Knee-Jerk Reactions to “Winterfell”—Five Best and Worst Moments

VALYRIAN STEEL FIVE: Lyanna Mormont doesn’t mince words.

As expected, fan favorite Lyanna Mormont is the only northern lord with balls big enough to stand up in the Winterfell Great Hall and lambast Jon for bending the knee to Daenerys Targaryen. Jon’s response was reasonable, and you know Lyanna and the Mormonts will remain loyal to the end, but that doesn’t mean Lyanna won’t keep calling Jon and Sansa out if she doesn’t like what’s going on.

VALYRIAN STEEL FOUR: We all love a good parade.

Jon Snow and Daenerys marching into Winterfell with the Unsullied, Dothraki and ever-impressive dragons was dramatic and a grand opener for the final season. It focused on Arya’s perspective, which made it something of a bookend to her character witnessing the Baratheon/Lannister procession arrive at Winterfell in the very first episode of the series.

VALYRIAN STEEL THREE: She’s an assassin, but she’s still his little sister.

In an episode packed full of heartfelt reunions, we were most looking forward to the one between Jon and Arya, and it felt just right. The scene struck the perfect balance for a reunion between two people who are very changed but still love each other dearly. Nobody had better cross Jon, or Arya will be wearing their face.

VALYRIAN STEEL TWO: You’re supposed to kill all the witnesses.

Jaime’s hooded arrival at Winterfell is the punctuation mark at the end of the episode. His stunned eyeballing of Bran, the kid he shoved out of the Broken Tower in the series premiere a million years ago, makes it an exclamation point.

There’s a ton of wordless weight in this scene. We realize how much Jaime has changed since then, but a word from Bran to Jon and he’ll have to pay — probably the ultimate price — for his crimes. But Bran is so mysterious now, and devoid of personal animosity, that he may well let Jaime go unpunished…at least by Jon. It looks like Daenerys has a few things to say to him, too.

VALYRIAN STEEL ONE: Jon Snow learns his true Targaryen/Stark identity from Sam.

It was impossible to place this anywhere but Number One, both because of this scene’s importance to the Thrones story — man, are things between Jon and Dany gonna be complicated from now on — and the powerful performances by the actors involved.

We all knew this scene was coming, and aglow in the haunting torchlight of the Stark family crypts,  it didn’t disappoint. Jon’s slowly comprehending stare pins you in your seat.