Jon Snow brings Daenerys back to Winterfell, heading "the greatest army the world has ever seen". Which tells us enough about the thought, or lack thereof, going into the story nowadays - if anyone needed a reminder. I mean, sure, it appears as though not a single person in Daenerys' army has died in the past several years and wars, judging from the size of the approaching cgi, but still, no one seems acquainted with the history of Westeros.
The surviving Stark siblings are finally reunited, and I was not at all surprised that no one bothered to mention Rickon is dead, what a pity - then I realised I am being unfair. Sansa, Bran and Arya have been reunited since last season, so it has been much longer that no one has bothered mentioning him.
On a positive note, Sansa does bring some reasonable logistical points about the coming war: how are we going to feed this huge army? Winter has, after all, come, even though one might wonder how it is that the only case of actual winter and a snow storm in the past 4 seasons was when Stannis attacked Winterfell. On a negative note, no one ponders Sansa's question any further. Maybe you could say "we'll just go to the farmer's market in Dorne and be back in a couple of hours" based on the show's current travel times - at this point, why not.
Davos, Tyrion and Varys have been relegated, at least in this episode, to being commentators whose job is to explain to the audience just what it is they are seeing - namely, that no one in the North likes Daenerys or that Jon Snow bent the knee. Which is of course something that I, fostering a pure and absolute hatred for Daenerys, like. But given how D&D have made the series predictable and good vs evil, I can wager that the whole "we don't like her and you are the actual rightful king" will just end with a barf-inducing marriage - after all, there is a pointlessly long scene of dragon-riding, along with 90's sitcom visual 'gags' about the dragons watching them kiss. I could also comment how these people suddenly care about the order of succession, but when Stannis was the rightful heir, noooooo, who cares.
I won't comment much on the Cersei scenes - her actions and motivations have simply stopped making any sense ever since D&D decided she is the villain, so she must do bad things. Her decision to hire Tyrion's close friend Bronn to murder him, because what could be wrong with this plan, is indicative.
Sadly, we remain around King's Landing long enough to see what is easily the worst thing about the episode: continuing on the long tradition of ridiculous covert operations, Yara, chained in a ship in the middle of Euron's oversized fleet, is rescued. How, you ask? Well, suddenly Theon and 5 good men burge in the room and free her. Cut to the next scene, where they are happily sailing away, without anyone providing even a semblance of an explanation how this happened or showing any remorse for a plot hole that would have been too big for a Dolph Lundgren film.
Lastly, the scene at the Last Hearth, where the white walkers have killed everyone, including recently introduced little Umber Lord, is good at inducing horror elements. Of course, if I really wanted to be critical (and I do), I would be forced to wonder how the little Umber lord, who was in Winterfell at the start of the episode, got back and got executed already. Tormund declares they must reach Winterfell before the Night King, who has a head start - so logically the dead should reach Winterfell on the next episode at the latest. But logic has long died (without being reanimated) and I somehow suspect it will take quite a bit longer.
The surviving Stark siblings are finally reunited, and I was not at all surprised that no one bothered to mention Rickon is dead, what a pity - then I realised I am being unfair. Sansa, Bran and Arya have been reunited since last season, so it has been much longer that no one has bothered mentioning him.
On a positive note, Sansa does bring some reasonable logistical points about the coming war: how are we going to feed this huge army? Winter has, after all, come, even though one might wonder how it is that the only case of actual winter and a snow storm in the past 4 seasons was when Stannis attacked Winterfell. On a negative note, no one ponders Sansa's question any further. Maybe you could say "we'll just go to the farmer's market in Dorne and be back in a couple of hours" based on the show's current travel times - at this point, why not.
Davos, Tyrion and Varys have been relegated, at least in this episode, to being commentators whose job is to explain to the audience just what it is they are seeing - namely, that no one in the North likes Daenerys or that Jon Snow bent the knee. Which is of course something that I, fostering a pure and absolute hatred for Daenerys, like. But given how D&D have made the series predictable and good vs evil, I can wager that the whole "we don't like her and you are the actual rightful king" will just end with a barf-inducing marriage - after all, there is a pointlessly long scene of dragon-riding, along with 90's sitcom visual 'gags' about the dragons watching them kiss. I could also comment how these people suddenly care about the order of succession, but when Stannis was the rightful heir, noooooo, who cares.
I won't comment much on the Cersei scenes - her actions and motivations have simply stopped making any sense ever since D&D decided she is the villain, so she must do bad things. Her decision to hire Tyrion's close friend Bronn to murder him, because what could be wrong with this plan, is indicative.
Sadly, we remain around King's Landing long enough to see what is easily the worst thing about the episode: continuing on the long tradition of ridiculous covert operations, Yara, chained in a ship in the middle of Euron's oversized fleet, is rescued. How, you ask? Well, suddenly Theon and 5 good men burge in the room and free her. Cut to the next scene, where they are happily sailing away, without anyone providing even a semblance of an explanation how this happened or showing any remorse for a plot hole that would have been too big for a Dolph Lundgren film.
Lastly, the scene at the Last Hearth, where the white walkers have killed everyone, including recently introduced little Umber Lord, is good at inducing horror elements. Of course, if I really wanted to be critical (and I do), I would be forced to wonder how the little Umber lord, who was in Winterfell at the start of the episode, got back and got executed already. Tormund declares they must reach Winterfell before the Night King, who has a head start - so logically the dead should reach Winterfell on the next episode at the latest. But logic has long died (without being reanimated) and I somehow suspect it will take quite a bit longer.