This is a Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 review written live as the episode airs. So this post will be showing live reactions to plot twists and events. This post will have major spoilers for Season 8 Episode 5. I’ve been nervous about tonight ever since Episode 4 ended with the devastating death of Missandei (poor Grey Worm!) and the heartwrenching death of Rhaegal. There was no good reason for Euron’s sneak attack (and I’m not buying the “Dany forgot” explanation from the behind-the-scenes interview.) In addition, I just can’t see Daenerys going down the Mad King path. Her father wanted to destroy his own people so no one else, good or bad, could rule them. Dany’s just not like that. And I’m still really sad about Ghost. :( [UPDATE: This intro didn’t age well, but I’m not changing it.] But it’s time to move on from last week’s heartbreak and face this week bravely. What was it that Sansa said? “None of us can do anything. That’s the truth. That’s the most heroic thing we can do now: look the truth in the face.” It’s a nice reflection of how I feel as a fan watching the final season. So here we go. The episode begins with Varys writing a letter about Jon’s lineage and being the true heir to the Iron Throne. One of his “little birds” tells him that Daenerys isn’t eating (she doesn’t name her, but that’s the assumption.) Jon Snow arrives at Dragonstone and Varys greets him. Varys tells him Dany hasn’t seen anyone or accepted any food. “She shouldn’t be alone,” Jon says. Varys says he’s worried for everyone because she’s a Targaryen. Jon’s not impressed with Varys’ riddles. But Jon is clear that he does NOT want the throne. Varys just won’t take no for an answer. “You will rule wisely and well while she…” “She is my queen,” Jon corrects Varys. Good for Jon. I get so mad at everyone who doesn’t trust Dany after all this time. Tyrion approaches Dany. She guesses someone has betrayed her and thinks it’s Jon. Umm, no. It’s Varys, Tyrion says. But Dany says the fact that Varys knows the truth about Jon’s lineage is a bad sign because it means that Jon told Sansa. “He betrayed me,” Dany says. But Tyrion says that as her hand he needed to know. Dany’s mad that Tyrion spoke to Varys first, but Tyrion says it was a mistake. She also points out that Sansa trusted Tyrion to spread secrets that could destroy Dany. Dany’s not wrong. Tyrion apologizes. “Our intentions were good.” Honestly, Tyrion’s defense of Varys and Sansa is bugging me. Jon didn’t betray Dany because he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, but Varys and Sansa are being ridiculous in my opinion… Dany is grieving. People need to realize that and act accordingly. She lost her child AND her best friends. Grey Worm arrives to arrest Varys. It has to be done. Varys is espousing treason at this point. Tyrion is there, watching, as they take him outside late at night. Dany is there with Jon by her side. She’s still painstakingly heartbroken, you can see it on her face. “It was me,” Tyrion tells Varys. “I hope I deserve this,” Varys says. “I hope I’m wrong.” We all do Varys. OMG GUYS LEAKED PIC OF DROGON BURNING VARYS OTMFNFHDJSJ pic.twitter.com/BXSCEhSo24 — daenerys is baby (@daeneryswrath) May 10, 2019 Dany lists her titles to Varys, with Drogon menacingly behind her, and sentences Varys to die. “Dracarys,” she says quietly. Drogon rises up, terrifyingly, and burns Varys. He’s dead. WOW. For some reason that is the most scared I’ve been of Drogon. And Varys didn’t even scream as he was burned alive. It had to be done, but I hate seeing Varys’ story end this way. In the next scene, Dany gives Grey Worm Missandei’s last possession, which he throws in the fire. Jon and Dany are now alone. Jon reaffirms that he doesn’t want the throne. “She (Sansa) killed Varys as much as I did,” Dany says. “This is victory for her.” And Dany is right, not mad or crazy. “I love you,” Jon says. “You will always be my queen.” Dany wants to know if that is all she is to him. Obviously it’s not. They kiss. I’m still rooting for these two. But he pulls back. I’m honestly not sure why and he’s not saying. Daenerys: Is that all I am to you… your queen? Jon Snow: No, you’re also my aunt? #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/NFN7ZaFbAS — The Root (@TheRoot) May 13, 2019 How Jon kisses Daenerys since finding out they’re related #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/v371FeX7tR — Syd (@sydschaefer) May 13, 2019 Next we’re in the Dragonstone throne room. Tyrion tells her the people of King’s Landing are slaves themselves and thousands will burn. But Dany tells him that Cersei believes mercy is weakness. Dany believes the important thing is being merciful to FUTURE generations by freeing them of the tyrant, not being overly concerned now. Tyrion asks her to not attack if she hears bells in King’s Landing, which will indicate surrender. She agrees, but that might not be so smart if you know about the Battle of the Bells, which happened in the past. Tyrion is giving bad advice again. Or is he trying to set her up? Seems unlikely because of his move with Varys, but his advice is odd considering King’s Landing’s history. “Next time you fail me will be the last time you fail me,” Dany says. In the next scene, Arya and the Hound are traveling together. Arya is planning to kill Queen Cersei and is pretty open about the whole thing. The Hound says Arya could stop the whole war, and that’s a good point that Dany and Jon should have included in their plans. (“Dany and Jon kind of forgot about Arya’s assassination skills, but the Hound didn’t…” to paraphrase Benioff probably.) Next we find out that Jaime’s been captured. Tyrion visits Jaime where he’s being held prisoner by the Unsullied. Tyrion wants Jaime to convince Cersei to change her mind, which is just blind dumb hope because no one can do that. Jaime says he never really cared for the people of King’s Landing. But Tyrion insists he cares about their unborn baby. (Whom I’m doubting even really exists. Not to mention, Cersei didn’t care about Tommen’s welfare one bit at the end.) “Swear to me,” Tyrion asks Jaime. He wants Jaime to agree to try to change Cersei’s mind and then ring the bells. Tyrion hopes Dany will show mercy if this all works. Honestly, Tyrion’s faith in Cersei is really not warranted. He says that the life of one not-so-innocent dwarf for the thousands of innocent lives is a fair trade. (But let’s not forget that if Dany had attacked Cersei in the beginning like she planned, thousands of lives wouldn’t be at risk. They’re at risk because Cersei invited them into the capital to protect her.) Jaime and Tyrion have a heartwrenching goodbye. Everyone is turning on Dany. Next we’re at King’s Landing and Euron is readying the ballistas. The soldiers are all preparing for battle. The people of King’s Landing hide in their homes. And The Hound and Arya arrive in the gates, safely in King’s Landing to attempt to enact their plans. Things have come full circle for these two. Jaime is there too when the gates close. And the Golden Company is here, on the ready. AMAZING. They stand before King’s Landing, intimidating. Across the desert wasteland (why is King’s Landing a desert again?) are the Dothraki and Unsullied army. I guess more Dothraki survived than I realized. And many, many citizens are locked out of King’s Landing. Jaime is among them, as it turns out. The citizens are terrified. Tyrion tries to convince Jon to call off his army, which is ridiculous. Euron is on the water, looking into the sky. The moment is here. Dany flies in on Drogon from directly above Euron. (I was hoping that scene would show Drogon with armor or a second dragon.)<doc-sep>Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5, “The Bells,” finally brought us the showdown at King’s Landing we’ve been waiting for, and while the 80-minute episode did plenty to move the plot forward ahead of next week’s finale, it also featured a few great Easter egg callbacks to key moments from Game of Thrones history. Here are three Easter eggs from Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5 that you might have missed. Warning: Clegane-sized spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5 ahead. 3. The Mountain Goes for the Eyes (Again) Cleganebowl was even more epic that we could have imagined. HBO This one’s pretty obvious, but it’s worth mentioning just because of how epic the final showdown between the Hound and the Mountain turned out. We were already hyped for Cleganebowl, but the combination of an incredible backdrop (the crumbling Red Keep engulfed in dragon flame), an excellent score, and this perfect reference to Season 4 managed to exceed our expectations. You definitely remember that horrifying moment in the Season 4 episode “The Mountain and the Viper,” where Gregor Clegane jammed his thumbs into Oberyn Martell’s eyes and squeezed until his head exploded. Well, he tried the same move in “The Bells” on his brother Sandor. Thankfully, it didn’t work, and the Hound was able to kill the Mountain, but only by sacrificing himself, too. The brothers ended up dying together as they fell off the castle tower into the flames below. 2. Harry Strickland Is No Jon Snow RIP Harry Strickland HBO So much for the Golden Company, right? The much-hyped mercenary army ended up amounting to nothing after Daenerys attacked them from behind with her dragon. Immediately afterwards, an army of Unsullied, Dothraki, and northerners charged against their remaining enemies, leaving the Golden Company leader, Harry Strickland, totally exposed. It was a direct reference to the Battle of the Bastards, when Jon Snow faced down an army of attacking Ramsay Bolton supporters on his own. But unlike Snow, Strickland immediately turned and ran, not that it did him any good. 1. Tyrion and Jaime Say Goodbye One Last Time Jaime and Tyrion HBO When Tyrion Lannister finds out his brother, Jaime, has been captured by Dany’s army, he does the stupidest thing possible and decides to free the Kingslayer. It’s all part of an even stupider plan that we know won’t work as soon as Tyrion says the words out loud, but that’s alright because it led to one of the most touching moments in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5 (and possibly in the entire series). Tyrion visiting a locked-up Jaime also feels like a direct reference to Season 4, when their roles were reversed. Tyrion was imprisoned for allegedly killing King Joffrey, and Jaime visited him in the Red Keep dungeon. It was a touching moment that only feels more powerful in hindsight after Season 8, Episode 5. The Game of Thrones finale airs Sunday, May 19 at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO.<doc-sep>Few side stories in all of Game of Thrones have managed to fascinate fans like Cleganebowl. What started out as a horrific sibling rivalry between two violent people, has been teased for so long by the show that it’s grown into a near mythical encounter. And in season 8 episode 5, fans finally got to see the fight they have been waiting for: Sandor and Gregor Clegane, aka The Hound and The Mountain (resurrected by Qyburn) facing off in a duel to the death. Beyond their childhood together, Cleganebowl is a faceoff the show has teased on and off since the beginning. But, when the two finally met in episode, there wasn’t a dimming of the lights and a stepping out into an arena. This was hand to hand carnage, two brothers ending their own stories on their own terms, and the combat echoed the past in the most gruesome ways possible. Just like in their previous fight, all the way back in season 1, the Hound is a far more agile fighter than the Mountain. But what the Mountain lacks in finesse he makes up for in bone-crushing strength. Every swing of his sword cracks stone as the Hound dodges the blade by inches. If Cleganebowl had turned out to be any kind of normal fight, the Hound would have won easily. But Ser Gregor’s monsterous, ressurected form can’t be hurt by things like stabs, it seems. Ultimately, the Mountain throws the Hound to a wall and smashes his face — his favorite finishing move apparently — but Sandor fights back, stabbing his brother in the eye before plunging them both off steps of the Red Keep and into the fire below. But even more so than the fight itself, one of Game of Thrones’ most impressive achievements is making this a plot line that fans care about to begin with. And at the heart of the storyline was the transformation of Sandor Clegane from one of the show’s most frightening characters to one of its most loving. In our earliest introduction to him, Sandor Clegane — the Hound — is talked about like a literal animal. During the first season, he kills a child and seems to revel in his role as the Lannisters’ chief intimidator. But when he first explains that it was his brother Gregor, holding his head to fire when they were children that gave him the burn on the side of his head, the Hound started to open up to fans as a more complicated character than he initially appeared. As the series progresses Sandor grows frustrated with his complicit role in Joffrey’s atrocities and eventually tries to rise above them. We first get a glimpse of this when he starts to protect Sansa, and later in his begrudgingly paternal relationship with Arya as the two travel together. The ultimate metamorphosis for Sandor, his true transformation from redeemable villain to bona fide good guy comes thanks to Brother Ray (Ian McShane) who shows the Hound that there is goodness in him. Brought back from the edge of death, Sandor is reborn a better person, though still an extremely violent one. Gregor, on the other hand, mirrors the Hound with unrepentant violence. He never grew tired of his role as a killer and never sought to grow beyond it. He too was reborn, but it wasn’t by Brother Ray and his good-vibes teachings, but by Qyburn and his sub-maester-level science. While the Hound is brought back to a state that’s arguably better than the life he knew before, the Mountain’s new form sits somewhere between life and death. In one of the Hound’s last big moments before this fateful battle he overcomes his fear of fire to help save Arya, and ultimately put her in a place to kill the Night King. In one of the Mountain’s last moments alive — or not exactly alive — he beheads Missandei, still happy to deliver violence on the Lannisters’ behalf. For all the resurrections that these two characters have had in the past, it’s likely that episode was our final glimpse of either Clegane. But if they had to go out, at least it was against each other in Cleganebowl, a special family-named fight that truly was the Super Bowl of watching two really big scary people fight each other.<doc-sep>
During the Sunday, May 12 episode of Game of Thrones, fans finally got to see Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane's face moments before his death — and it was terrifying. Viewers couldn't help drawing comparisons between the character and an Addams Family character, and you won't be able to unsee the comparison after seeing these tweets about the Mountain and Uncle Fester on Game Of Thrones. Fans have been waiting seasons and seasons and seasons for even a hint that the Cleganebowl was actually going to happen (and wasn't just a much-buzzed-about internet theory fans were absolutely dying for), and during Season 8's fifth episode— the penultimate episode of the entire series — fans finally got their wish. Sort of. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 8, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones ahead. The episode plays out like this: Dany has a choice to make as she heads into the Battle of King's Landing, and while Tyrion advises Dany show mercy at the sound of the bell for the innocent of the city, the Dragon Queen choses the opposite. She lights up the city. The Mountain and The Hound meet on a stairwell as The Mountain attempts to usher Cersei to safety while the city falls around her. But when he meets up with his little brother, the plan changes. That's where the Cleganebowl tips off. Removing his armored helmet, Game of Thrones fans steeled themselves to finally catch a glimpse of the zombie Qyburn created. Though fans had only been treated to a vision of his spooky, eerie red eyes for most of his GoT storyline, his facial reveal didn't exactly go as planned. Instead of looking absolutely terrifying (though, to be fair, he was), The Mountain just looked like, well; he looked like Uncle Fester from The Addams Family. Seeing the resemblance, Twitter took off with jokes: Not going to lie, the second I saw what Qyburn had created, I too was wholly surprised. I mean, seriously, all of this time, the face lurking under that huge steel helmet of armor was just Uncle Fester? Where was Gomez? The Hand? Cousin It? Was this not just the Cleganebowl, but the Addams-Family-Game-of-Thrones crossover that none of us had known to wish for? "The Bells" had the hard work of setting up the finale of the Game of Thrones series. No small feat when you've got a slew of characters still to be killed off: a recently-gone Mad Queen and a fire-breathing dragon, a second, unofficial war to kick off and conclude all in the same episode, and two sets of sibling deaths to see through. But the episode did what it set out to do. I'm sure fans will be split in the coming days on whether or not the Game of Thrones writers' room lived up to their standards, but one thing is for sure: Fans definitely didn't expect The Mountain to look like Uncle Fester. If this is GoT's last and final joke, at least it was a good one.