My Review of 'Game of Thrones': Season 8 Episode 5

The huge war is over and now it's time to fight for the Iron Throne! I'm expecting an epic fight and a ton of people to die. I think I got exactly what I asked for. Do I still think the series is continuing to pander to fans? I think to a certain extent, yes, but I've GoTen used to it. (See what I did there?)

In the last episode, we see Daenerys going a little crazy as she's noticing that everyone has their friends and she's all alone. One of her few best friends, Missandei, had her head cut off in front of her. Missandei's last word to everyone was "Dracarys," which is the word Daenerys commands her dragons to spit fire.

This episode starts with Varys writing letters so that his little birds can spread the word that Jon Snow is the true rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His little bird is extremely weary about the message as there are a ton of people watching them. Varys continues, as he truly believes this is the right direction. He even talks to Jon Snow about it. I don't understand why he had to talk to Jon Snow about this. He's already spreading the gossip, why not let the gossip set its course?

Tyrion notices the deception and rats on Varys to Daenerys. When he tells Daenerys, he doesn't anticipate her reaction. He simply wanted to rat Varys out, but instead, he rats everyone out. Daenerys has connected the dots to the deception within her own group of allies. Another straw to break the camel's back.

She tells Tyrion that it's actually Jon that had betrayed her. She told Jon not to tell Sansa. She understood that Sansa had told Tyrion, and Tyrion shouldn't have gone behind Daenerys's back and told Varys. So, in theory, they all betrayed her.

Daenerys's paranoia is growing greater and greater. I guess that can happen when you want to be on top. You just don't trust anyone when everyone's vying for the throne, but really not a lot of people are in this series. Her own paranoia is getting to her.

She has a meeting with Jon Snow and talks about the deception and Jon continues to plead his allegiance to her. She wanted him to know that she can continue on out of love or fear and then starts to hit on him again. He's like, nah, you're my aunt and backs away from her. Good job, Jon! She replies back, fear it is... yikes, what did Jon do to the Seven Kingdoms?

So now Daenerys has lost the affection of her nephew who she's totally hot for. I guess nothing is going the way she wants it to.

Tyrion tries to calm her down because now she wants to come in and attack King's Landing right away. Tyrion pleads to Daenerys to let the innocent escape the kingdom and have war with only the soldiers. There's no reason for innocents to die.

She lets Tyrion know that she actually captured Jaime as he was going back to Cersei. This is another strike for Tyrion, and at this point I thought Tyrion was a dead man. He continues to plead with her that he should allow people to escape and he'll set it up that they'll surrender to her and avoid bloodshed. She's not too pleased about this and Tyrion's failed her over and over again. She tells him he better not screw up again, she's not giving him anymore second chances. Really though? You've given him so many second chances that he might as well be safe.

Tyrion comes up with a plan to save his brother Jaime. Jaime's been there for him all this time and he wants to pay back the favor. He sets it up so that there will be an escape dingy for Jaime and Cersei. He tells Jaime leave and save Cersei, live in exile, but as long as you are safe and surrender, thousands of lives can be saved. It's a pretty nice moment for the two brothers. Tyrion thanks Jaime for always being there for him even though everyone thought he was a monster.

The big war of King's Landing is upon us. Arya and the Hound are just trotting their way over to take care of business. Jaime's on the run to get to Cersei. Meanwhile, all the innocent citizens are scrambling to get to safety and Cersei's golden army is readying themselves. Euron and the Iron Fleet are readying themselves as well.

On the other side, there's the Unsullied, along with the remaining Dothraki and the northern army. They're all standing together at a standstill with the golden army.

There's a calm silence over their stare down. Then there are rumblings and we automatically know that it's Daenerys and her dragon. The Iron Fleet looks up in the air and they see a silhouette of a gigantic dragon in the clouds. They immediately try to use the same scorpions that took down the dragon in the last episode, but Daenarys is able to dodge the arrows. This time she blows fire on all of them. At this point I'm thinking why didn't she do that in the last episode? Oh, so she can have a more epic fight in this one!

It was a little convenient how they had all those scorpions and she just demolishes all of them without a scratch. She engulfs the whole Iron Fleet in flames and then blowtorches all of the scorpions atop the towers of the city. She then fires up the main wall where her army is awaiting and decimates the golden army in seconds.

All of the chaos and destruction was completed so quickly. I would say way faster than what the walkers in episode three did for Winterfell. One dragon can cause that much more disaster faster than the walkers? Just go with it because it looks amazing! Okay!

Cersei quickly realizes that she has no chance. Qyburn is urging her to leave and after much hesitation she finally agrees to leave. The surrender bell has been rung.

Daenerys hears the surrender bell, and you see all all of Cersei's soldiers surrendering. Then you see her face expression change. She was probably thinking that Cersei isn't going to get away with killing Missandei! All the crap she's been through. Is she even going to be able to hold the Iron Throne because the rumor is out that Jon's the rightful ruler?

She goes utterly mad like her father and starts burning down all of King's Landing. Cersei's freaking out, as it's dawning on her that she's dealing with someone that might actually be just as crazy as she is.

All of King's Landing is being burnt to the ground and everyone's fleeing for their lives. Jon Snow is not liking this madness and pulls back his northern army. He's realizing his queen has gone mad.

Meanwhile in the castle, Jaime encounters Euron and they fight as Euron is pretty much crazy. I have to say that Euron is a pretty useless character through the whole series. They really didn't need him. He stabs Jaime, but Jaime ultimately kills Euron.

Arya and the Hound have a moment where the Hound tells Arya that she shouldn't live her life for revenge or else she'll turn into him. Arya sees the light and decides to leave. As she's leaving, she's noticing the devastation that Daenerys is bringing to King's Landing. She gets to witness all of the innocent lives that are being affected by the chaos and destruction.

I started to wonder if Arya will come back to actually kill Daenerys instead of going back to Winterfell. She has a sense of justice and doesn't like seeing innocent people dying.

As Arya discovers the craziness happening in the city, the Hound continues his hunt for his brother. They finally meet! Cersei and Qyburn order the Mountain to obey and protect Cersei. There's madness in the eyes of the Mountain. He refuses their commands and kills Qyburn in the process. Cersei runs off realizing this has nothing to do with her. The Hound doesn't care about her at all.

We finally get Clegane Bowl. The two brothers fight head to head. The Hound actually gets his sword to go right through the Mountain, but it doesn't kill him. We all obviously know it's because of the special concoction that Qyburn had treated him way back when. The Mountain simply pulls the sword off and his armor comes off. You see the full zombie state that the Mountain is in. The Hound starts realizing that he's fighting a zombie. He continues to try to kill the Mountain, but nothing is working. At one point the Mountain pulls up the Hound, with his thumbs in the Hound's eye sockets ready to pop his head like he did to Oberyn in season four. The Hound gets a dagger and continues to stab the Mountain and then launches it into the Mountain's head. The Mountain finally staggers and then the Hound dives into the Mountain. The two are flown out the building and into a pit of fire. What a fight!

Meanwhile Jaime and Cersei try to follow the escape plan that Tyrion had planned for them. Unlucky for them, Daenerys has been tearing down everything including their route to escape. They hold each other in fear and the building basically falls on top of the two.

One hell of an entertaining episode! It's now obvious they have to kill Daenerys and Jon has to be the true rightful king. Who's going to do it? Will it be Jon? Will it be Arya? What's the fate of Tyrion? Is he even going to go see Daenerys after her crazed path of destruction? Who knows, but I can't wait to see the final episode next week.

Overall, it was a very entertaining episode. It was a little slow to start, but they needed some foreshadowing and build up to help us understand Daenerys' path to madness. I would give this episode an eight out of 10.