The Final Season GoT: s08 e01 Winterfell

[Emelee]

Discuss episode here after watching it.
Airdate: April 14 on HBO.


No quickie recap or presentation of the episode has been released before airtime. No episode title or who is on the episode either. It's all very top secret.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

I can't believe the final 6 episodes will start tomorrow.
It's all so surreal and i start getting excited!

 

[Emelee]

I know. Wasn't it just a whole year left until last season?! Now it's one day!

 

[Michael Torrance]

I liked the episode, but it didn't include the kind of big moment other season openers have had (like Arya offing all the Freys). It feels a lot like moving pieces where they needed to be and people catching up. In the latter, Sansa had some of the best lines, especially in her conversation with Tyrion:

Tyrion: Last we met it was at that dreadful Joffrey's wedding
Sansa: (referencing Joffrey's poisoning) It had its moments

Tyrion: Yes, she will send her army to fight for us. She wants to survive.
Sansa: And you believed her? (walking away)...I used to think you were the cleverest man alive

Most satisfying "reunion": the very last scene.

 

[pete lashmar]

Most satisfying "reunion": the very last scene.

Wasn't it just - a brilliant final scene that sets things up very nicely.

I loved how this episode mirrored the very first episode in the catacombs and the general setting of Winterfell.

I can't beleive there are only 5 episodes left....it's heartbreaking.

 

[Michelle Stevens]

Most satisfying "reunion": the very last scene.

I do worry about Jaime in the next episode.

It's interesting seeing all these characters coming together again after this long series.

 

[Emelee]

I loved the ending with Jaime and Bran. He was like "shit, that little rat will rat me out". But with Bran's new personality since becoming the three-eyed raven, I don't think that he will be angry with Jaime at all. New Bran doesn't appear to have any emotions. He was a robot with Jon. It could even be that Bran thinks Jaime even did what was meant to be.

Jon finally knows that he's a Targaryen, and I loved Sam's question to him at the end: would Daenerys forget about the crown if she could instead save people? IMO, I don't think she would. She is obsessed with people bending the knee to her and calling her their queen. I am not rooting for Daenerys anymore, she's turning into a mini version of the Mad King who wanted to "burn them all".

Bronn was informed by team Cercei to kill Jaime and Tyrion if they were to survive. If Bronn tries, he's dead to me.

Theon joining the war against the white walkers =

Also, Jon and Daenerys as a couple? They don't have any chemistry. I hope they won't be forced together at the end.

The episode wasn't as good as I had hoped for. But of course, it's a short season, so they have to get all players in the right positions before the big war.

 

[Richard Channing]

I loved this episode! Maybe I'm just so happy to have GOT back on our screens, but apart from that there was a lot to love. The reunions we're all very satisfying and it set things up nicely for the battles to come. The cinematography is just so beautiful. Jon and Daenerys' dragon ride was stunning. Also love the new opening credits.

It seems like the whitewalkers might be reaching Winterfell next episode so I imagine some of our happy reunions will be short-lived as the carnage begins. Can't wait!

 

[Michael Torrance]

She is obsessed with people bending the knee to her and calling her their queen. I am not rooting for Daenerys anymore, she's turning into a mini version of the Mad King who wanted to "burn them all".

Even though I did not like her burning the son Tarly (because he was so hunky) I could see her point. If you believe that the current regime needs to go, you have to root it out and leave no doubt of how far you are willing to go. There is a reason real revolutions happen with decapitations and not (as they think in this country) with throwing tea in the harbor. Jon Snow cares about the North, but not the country as a whole. Daenarys freeing the slaves was not freeing "her people" but people, period.

Now, it is possible she will prove another tyrant but so far I have find some acts excessive, but not unjustifiable.

 

[Emelee]

I feel Jon would be a better king than Daenerys queen. However, he doesn't want to be king. Maybe that's another sign that he would be a good king? He doesn't thrive on power.

I was rooting for Daenerys in the beginning, but my opinion of her has changed since season 5/6 somewhere. It's a bit too much my way or get burned to death for my taste. She'd make a better warrior leader like Arya.

Sansa feels like the best choice for Lady of Winterfell. I hope she gets to keep that title. She's grown a whole lot as a character since s1.

Jaime is probably the character that has developed most. From heroic savior of King's Landing, to selfish prick who pushes kids out the window to someone I would absolutely trust with my life. Brienne did good!

 

[Richard Channing]

Bronn was informed by team Cercei to kill Jaime and Tyrion if they were to survive.

That's one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Cersei threatened to kill both Jamie and Tryion in the previous episode and had them standing right in front of her. Yet she let both of them live. Jamie I could understand but I don't know why she didn't have Tyrion killed. Whatever her reasons it seems strange to me that now she has put a hit out on them. Maybe I just shouldn't question Cercei's wisdom, I guess she knows what she's doing!

 

[Michelle Stevens]

That's one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Cersei threatened to kill both Jamie and Tryion in the previous episode and had them standing right in front of her. Yet she let both of them live. Jamie I could understand but I don't know why she didn't have Tyrion killed. Whatever her reasons it seems strange to me that now she has put a hit out on them. Maybe I just shouldn't question Cercei's wisdom, I guess she knows what she's doing!

I found that confusing as well. Maybe she doesn't want to see them killed in her presence or maybe it's the writers way to kill Bronn at the end.

 

[Richard Channing]

I found that confusing as well. Maybe she doesn't want to see them killed in her presence or maybe it's the writers way to kill Bronn at the end.

Yeah, or perhaps she'd rather they got finished off by whitewalkers rather then do it herself, but if that doesn't happen she still wants them dead. I know she feels betrayed by Jamie, but I'm still quite surprised she wants him dead. He's the father on her children and has been her closest ally from the start.

 

[Emelee]

Cercei has never loved or liked Tyrion. Still blaming him for their mother's death during childbirth. But mostly because of the prophecy about her brother killing her.

That's probably why she wants Jaime dead now. Maybe she realizes that the prophecy could also be about him killing her? She hadn't the heart to make the order when he left, but it's been a while now since he rode off to fight in the big war that maybe she's changed her mind.

It would be a huge let-down if Bronn was the one to kill Jaime or Tyrion. Two major characters - killed by a secondary comic relief character. Talk about a blasé ending.

 

[Ome]

I liked the episode, but it didn't include the kind of big moment other season openers have had

Yes, I found that too.

Having said that, I was completely fixated all the way through to a point where I the biggest shock of them all happened when it ended. Honestly, the whole episode just felt like 5 minutes of my time. I gasped at the end because it was the end.

All the reunions, all the characters moving into place - I just can't handle my excitement any more.

I have no idea what's going to happen, will I like the final conclusion, will I be disappointed? I do know one thing, I'm going to binge-watch the whole series once it's over and that excites me no end, the thought of seeing Ned, Joffery, Robb, Catelin, Ramsay, Drogo and Tywin in all their glory, it's just too much....

 

[Richard Channing]

These are great. Made by HBO, Inside The Episode and The Game Revealed take us behind the scenes of the episode and have interviews with members of the cast and crew.

 

[Michael Torrance]

The Game Revealed also reveals a cut line!