Wow. If you thought that Battle of the Bastards was as epic as Game of Thrones could get, you were wrong. Three series regulars die in the first half hour of the season 6 finale, and that’s not even close to the most shocking moment.
Everything a fan could possibly want was stuffed into this finale. There’s a new king, a new queen, a new alliance, satisfying revenge and the show FINALLY confirmed that R+L really does equal J.
Cersei Burns Everything to the Ground
The opening 30 minutes of this finale is a stunning set piece featuring Loras and Cersei’s trials in King’s Landing. Loras takes his punishment and has his head carved, but Cersei refuses to show up. That’s because she has other plans.
Cersei stages a massive coup. Qyburn kills Grand Maester Pycelle and his Little Birds, the child spies, lead Lancel into the caves where he’s stabbed and sees all of the Mad King’s wildfire barrels. It’s set on fire and the entire Sept, filled with the High Sparrow, all of his followers as well as Margaery and Loras Tyrell, explodes. It’s burned to the ground while Cersei watches from the Red Keep, sipping a glass of wine as all of her enemies burn!
But Cersei decided to keep that nasty septa who tortured her and shouted “Shame!” for herself. Cersei gloats about all of her crimes while the septa is tied to a slab. However, instead of killing her quickly, Cersei summons the Mountain so he can torture her slowly and draw out her death.
Everything didn’t quite work out perfectly for Cersei, because upon seeing the Sept and Queen Margaery burned alive, King Tommen calmly removes his crown and then jumps out the window to his death. Sorry Cersei, but all three of your kids are dead.
Daenerys Sets Sail
Daenerys tells Daario Naharis to stay behind in Meereen to help with the transition, because she is FINALLY taking her dragons, ships and Dothraki warriors to Westeros. She also names Tyrion the Hand of the Queen.
Elsewhere in Dorne, Olenna Tyrell meets with Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes to discuss an alliance to fight against the Lannisters. And Varys is there too, because there’s where he snuck off to. So now Daenerys has some allies in Westeros who hate the Lannisters more than she does.
The episode ends with Daenerys and her entire crew sailing across the Narrow Sea. It’s time to fight and season 7 can’t get here soon enough.
Arya Gets Revenge
Walder Frey, the man behind the Red Wedding, is eating lunch when a girl brings him a cake. It’s not just any cake, it’s made from his sons’ dead bodies! That’s when Arya Stark changes her face and announces that she is the last thing he’ll see before he dies. Then she slits his throat. Arya Stark got revenge for the Red Wedding! Her mom and brother would be so proud.
Sam Arrives in Oldtown
In a quick scene, Sam and Gilly arrive in Oldtown so he can go to the Citadel and study to become a maester. There’s some silly paperwork issues, but he is allowed to enter the massive library filled with every book he can imagine.
The New King in the North
At Winterfell, Davos confronts Melisandre about burning Stannis’ daughter alive. As punishment, she is exiled by Jon. And Littlefinger has delusions of marrying Sansa and sitting on the Iron Throne with her at his side, but she’s not that into it.
Later all of the armies gather to discuss what happens next, with Jon warning them about the war yet to come from the White Walkers. Lyanna Mormont gets up to proclaim her loyalty to Jon Snow. She doesn’t care if he’s technically a bastard, he’s a Stark as far as she’s concerned. Everyone else follows, anointing Jon the new King in the North. Ouch, that must suck for Sansa.
The New Queen
In King’s Landing, Jaime returns just in time to see Cersei take the Iron Throne. She sits down on it as Qyburn places the crown on her head. Cersei Lannister is now the official queen of the Seven Kingdoms. For now.
This season basically ends with Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen all ready to fight for the Iron Throne. And those are definitely the three characters we WANT fighting it out. No more Tommen and Bolton nonsense. It’s time for the final wars to begin!
R+L=J
Finally, Benjen Stark drops Bran and Meera off at the Wall, but he can’t join them because apparently he’s dead. I guess some people can be good ice zombies? Bran has another vision and we finally see the rest of the Tower of Joy with young Ned Stark.
And it’s exactly what you think. He goes inside to see his sister Lyanna dying, covered in blood. She begs her brother to protect her newborn son at all costs because if anyone knows who his real father is (Rhaegar Targaryen, Dany’s older brother), they’ll kill him. Ned takes the newborn baby in his arms and it’s Jon Snow! Rhaegar + Lyanna = Jon! It’s for real, it’s confirmed and that should have some major impact on the impending Jon vs. Cersei vs. Dany showdown since now two of them are Targaryens.
Seriously, this was as action-packed a finale as Game of Thrones has ever done. Huge deaths, huge alliances and all of the pieces are now set for an epic showdown in season 7. This show just put out two of its greatest episodes ever in a row to end this year.
(Image courtesy of HBO)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
