'Mad Queen'. The breaker of chains refuses to agree that the Starks can rule the North independent of King’s Landing.
Game of Thrones once again bucked the traditional way of showing war preparations. The makers didn’t go for a motivational speech seeking to rile up soldiers for glory. Instead, they just get prepared for their 'deaths'. As Tormund puts it, “We are all going to die. But at least we die together.” The second episode has more of talking and drinking - the two things Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) always did except, this time they are drinking, but they don’t know things.
Episode two is also a curtain-raiser to a cold war that just began between Jon and Daenerys. While traditional story favours Jon Snow, we cannot forget that this is Game of Thrones .
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