Varys was right about Dany — Tyrion was wrong. Season 8, Episode 5 of “Game of Thrones” was a polarizing hour of television for the most talked-about show on the air. Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) went completely mad and burned King’s Landing to the ground, killing nearly everyone on the show. The Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons became the Queen of Carnage as one by one, her enemies fell. First up was Varys (Conleth Hill), whose entreaties to Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to fulfill his destiny as the true heir to the Iron Throne were ignored. When Tyrion ratted him out to his queen, Dany threatened him for the umpteenth time and then had Varys brought to the beach at Dragonstone and incinerated by her remaining dragon. The next morning, she was off to burning down King’s Landing and the Red Keep. It took about 10 minutes to destroy Euron Greyjoy’s (Pilou Absaek) Iron Fleet. The sight of the shadow of the dragon passing over King’s Landing was straight from Bran’s vision in House of the Undying. Dany’s army, led by Jon and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson), advanced with confidence and fought back Cersei’s army with ease. Tyrion enlisted Davos (Liam Cunningham) to smuggle Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who had been detained by Dany’s men, out of captivity, in exchange for rescuing him after he murdered Tywin. “Go start a new life,” Tyrion implored, sharing a warm, teary hug with his brother. Jaime gained entrance to King’s Landing and went in search of Cersei (Lena Headey) to get her out of there. Tyrion watched in horror as Dany exacted her revenge. Homes burned. Soldiers and innocents were skewered by spears or simply burst into flame. When the dragon rested on one of the battlements, staring down at Dany’s army and Cersei’s army, the leader of Cersei’s men wisely dropped his sword. The surrender would seem to bring the fighting to an end, but it just went on and on. Jon looked like he was stuck in some bad dream. He could not protect the innocent and the show, never one to play it safe, took an even darker turn as Dany, usually portrayed as a kind, powerful ruler, embraced her shadow side as the Mad Queen. Many fans will probably be furious, but at least there were no coffee cups in sight (they would have burned anyway). Let us not forget about Arya (Maisie Williams) and the Hound (Rory McCann). After gaining entry to King’s Landing, they made straight for the Red Keep. The Hound cautioned Arya that this was her last chance to leave. The dragon was burning down the walls of the Red Keep as well. Arya wisely took his advice and began to paw her way through the terrified throng. The Hound, for his part, accessed Cersei’s inner chamber. As she was trying to escape with Qyburn and The Mountain at her side, the Hound ascended the staircase. He was more interested in fighting his brother than in killing Cersei. Their battle was insanely violent, as the Hound stabbed his brother through the rib cage, in the eye and the Mountain wreaked his own damage on the Hound. “Just f–king die,” an exhausted Hound cried out to the universe. In the end, they went out in a blaze of glory, falling out one of the open arches and into the flames below, locked in a grisly embrace. Jaime, after killing Euron Greyjoy, and Cersei finally had a tearful reunion inside the Red Keep. He did not kill her as many fans have predicted but tried in vain to lead her to safety, but the way out of the Red Keep was blocked by rubble. Jaime embraced her and said, “This is all that matters.” The walls crumble around them. When the battle was over, a stunned Arya found a white horse, bloodstained, and rode the hell out of there. It was the season’s bloodiest and deadliest episode. Wonder how Jon feels about sitting on that Iron Throne now. Just think of Dany’s vision, way back in Season 2, when she was in the Iron Throne room with the roof destroyed and the throne covered with ash. It was shocking, and like the best of “Thrones,” unexpected. But you can’t say we weren’t warned.<doc-sep>Spoiler alert! The following contains details from “Game of Thrones” Season 8 Episode 5, "The Bells." Read our recap of Season 8, Episode 4 here. What is left for "Game of Thrones"? Nothing, really. For viewers who have stuck around for eight seasons of the HBO fantasy series, all that's left after the penultimate episode is ash and a bad taste. When Daenerys Targaryen lived up to her terrible family's reputation and burned King's Landing to the ground, she incinerated the last hope for "Thrones" along with it. Where to begin with "The Bells," an absolute disaster of an episode that exhibited every bad habit the series' writers have ever had? They threw out their own rule book (suddenly the scorpions don't work and Drogon can burn everything?) to pursue gross spectacle. Character and substance were left by the wayside so that the plot could go where the writers wanted. The pace was rushed in the beginning, painfully lagging by the end. The script created plot devices and conflicts out of thin air (no really, when were the bells ever so important? ), relished in violence and let a main character survive beyond any reasonable odds. (How many buildings have to fall on Arya before she stays down?) "Bells" is somehow both fan service and indulgence in all the tropes that fans hate. Had this episode taken place just before the finale of Season 4 or 5, it might be forgivable, but with just over an hour left in the series, it's far too late to make a mistake of this magnitude. There's no time to switch gears, because Mad Queen Dany (and, apparently Arya's inexplicable survival and possible revenge) is what "Thrones" will always have been about. This disappointment is what we've all been waiting for. Don't walk alone with winter coming: All the news, recaps, thoughts and plot analysis right to your inbox The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and few TV shows have gotten quite as big as "Thrones." Even fewer have failed so spectacularly for so many viewers. Theoretically, the series has one last hour to redeem itself. And maybe some fans hold out hope that the finale can wrap things up in a way that makes emotional and logical sense. But betting on "Thrones" to fix itself is really just doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Just like Cersei, Tyrion and the rest, we should know better by now. More:Those shocking deaths from 'Game of Thrones' King's Landing battle, ranked One last little bird The latest member of the “suddenly I’m very dumb” club is Varys, whose campaign to supplant Dany with Jon goes comically wrong in the blink of an eye. We barely have time to register that he has a little bird spy again and is writing letters about Jon’s true parentage before he is found out. Dany has figured out that Jon told Sansa who told Tyrion who told Varys about Jon's parentage, and is angry at both Jon and Tyrion. (How did she find out? How much time has even passed since Missandei's death? Who knows or cares, apparently?!) Dany burns Varys alive for his betrayal, and it's rather underwhelming. Varys survived so many monarchs, only to be finally killed because he was, what, writing too loudly? It was a poor end for one of the series’ best characters. I have a bad feeling about this Dany and Grey Worm share a brief moment mourning over Missandei's slave collar (though why she would bring that to Westeros is baffling), before Jon arrives for an "I told you so" from his aunt. Dany complains that she doesn't have love from the people of the Seven Kingdoms, only fear, and even though Jon says he loves her, he recoils from her kiss. (Finally Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington's lack of chemistry is useful). Tyrion begs for the lives of the people of King's Landing, and gets Dany to agree to spare them if they surrender by ringing the city bells. His obsession with saving commoners doesn't make much sense, but I suppose someone needed to foreshadow Dany's reign of terror. Dany also mentions that Jaime was captured trying to sneak into the city, and tells Tyrion if he fails her again, it will be the last time. Instead of, say, following the orders of the queen he's so intent on supporting, Tyrion frees Jaime in the hope that he'll convince Cersei to flee the city. The brothers hug before leaving each other for good. Unlike Jaime, Arya and the Hound manage to sneak into the city easily, perhaps the last time she has to declare herself Arya Stark to get past a guard. What kind of fire burns stone? The morning of the battle dawns and everyone's holding their breath and their positions: Jon and the allied troops outside the front gates staring down the Golden Company, while Euron and the Iron Fleet are in the Blackwater with their scorpions pointed at the sky. Cersei's troops look menacing and more impressive than the raggedy band of northerners and surviving Unsullied and Dothraki that Dany has assembled. At this point the episode spends copious time showing us all the innocent civilians Dany is about to murder, including a mother and daughter who are given enough screen time for us to know that they will be this episode's symbolic sufferers. And then Dany and Drogon fly down. After being ineffectual at the Battle of Winterfell and against the Iron Fleet, Drogon has suddenly become a weapon of mass destruction that no scorpion crossbow can hit. Like every other plot device on "Thrones" the past few seasons, the dragons were useless, until they were needed. Drogon lights up the Iron Fleet with ease, before moving to the King's Landing battlements, eventually burning the Golden Company from behind before Dany's army charges. As Dany's forces attack, Cersei watched from the Red Keep, but loses her trademark sneer. Qyburn informs her that all the scorpions have been destroyed (truly how does he know that? ), the Iron Fleet is burning and the Golden Company has been slaughtered. Cersei claims that the Red Keep has never fallen, but her confidence is failing. At this point the battle is basically won. Jon, Davos and Grey Worm's battalion comes across a group of Lannister soldiers who lay down their weapons. The soldiers and the civilians all start shouting for someone to ring the bells in surrender, and after a comical amount of buildup they ring, much to Jon and Tyrion's relief. But that doesn't last long. Dany looks at the Red Keep in the distance, and then lets loose fire and blood. Not the mad queen we need, but the one we deserve In an alternate timeline, George R.R. Martin would have finished writing "A Song of Ice and Fire" before it was ever adapted to series. His seventh and final book would have been hundreds of pages that offered copious explanation for its hero's descent into madness and cruelty. And that long, complex and thoughtful book would be adapted into far more than six episodes of television. The problem with Dany going full Mad Queen isn't that she used to be a hero or that the show never foreshadowed it. There have been seeds, all the way back to Season 1 when she burned Mirri Maz Duur alive as vengeance for Khal Drogo's death. She has long been vain, ruthless and completely convinced of her own brilliance. But the show spent far more time making Dany a hero, if a rather boring one. Making her Mad Queen Dany now is rushed, unearned and emotionless. In the moment, it's also not clear what made her snap. Missandei? Rhaegal? Not getting her way? Being bored because she won the battle too quickly? Why did she destroy the whole city instead of going straight to Cersei? Where does she expect to live after destroying the castle her ancestors built? More pressingly, what does Dany's turn even say about the show, thematically? That we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of our families?<doc-sep>Game of Thrones Close this dialog window Streaming Options Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 8, episode 5. Conleth Hill seems a bit despondent. The Game of Thrones actor sat off stage on the show’s Northern Ireland set during season 8 and detailed his feelings about the fate of Varys — the enigmatic master of whispers who was introduced on the HBO hit series in the first season. A professional royal advisor, the bald eunuch was an unlikely power player in Westeros. Varys’ off-stated aim has been to serve the best interests of the realm, not himself; a true civil servant in a land of ambition and treachery. When Varys learned the true heir to the Iron Throne was Jon “Aegon Targaryen” Snow and not the ambitious queen he served, Daenerys Targaryen, Varys stayed true to his ideals — a decision that resulted in him being executed for treason. At the time of this interview, the Irish actor had known Varys’ fate for months but was still in the midst of production. Hill expressed mixed feelings, sometimes contradictory, about his role in the show’s recent seasons and Varys’ fiery exit. GoT cast members are very close to their characters, particularly those who have been on the show since the very beginning. Talking to Hill was not entirely unlike interviewing a man still going through the stages of grief. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What did you think when you got the scripts? CONLETH HILL: Mixed, obviously. Part of you didn’t want it to finish. Part of you is, “Oh, that’s very good.” And part of you is, “Oh, that sucks.” Very, very mixed. Bittersweet. I think it’s really good in retrospect now that I’ve had the time for it to sink in. What was your reaction to Varys fate? I took it very personally. I took it as a person, not as an actor or an artist. I understood the reactions of previous actors who had been in the same position a lot more than I did at the time. You can’t help feeling that you failed in some way, that you haven’t lived up to some expectation that you didn’t know about. The only thing that consoles you is people who worked a lot harder than you are in the same boat. So that helps. I don’t think anybody who hasn’t been through it can identify with it. They think, “What’s all the fuss about? You’re all finishing anyway.” But you take it personally, you can’t help it. What did you think of the specific way Varys goes out? In retrospect, great. At the time, nothing could console me. I kept thinking: “What did I do wrong?” There wasn’t any pre-warning. All these famous stories about [actors on Thrones] being taken out for a meal or being phoned at the very least [to notify them that their character was being killed off]. This was just reading cold hard copy. Wasn’t that how they did it for every actor this year since it’s everybody’s final season? Yeah, that’s how they did it this year, because there are so many [deaths]. But still, it added to the personal temporary ill feeling. What did you think of Varys decision to betray Daenerys? All brilliant. All noble. He was absolutely true to his word the whole way through. All he wanted was the right person on the throne and a fair person on the throne. He said it so many times in the scripts. I don’t have the distraction of love or desire or any of those things. And the people he needed to see clearly were both in love. So that makes perfect sense. And now with hindsight, I’m okay, but I really was inconsolable. You felt like that even though you made it so far in the show? You survived to the penultimate episode. That’s true. You can’t possibly begin to understand. It’s a human nature thing. It’s stupid. Because with a bit of perspective to the view, you go, “Oh it’s a great way to go, it’s noble and for the good.” I think ending your character this way is a higher compliment to you, and to him, than if he had just hung around as part of the group for one more episode. I think that’s true now. But no one could have told me that at the beginning of the season. I’m glad I didn’t say anything at the time. It’s just that feeling of not living up to some expectation, but it’s not that, and I know that now. Were you disappointed not to have a final scene with [Littlefinger actor Aidan Gillen] last year? I was very bummed to not have a final scene with him. I was bummed not to have any reaction to him dying, if he was my nemesis. That’s been my feeling the last couple seasons, that my character became more peripheral, that they concentrated on others more. That’s fine. It’s the nature of a multi-character show. It was kind of frustrating. As a whole it’s been overwhelmingly positive and brilliant but I suppose the last couple seasons weren’t my favorite. Is there something else you wish Varys had gotten to do? It would have been great to have had one more meeting with Littlefinger. I think they tried to make that work and couldn’t. It just felt like after season 6, I kind of dropped off the edge. I can’t complain because it’s six great seasons and I had some great scenes these last two seasons. But that’s when It changed for me a little. There was that Magnificent Seven trek up north to bring a white walker back. It makes total sense that Varys wouldn’t go. But the human in you is like, “I want to go.” It made perfect sense. He’s not a hero, he’s not a fighter. And even when they went back to King’s Landing a couple times they sneaked him in there. They had set it up that he knew the city like the back of his hand so I guess he was just … I dunno. I’m not dissatisfied on the whole. It sounds like I am. But it’s been brilliant. I’m reminded of something Gillen once told me about that: Even when you’re off screen, fans still think you’re there in the world — we’re just not seeing what you’re doing. So viewers think you’re on screen more than you actually are because they fill in the world continuing. Yes. I agree. I’m perfectly willing to admit this is all personal and selfish. With hindsight you go, “Of course it was a fantastic journey.” What was your favorite Varys scene? I loved the traveling with [Tyrion actor Peter Dinklage] and just the two of us in that cart. I think the stuff that was said in there understood the nature of freaks and outsiders so precisely. In a way, that was lost when we got past [the narrative in George R.R. Martin’s] books. That special niche interest in weirdos wasn’t as effective as it had been. Last season and this season there were great scenes and then I’d come in and kind of give a weather report at the end of them — “film at 11.” So I thought he was losing his knowledge. If he was such an intelligent man and he had such resources, how come he didn’t know about things? That added to my dismay. It’s now being rectified with getting a great and noble ending. But that was frustrating for a couple seasons. How do you think fans will feel about the finale? Without using the word “bittersweet.” I have no idea. I don’t know how I feel. I can’t anticipate it until it happens. I don’t think they’ll feel cheated. The fan favorites are all there. What was your favorite moment working on the show? When we shot on Fair Head [a mountain cliff in Northern Ireland], which is where I grew up. My brother [production sound mixer Ronan Hill] has like five consecutive [Cinema Audio Society] awards and three Emmys for his work on Game of Thrones.<doc-sep>
“A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you’ll know the debt is paid.” When Tyrion Lannister said this to his sister Cersei years ago, he couldn’t have known how right he was. Game of Thrones‘ penultimate episode — “The Bells” — is an astonishing work of alchemy, transmuting joy into ash before our very eyes. After nearly half an hour of prologue in which not so much as a raised voice is to be heard, it lets loose an absolute deluge of fantasy-battle wish fulfillment. But like Ser Gregor Clegane, its grip only tightens and tightens, until the thrill of seeing “good” triumph over “evil” is shattered and pulped. In the end, only blood and rubble remain. Game of Thrones Close-Up: Arya, Dazed and Confused As written by series creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss and directed by Miguel Sapochnik, it takes a series of momentous events and delivers each of them as part of a prolonged, collective whisper. The betrayal and execution of Lord Varys, the end of the romance between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, the farewell between Tyrion and his freed-captive brother Jaime — these hushed scenes play out largely in closeups against a backdrop of glowing firelight, as if late-night secrets are being shared. Even when Varys is burned alive for plotting to put Jon on the Iron Throne in her place, the chosen executioner — Drogon, the last dragon — emerges from the darkness in silence. What a contrast to the sunlit carnage to come. It begins at sea, as Euron Greyjoy and his navy prepare to shoot one more flying nuclear dinosaur out of the sky. The cockiness, however, is unfounded. This time, Dany and her beast are fully prepared. A few daring, lightning-fast strikes later and the entire Iron Fleet is brought down. It happens again at the walls of King’s Landing. With the mercenary Golden Company amassed in front of the city gates, Jon, Davos Seaworth, Grey Worm and the entire motley horde of Northmen, Unsullied, Dothraki, knights of the Vale, etc. prepare to charge. Then the walls burst from within, sparing them the trouble. Watching Dany effortlessly lay waste to Cersei Lannister’s best-laid plans — and best-trained troops — is a visceral thrill. So is seeing the aforementioned horde sweep into King’s Landing all these years after Ned Stark’s execution all but demanded this level of retaliation. Before long, the Queen of Dragons is soaring in circles around the city, destroying its walls brick by brick. The hardcore Lannister loyalists lay down their swords rather than fight. The bells that doubles as a white flag — Tyrion’s last great hope to avoid the destruction of city — ring out. The battle has ended. The people have surrendered. And Daenerys burns them all anyway. If the dark horror humanity faced at Winterfell two weeks ago is the Battle of Ice, the horror in King’s Landing this week is the Battle of Fire. Consumed with the hatred instilled in her by a lifetime of paranoia, betrayal and abuse, Daenerys breaks like any ordinary soldier might. The difference is that she’s riding a living weapon of mass destruction. Grey Worm, another one-time innocent trained to be a killing machine since childhood and ravenous for revenge following the murder of his beloved Missandei, leads the charge on the ground. Despite Jon’s attempts to stem the tide, a full-fledged sack of the city ensues. It’s the kind of thing readers of George R.R. Martin’s source material are all too familiar with, but which the show has hardly touched. Now it lets loose, with absolutely ferocious visual power; between the fire and the dazzling sunlight, there will be no complaints about the effects being too dark to see this time around. The sequences that follow display a complete lack of compunction about depicting the true horror of war. This means more than watching soldiers get mutilated, or even civilians, including children, burn to a crisp. It means watching characters we loved, cared about and most importantly counted on for years succumb to the madness and murder within themselves. It’s an ugly feeling, as well it should be. War criminals of all kinds have people who love and care about them back home, too. As the city burns and its towers fall, individual storylines come to their awful conclusions as well.