➤ Game of Thrones 8x02, the review 🎮

Attention! This is the review of Game of Thrones 8x02, the second episode of the final season of the series: in the next few lines we will analyze the plot, so you will inevitably find previews and spoilers. Don't read any further if you haven't seen this episode yet!

Welcome to the second-but-not-too-much review of last season's Game of Thrones, the hugely popular television series that has been kept waiting for two years. Inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, the fantasy epic that George RR Martin continues to write to this day, the series has now taken a different path from the novels and is now heading towards its conclusion. Well, almost: screenwriters David Benioff and Dan Weiss have finished laying out the pieces on the chessboard of Winterfell in a relatively calm installment that sets the stage for the first big showdown of the season. The premiere ended with the arrival of Jaime Lannister a Great Winter: waiting for him, Jaime has found Bran Stark, the child - now grown up and become a seer - that he had thrown from a tower in the very first episode of the series ...

The return of Jaime

Difficult to summarize and analyze this episode in a chronological order, considering the "vignette" structure, so we will focus on the most important interactions, since the fifty minutes of the duration slipped in the form of dialogues, without any action scenes. Obviously the return of James opened the episode but it was surprisingly resolved in a few minutes, thanks to the intervention of Brienne who guaranteed for him in the presence of Sansa: the fact that it was Jaime who instructed Brienne to find Sansa and Arya, having sworn it to Catelyn Stark, is a detail that many may have forgotten. The acquittal of the Slayer of Kings, however, had indirectly important consequences for many characters in the cast. First, it served to clarify Bran's position towards Jaime, in a subsequent and private conversation between the two: many wondered how Bran would react but, predictably, the boy seems to have left his behind. original identity and having embraced the concept of predestination. If Jaime hadn't thrown him off the tower that day, not many things would have happened that led the characters to where they are now.

Let us remember, however, that Jaime murdered the father of Daenerys, the Mad King, so Sansa's decision only exacerbated not only the conflict between the two, but also Dany's disappointment with her advisor Tyrion, guilty of trusting her sister Cersei. Good old Jorah Mormont, who advised the queen to trust him temporarily, took care of the matter Tyrion and to clarify with Sansa: this led to a delightful conversation between the Queen of dragons and the Lady of Winterfell - albeit quite forced, mainly due to the not very spontaneous acting of the two actresses - which unfortunately took an unpleasant turn on the most beautiful . In short, there continues to be a certain tension between Sansa and Dany that does not bode well for the future, but the determination of the Starks and their allies could change Daenerys' mind, as her gaze suggests during the affectionate reunion of Sansa and Theon, teleported with his men to Winterfell. By now we should be used to these lightning-fast shifts, but they always make you smile.

The calm before the storm

Having overcome the stumbling block of Jaime's return, the episode has developed into a series of interactions at times moving, often exciting and sometimes genuinely embarrassing due to some questionable dialogue. In the last category we have to include the romantic, uh, "HBO moment" of Arya and Gendry who, moreover, did little to satisfy the average horny viewer with a few kisses and a sober shot of Maisie Williams' nude. Moving, on the other hand, were the scenes that had Davos and Gilly as protagonists - who obviously saw poor Shireen in the disfigured child - and the small but powerful ceremony in which Jaime names Brienne a knight. The latter, however, takes place in front of a fireplace, in the presence of a series of characters - Tyrion, Jaime, Davos, Brienne, Tormund and Podrick - who find themselves fraternizing after seasons over seasons of conflict and betrayal. Thanks to a fair amount of fanservice that Martin's readers will have appreciated, like the song Jenny of the Oldstones sung by Podrick, the scene serves as a reminder that we are in Game of Thrones and that some of those characters may die in the upcoming battle. The day the world loses Tormund will be one of the saddest ever.

Jenny's song has a mysterious and complicated story that has its roots in the mythology of the Game of Thrones universe and in a prophecy that would predestinate the Night King's defeat at the hands of an alleged prince. Perhaps it is no coincidence that in the immediately following scene Jon finally reveal to Dany the secret of his birth. And although Dany has said, shortly before, that she is fighting Jon's war for love, her first thoughts always go there, to the Throne of Swords. It must be admitted, however, that she too is right, because the only ones who know the truth, except them, are Sat and Bran. At this point we can't help but wonder what she's willing to do in order to wear that damn crown. At the moment, however, the Wolf and the Dragon will have to put aside the thorny problem to defend Winterfell from the army of the dead which, of course, has reached the end of the episode. Beric, Tormund and Edd - by the way, memorable the little family reunion of the Night's Watch on the castle walls in which Sam vaguely points out that he is a pro player - have warned our heroes in time, starting the preparations for the battle to take place. in the next episode.

It is clear, at this point, that the whole episode was a sort of "premiere, part two" in which the writers closed several circles, solved some subplots and put fleas in the ears of the spectators about the fate of their favorite characters. . Thinking carefully, thanks also to the writing of the excellent Bryan Cogman, there has not been a character who has not experienced a topical moment that could have sanctioned the end of his story, and we are not referring only to the main cast, but also to the many supporting actors: just think of the conversation between Missandei and Gray Worm about their future; to Theon's return and his request to protect the family he had betrayed; to the scene where Sam hands the family sword to Jorah, shortly after he takes his leave of his cousin. The episode, articulated and much less linear than the previous one, is marked by an increasingly tight rhythm that culminates in the arrival of the Strangers, but which slows down in the key moments to make us savor them better, like the one, very important, in which Bran reveals the goal of King of the Night: to kill the Crow with three eyes, that is him, because he represents the memory of the human species.

Comment

Resources4Gaming.com

8.5

The final battle has not yet begun, there are only four episodes left to the end of Game of Thrones, but in these first hundred minutes the writers have crossed seven years of stories, preparing the stage for the inevitable tearful goodbyes that we will begin to give as early as next week . The second episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones closes the prologue, in short, and does it in a much better way than the premiere, net of some less incisive dialogue, however counterbalanced by some genuinely exciting moments.