See The Scene No One Expected This Week (Video)
By Ani Bundel
Game of Thrones is a show that loves a good twist. Still, there’s been a pattern to the seasons over the years, especially when it comes to Episode 9. Ever since Season 1, episode 9, “Baelor,” when Ned’s head came off, odd-numbered seasons have always contained unexpected gut wrenching-deaths in their ninth episodes. Ever since Season 2, Episode 9, “Blackwater,” where the show staged its first episode-long single location battle, the even-numbered seasons have devoted their ninth episodes to just that: single-location episodes that culminate in major battle scenes.
That’s why no one expected what happened in “Battle of the Bastards.”
SPOILERS AHEAD.
And I’ve been a fool and I’ve been blind
I can never leave the spoilers behind
I can see no way, I can see no way
I’m always dragging that horse around
Sailing along, filled with spoilers
The show certainly did everything it could to fool us that this week’s episode would be all Winterfell, all the time (that’s all we saw in the trailer in in the official images). But that turned out to be misdirection. Let’s face it: there’s just too much going on for the show to be able to devote an entire hour to a single location anymore.
There was one hint that tonight might not be Winterfell all hour, and that was the insistance over and over of how this season is the one where women really step up and take over. Unless Sansa was going to go full Joan of Arc and lead the Stark troops herself (not likely!), in order for that girl power to be a major factor of the apex episode, we were just going to have to check in somewhere else.
But after playing to our expectations this week, who would have seen this as the major twist? Starting the episode in Meereen?
https://vine.co/v/5BBv50XBZMW
Or that the other dragons would break themselves out of the Pyramid on silent command?
https://vine.co/v/5BB6UaWXQh5
That’s a hell of an entrance.
https://vine.co/v/5BBn5EnnBVV
My gods, Drogon is a hell of specimen.
https://vine.co/v/5BBn6LgZB03
Oh, and check out what happens when Dany meets Yara.
https://vine.co/v/5BBXBXtv65D
It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.