Battle was joined, lives were lost, and WOW THAT ENDING HAPPENED on Game of Thrones 8×03, “The Long Night.”
Through the perplexingly dark tones of Game of Thrones 8×03, the war for the dawn was fought. And fought. Did I mention that there was a lot of fighting? But first: The nerves set in.
What happened in ‘Game of Thrones’ 8×03?
A mess of madness and battle-theater, “The Long Night” is preoccupied entirely by the Battle of Winterfell, as the forces of life fight the Night King and the armies of death.
Melisandre arrives mysteriously on the eve of battle, and sets the Dothraki arrakhs alight. The charge is visually stunning, and an immediate failure. Dolorous Edd is killed in the first charge of the undead. One out of seven down.
Arya urges Sansa to take cover in the crypts, advising her sister to “Stick them with the pointy end” of a proffered dragon glass dagger. Before long, Winterfell’s forces retreat to and guard Winterfell’s gates while Dany and Jon strategically fire on the dead from dragonback. Melisandre pulls out one last favor from the Lord of Light and sets the spiked moat on fire, which is effective until the dead start putting the fire out with their own freaking corpses.
Winterfell’s walls are eventually breached and the gate broken, leading to tiny Lyanna Mormont sacrificing herself as she takes out a zombie giant. Two down, five to go.
Then there’s an awful lot of fighting in and around Winterfell. Bran, rather uselessly, tries to spy on the Night King through the ravens, and the Night King proves somehow immune to dragon fire. Seeking a respite from the fighting after an injury, Arya finds herself surrounded by wights in the library. She escapes but is nearly overwhelmed until Beric Dondarrion and an Arya-inspired Sandor Clegane come to her rescue. Beric dies in the attempt (three of seven) and Melisandre reminds Arya of her prediction that she would “close many eyes forever” — including blue eyes.
Blue eyes. Like the wights and the Night King have. WAIT A MINUTE.
Meanwhile, down in the Very Safe Crypts, Tyrion chafes at his helplessness. He kind-of-sort-of proposes marriage to Sansa again, but Sansa lets him down easy. Missandei takes offense at Sansa’s suggestion that Dany’s presence inspires divided loyalties.
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The fighting devolves up above as the Night King raises all the newly-made dead. White Walkers stroll through the castle and into the Godswood as chaos erupts in the crypts. Sansa and Tyrion share a moment of terrified resolve and try to lead the survivors to safety. Jon and Dany are separated from their dragons and from each other. Beyond the walls, Dany is defended by Jorah as Jon attempts to fight to Bran’s side, but is pursued by the undead Viserion.
In the Godswood, only Theon Greyjoy lives to defend Bran. Bran comes back into himself, and tells Theon he is a good man, inspiring the once-traitor to charge the Night King and die on his spear. (Four/seven!) The Night King advances on Bran, reaching for the kill, until Arya leaps from above and reaches out to destroy the great evil.
The Night King seizes her around the throat, and Arya drops her spear… only to catch it with her dominant left hand and stab the Night King, closing thousands of dead blue eyes forever.
FIVE OF SEVEN, FOLKS.
Beyond the walls of Winterfell, Jorah Mormont dies in Dany’s arms. (Six!) Trembling with the shock of survival as dawn breaks, Davos watches Melisandre stumble out into the snow, removing her ruby necklace and whispering away into dust.
Seven.
Takeaways
Oh, boy.
Game of Thrones 8×03 is such a straightforward adventure hour that it’s difficult to discuss effectively. If last week’s episode was brimming with humanity and emotion, “The Long Night” — for all the considerable and commendable effort invested into its filming — is nearly as dry and fleshless as the wights swarming endlessly at Winterfell.
There are effective, soulful moments during the carnage, certainly. When director Miguel Sapochnik leans into the creative offerings of this onslaught of horrors, the terror quotient rises as rapidly as the temperature around Winterfell falls. The Dothraki’s epic, blazing charge sputtering to darkness; Arya’s silent dance through the wight-infested library; Jon Snow awash in blue and red flame. These are potent points of visual storytelling (key word: visual, as in, can be seen) and deliver tastes of the kind of human battle drama that prove the heart of these tales.
Some of the deaths are powerful as well. Lyanna Mormont’s drawn-out sacrifice is a perfect blend of agony and triumph, while both Theon’s final charge and Ser Jorah’s last stand bring long arcs to a sad, but fitting close. The repartee between Tyrion and Sansa in the crypts also does some of the episode’s only real character work effectively, if succinctly.
But other than that… well, there’s just not a lot of meaning here. Most of the action of “The Long Night” moves like wights compelled by White Walkers; mindlessly, ruthlessly forward, with little concept of a personal narrative to lend sense to the onslaught of action. Even if it were sufficiently well-lit to be seen on a normal screen (which most of the episode is not) most of the episode’s major movements are jerky and generic.
Sam Tarly’s struggles could be those of any Night’s Watchmen, Gendry’s fear could belong to anyone on the walls. Gwendoline Christie’s prominent battle cries as Brienne hacks and slashes might almost be a response to this; unable to rely on the camera to distinguish her, she uses her voice instead.
It’s especially disappointing as this impersonality — this sense of randomness, that any character could be anywhere and doing anything at any time — deflates the climactic moment of Game of Thrones 8×03. (Which, in turn, is one of the climactic moments of the series as a whole.)
In a distinct change for her character, “The Long Night” finally gives Arya Stark a true emotional evolution. So long an expressionless, toneless killer, it is powerful to witness Maisie Williams shift from ferocious warrior, to scared and wounded young woman, to resolved avenger of the newly dead.
But the release of that arc — Arya’s descent from above to slay the Night King and literally save all humanity — feels… almost meaningless.
I’ll never deny that, in a vacuum, it’s awesome to watch Arya save the day with her quick-thinking and bravery. But the whole point of this final season of Game of Thrones is that nothing can exist in a vacuum. Fans have waited nine years for this climax, and while Arya more than deserves her own denouement, stabbing the Night King (even with Littlefinger’s dagger) just doesn’t justify her story or the ultimate war.
Arya is a bit player in the war for the dawn. Her investment in this fight is new and entirely personal. She has none of Jon’s ideology, or Bran’s history, Dany’s urgency, or Sam’s experience. Arya is a face in the crowd here, a random participant. Unlike her episode-long involvement with Sandor Clegane (a story invested with real history and specific value), Arya’s killing the Night King is disassociated from her character; like a White Walker, she is taking compelled action, rather than responding from her gut and her heart.
What’s more, Game of Thrones 8×03 proves to be oddly, unexpectedly precious with its characters’ lives in this allegedly ruthless episode. Seven named character deaths are nothing to sneeze at, of course, but it doesn’t feel at all jarring for Dolorous Edd, Lyanna Mormont, Beric Donadarrion, Jorah Mormont, Theon Greyjoy, the Night King, or Melisandre to pass from the scene. Not being anchored by the loss of any truly central characters — Bran, for example — the losses feel like much of the episode: inconsequential and mostly easy to move beyond.
Frankly, “inconsequential” was not a word I expected to use in the final season of Game of Thrones, much less for the long-touted Battle of Winterfell. This may well play better in context of the whole; but as Cersei Lannister takes her place as the Final Boss of Game of Thrones, the three final episodes stretch ahead as a field of familiar unknowns.
Hopefully they will have more of an impact — and more of an identity — than the blank, dark stretch of “The Long Night.”
Status Updates
Deaths: Edd, Lyanna, Beric, Jorah, Theon, Melisandre, and the Night King. Hail and farewell too… well, most of them.
Battles: Er, yes. That very big one. Hard to miss, for all that it was hard to see.
Sex and romance: Tyrion and Sansa certainly shared a few moments in the crypts, but that could be the influence of imminent violent death.
Best Quotes
Arya: Stick ’em with the pointy end.
Varys: At least we’re already in a crypt.
Sansa: That’s why we’re down here, none of us can do anything. It’s the truth. That’s the most heroic thing we can do now — look the truth in the face.
Melisandre: What do we say to the God of Death?
Arya: Not today.
Bran: Theon, you’re a good man. Thank you.
Next week…
Everyone thinks they’ve won, which probably means that no one has.
Game of Thrones 8×04 airs Sunday, May 5 at 9:00 p.m. on HBO.