The third episode of the final season of the hit HBO fantasy reveals the highly-anticipated face-off between the living and the dead, with some characters meeting their demises in the longest battle.
- Apr 29, 2019
AceShowbiz - The Night King and the Army of the Dead have arrived. The third episode of "Game of Thrones" season 8, which aired on April 28, featured the Battle of Winterfell, the highly-anticipated battle of the entire series which saw the living going face to face against their mortal enemies.
[SPOILER ALERT!] The episode, which took 55 days to film, opened with Sam trembling over the thought of what to come. While everyone, including Brienne, Podrick, Jaime, Tormund, The Hound, Gendry, Dolorous and Jorah, was assembling for the big battle, Theon was heading to the godswood with Bran. Daenerys' Rhaegal and Drogon were then flying overhead.
It was quiet in the dark, until Melisandre arrived unexpectedly. She asked Jorah to tell the Dothraky army to lift their swords before she cast a spell, making the weapons the flaming ones. Melisandre said to Davos that she would be dead before dawn as Arya, who still had her on her list, stared at her.
Then, the battle started. As the cannons of fire were catapulted, the Dothraki bravely began to charge ahead to fight. The silence came back, and the flames died on the Dorthraki weapons. "The Night King is coming," Jon Snow told Dany, who responded, "The dead are already here."
She was true since the Night King's army took everyone by surprise when they came running. The Winterfell army was taken aback, barely able to fight back. Brienne fell to the ground after being attacked by wights. Fortunately, Daenerys and Jon Snow came to the rescue as they arrived with Rhaegal and Drogon, who burned the wights to death.
Arya later told Sansa to go the crypts and gave her a dragonglass dagger. Meanwhile in the battle field, Jaime, Brienne, Tormund, Sam, and Podrick continued to battle the undead army. The first casualty was Dolorous, who was killed by a wight as he saved Sam. Brienne and Tormund instructed everyone to pull back as Greyworm and the rest of Unsullied continued to fight outside the gates alongside Jon Snow and Dany. The Hound escaped death after Arya took down a wight who was about to kill the former.
As if things were not bad enough, Greyworm decided to close the gates. Melisandre later showed off her skills as she began chanting a spell and the barrier around Winterfell immediately lit on fire.
Tyrion, who was waiting in the crypts with Varys and Sansa among others, couldn't help but feel guilty for not joining the others in the battle. "That's why we're down here. None of us can do anything," said Sansa. Tyrion later joked that they should have stayed married. Sansa responded by saying that "it wouldn't work between us," despite telling him that he was the best husband she'd ever had. As for the reason, it was because of his loyalty to Dany.
The Night King then made an appearance as he rode Viserion in the distance. Gendry, Jaime and Brienne fought together against the wights who started to climb up the wall. Davos looked extremely proud seeing Arya taking down wights right and left. However, Arya wasn't the only girls who had an epic moment.
Lyanna was attacked by an undead giant. It was not Lyanna if she backed down easily. She ran to the giant and stabbed it in the eye with her dragonglass dagger. Arya found herself in a danger as she was being chased by some wights inside Winterfell. She ran through the halls of Winterfell and she thought she was on the edge of death, Beric saved him by throwing his flaming sword straight through the wight.
The three continued to fight and Beric sacrified himself before they headed to a safe room. Beric died in the room. Melisandre, who was there too, said of Beric, "The Lord brought him back for a purpose." Asking Arya, she said, "What do we say to the God of Death," to which Arya replied, "Not today."
The situation outside the gates wasn't good with the Night King destroying Winterfell with Viserion. Then, it was a battle between Viserion and Rhaegal. Unexpectedly, the Night King let go of Viserion amid the chaos and fell down. It seemed like he came to find Bran, who was waiting for him in the godswood.
Before he could get far, Daenerys, who was riding Drogon, instructed her dragon to spit fire on the Night King as she said, "Dracarys." However, he didn't die as he was still standing in the flames. Jon then came to the Night King who later raised his hands and turned the dead Unsullied and the others, including Lyanna and Dolorous, as part of his undead army.
Jon Snow fought the undead Unsullied and Dany joined him with Drogon. Meanwhile, the dead started to get to the walls that protected those who were in the crypts.
At one point, Dany was about to get killed if Jorah didn't come to save her. Sansa and Tyrion were also in panic. Sansa pulled out the dagger from Arya with Tyrion pulling out his own weapon. Theon defended Bran with all his might, killing every last white walker around him. "You're a good man, thank you," Bran told Theon as he shed tears.
But death came to him when The Night King stabbed him when he made his way to Bran. Also meeting his demise was Jorah who was stabbed in the chest. The Night King almost killed Bran as he raised his hand to stab Bran. During the gut-wrenching moment, Arya came and jumped on top of the Night King to stop him. She managed to put her dragonglass blade to him, killing him and all of the white walkers en masse.
The Night King was defeated but the others were still railing over the deaths of the beloved people. Dany cried after it hit her that she lost Jorah. Just like what she said earlier in the episode, Melisandre died of old age after she took off his mystical necklace.
Meanwhile, the next episode will see those who survive the greatest war marching to the King's Landing, where Cersei is waiting along with Euron Greyjoy. "We have won the great war. Now, we will win the last war," says Dany in the preview of episode 4. "We will rip her out root and stem."
Season 8 of "Game of Thrones" airs on Sundays at 9 P.M. on HBO.
