Show: Game of Thrones
Episode: The Long Night (Season 8, Episode 3)
Channel: Home Box Office
Runtime: 1h 22m
Rated: TV-MA
Drake Brothers’ blog is primarily known for reviewing movies. However, the three of us are television fans as well. We are currently in what I and several other film scholars call the New Golden Age of television. While there have always been great and popular T.V. shows in every era, the overall quality and quantity of programming suffered in the recent past. (Remember how many reality shows there were in the mid-2000s?) Many cable subscribers began to cancel their programming packages in favor of alternative services, such as Netflix. Gone were the days (for the most part, with some exceptions) of mini-series, movies-of-the-week, and the family sitting around the T.V. promptly at 9 PM. Why pay for an expensive cable subscription, when you can watch every episode of several of your favorite shows for a fraction of the cost?
Thankfully, many cable channels took notice of the changing times. If they did not want to keep losing customers, they had to make a change. Thankfully, they did, and the result was a delight for lovers of visual media. We can now say, thanks to this great television revival, that we have a fantasy television show that is on par in quality with theatrical motion pictures: H.B.O.’s Game of Thrones.
The drama and action presented in Game of Thrones is some of the best put to screen (big or small!). One of the best examples of Game of Thrones big-screen quality is The Long Night (S8, E3). The pacing, acting, action (and most of all, the suspense!) was top-notch. In my opinion, it would be a waste of time to make a Game of Thrones movie because there is no way that they could make it any better than this.
My only nit-pick for this episode is that the nighttime lighting was a little too dark in my opinion. And even then, all I had to do was raise my back-lighting a little on my T.V. To be fair, I play my video games of full-brightness, and I keep my phone on full-brightness as well, so take my nit-pick was a grain of salt. Now that I got that out of the way, on to the review!
"The Long Night" is about the ultimate battle between the living and the dead. The entire show, since the opening scene of the very first episode, has been building up to this moment. Hours upon hours of storytelling has brought most of our favorite characters together to Winterfell, the Stark family home, to fight for the living.
The Army of the Living
The Dothraki (commanded by Jorah Mormont)
The Dothraki lead the first charge and are quickly overtaken by the army of the dead in the shadows.Jorah, my favorite character, survives this first attack and retreats to the Unsullied. I think that the Dothraki knew that they were headed off to their death, but did so anyways. Their bravery will not be forgotten. Even though the Dothraki were mostly background characters on the show, I still have a place in my heart for them. They have been with Dany since season 1, and their culture has been an iconic part of the show.
The Unsullied (commanded by Grey Worm)
The Unsullied bravely defended the Red Witch while she was trying to light up the fire trench. They literally faced death in the face in order to give the army for time to retreat.
The Knights of the Vale (flanked by Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister)
Jaime Lannister, my second favorite character, really comes full circle this season. Jaime finally confronts Bran Stark about his past, and is forgiven. After all, as Bran points out, neither Bran nor Jaime would be where they are now if events played out differently. Jaime Lannister and Brienne fight very well together. There were several times where it looked like they were going to be overwhelmed by the army of the dead. Exhausted, both are surrounded by a pile of slain wights by the end of the episode.
The Free Folk and Northern Houses (flanked by the Brotherhood without Banners and the Night's Watch)
Edd Tollett, the last remaining commander of the Night's Watch, is killed saving Samwell Tarly. Edd valiantly protected his friends through many battles until the very end. Edd’s watch has ended.
At the end of the episode, Sam is surrounded by a pile of slain wights, proving once and for all that Samwell Tarly is a fierce warrior. Lady Mormont was way out of her league in this battle. She should have listed to Jorah and stayed in the crypts. That being said, she left a fine example of bravery for her men to give them courage to finish the battle.
The Ironborn (led by Theon Greyjoy and Brandon Stark)
The Ironborn are sent to the Godswood to lure the Night King. Theon knew that this was basically a suicide mission, but bravely did it anyways. Theon is one of the few characters to face the Night King head on. After watching all that Theon went through on Game of Thrones, I almost teared up when Bran told Theon that he is a good man. That alone made Theon’s journey worth it.
The Dragons Rhaegal and Drogon (ridden by Jon Snow and Dany Targaryen)
Rhaegal and Drogon flew around the outskirts of the battlefield to await an opportunity to ambush the Night King with their hot flames. I always thought that dragon fire would melt White Walkers, but I was surprised to find out that Drogon’s flames did not even singe the Night King. It was sad and awesome at the same time to see the wight version of Viserion. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Rhaegal and Drogon to see their brother as a wight dragon. Viserion almost killed Jon, but luckily Arya killed the Night King before Viserion could finish the job.
Dany is a good ruler and an exceptionally talented dragon rider. However, she is not the best at hand-to-hand combat. Alas, my favorite character, Jorah Mormont, died defending Dany from wights. He died defending the woman that he loved and I wouldn’t have wanted him to die in any other way.
The Civilians in the Crypts (including Sansa Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Varys, Missandei, and Gilly)
When the Night King resurrected the fallen soldiers and turned them into wights, he also turned the dead Starks into wights. This is the closest thing to “Lady Stoneheart” that readers of the books series are ever going to get. Sansa and Tyrion were pretty close to doing a suicide pact. That’s how dire the situation was. Many of the women and children died during the wight attack. I can't say that they were stupid for hiding in the crypts because I did not think about the Night King being able to turn buried bodies into wights either.
My Thoughts on the Ending
Not everyone is going to be happy with the ending, no matter what they did. That being said, I thought that the ending was perfect. Jon was too far away (and too obvious of a choice) to slay the Night King. So I thought that Arya was the right choice. She was able to sneak up on the Night King due to her Faceless Man training. And even then she almost died! Luckily for our heroes, Arya reacted quickly and became the M.V.P. of the battle.
Final Thoughts
Like the Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers, the Battle of Winterfell was an intense, scary battle. Part of me does not want to be there, yet there is another, stronger part of me that wants to “fight for the living.” That is what this episode does best. It is scares you, but also inspires you to never give up. Even though this battle looked hopeless, our heroes fought for each other to fight until the very end. I especially liked how Beric encouraged to the Hound to keep fighting when he was scared stiff. There was no backstabbing in this episode, nobody tried to take advantage of the situation. Not that I do not like those kind of episodes, but I feel like this episode helps put the rest of the show in perspective. It could have always been like this. They all (every character, country, family, etc.) had the ability to get along and work together the whole time. And all it took for them to see that was a zombie apocalypse.
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