Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5

After some speculation last week, the end result of Varys' treasonous discussion was a simple burning. The man had feared Dany was not fit to rule and had tried to persuade others to see his reasoning but alas Tyrion, surprisingly, snitched and Varys was burnt alive before he could successfully poison the dragon queen, who was starting to look more and more like her brother. Full spoilers ahead.

Episode five was going to be the big one when the forces of the north finally clashed with King's Landing but it didn't play out as I expected. Dany made quick work of Euron's fleet and the Golden Company's forces before destroying the city's defences allowing Jon, Davos and Greyworm to the lead the charge in and caused the Lannister soldiers to lay down their weapons. It was thrilling to watch and see Cersei gradually come to accept that she was on the loosing side as the bells to signal surrender rang across the city. But Dany wasn't satisfied and in a bitter twist of rage, she unleashed her fury on the entire city. Meanwhile, Jaime was pushing through the crowds to rescue Cersei at the same time the Hound and Arya were entering to kill her.

Dany's attack was truly gripping to watch because it took the perspective of the innocent people below and bared striking comparisons to the napalm scenes in Apocalypse Now, while the aftermath of the city covered in ash bared a haunting resemblance to the footage of 9/11 as Arya ran for her life. The season has had its flaws but this episode hit a lot of dramatic points brilliantly from Greyworm's over-the-shoulder glare at a retreating Jon while he butches the surrendering Lannister men, Tyrion's fairwell to Varys and his horror later on realising his old friend was right all along, the Clegane showdown, and also the Hound's fairwell to Arya. Jaime's death was a disappointment of sorts given his character arc but his final moments with Cersei were moving to watch as the show once again showed the humanity in its villains before they die.

My only real problems with this episode fall with the season as a whole where it just needed more time to depict Dany's decent into this murderous rage. When watching montages put together from the show over the years, there were signs of what would come but the last two seasons really needed to have been ten episodes each. There is also now the looming question of what will happen in the final episode which poses so many questions now the iron throne has a new owner. The trailer teases snow/ash falling from the sky, similar to what we saw at the end of season two, so will this be a fight to remove Dany before she can take full control of Westeros?

I do hope we haven't seen the end of Bran and his powers; the show has spent so long following his journey and surely he has a part to play in the final. The same could be said of Arya and the Many Faced God part of her story which needs to pay-off somehow. And lastly, I wonder if we'll see the Sandsnakes' mother again who was chained-up in KL? There's a lot of ground to cover in just over an hour but hopefully the show can satisfy fans and bring about a satisfying conclusion.