Game of Thrones Season 8 Review Part 4: "The Long Night"

Warning: This series contains spoilers for the final season of Game of Thrones

This is the long-awaited "Long Night," heavy on the "night" aspect and light on the "long" aspect. Jokes aside, it's almost impossible to see anything during the battl, and while this was apparently a deliberate choice, the battle is rather confusing and hard to follow, even compared to other night battles, such as the Battle of Blackwater or the wildling attack on Castle Black. It's realistic compared to most fictional depictions of darkness in visual media, but because it's unusually realistic compared ot the norm, it's all the more jarring.

The episode begins with the defenders of Winterfell preparing for battle. The red priestess Melisandre shows up and asks Jorah to order the Dothraki to raise their weapons. When they comply, she magically sets their blades ablaze. Davos is not in the least bit happy to see Melisandre again, since she burned Stannis' daughter Shireen(a girl Davos saw as like his own child) alive as a sacrifice, but Melisandre reassures Davos she'll be dead before dawn. She then exchanges a meaningful glance with Arya, who has as much reason to want her dead.

The Dothraki, shown as a sea of blazing blades in the darkness, charge the undead, as flaming catapult shots fly over them(and amazingly don't hit anyone). A chaotic melee ensues, and sees most of the Dothraki wiped out. This is the first terrible idea of the battle- attempting to attack the dead on the open field when they have the benefit of fortification, from Winterfell's high walls to dragonglass spikes. Amazingly, none of the main characters die this early on in the battle, even though things look dire for them at a few points.

Daenerys and Jon attack the dead from the air, but a blizzard makes visibility even worse. Sansa escorts the noncombatants to the crypt, which is the second terrible idea for reasons that will become obvious before the end of the episode. The defenders then fall back and light the trench ablaze to destroy their pursuers, doing what they should have done in the beginning. Of course, the third major problem is that there are too few archers on the wall, who could easily attack the dead while taking advantage of their height and the walls' protection.

Inside the crypt, the noncombatants are in despair. Tyrion laments that he could make a difference if he were out there, but given his track record, he's probably better off in the crypt. Sansa points out that none of the peopl in the crypts can do much, and Tyrion concedes her point. Sansa remarks that Tyrion was her best husband, but their divided loyalties- his to Daenerys, hers to the North- means that things wouldn't work between them.

In the godswood, Bran wargs into a crow, and while this lures the Night King to him, it's the most he does with his warging all battle, which is disappointing. Meanwhile, the dead start to cross the flames of the trench. The defenders fall back to the walls but can only slow the dead's advance. Sandor laments that he "can't beat death," but Berric points to Arya, who's still fighting. Lyanna ends up being crushed in the fist of a wight giant, but kills the giant by stabbing it in the eye before dying herself.

The aerial battle continues, and the undead Viserion attacks his mother, stepfather/cousin and living brothers. Arya tries to slip away from the dead, but blood dripping from a head wound she received on the walls gives her away, but Beric saves her at the cost of his own life. While Beric has been resurrected before, with Thoros of Myr dead, he's gone for good this time. Melisandre reveals that Beric served his purpose.

Aria notes that she and Melisandre met again, as they promised, and Melisandre's prediction that she'd "shut many eyes forever" came true. Melisandre reminds Arya of the color of the eyes, which includes the blue eyes of the undead.

In the aerial battle, Daenerys succeeds in dismounting the Night King from Viserion and causing Viserion to fall. Daenerys has Drogon roast the Night King with dragonfire, but he emerges from the inferno unscathed. The Night King then raises his hands and reanimates all the dead in Winterfell, from the ones who died in the battle to the ones in the crypt.

The battle becomes even more desperate. Jorah fights alongside Daenerys and tries to protect her but ends up being stabbed and mortally wounded. Theon protects Bran, who reassures him that he's a good man before Theon charges the Night King and is killed. These two men end up dying in service of those they betrayed, a rare case of characters with satisfying conclusions to their arcs.

All seems lost as Jon is about to make a heroic but futile last stand against Viserion, and the Night King is about to kill Bran, but then Arya shows up and attacks the Night King from behind with the same Valyrin steel dagger that was used in the attempt on Bran's life near the start of the story. He grabs her, but she drops the dagger out of her left hand, catches it with her right and shoves the dagger into a gap in the Night King's armor, killing him and ending his threat to Westeros forever.

The battle is won, but hardly anyone feels like celebrating due to the massive loss of life and the war with Cersei on the horizon. Melisandre walks out into the frozen wilds, takes off her brooch and dies of old age.

Review

The epic battle against the dead proves underwhelming, to put it mildly After demolishing the wall, the Night King inflicts minimal casualties on the living- Dolorous Edd, Lyanna and Jorah Mormont, Beric Dondarrion, and Theon Greyjoy are the only named characters to fall. He did almost win, and would have been unstoppable had he killed Bran, but he owes his near-success to the living making tactical errors.

Speaking of buildup, the fact that Arya Stark ends up killing the Night King proved one of the more controversial cases of "subverting expectations." Jon, as Azor Azai, or "the prince who was promised," was fated to be the hero to save the day, but his contributions to the final battle ended up being minimal. Melisandre predicted that Arya would shut many eyes, including blue eyes, but nothing specifically hinted at her being the one to kill the Night King.

Some complain about how the Night King was not the final villain, and I'll concede that Cersei should have been dealt with first, but there are some reasons why Cersei was saved for last. First, as short-sighted and selfish as Cersei is, even she knows that it's preferable to let her enemies fight the dead first, then deal with whoever's left. Second, the Night King is less interesting than most of the human antagonists, since the viewers know little about his motivations. Last, this emphasizes that humans' petty political struggles will continue- both the war between Cersei and Daenerys, and the tension between Daenerys and Sansa- even if they manage to defeat their common enemy.

In short, I give this episode three melted Iron Thrones out of five. I was tempted to give it four, but I decided that, as disappointing as the conclusion of the war with the Night King is, the two episodes that qualify for four melted Iron Thrones have more severe problems.