Opinion: 'Game of Thrones' Season 8, Episode 5 review: 'The Bells' toll for thee, Daenerys
By Alyssa Rosenberg Alyssa Rosenberg Opinion writer covering culture Email Bio Follow Opinion writer May 12 at 11:54 PM Note: I’m reviewing “Game of Thrones” from the perspective of someone who has read all of George R.R. Martin’s novels, while my colleague David Malitz, who hasn’t read the books, will be writing straight recaps. His write-up of Episode 5, “The Bells” will appear at The Post’s Style Blog. This post discusses the events of the May 12 episode of “Game of Thrones” in detail.
Our climactic showdown is ostensibly between Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen , two women who have been stripped of their families and devastated by the loss of their children.Daenerys grew up an orphan thanks to Jaime’s slaying of her father, and Robert Baratheon’s rebellion led to the deaths of her other relatives, forcing her and her brother, Viserys , who abused Daenerys, into exile. Cersei, by contrast, grew up with a father and a mother.
For now, what’s important is that “The Bells” gave us a striking illustration that what counts isn’t necessarily precise degrees of personal ruthlessness. Instead, what matters most in the final clash between Daenerys and Cersei is which of them has the means of carrying out their ruthlessness to its full expression.
After all, Cersei may have died, but she left life as she always intended to: with the twin who came into the world with her and who couldn’t imagine a place for himself in it without her. Jaime’s decision to leave Brienne of Tarth and return to Cersei may have been one of the casualties of this final season’s pacing, but there’s no denying Headey and Coster-Waldau’s acting in their final scenes together. Cersei dies, but she dies loved and protected.
In other bits of family business, I’ll leave it to viewers who spent years excited about Cleganebowl to decide whether Sandor Clegane’s dispatching of his undead brother, Gregor , lived up to the hype. Sandor insisted that a Stark sibling look him in the face once before, demanding that Sansa see in his scars the world as Sandor believed it really was. This time, when he commands Arya to really see him, it turns out to be because he believes the world can be something different, at least for her. It seems, briefly, as though Arya might be able to follow Sandor’s advice. She turns away from the Red Keep and from her list.
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