Game of Thrones 8.01

Game of Thrones 8.01 Recap: “What Does a Dragon Eat, Anyway?”

I cannot recall any television series in my lifetime that has entered its final season with as much hype and as much punishing pressure to satisfy millions of fans as HBO’s Game of Thrones. That’s a daunting task, but if any show can pull it off, it feels like everyone is rooting for this one to do it.

Like many of the show’s premiere episodes, the eighth season starts off with a slow ramping up of plot and intrigue. This one has no action scenes and only one minor character death. That’s not a criticism, per se, except that a shortened episode count this season (only six installments) means that we don’t have a lot of time to wrap up the tremendous amount of story left to tell.

Of note right off the bat is that the series’ opening credits, although in the same style as usual, have been given an extensive makeover to reflect the changing plot developments.

Winterfell

In an effective mirroring of the series’ original pilot episode, which saw a procession of King Robert’s army marching into Winterfell, the final season opens with Jon Snow arriving back home, bringing Daenerys Targaryen and her massive army with him. Dany’s two dragons make quite an impression on the watching crowds.

Initially, Jon rides right past his sister Arya without noticing her. He runs to embrace Bran, but the emotionless boy throws a wet blanket over the family reunion by immediately bringing up the fact that one of Daenerys’ dragons is now under the control of the Night King. Sansa (now Lady of Winterfell) also receives her brother coolly. She acquiesces to his wishes and formally pledges Winterfell to Daenerys, but isn’t happy about it.

Many in the North are suspicious of the Targaryen queen. At a meeting of leaders, Lyanna Mormont speaks up about her disappointment at Jon Snow’s subservience. She pledged her fealty to the King in the North, not to a Targaryen. Tyrion attempts to calm tensions by pointing out how their forces will grow even stronger when the Lannister army joins their ranks, but that idea is met with even more derision from many. Sansa says that she’s worried about the practical matter of how they’re supposed to feed all these soldiers. Winterfell’s food stores will not last long with so much demand.

Later, Tyrion gets a moment alone with his former wife. Sansa chides him for being naïve enough to believe that his sister Cersei really intends to send her army. “I once thought you were the cleverest man in the world,” she says dismissively. The words sting.

Arya finally gets her reunion with Jon Snow in front of a weirwood tree. He’s thrilled to see her, but it’s clear that he has no idea how much of her life he’s missed. He still sees her as his scrappy but helpless little sister. He barely even knows the person he’s talking to.

King’s Landing

Now with the Greyjoy’s Iron Fleet at her disposal, Queen Cersei is pleased to hear news that the White Walker army has broken through the Wall in the North. Her plan is to let the undead and the other armies wear each other down and then send her own forces to mop up whatever’s left. However, she’s disappointed when representatives from the Golden Company mercenary army inform her that they were not able to transport any of their famous elephants overseas. She really wanted elephants.

At the instruction of Cersei, Qyburn enlists Bronn to assassinate Tyrion. He doesn’t refuse, but I suspect that he won’t go through with it either.

A cocky Euron Greyjoy attempts to seduce Cersei. She seems resistant to his charms, but allows him into her bed anyway. He promises to put a baby in her, unaware that she’s currently pregnant with another child by Jaime. She must be using him as cover.

Euron holds his niece Yara prisoner on his command ship. He keeps her alive mainly to taunt her. She remains defiant, scolding him that, “You picked the wrong side.” While Euron is cavorting with Cersei, Theon and a small raiding party board his ship and set Yara free. Rather than thank her brother, she knocks him down with a headbutt for abandoning her in the first place. However, she then helps him back up again as if to say that all is forgiven. Even with just three ships, Yara believes they can take the Iron Islands back while Euron is off fighting in Cersei’s war, but agrees to let Theon leave to join the Starks in Winterfell.

More in the North

Informed that her dragons are hardly eating because they don’t like the North, Daenerys brings Jon Snow to see them, and encourages him to hop on one and ride. That the dragon allows him to do this ought to be a clue about Jon’s true Targaryen heritage, but neither of them puts that together yet. The flight is terrifying but thrilling. Jon remarks, “You’ve completely ruined horses for me.” They land in front of a beautiful, remote waterfall and make out, but Jon is a little weirded out by the dragon staring at him.

Arya meets up with her old friend Gendry the blacksmith, who’s busy forging dragonglass weapons for the armies. She gives him some plans she’s drawn and asks him to make a special weapon for her. He admires the Valyrian steel dagger in her possession.

Arya also runs into the Hound. It’s the first she’s seen him since she left him for dead. He grumbles, “You’re a cold little bitch, aren’t you?” Coming from the Hound, that’s actually a huge compliment. That he doesn’t try to kill her surely means that he’s happy to see her again. That she doesn’t try to kill him must mean the feeling is mutual.

When Jon Snow returns, he’s greeted by news that House Glover has refused to send its army despite having previously pledged itself to Winterfell. Sansa blames Jon. She also lets him know that she’s aware that he’s in love with Dany.

Daenerys introduces herself to Samwell Tarly in order to thank him for saving Jorah from his greyscale disease. Sam is initially excited by the meeting, until she pieces together that he’s the son of Randyll Tarly, and then has to break the news that she executed both his father and his brother when they refused to submit to her rule. His dick of a father may not be a great loss, but Sam takes his brother’s death very hard.

On his way out of that meeting, Sam is approached by Bran, who pressures him to tell Jon Snow what they learned about his true parentage. Sam finds Jon visiting his father’s grave in the underground crypt. Sam no longer a fan of the woman, they argue about Daenerys until Sam blurts out the truth about Jon being a legitimate son of Rhaegar Targaryen and the true heir to the Iron Throne. Jon is stunned and instinctively refuses to accept this at first. As the information sinks in, it must occur to him that this means he’s been sleeping with his aunt.

We last saw Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Dondarrion on top of the Wall as the zombified dragon blew it to pieces, leaving their fates uncertain. Fortunately, they survived. We catch up with them, as well as Eddison Tollett (Jon and Sam’s friend in the Night’s Watch), at Last Hearth, the home of House Umber. The castle, which was directly in the path of the Night King’s army, seems eerily quiet and abandoned. As they creep through the place, they come across the body of young Lord Ned Umber, pinned to the wall with a sword and surrounded by a really unnerving spiral pattern made out of severed limbs. It’s quite a sight, all the more disturbing when the corpse awakens and snarls at them. Beric immediately sets it on fire with his flaming sword and the undead wight screams as it burns.

The episode ends with Jaime Lannister inauspiciously arriving in Winterfell, hiding his face under a hood. As soon as he gets off his horse, who should spot him but Bran Stark, the boy he tossed off a tower in the show’s first episode. This doesn’t bode well for Jaime receiving a warm welcome.

Episode Verdict

As momentous as this season has promised to be (and frankly needs to be), it gets off to a pretty low-key start. The episode is mostly a series of reunions and much-belated introductions between characters it almost seems surprising have never met before. That said, what it lacks in action fireworks, it makes up for with plenty of fascinating political maneuvering and intrigue. I really appreciate that uniting behind the common threat of the White Walkers hasn’t exactly made everyone friends. The many different players in this game still have their own agendas and goals.

The season looks to be off to a good start to me. I’m optimistic that this story will have a satisfying end.

29 comments

  1. Timcharger

    Recap: “What Does a Dragon Eat, Anyway?”

    So spiteful. Line about the reveal of the show’s biggest secret. Or meta line about the final season. Or more humorous lines about having balls or having blue eyes (or Euron’s blue balls). Even about dragons, the big reveal was about riding them, not feeding them.

    Imagine if George R.R. Martin is going to change his writing because some of his readers can guess his next plot points (or guess recap titles).

  2. Timcharger

    Winterfell

    “Many in the North are suspicious of the Targaryen queen.”

    The show is confirming some Northern racism. The looks and pauses in that parade were noticeably different when directed at Greyworm and Missandei. Imagine if there was a black dragon.

  3. Timcharger

    Winterfell

    “Bran, but the emotionless boy throws a wet blanket over the family reunion by immediately bringing up..”

    that “we don’t have time for this” and then proceeds to get Samwell to tell Jon the big news… uh, no, Bran takes his sweet time and waits for Sam to (literally) stumble across Bran. He apparently has the time to just sit in one spot to await others to come to him.

  4. Timcharger

    Winterfell

    “At a meeting of leaders, Lyanna Mormont speaks up…”

    Can’t we have a GoT sequel starring her. HBO, do it. Do it!

  5. Timcharger

    Winterfell

    “Sansa says that she’s worried about the practical matter of how they’re supposed to feed all these soldiers. Winterfell’s food stores will not last long with so much demand.”

    Hey Bran, this would the time for you to speak up about the impending doom. The army of the dead are days/a week away. Food stores are not the concern (nor is feeding dragons). This wight army isn’t going to lay seige and try to starve out the people behind a castle wall.

  6. Timcharger

    King’s Landing

    “(Euron) promises to put a baby in her, unaware that she’s currently pregnant with another child by Jaime. She must be using him as cover.”

    I think the show is telling us that Cersei was bullsh*tting Jaime and Tyrion. Cersei was back to enjoying her wine in that scene. (The whole no-wine-during-pregnancy device is such an anachronistic error in the plot. GoT might as well introduce backwards-facing horse-buggy-seats for infants. If you’re so concerned with birth defects, maybe you might consider that no incest rule)

  7. Timcharger

    More in the North

    “Arya also runs into the Hound… That he doesn’t try to kill her surely means that he’s happy to see her again.”

    I saw it in the opposite way. That Arya didn’t kill the Hound meant that she’s happy to see him again. He was on her kill list.

  8. Timcharger

    More in the North

    “Daenerys introduces herself to Samwell Tarly in order to thank him for saving Jorah from his greyscale disease.”

    About Jorah introducing Dany to Sam, his greyscale savior, it makes sense that would happen. But another scene for Jorah would be much more important. Jorah needs to speak with Lyanna Mormont. That would be a great scene, for one, we would get more Lyanna. And Jorah’s arc of banishment and returning home is huge.

    Previously we saw Jorah give up him claim to Longclaw, and told Jon to keep it.

    Imagine a scene where tiny Lyanna confronts Jorah to a duel to the death for leadership of Bear Island. A scene were a brave girl is willing to have a sword fight against a heavily armored Jorah man-to-man (man-to-tiny-girl). And Jorah honorably stating that he would lose in combat and bends his knee to Lyanna to support her succession as the leader of the Mormonts.

    • Timcharger

      I pictured a more confrontational exchange between Lyanna and Jorah. But thank you, GoT. We needed that scene in episode 2.

  9. Timcharger

    Correction:
    More in the North
    “We last saw Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Dondarrion on top of the Wall as the zombified Drogon blew it to pieces.”

    Drogon is the big red one, that Dany rides. Viserion, named after her horrible brother Viserys, is the zombified ice dragon. I win nerd of the day!

  10. Timcharger

    More in the North

    As soon as (Jaime) gets off his horse, who should spot him but Bran Stark, the boy he tossed off a tower in the show’s first episode. This doesn’t bode well for Jaime receiving a warm welcome.

    I agree Jaime won’t get warm welcome, but I think Bran doesn’t care. Bran may mention the push to Jaime, but he may thank Jaime for it. And Bran may not even tell anyone else. They have enough to be mad at Jaime for.

  11. Timcharger

    Where was Brienne of Tarth in this episode? No scenes with her? She should be standing by as Sansa’s guard in Sansa’s scenes. Maybe she was in the background?

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      IIRC, she was in the background when Sansa was introduced to Daenerys. I’m sure she’ll get more screen time later. The show has a lot of characters to keep up with.

      (I have edited the sentence about the zombie dragon. Thanks.)

  12. Timcharger

    About the new smartest-person-in-the-room (or in Westeros) thing that the show is bestowing upon Sansa…

    …I’m okay with that. Sure, girl power! Girl brain power! But the show is really going to great lengths at making the previously smartest person really quite dumb. The I-drink-and-I-know-things guy, Tyrion is straight up dumb now. We can make Sansa clever but do we need to make Tyrion so stupid.

    I’m not talking about the Cersei ploy to not send help against the undead army. Nor about the possible pregnancy ploy. Cersei can be clever too, so if she can trick both of her brothers, more power to her. Girl brain power, too!

    But the scene in this episode where the Northerners are complaining about the Jon Snow bringing in outsiders. Complaining about the foreigners with sovereignty over their self-determined leadership. Complaining about the Dothraki. Complaining about the Unsullied. Tyrion stands up in that heated discussion and proceeds to announce that the Lannister army is coming, too?! What the f*ck? Tyrion thought THAT was the solution??? The Northern armies have fought the Lannister army tooth & nail for so many seasons now. Why would Tyrion think that announcement would help quell the situation?

  13. Timcharger

    About the episode missing a speaking scene with Brienne, and missing a great scene of a confrontation between Lyanna Mormont and Jorah Mormont; there’s a bigger miss I wanted.

    Ghost! We need a reunited Jon and Ghost scene. HBO can spend the money on Aladdin’s magic dragon ride, showing A Whole New (Northern) World for young romance, but didn’t spend the money to put a direwolf on screen. Jon saying a quick throwaway line: “Good Ghost, thank you for watching over Sansa when I traveled to Dragonstone,” that’s all I wanted.

    Ghost better be back in the show! You, David & Dan, showrunners, don’t f*ck with me on this.

    • Timcharger

      2 seconds only in episode 2? That’s cuz you’re saving your budget for a ton of Ghost in the episode 3 & beyond, yes? Say yes.

  14. Timcharger

    Not just Tyrion, but Samwell got pretty stupid in this episode too.

    A big deal was made about succession rights, about entitlement through birthright by Sam. This relates to Jon having a stronger claim than Dany. Sam who knows from his own birthright that those entitlement notions are easily disregarded by those in power or who want power. Cersei tears up Robert’s signed decree. Might is right in this world.

    And more importantly, Sam for years now is NOT a Tarly. He was sent to the Wall by his family and gave up his House. He literally was threaten with death by his father. This resurfaced allegiance to his Tarly family seems like bad writing to me.

    Sam should be happy that his father is gone. Maybe not extra crispy dead, but Sam should be happy that his father can’t murder him for taking the ancestral Valyrian sword. So his brother got burnt too, but there’s no evidence they had a relationship.

    And it should be said why Sam’s father died. He didn’t die honoring promises to the Tyrells. After Cersei explodes all but 1 of the Tyrells, Randyll Tarly breaks loyalty as a Tyrell bannerman to switch to team Lannister. His stubbornness to not bend the knee to Dany is hypocrisy for recently switching knee-bends from rose to lion sigils.

    And that scene when Sam mentions asking for a pardon, the attempt for a joke about borrowing Citadel scrolls is okay, but the big pardon he needs to mention that he abandon his Night Watch oath. He left the Citadel not to return to Castle Black. People get beheaded for violating the Night Watch oath.

    John Bradley acting was great in that scene meeting Dany, but the writing was wrong for Samwell’s character.

    • Timcharger

      It’s too long, but Josh you have a second chance to make it a recap title. Your words from Season 1.08:

      “The leader asks how they choose to die, and Tyrion has the perfect pithy comeback: “In my own bed, at the age of 80, with a belly full of wine and a woman’s mouth around my cock.” I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – Peter Dinklage is awesome in this show!”

    • Timcharger

      Josh, have you used the actual title of an episode as the title of your recap? The title “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” does capture the biggest scene of episode 2 very well.

    • Timcharger

      “Things we do for love” is a good callback to season 1. But I seem to recall it being repeated in some episodes already. But this episode 2’s use from Bran back to Jaime is most apt.

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