game of thrones beyond the wall ice island

#GAME OF THRONES BEYOND THE WALL ICE ISLAND SERIES#

Why didn’t they send scouts ahead to better understand the size of the White Walkers’ army and plan their raid accordingly? Why didn’t they bring a raven with them to send a message back to Eastwatch should they run into any kind of resistance? Why wouldn’t they have had Daenerys bring at least one of her dragons to Eastwatch on standby in case something went wrong? But when the action truly begins mid-way through “Beyond The Wall,” I struggled to figure out what precisely the plan had actually been in this case.

#GAME OF THRONES BEYOND THE WALL ICE ISLAND SERIES#

And I still hold out hope that, as with last year, the awkwardness of this series of events will transition into a productive finale that pushes us into the final season with considerable momentum. I realize that not everyone will care about this-this was a lesson I learned this time last season, when I struggled with “The Battle Of The Bastards” for similar reasons and there was much outcry. But when those conversations end and the episode moves onto the actual procedural logics of the action in “Beyond The Wall,” a simple and unfortunate truth emerges: this whole situation just became too dumb, buried beneath a shaky set of decisions the show didn’t have time to justify. The results are often funny (Gendry getting teased, everything involving Tormund), occasionally emotional (Jorah and Jon reflecting on Jeor’s death), and at times philosophical, as when Jon and Beric discuss the meaning of their “service” to the Lord of Light. And I was charmed by the series of “walk and talks” that punctuate their travels, brief vignettes of characters like Sandor and Tormund interacting for the first time while marching toward their potential dooms. On the level of spectacle, “Beyond The Wall” is another series high point, with stellar work from returning director Alan Taylor, capturing the visceral battles that the seven men and several Red Shirts encounter on their journey. The result, though, struggles to live up to its billing.

The pace of this season leaves no room for someone to argue that Cersei’s grasp of rational thinking is tenuous, leaving the plot to barrel forward through the Wall and into the tundra beyond. Last week’s episode, “Eastwatch,” never stops to explain why this is, or to have anyone question the logic at hand: it is just universally accepted that it is worth Jon and his compatriots risking their lives in order to secure a Wight and carry it back to King’s Landing.

And so I didn’t spend a lot of time last week talking about how the “Kidnap a Wight” plan made no sense, because I wanted to wait and see how the plan manifested in the episode where it’s put into action.įrom the moment it was introduced, the plan was built on the tenuous notion that Cersei is more likely to agree to work together with Daenerys and Jon if she sees a Wight in person. When writing about a show week-to-week, sometimes you need to roll with the punches: as much as the nature of these reviews means I need to ”judge” an episode before knowing how the show builds on those developments, I always remain open to the show course correcting effectively when something seems a bit off.

Game of thrones beyond the wall ice island