Review for Game of Thrones S2E2: A Knight of the SEven Kingdoms
10/10
I know that the episode is going to have its critics, but I think it was beautiful.
Upon my first viewing, I thought this episode was a load of treading water and time-filling…as if they had 55 minutes to fill and they just had to stretch it out as long as possible, cramming as many characters as possible on screen to fulfill contractual obligations, including some characters practically missing from last week’s show.
On my second viewing, though, I came away from the episode surprisingly moved in a way that few Game of Thones episodes have moved me that weren’t actually based on GRRM’s writings.
The empty spaces, the silences between lines; the darkness and gloom between the candles and open flames are quite haunting, as is the fleshed out “Jenny of Oldstones” song, which is used to excellent effect.
It is one of the most beautifully shot episodes that I’ve seen in some time, made all the more beautiful for the relative lack of CGI effects and eye-popping moments that the show is famous for.
I really liked the way that the episode kind of seeped into my emotions; I felt like I was really there in that dim, firelit hall with the wind howling outside; or smiling with Sansa and Theon as they drank to the End of the World; or up on the battlements with Jon, Sam and Edd with the black wind right in my face. I felt Dany’s worry that her affair was going off the rails without knowing exactly why.
While the episode is in fact basically about a bunch of people waiting around to die (as they tell us, time and time again throughout the episode), the plot does inch forward in various ways; with a couple of unanswered questions (Sansa & Dany and Jon & Dany scenes in particular, both scenes full of subtlety and honestly wonderful acting by the principles.)
The trial of Jaime of course is a bit hand-waved: the show needs Jaime to fight the White Walkers and it will need Jaime later on in the season to bring the Cersei story arc to conclusion; but it was well played and well-integrated into the overall tapestry of the episode: by proving to the court Jaime’s honour, Brienne earns her spurs…This wholly uncynical development doesn’t really feel like GRRM’s rather punk notions of fantasy, but it is a moment that I, as an audience member, genuinely enjoyed. And Gwendolyn plays the scene of her knighthood with beauty and grace.
What stands out in this episode to me, is the reactions and the expressions on various actors faces: Sansa’s guardedness when talking to Daenerys; and the unguarded joy and fear and sorrow she shows when reuniting with Theon, the foster brother who saved her life. Dany’s open and frank friendliness and uncertain haughtiness as she withdraws her hands from Sansa’s; Jon’s chuckle upon Sam’s joke at Dolorous Edd’s expense ; Brienne breaking down into tearful laughter; Bran’s piercing gaze; and Dany’s multi-emotional reactions to hearing the news that Jon is the rightful heir.
These were all moments that floored me without dialogue.
In the end, in the second viewing, once my cynical side was appeased, I found the episode one of my favorite of the episodes where nothing really happens action-wise, and there have been many in this long series or serial (depending on what side your on.)
Bryan Cogman, who wrote the episode, retains his position as the best of the writers of Game of Thrones, able to catch in a few lines the essence of the characters and their innermost thoughts while somehow managing to suggest hidden depths and not-easily defined emotional themes without resorting to the rather cheesy, facile heavy metal cliches that Benioff and Weiss tend to fall back on.
Like the ghosts in the song of Jenny of Oldstones and like the characters themseles desperately on the brink of death, I never wanted to leave this episode.
Which is not to say I don’t have some …observations:
- I’m not exactly sure if “down in the crypts” is the best place for the women and babies to be when you are fighting against an evil ice wizard who can raise the dead. Just saying. I can see that plan backfiring. They are obviously not safe there. How dumb do these show runners think we are?
- Those dead corpses — the ones who are disassembled bones or piles of ancient dust….they are rising from the dead and they are going to kill those women and children. The foreshadowing was about as heavy handed as the show gets and that’s pretty heavy handed.
- When Bran asks Jaime “how do you know there’s going to be an afterwards?” Nicholas does one of his patented “scalp movement” reactions. I used to do the same thing back in my acting days!
If there is ever a drinking game with Game of Thrones, that should be one of the drinking triggers. Along with Cersei’s iconic eyebrow, Brienne’s furious frown and Dany’s ten yard stare. - I must say the fact that Davos has set up a soup kitchen kind of amused me, but it made for some nice scenes.
- I felt sorry for Dany a couple of times when Jon kind of brushed her off: not knowing what he’s going through, I’m sure she was wondering why he was acting like a passive aggressive girl. Well played, Emilia.
- The scene with the Hound and Beric “Dead already in the books” Dondarrion was a bit pointless but then….AAAAGGGGHHHH. MY EYES!!!!!!! Maisie gets naked!!! I’m sorry, but she will always be a ten year old girl to me!
Good scene, I particularly like the shot afterwards during the “Jenny of Oldstones” montage with her looking pensively into the darkness while Joe Dempsie snores away. But still. Ew.
- Cogman really got Tormund right this episode. Show Tormund has always been entertaining, but Cogman finally gives him the pitch-perfect tone of ridiculousness that he’s always needed.
- Cogman also absolutely nailed Dolorous Edd (finally!) when Edd says (I paraphrase) “Sam the Slayer of White Walkers and lover of the Ladies. The world really must be ending.)
- Finally the song was just the moody centerpiece this episode needed neatly sewing all the characters and their emotions together with it’s moody melody.
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