Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5: Westeros has a new ‘Mad’ Queen

Remember back in season two, when Daenerys enters the House of Undying to get her dragons back, she sees a vision where she walks into a desolate throne room in King’s Landing? The ceiling has been destroyed, and the ground is covered with snow, with more snow falling from the skies. Yeah, so turns out the vision was accurate all along, but it was ashes instead of snow. Ashes from the burning city and thousands of innocent people Dany torches in her mad rage to destroy everyone.

Let’s dial back a little. The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season 8, titled ‘The Bells’, begins with Varys being Varys. He tries really hard to somehow get the message of Jon’s true parentage out in the world, even imploring Jon to take his rightful place as the king. But all his machinations land him in front of a supremely ticked off Dany and Drogon. While Varys toasts in dragon fire, Tyrion begins to question the sanity of his decision to back the Dragon Queen. It’s fair enough at this point. He tries everything he can, including freeing a captive Jaime, to get the situation resolved without any innocent lives being lost. He succeeds, to the point that the Lannister army surrenders by dropping their weapons, until Dany looks at the Red Keep and everything that was taken from her since she was born, and snaps.

Our reactions were mirrored in Jon’s when he sees, horrified, the Unsullied charging forward and killing the unarmed Lannister soldiers. Soon Dany starts raining dragon fire perched on top of Drogon, not caring whether she’s destroying an enemy or an innocent child. It seems like the Universe heard our distress after seeing (or not seeing) the Battle of Winterfell in the dim moonlit environment, and made sure we see every inch of destruction and death Dany brings to King’s Landing in broad daylight.

Also, Arya is here. She is bent on crossing off the last name on her list, but is thrown off by the Hound when he puts things into perspective for her. Cersei is dead anyway. Why let the thirst for pointless revenge ruin your life? Who would have thought the Hound would be an expert TED talk giver? But his last-minute advice works, and Arya tries to flee King’s Landing. Also trying to flee the burning capital is an injured Jaime and Cersei. Jaime finally reaches Cersei after killing Euron Greyjoy, the single most annoying character on the show after Jofferey, but their plans to escape the city through a secret underground tunnel is thwarted by Drogon’s demolition project and they both die under the falling pieces of what used to be the biggest symbol of their power.

Before the credits rolled, the death count looked staggeringly bleak. We lost some key players this episode, including Varys, Jaime, Cersei, the Hound, the zombie Mountain, Euron Greyjoy, our admiration for the writers’ handling of a character like Daenerys, the innocent mother-daughter duo who saved Arya, and all of the fan theories about Valonqars and Azor Ahais.

The answers we need from the Game of Thrones season 8 finale

Is Daenerys going to meet the same end as her father? Is Jon going to realise that he has to destroy Daenerys, in order to save the country? Is Tyrion going to make a single intelligent decision in the last remaining episode of the show?
Did the writers laugh themselves silly in their little writing room, reading the endless Reddit threads dedicated to figuring out how Jaime would end up killing his sister/lover in the final moments of the series? Speaking of writers, why do they hate women? There was no other arc available for Daenerys’ story other than rendering her absolutely unstable and unfit to rule over Westeros? Also, Brienne deserved better. Is Tyrion going to switch teams and join the ‘Put Aegon Targaryen on the throne’ campaign? When will Arya’s Faceless assassin skills come in play again? Where was Yara Greyjoy and her share of the Iron Fleet? And perhaps, most importantly, has Ghost been petted yet or not?

Keep on top of all that’s happening on Game of Thrones season 8 here

Also read:

Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4: Who will defeat Cersei now?

Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3: This is why the war is not over

The hidden meanings behind the Game of Thrones season 8 costumes