“Eastwatch” is the clunkiest episode of the season, starting
in the immediate aftermath of last week’s battle and then progressing to a
series of scenes that must take place days or weeks apart. Its unevenness is pronounced even within the context
of the accelerated pacing of the prior group of episodes. Storylines jump forward in great leaps and
bounds, but with so many of the characters now gathered in so few places, the
compression is really felt simply because there is a lack of other things to cut
to. When Euron was teleporting across
the country a few weeks back, the episode at least opened with him on one coast
and ended with his arrival at another.
With this episode, it’s not just that Jon makes it to Eastwatch in the same episode as he decides on the
plan, it’s that there is only a single other scene between his leaving and arrival. Davos goes from Dragonstone to King’s Landing
back to Dragonstone to Eastwatch, all in the second half of this episode. I’m
more than willing to roll with the show simply skipping over the actual travel
to get to the story or character meat, but it still needs to be very careful with how
it utilizes the transitions from one plotline to another. Done deftly, this can create the implication
of time passing, even if the show doesn’t have room to actually depict it.
“Eastwatch” does this well in one instance, at least. When Bran sends his murder of ravens to scout
the Night King’s position, they fly down the Wall to Eastwatch, rather than a
more direct diagonal route. While it is
clear that nothing about the timeframe here is literal, the scenic route serves
to situate this notable new location (for those that fast-forwarded through the
opening credits map), confirms that the Night King is closing in on it, and implies an interval of time far greater
than what actually passes on screen.
Then when he opens his eyes and says they need to send ravens, we
cut immediately to a place where one of those ravens has arrived. It's not the most complex structuring imaginable, but it creates a momentum as we shift from one storyline to another, by following a single idea, or in this case a message, from one scene into the next. Contrast that with the second half
of the episode, where everything is tied so directly to the hastily thrown together plan to
kidnap a zombie that the paucity of other places to cut to make the
lurches forward in time all the more noticeable. As jarring as it is when Euron
starts in King’s Landing and five scenes later, appears on the opposite coast,
it is (checks math...hmm...) approximately five times more jarring when there is only a single scene between a boat
leaving a beach and arriving half a world away.
 |
| "I am so effing jarred right now." |
And while the timeline chicanery is forgivable when the payoffs are as good as they have been, it also makes it all the more pronounced when the show miscalculates even slightly. Like by shortchanging the reunions of Tyrion with Bronn or Jaime after several years apart, while still devoting precious minutes to Davos (or last week, Arya) dithering about with some nameless, dimwitted guards. Or having Gendry suddenly be an eager, important soldier after 4 years offscreen (complete with a metajoke from Davos that is too cute by half). Or having Jorah reunited with Dany after traveling the entire world, and volunteering to leave her again in their very next scene. If you can’t space these events further apart within the season, it would still be better to space them out a bit more within the episode itself – I don’t want to ask for wheelspinning scenes, but I do wonder if sprinkling in some brief check-ins with the Greyjoys, or Edd at the Wall, or Tormund or the Brotherhood’s getting to Eastwatch might have gone a long way toward making the pace of the Dany/Jon/Lannister stuff feel less jerky. If only by underlining that yes, while Tyrion and Dany and Davos repeatedly crisscross the seas, there are still things actually happening in other parts of the world.
And yet, for all the speed with which these plans are
hatched and executed, it’s still not fast enough for the characters. Gendry and the Hound both cut scenes off
early by basically saying “come on, man, we all know I’m coming with you so let’s
cut to the chase.” That’s the entire MO
of the season thus far, but it fits the Hound’s character more than the bastard
smith’s, I think. It makes some sense
that Gendry wouldn’t be comfortable living under Lannister rule, seeing as they
tried to kill him. But it feels a touch
off for so much emphasis to be placed on his relationship to the father he
never met, to the point that when trying to ingratiate himself with Jon he doesn’t
even mention that oh yeah, I also traveled and fought with your supposedly-dead
sister for a year or so.
| He does handily win the "Who Smushed It Better?" Award for this week, though |
It’s not that it is unusual for the fifth episode of a GOT season to be primarily a table-setter. But it feels different this time around, both because the shortened length puts us
well past the midpoint that this would normally represent, but because the
early going has been so much more eventful than seasons’ past. I had expectations that the war between Dany
and Cersei would be a rather protracted conflict, but this episode opens with everyone
facing the inescapable reality of Dany’s victory in their own ways. Bronn tells Jaime that there are lines to how
much loyalty money can buy, and dragons are on the other side of it. Randyll and Dickon Tarly refuse to change
their allegiance once again, and are promptly incinerated, to Tyrion’s
dismay. He always knew on some level
that joining a war of conquest would involve breaking some eggs, but watching
his country/bannermen reduced to ashes shakes him. Enough to, after a good drunken wallow with Varys, push for an armistice in the hopes
that the logical conclusion of this conflict can be put off.
The idea of a truce seemed completely out of the question at
the start of the hour, and Cersei even says as much to Jaime after he delivers
his initial tactical assessment of “we be fucked”. If the choice is fight and die or submit and
die, that’s no choice at all for Cersei, who has ironically always been more
pugnacious than her brother, the famed swordsman.
The hopelessness of the fight combines with her surprise pregnancy to
make her reconsider, though she still makes clear (as Sansa could have told us
from a thousand miles away) that it is only in the interests of buying time to
plot her own version of the Red Wedding. She and Qyburn
are already hard at work, and if I were a betting man I’d guess that the plan
involves a wildfire ambush under a flag of truce, and perhaps a plan to frame
Dany’s dragons for burning down much of the capital. Or at least a wanton indifference to that possibility,
sufficient to alienate Jaime for good. It’s
not very clear what effect seeing an actual zombie will have on her plans, but
my guess is not much. She’s facing
extinction either way, and I think she’d rather see her country overrun by the
living dead than in the hands of her human enemies.
In that, she is very much akin to Littlefinger, who is
hatching his own plots in the North, apparently still not realizing that all of
mankind being wiped out by undead hordes is not the type of chaos that a man
can climb up. The particulars of his current scheme are difficult to suss out, but it apparently involves driving a wedge between the
Stark sisters. He is shown to be
whispering in the ears of the Lords Royce and Glover, who have been voicing discontent with
Jon’s absentee leadership, and leaves “secret” messages for Arya to find. It is not very difficult for him to set Arya and Sansa at
odds, since that is their natural state, but this is apt to blow up in his face
sooner rather than later, I think. I’m
impressed with how quickly the show was able to set up an Arya v. Littlefinger
dynamic with basically no dialogue, and have it feel vital and appropriate. But he has been Sansa’s mentor/nemesis for
too long, and I don’t see this ending any other way than with the girls teaming
up to put an end to his lurking and skeeving for good.
| Sitting there in the corner, just...just... |
That will probably have to wait for the finale, though,
since I imagine next week will be devoted primarily to another team-up, the
hastily-assembled Snowcean’s 11 that Jon leads beyond the Wall at episode’s
end. And as whiplash-inducing as that
development might be, it also quickly sets up an extensive array of tensions
within that team – Gendry is still understandably raw that the Brotherhood
delivered him to Melisandre for slaughter, Tormund isn’t happy about fighting
with the son of Lord Commander Mormont, the Hound is hating on everyone and
everything per his wont, and Thoros just really wants a drank. There’s enough there that I wouldn’t mind if
next week was nothing but the team trudging through the snow, sniping at each
other and fighting zombies. I mean, I’d definitely still find ways to complain about it. But it should be fun.
Anyway, is it next week yet?
SUBPLOT REPORT CARD
King’s Landin’ – B+
I wanted more from Tyrion and Jaime, but the latter had some of his best scenes with Cersei in years. I also liked the brief mention of Davos's dead son, further underlining the fragility of the alliances Jon is buildling and teeing up his sudden paternal stance toward Gendry.
Dragonstone – B
Littler Bit I Loved: Varys's baleful "nothing good" when Tyrion asks him what the sealed scroll says.
Winterfell – B+
Arya, don't you be falling for this nonsense.
The Road – A-
The Tarlys' end and Tyrion's quesiness is good enough to overcome the silliness of Bronn and Jamie swimming a mile away with the latter in full armor, which at least they get out of the way immediately.
The Wall - A-
I would never have been greedy enough to request a scene with Jorah, Tormund, and the Hound all together, but you're damn straight I'll take it.
Season Morgulis – House Frey, Obara Sand, Nymeria Sand, Tyene Sand, Olenna Tyrell, Randyll Tarly, Dickon Tarly
Death Watch - Okay, it's finally time for Thoros and Beric to bite it, but you fucks best not kill Tormund too....
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