Bran is marked with the Night King’s handprint, which somehow calls the undead to him. I’m guessing that if Bran crosses the Wall, the magic that protects it will be lessened.
Really spectacular episode. I kind of want to watch the whole season again.
I wonder if the book will (finally) be out before the next season begins? And if it is, what if it differs from what they’ve done this season?
That. Was. Glorious.
Anyone else have problems streaming last night? I ended up not being able to watch until about midnight. Yawn…
Once again, I loved Lady Mormont. As a previous poster noted, I didn’t like how the timeline worked (Varys and Arya seemed to be able to move around too quickly), but otherwise I thought it was an incredible episode.
@postmodern my DH said the same exact thing!
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My wife was yelling at the TV: “Serpentine, Shel, Serpentine!” /
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I can’t believe I have to wait until next April (?) to see any new episodes.
I have always felt the show jumps over vast periods of time from one scene to the next. It would take months just to load all the ships we see in the final scene. I figure they are pressed for time to move the plot along, and who wants to watch scenes of ships sailing back and forth transporting characters to and fro, or being loaded and off loaded? Or linesof horses and soldiers marching and camping?
I agree that it’s necessary to leap ahead in time to avoid boring transitions, but my issue is with the murkiness and inconsistencies about what exactly is happening when. Time moves at a rapid clip for some characters, not at all for others. For one example, Cersei’s hair has barely grown out all season, which makes sense, since it’s logical to think that the populace of King’s Landing would not have been willing to wait endlessly for her trial, so it seems that her story line occurred over mere weeks. Yet over the course of the same episodes, other characters have been involved in activities that must have transpired over many months. As another example, Samwell Tarly’s journey took the entire season; Varys and Arya managed to travel between and across continents–and back, in Varys’ case–in the time it took Sam to get from his ancestral home to Old Town. It would have benefited the show to have some sort of calendar that identified how much time passed between scenes, because to the viewer it’s entirely unclear whether a new scene is occurring the next day or six months later. (And I say that as a fan of the books, which I don’t recall having the same problems with elapsed time and inconsistency.)
An allied issue is pacing. I found Arya’s stint in Braavos to be long, tedious and repetitious; ditto for Bran’s experiences in the wilderness. But in the last episode, all events moved at a wild clip. I love the show and enjoy it immensely, but maybe that’s why it’s flaws are especially irritating. We expect sloppiness from typical network TV, but not from HBO’s signature series.
While I also noticed the jarring timeframe shifts, I think some of it has to do with the immensity of wrapping up this show in what I believe are only 15 remaining episodes. And they have to do this in a way that will stay true to GRRM’s original intent, but without the benefit of his source material.