PHOTO:FILE
PHOTO:FILEPreviews of episode two built up that hype, showing Jaime standing trial before Danaerys Targaryen, as well as the dwellers of the North, with whom he has long been at odds. In so many ways, Jaime is the primary catalyst to the chain reaction that has left the Seven Kingdoms in their present situation. He is, to begin with, the one who put an end to the Mad King’s madness, allowing the overthrow and exile of the remaining Targaryens, which in turn inspires Danaerys’ ultimate goal.
Then, of course, there is the act that set the conflict between the Lannisters and the Starks in motion: Jaime pushing Bran down a tower upon the latter’s discovery of the incestuous relationship the former had with his sister. Ripples from that one move in the pilot episode have had repercussions beyond the War of the Five Kings as well, prompting Bran’s metamorphosis into the new Three-Eyed Raven who it seems is pivotal to this impending war with the Night King and his army of the dead.
PHOTO:FILEGiven all this, it was only natural to expect an episode centered primarily on Jaime with some exploration of the tenuousness that now exists between Danaerys and Jon, along with the rest of the North. Or, given that this penultimate season only has six episodes in total, answers to long pending questions that one now fears may be either rushed or forgotten entirely.
But no, we get none of that. Jaime’s trial, so hyped up, is done and dusted in barely five minutes. Meanwhile, Danaerys’ tense moments with Jon and Sansa are left unfinished as soon as the going gets good.
And for what you ask? So that viewers can watch uncomfortably as Arya loses her virginity to Gendry, hear Podrick sing a song and see more of that one relationship that could be excised from the entirety of the series without any detrimental effect – the romance between Grey Worm and Missandei.
PHOTO:FILEIt’s somewhat understandable, if unsatisfying, that the showrunners would want to delay the Battle of Winterfell as much as they can and cram the actual action into as few episodes as possible, given the budget involved. Obviously, the second episode was always going to be filler. But even so, with a story as rich in potential and characters as Game of Thrones, there was so much more that could have been done.
One idea, for instance, could have been to explore the themes of honour and redemption in much greater depth. Jaime, who this episode was hyped up to be about, exemplifies this theme more than any other character for sure. But then, we have Jorah Mormont finally in close proximity with his house, which he brought dishonour to, and Theon, whose attempt to snatch Winterfell ultimately led to the deaths of one or maybe two Stark siblings, depending on how you look at it.
PHOTO:FILEOr, the episode could have dwelled more on the lore surrounding the Night King and what the significance of the Three-Eyed Raven possibly is. If the showrunners, for reasons they know best, still wanted to keep any answers to the many mysteries of the series for later, they could even have spaced out the character interactions from the first episode over two.
PHOTO:FILESadly, though, viewers were left to bear with the most pointless of filler episodes that one could skip for the most part without missing anything. What makes such an episode alarming for fans though is that there are only four more left to go.
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