Every episode from the final season of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

“The Long Night,” Season 8, Episode 3

For seven seasons, viewers had been waiting to see the Night King and his army of the dead invade world of the living, for kings to shiver and die in their castles and for women to feel their tears freeze upon their cheeks. “The Long Night” compresses this invasion down to the space of an epic, extra-long episode where the Night King throws his undead army against the walls of Winterfell, and in the end is defeated before he can invade Westeros proper. No story could have completely paid off all that build-up, but “The Long Night” mostly succeeds.

Not that there aren’t flaws, starting with the photography. Yes, the episode is dark. It takes place at night, and the filmmakers wanted to give an idea of the oppressive bleakness closing in on our heroes. It’s a good idea, but the end result is that we just can’t see what’s happening some of the time, which is a problem for what is essentially one long battle sequence.

There are also lots of little annoying oversights and plot conveniences of the kind that became more commonplace as the show went on. For instance, you’re telling me that no one in the castle thought it might be a bad idea to lock all the non-fighters in a corpse-packed crypt when you’re battling an enemy who can raise the dead? And when the corpses start rising, because of course they were going to, no named characters are killed, so not only does everyone down there act like a moron, but the show lets them off the hook for it.

That’s probably my biggest “oh, come on!” moment, but there are a bunch. Still, “The Long Night” comes through when it counts. Melisandre is on fire throughout, kicking things off right by setting ablaze the arakhs of the Dothraki cavalry, lighting up a defensive trench, and making good on her season 3 promise to meet Arya again. Her death scene at the end is the perfect, understated end to a loud, showy hour.

Image: HBO/Game of Thrones

And of course, Arya kills it. There’s a tense scene where she dodges wights in the Winterfell library, and her unexpected slaying of the Night King is a proper get-on-your-feet-and-cheer-your-ass-off moment. The deaths of Theon Greyjoy and Jorah Mormont hit hard (even though not enough named characters died in this episode) and I love that Daenerys and Jon both throw the best they’ve got a the Night King and come up empty.

“The Long Night” may not be the best battle episode in the show’s history, but it sees us through the darkness and out the other side.