Sidney Stokes: Well WERRRKers for a very special episode we have a very special edition of the Game Guide. Welcome to the the Game Guide for What the Walking Dead! Since zombies showed up we needed WERRRK dot com’s expert in walking around dead, Spencer!
Spencer Williams: Yo! I am just going to get this out of the way now..If Winterfell borrowed Carol Peletier for a night and gave her some really sharp valyrian steel… this episode would have been twenty minutes!
SS: Ballpark figure, how long have you been waiting to type that?
SW: Since April 17th, 2011
SS: Well it happened. The moment that we have been waiting for has finally happened. We survived but honestly….did we?
SW: Honestly, yes. Though last night was one of the most tragic episodes we have ever seen… it could have been way worse. We are lucky.
SS: It was tragic, it was hard, but it needed to happen. Tonight’s episode was def about giving people a major battle. We’ve truly never seen anything like this episode before ever. It never gave us a second to breathe. From the moment the Red Woman arrives…..which I guess is the best place to start.
SS: To be honest, I expected her to arrive with a force of some kind, when she showed up solo, I was dropped my jaw. She showed up solo with a lighter and kerosene.
SW: People have been comparing this episode to the Battle of Helmsdeep from The Two Towers. If anything, that should say something to the epicness of this episode. Okay so Melisandre appears out of the darkness and you can instantly tell she has something up her sleeve….
SS: She did, but only for Dothraki and the poor Unsullied who just got a “Vvalar morghulis.” Also, Jorah didn’t get a flaming sword. My mother raised me to bring enough for everyone.
SW: Yeah how rude. This is probably why she wasn’t invited to the multiple Winterfell pregames a few hours before.
SS: Truly, the start of the battle was epic, when the flames went out, I for sure said “Oh fuck.” I mean what a way to start. The entire Dothraki force, wiped out. I couldn’t help but think of the scene at the end of 5 when Dany is surrounded by them and now, gone…like that.
SW: It was seriously unreal. All of these years, trying to figure out how to get the Dothraki just onto boats to help take Westeros. Then in a matter of minutes, they are with the dead and fighting for the Night King. I would pour some out for the Dothraki, but I don’t think there is enough wine to cover the entire episode…
SS: …you don’t wanna waste your wine.
SS: I kept wondering the whole time, why didn’t they just start with the dragonfire? They just kinda sat and watched. Like during the retreat the dead were all just standing there by the fire, why didn’t they just burn them.
SW: Okay I am just going to say it: Jon and Daenerys were not scoring many points this episode. I mean C+ work at best.
SS: I mean since we are here we might as well talk shit on em. Useless, they were useless. I know they got blizzarded which, was kind of dumb, but all they had to do was fly downward and they kept trying to go through the blizzard, which again made no sense. They didn’t burn nearly enough.
SW: Literally at one point, Jon and Rhaegal were just sitting on top of the castle? I am guessing they forgot to ask Rudolph to light their way that night. I hope Arya yells at them both when they get back.
SS: I mean all they neeeeeded to do was add a line about a dragon needing recovery time and it made sense.
SS: I do appreciate that we got breathing time before the dead breached the walls. I’m glad we got time in the crypt, which i think was all about the Sansa and Tyrion reunion.
SW: Oh yes, I really loved that scene. I won’t lie, I thought Sansa and Tyrion were going to kiss at one point. Which I would be okay. I love both of these characters and I just want them to live happily ever after. They fucking deserve it.
SS: I think that would be really great, assuming Tyrion survives. It would be a weird full circle moment. The crypt stuff was what it was, I wasn’t a fan of the dead there rising but I guess it made sense. I’m just happy we didn’t have a zombie Ned sitch, That would have crossed into the world of dumb.
SW: I loved the crypt stuff, but I agree lines would have been crossed if any notable characters were resurrected. Luckily it was just great aunt Susan which no one cared about.
SS: Hey Now, Susan was a lovely woman!
SW: Susan was trying to eat Baby Sam!
SS: One problem I had with this episode is I hate that they had Sansa do nothing. I wish we coulda seen her save one person with that knife, it literally never came into play. Sansa coulda done something, they made her like like she was hiding. Same with Tyrion. He talked a big game about wanting to be out fighting but wish he coulda showed it.
SW: Oh yes! It got to the point where I started to think they were going to commit suicide.
SS: Which woulda made less sense.
SW: Either way, actually helping people was clearly out of the question.
SS: I’m gonna let you talk about the scene with Arya in the library since really….that’s basically a scene from The Walking Dead. Look at the good I do…see Chiffon…I’m NICE. (Editor’s note: He’s really not.)
SW: That scene was a master class in horror. I mean really! I was seriously scared! What I enjoyed so much about this scene was the way they used the set. For years, Winterfell was like our home. It is where this story began. Winterfell is where some of the greatest GOT characters lived. But in the darkness of this epic battle, Winterfell became a complicated horror set that could easily be a maze at Universal Halloween Horror Nights. The difference between Arya and I is that I would have just laid under that table and cried.
SS: Does that make Arya the Carol of GOT?
SW: Hmmm good question. Arya killed THE leading zombie so that is huge. But I would like to get a count on how many zombies my girl Brienne of Tarth executed.
SW: Speaking of, Brienne and Jamie survived! Yessssss!
SS: Them fighting side by side with swords made from Ned’s sword. That level of thought is what makes me love this show.
SW: I seriously thought at least one of them wouldn’t make it to the end of this episode and I am so glad I was wrong. The character arcs of these two characters are proof of the excellence of this show.
SS: I still think at least Jamie is doomed, he’s redeemed, but very very doomed.
SW: That is a real possibility. But I will continue to stay strong. Speaking of redemption, Theon had a cute little moment?
SS: Yes, he quite literally got the go ahead to die redeemed.
SW: Bran was like, “That’s all.” In all serious though, Theon did good. I was proud of him in his last moments. This is coming from someone who has actively wished for Theon’s death for several seasons now.
SW: For me, one of my worst GOT fears was realized and it was with the incredible sacrifice of one of the best characters: Lyanna Mormont.
SS: Oh yeah but take comfort in the fact that she went out on a level of badass we only saw from the Queen of Thorns. Who I wanna imagine greeted her in the afterlife and said, “Well done.”
SS: Ok, We should we talk about the big death.
SW: Sure… I am scared to open back up about it.
SS: Ser Jorah: We always know he’d go out defending her, but we never could imagine he’d go out fighting NEXT to her.
SW: Oh dear G*d my heart. That was truly the most heartbreaking scene. Jorah was one of my favorite characters so this was really hard to watch.
SS: And the final turn of the knife, Drogon coming down and surrounding them.
SW: I wanted the Jorah and Dany relationship to be a thing, and now it never will come to be. Life is not fair.
SS: Ok…welll no that remains weird…but it was beautiful scene. It needed to happen. Dany needed this to have and I think she’ll use it as fuel for her Cersei anger.
SW: Hell it’s even fueled my anger, and Cersei is one of my top three characters.
SS: Speaking for fire….when I tell you that Night King’s grin after Dany’s unsuccessful burn will haunt my dreams until my death. ….BELIEVE ME! We haven’t gotten much from the Night King but his grin was perfect.
SW: Ooooh on this episode of Untucked! The Night King looked like Dany just tried to read him through email, but he clapped back even harder and CC’d her boss.
SS: What I loved about this was it was setting up that they both ran out of their tricks. It was seriously a WTF do we do now situation and left them both scrambling. It was a perfect set up for No One.
SS: I cannot stress this enough Spencer…I LOVED that it was Arya who took him out.
SW: I did not expect this at all, but I realize that I have been my waiting my entire life for this moment. In the words of Leslie Jones, “ARYAAAAA !!!!!!”
SS: Wanna know what I loved most about it, and this is coming from someone who has never had Arya in his Top 5?
SW: TELL ME!
SS: That I legit never saw it coming. Not at all not even when I realized it was her. This show, which built it’s name on subverting your expectations they did so with this because of all the theorizing fans did this was never it and yet it made the most sense. People spoke of the prophecy of the one who was promised, first it was a prince, then it was revealed that it could be a princess as there is no gender specific word for that part of the prophecy, so who better to fulfill it than someone who has been a girl, a boy, and no one. The Starks always knew this would come and always said “There must always be a Stark in Winterfell” and now we see why. Winterfell never made sense to be saved by a Targaryen, it always needed to be a Stark and it was and I hope that Sansa rebuild. QUEENS IN THE NORTH! Ned didn’t fight in this battle but so much of him was all over it.
SW: I totally agree. It was incredible watching last night’s episode , the thinking back on where it all started. The show staff knew this would happen and it was being set up right under our own eyes. The knife that was given to Arya, the blue eyes prophecy, her entire training. What a fucking masterpiece. Long live House Stark.
SS: This was what we needed, I know the end is controversial, I’ve talked to many people who felt this shouldn’t have wrapped up this quick or neat. I get that point and know the feeling of disappointment when we don’t get the story we want. But this show’s looming terror was always this, but it’s main conflict wasn’t. This threat meant more to the characters but I feel cause we have had more actual story time with Cersei she will always BE the main threat of the show cause we have way more invested in that. Personally I am happy that they can now turn back south. I think the next episode will be about resetting the pieces again, for one last time. I had one friend put it so well so I have to bring it here, ” [The war with the dead] was a tool to force and show personal changes.” No one is walking out of this the same.
SW: I totally understand that point. But it had to come to an end at some point and honestly I loved it. Yes, the Night King was a threat. But Cersei has always been THE threat to these characters. From the beginning, the iron throne was always the finish line. The Night King was just a huge road block.
The Long Night, in summation:
“Nothing like this has ever been done on TV and here’s exactly why.”
SS: Spencer thank you for joining me on this episode and every time you’ve joined in or written when I couldn’t we have three more Game Guide’s left but you have always been the biggest supporter and one of my favorite people to talk Thrones with. Valar morghulis.
SW: Sidney, thank you for inviting me. Though I must say… things around here are pretty messed up. And I come from a show where one of our main characters has a mullet and the bad guys wear other peoples faces…wait a minute. Valar Dohaeris.
Keep Geek…and chic.
Team SJ.
