Melisandre burned brightly in the latest Game of Thrones episode, “The Long Night,” and went out with a beautiful bang. She may not have shown up with the Fiery Hand from Volantis, but she certainly through in a clutch.
This was Melisandre’s one and only episode for the final season of Game of Thrones, but she made it count. Do you think anyone picked up her necklace after she dropped in on the ground?
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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Carice van Houten spoke about filming this epic episode and bidding farewell to the series. “When I read it, I was just really happy and satisfied with the way it happened — the elegance of it, the subtlety, and the emotional side of her, which we haven’t really seen much of,” she said. “I got goosebumps when I read it. I thought it was a beautiful ending. I was very, very grateful.”
She expanded on this speaking to The New York Times:
"People underestimated her character arc and her complexity, and I was very happy that people don’t see her as a flat character or just pure evil or whatever. I was happy to be able to give her some humanity in the end."
We saw that humanity come out as Melisandre look a long walk into the rising sun. “My work is done here,” Van Houten said. “I’ve served my purpose. I’m tired. In a way, it’s a sort of sacrifice. I mean, suicide sounds a bit too strong, but it is. She’s old. She longs for peace. She’s done.”
And yet, there’s still a ton we don’t know about Melisandre — she has a few centuries of backstory, after all, including time as a slave on Essos. “That has been — not a frustration, but I have longed for that as well myself,” Van Houten said. “I would have loved to know more, and see more, about that. Because she’s so mysterious, it leaves you a bit hungry. But that’s okay. I sort of like that. Better that than to feel fed up!”
Maybe Mel could appear in HBO Game of Thrones show? She is, after all, a lot older than anyone else on the show, bar maybe the Night King.
"I can do more if people have fun ideas! You almost feel that she’s been burdened by this religion, so you want to see her when she started out, when she was young and innocent. I would be really interested to see her as a child, in fact. I would love that. But as much as it was painful and sad to have this end, it always feels like this is just the way it had to be. It was a great seven years, and it was the perfect time."
Fire is one of the few things that can kill a wight, and fire is one of Melisandre’s specialties. The scene where she lights the trench was the last thing she filmed:
"The lighting of the trenches, I do remember feeling so intense, and almost crying. It was the very last scene I shot, I think. It was mixed up with everything ending. By playing it so intensely, when the scene was over and my whole character was over, I really had to release. I started crying. The tension had built up so much."
That was personally one of my favorite scenes from the episode. Van Houten definitely did it justice, and showed us that this centuries-old being can still be afraid. You could definitely see the motion in her.
But of course, neither Melisandre lighting the trench nor her setting the Dothraki arakhs aflame made much different in the end. The most important thing Mel did may have been pointing Arya in the right direction, a moment Van Houten loved. “I knew they were going to come back at some point to the ‘brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes’ thing,” she said. “It wasn’t random. It was significant. And of course, a lot of smart fans already picked up on that. They probably knew it before I knew it!”
While we still have three episodes of Game of Thrones left, Melisandre’s time has come to an end. How does van Houten feel about that?
"I’m happy I was part of something that’s really so unique in that it really connects all sorts of people. There’s a bond that we have with people who have watched this. The simple fact of people talking to each other about this past week’s episode … it doesn’t even matter where you come from. The way you connect over it? I just f***ing love that. In a world where there’s less and less connection, I just love it."
We move forward without the Red Woman this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. CST.
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