- HBO
- Not a fan of these guys hitting Hodor
If you haven’t watched the finale (or the season), there are spoilers ahead, because it’s a recap, see. I have NOT read the books, which may become abundantly clear below.
This isn’t to say the episode didn’t have its share of crushing (RIP Oberyn) moments, and not just the kick to the crotch the Hound gave Brienne of Tarth. There were four major deaths. Maybe. OK, there were at least three major deaths: Bran’s trusty companion Jojen was killed by skeleton monsters; then there was Tyrion’s double homicide of his former lover Shae and his father, Tywin, who was caught while squatting over his chamber pot. I emerged from a conversation with a coworker not entirely convinced that the Hound is really dead. If we don’t see someone die onscreen, it might not be wise to assume they actually died (although that compound fracture looked pretty nasty). That might just be wishful thinking, though—I certainly didn’t want Brienne to lose their fight to the death for Arya, but I didn’t want the Hound to, either.
So was it the best season finale yet? I mean, I don’t know. It’s become progressively more difficult to watch GOT with too critical an eye because I’ve become so invested in all of the characters (the ones that haven’t been killed off) and story lines, Arya’s and Tyrion’s in particular. The minutes that elapsed between when Tyrion was released from his cell and when he stole away in the crate were among the most exciting, most harrowing of the entire series. And not just because the sadist in me wanted to see Shae punished and Tywin prevented from continuing as the Lannister family’s evil mastermind. He said he wasn’t really going to kill Tyrion. It would take a real fool to allow him the opportunity to keep his word.
