Small Council: What did we think of “The Winds of Winter?”

The final episode of Game of Thrones Season 6, “The Winds of Winter,” has aired. What did we like about it? What didn’t we like? Read our takes, tell us your own, and vote in our poll!

DAN: If a year of TV can go out with a bang, it can do a lot for the perception of the overall season. Game of Thrones Season 6 went out with a bang. That’s not to say that the season was weak overall, but had I known that the somewhat meandering midpoint scenes in King’s Landing were going to climax with that exquisite 25-minute montage in “The Winds of Winter,” I would have been more disposed to give them the benefit of the doubt while watching them for the first time.

And that montage was exquisite. Everything just worked: the costumes, the music, the editing, the performances…the team clearly made a point to spend time on it, and no wonder; it represented a big burst of forward momentum for the story, and it pays to get those moments right. From a plot perspective, Game of Thrones has rarely felt stagnant—things are always moving—but with Cersei queen and nearly a dozen named characters dead, we feel closer to an ending than ever.

In short, stuff happened in “The Winds of Winter,” and it didn’t just happen in King’s Landing. Nothing else had the impact of Cersei’s pyromaniacal killing spree, but Jon being made the new King in the North is significant, especially since this kind of thing has ended badly twice now: when Robb was made King in the North in Season 1 and when Jon was elected Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch in Season 5. With that in mind, it’s hard to accept the idea that this is a rousing moment—I’m with Sansa, Littlefinger, and that ominous bassoon that played toward the end of the scene: we should be worried.

But I’m getting into specifics. Like all good finales, “The Winds of Winter” brings storylines to an end and finds new ones in the aftermath. And because the team behind the show is incredibly talented and willing to take risks, those resolutions were very, very entertaining. Game of Thrones has grown by leaps and bounds since it started back in 2011, and a lesser team might have toppled under the weight. We can criticize some of the decisions showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss made this year, but by and large they’ve used their powers for good, and poured the resources available to them into making electrifying TV. It’s gonna be a long wait for Season 7.

KATIE: There have been few things more haunting throughout this series than the opening sequence of “The Winds of Winter.” Like the episode before it, it couldn’t have been more perfectly paced and cut together, and although the entire hour was gold, the opening scene set the tone for success. I haven’t been able to get the image of Margaery and Loras turning to look at the High Sparrow out of my head (flawlessly chilling), and Tommen’s suicide was played masterfully by Dean-Charles Chapman.

While I agree with Dan that Jon’s new title as King in the North lacks the triumph of the Starks’ victory in “Battle of the Bastards,” I do feel that it will somehow work out for the best. Robb’s stint as King ended badly because, quite frankly, it got to his head; and Jon’s time as Lord Commander was never going to go over well while Alliser Thorne was still around, not to mention the whole “thousands of years of feuding with the wildlings” business. Sansa and Jon have another rough patch to go through, but I’m betting on Littlefinger’s death before Season 7 is halfway through, and that will cut back on about 97% of that tension. Conjecture, but I can’t help but speculate, and I’m pretty confident about it.

With the end of Season 6, we’ve seen the deaths of many of our major, non-snow zombie villains now: Ramsay, Walder Frey, and the High Sparrow have all been cut from the picture, and at this point, we’re running out of people to root for, too. We have a few more villains to get out of the way before the White Walkers come calling, but it seems that the final two seasons are going to be all about the heroes we’ve come to cheer on—namely the Starks, Daenerys, and Tyrion—and how they’ll either come together, butt heads, or do a bit of both as they all strive towards their own personal goals and the overall well-being of Westeros. It’s at once surreal and satisfying to see all these storylines converging, and with Daenerys finally on her way to Westeros to join up with the rest of the main cast of characters, things are heating up perhaps more than ever before. Season 6—the finale especially—really cut to the core of where the rest of the story is going, and the next ten months can’t go by quickly enough.

RAZOR: There are not enough words in the English dictionary to describe my sheer elation over “The Winds of Winter,” from the very opening fade-in to the final fade-out. Obviously the score provided by musical god Ramin Djawadi in the opening sequence set the tone for an episode that is destined to go down in history as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, episodes of Game of Thrones. Hell, “The Winds of Winter,” may have been the best episode in television history.

Having always despised the character of Cersei, I actually found myself cheering for the new Dark Queen of the Seven Kingdoms as she watched the Great Sept of Baelor be incinerated with wildfire; her masterful plan having come to fruition without a hitch. And as a die-hard book reader, I enjoyed watching Qyburn deliver Varys’ lines from the Dance with Dragons epilogue, as Anton Lesser read with a cool malevolence that not even the Spider himself could replicate.

Meanwhile, in Dorne, Varys was stealing Doran Martell’s lines by delivering the coup de grâce of Ellaria’s speech: “Fire and Blood,” which we all know are the words of House Targaryen. Speaking of the newly restored House Targaryen, Daenerys is ready to sail home to Westeros, and while I found the breakup with Daario both boring and unnecessary (I like the guy and think she could have used him to manage the Dothraki in Westeros), I loved Tyrion actually earning his Hand of the Queen pin. There’s just some sort of magic when Peter Dinklage and Emilia Clarke act together in close proximity. They have a chemistry that goes beyond sexual attraction. To borrow a line from Forest Gump, Dinklage and Clarke are so good together they’re like peas and carrots.

I know I’m starting to ramble, and my fellow council members will want to get a word in, so I’ll wrap it up with this: Sam’s awe at being in the Citadel’s library was fun to see.

Nope, I’m not done. The Tower of Joy reveal was a joyous moment 20 years in the making, and we book-readers deserved that…I make no apologies for being happy about being belligerently right about that theory. Jon kissing Sansa on the forehead was in NO WAY SEXUAL, SO STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT F**KING NOW! I loved that Kit Harington smiled when Sansa told him the white raven had arrived and winter had come. “Father always promised.” My heart broke open and a tear of joy ran down my face.

I loved the scene in the great hall of Winterfell when Jon was proclaimed the White Wolf and the King in the North. But most of all, I love that it was started by Bella Ramsey’s Lady Lyanna Mormont, who put all those grown and gruff men of the North to shame. I absolutely love her, and I hope that in Season 7, HBO brings her back as a trusted adviser to Jon.

Finally, the scene of Dany’s fleet sailing across the Narrow Sea to Westeros, with ships from both Houses Tyrell and Martell mixed in, let the audience know that some time had passed, and that by Season 7, war will have already begun. Dany’s dragons will be wreaking havoc, and her Dothraki Screamers will be tearing down those Westerosi castles, while her Unsullied mow down any soldiers in her path…and I cannot wait to see it all unfold.

ANI: When writing this week’s WiC Scale, I forbade myself from calling the show a winner and the books a loser because one got to present its version of The Winds of Winter before the other, but I have to say, Martin’s editors better tighten that sh*t down and clean up all those damn mummer’s farts, because otherwise, the show will have shown up Martin’s long-awaited next installment.

As it is, how do you top a scene like the one that opened this season finale? You thought the Battle of the Bastards was the most impressive thing we saw on TV this season? Nope—it turned out it was the next episode that brought both the fireworks and the death toll. It took the best part of every best part of Game of Thrones so far and rolled it into one 25-minute sequence.

The show man never top this. And I think I’ll live if it doesn’t. But then again, how many times do you kill eight (nine if you count Unella) major supporting characters in a single blow?

The callbacks to the Red Wedding and the ominous doom of the the last time the Starks crowned a King in the North were everywhere. With Melisandre gone, how long until Jon is finding himself stabbed in the back again? Meanwhile, forget CLEAGANBOWL. I’m here for Westeros Wrestling Federation’s next PPV main event: “Mad Queen” Cersei vs “Dragon Queen,” Dany for the Iron Throne. Someone get Jim Ross on the line. We’ll need a professional to call this match.

Wow, ten months seems like a very….very….very long time away, especially if we only have seven or eight episodes next season, which could mean the next season doesn’t start until May. Sam’s got the right idea. Let’s all go to the library, and have ourselves a read.

RICHARD: It looks like I’m the last or next-to-last person to chime in this week, so I’ll try not to completely rehash all of the statements above (which I agree with). Just wait a second as I put on my headphones and blast Ramin Djawadi’s “Light of the Seven” and please excuse me if I melt down into tragic melancholy somewhere along the way.

“The Winds of Winter” was brilliant and may well go down as my ultimate favorite episode of the entire show. It left us on a great stepping stone to await the leap into Season 7, long as that wait may be. As Daenerys sails westward with her well-counseled horde, Jaime parks his army in the new Dark Queen-ruled and smoldering King’s Landing, the North forms up behind new King Jon, crazy-eyed Arya stabs her way towards Winterfell (or King’s Landing), Melisandre rides into frozen exile, Sam studies his keester off in the book-Nirvana Citadel and the Brotherhood Without Banners lug the Hound towards the Wall. All of the coming battles and negotiations are preludes to whatever imperfect alliance may emerge to turn its spears toward the North.

Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss and their writers and directors (breaking free of but still powered by George R. R. Martin’s great story) may seem to have an insurmountable challenge ahead, which is to maintain their storytelling excellence (yes, there have been a few stumbles here and there, but who the f**k cares about that at this point—it’s like being mad because your Tang supply ran out before you landed on the moon) going into the home stretch. The stage is set and audience expectations are high. But let’s remember: the showrunners still haven’t even unleashed the biggest enemy of all. It’s stunning to think that all of this fabulous drama might pale in comparison to the great fight for survival against the Others. To channel Ser Davos: “Winter is coming. And the dead are coming with it. And it’s gonna be great.” Or something like that.