Game of Thrones "Mother's Mercy" (Season 5 Finale, Ep. 10) [TV Review]

Another season comes to a close. A sixth will come, this we know.
I'm finding it more and more difficult to begin these reviews.
Each episode is packed with so many events that at times one feel absolutely overwhelmed.
Oh, and before we even get to the 'read more' let me warn you.
This post will be filled with Spoilers.

Even wounded Stannis is a stoic fighter. This but the first uncertain death.

Let me start by saying, that once again the title of the episode is referring to next to last scene. That has become a tad predictable. We know that the title will fall in the last 15 minutes or so. Please avoid that next season.

4.5 out of 5 stars

This was certainly the perfect denouement for the season. Save for that fact that little is explained. Many things are resolved, but like all GoT seasons, new problems come rushing down like a winter's icy blast.   

"In the name of Renly Baratheon, first of his name."

The death count for this episode is going to be massive.

Let us now begin.

"I'm glad the end of the world is working out for someone."

In the north the snows are melting, the ice is weeping. Melissandre's fire sacrifice has worked, or so it seems. However it comes with a high cost. Half of Stannis' army has deserted and taken the horse with them. Queen Selyse has hung herself in the wood. Stannis is without family, without support, and with only half an army marches towards Winterfell.

At Castle Black, Jon and Sam are discussing the army of the White Walkers. Valyrian steel works much like Dragon Glass. That is little comfort, as there are precious few of those swords in the Seven Kingdoms. The big plot point here is that Sam requests that he, Gilly, and baby Sam be sent to Old Town to be a Maester. Jon reluctantly agrees. Sam has always been one of my favorite characters, he still is. He is the nerd of the series, and it is not hard to identify with the nerds.

Back towards Winterfell where Stannis is marching his army towards the castle. Sansa escapes her room intent on signalling Brienne of Tarth with a candle. Unfortunately Podrick informs Brienne that Stannis is marching on Winterfell, his flaming heart banners flying. She leaves her watch and fails to see the candle in the window of the broken tower.
Stannis has his army begins to prepare for a siege, but the army of the Bolton's will not give them pause. The Bolton's (somehow) have thousands of heavy cavalry and are sweeping towards Stannis beleaguered men. The battle goes badly for Stannis as it appears that his entire army is wiped out. He himself is wounded and still defeats two of Bolton's men with his sword. He is wounded again, and lay bleeding at the foot of a tree when Brienne arrives. She sentences him to die for the murder of Renly Baratheon. She swings her blade and the scene jumps to Ramsay killing wounded men in the aftermath of the battle.

Is this the moment when Theon breaks the chains of Reek?

There are thousands of bodies lying in the snow. Thousands, and no one to clean them up or burn them.
You see where I'm going with this?
Yeah, I'm sensing a season six opener involving a massive army of Wights risen from the dead just outside of Winterfell and south of the Wall. Bad news for the Seven Kingdoms.

Sansa attempts to return to her room in Winterfell since no rescue came. However she is waylaid by Myranda, the Kennel Master's daughter, and Reek. Myranda threatens to, and looks ready to enjoy, loosing arrows into Sansa to maim her. Reek, in a moment of atonement (?), shoves Myranda off the ramparts and onto the stone far below. Then together Theon and Sansa leap from the wall into the snow far below and outside the walls of Winterfell.

This is how Theon escapes in the books... but otherwise, who knows what will happen to them.

You were the first name on my list.

Ser Meryn Trant likes young girls, and he likes hitting them. He is a sick bastard. However he has met his match. Sansa, disguised as a waifish whore, withstands his beatings. She then leaps up and with two quick stabs jams her knife through both of his eyes. Then stabs him in the chest several times. Then once in the gut. Then again in the back, and finally she slices his throat. This was a slow brutal killing.

Myrcella is not as stupid as the other children of Cersei.

However she is about to pay for her transgressions against the Many-Faced God. She has stolen a life from him, and life can only be repaid with death. Not hers of course. She is instead struck blind. Which is actually where she should have begun in her service to the Many-Faced God... at least in the books.    

To Dorne.

Three very lost men.

Here Jamie, Myrcella, Trystane, and Bron board a ship to head to King's Landing. As they leave Ellaria sand kisses Myrcella on the lips. Aboard the ship Jamie tries to confess to Myrcella that he is her father, but she already knew. Unfortunately she begins to bleed from the nose. Ellaria had a slow acting poison on her lips, the same we saw used by Tyene Sand on Bron. Ellaria of course has the antidote. 

Drogon has his nest and since he is wounded does not
wish to leave it.

In Meereen we find Tyrion, Jorah, and Daario sitting on the steps to the queens throne. Greywurm walks in, still wounded. Jorah and Daario set off to find Daenerys, leaving Meereen in the hands of Tyrion, Greywurm, Missandei, and (unintentionally) Varys. 

Yes, Varys returns! He, of course, has his little birds here as well. The parallels drawn between Meereen and King's Landing are just funny, but Tyrion was a good Hand of the King. He can probably do a good job in Meereen.

Daenerys is with Drogon on a grass covered ridge. Drogon is not willing to leave his nest. Weather it be from exhaustion, wounds, or stubbornness is unknown. I do like the very animalistic movements that have given the dragon, it makes them very lifelike. Anyways, Daenerys wanders off for food or some reason and encounters an entire Khalissar of Dothraki. She drops her ring, perhaps as the start of a trail, as she is most likely going to be taken against her will.    

In King's Landing we see Cersei confess some of her sins to the High Sparrow, but of course as she repents she lies to him. She compounds that lie with other lies. Somehow the High Sparrow seems to know. She is still going to have a trial for those sins she denies. She asks for the Mother's Mercy (tada, episode title) to visit her son, the King. She is permitted to return to the Red Keep, but her return will not be as she hoped. She must atone.

Cersei is stripped, washed unceremoniously by the septe, and has her hair cut. (If memory and discussion serves me, in the books she was shaved completely). During the cutting of her hair, they cut her scalp and she bleeds. She is brought forth from Baelor's Sept in a sack cloth. She is forced to strip naked again and walk through the city all the way to the Red Keep, on the other side of the city. As she walks, the crows hurl epithets at her, they spit on her, they expose themselves to her, they fling feces and rotten food at her. The entire time a Septe rings a bell and chants the word 'Shame' over and over again.

Now this is a well done scene. As she walks, you can see Cersei breaking. She is crushed by this walk. Lena Headey does an amazing job slowly cracking under the cries of the crowd. You actually begin to feel empathy for this character, which uptil this point was seen as someone you could never like, never pity. In fact if you were like me, you were looking forward to this scene. However, upon seeing it, it is a powerful scene, one that is actually very uncomfortable to watch. Little joy can be taken in it. The director did an amazing job making her empathetic, and making the crowd into a filthy beast.

And as much as I enjoy the idea of seeing the rich and powerful pulled down, I begin to wonder if the High Sparrow has ever forced a commoner to do the same thing. There were whores in the crowd. Has he ever forced them to do the same? I think not. He would never force his followers to do the same thing, he would lose them. He lets them revel in their hypocrisy.

Finally at last we head to the Wall again.

"For the Watch."

Ser Davos is pleading with Jon Snow to send troops to aide Stannis when Melissandre arrives alone on horseback. She says not a word, but Ser Davos knows and suspects the worst.

I said Olly was going to do something very stupid.
I was right.

Then while Jon Snow sits in his office late at night working, Olly comes in claiming to have news of Jon's uncle Benjin Stark. Jon is lead through a group of the Night's Watch to a sign that reads 'Traitor' whereupon he is stabbed first by Alistor Thorne, and then four more brothers, before finally being stabbed by Olly. Each stab is punctuated with the words "For the Watch." Jon topples to the snow and lays there bleeding. However, let me point out one thing...

The light never dies in his eyes. There is a film technique to show death in a persons eyes by removing the light. They either have not done this for some reason, or Jon Snow is not dead. Now, sadly, I have read somewhere online that Jon Snow is actually dead.

But does that matter? Think back to season 3, and a character named Beric Dondarrion. We see him die, cut down by Sandor Clegane. However Thoros of Myr brings him back to life and 'heals' him. Death is no bar for the Lord of Light and who might just have arrived at Castle Black? Yep, Melissandre. I do not think for one minute that Jon Snow is going to stay dead. He is (I think) the Ice from the original series title A Song of Ice and Fire.

In fact, I'm not convinced that all the deaths we 'saw' were actually deaths. This series has no qualms about showing us grissley deaths, gruesome murders, torture, or rape. Why would they cut away from Stannis being killed unless something else has happened there? I do not think they would. I think something else has happened.

However we will have to wait until next season to see if I am right... or until the cast list for season six comes out. If we see Kit Harrington on the cast list, I think we know what is going on. Same goes for Stephen Dillane.

Now once again, we have to wait ten months before we can once again immerse ourselves in the cruel, bloody, violent, and horrifying world of Game of Thrones once again. Until then, re-watch it from the beginning, get the books and read them, or find some audiobooks and give the series a listen. The time must be filled somehow.

Death Count for the final episode of season 5, Mother's Mercy:
- Queen Selyse Baratheon
- 5000 Men in Stannis' Army
- King Stannis Baratheon (?)
- Myranda, the Kennel Master's Daughter
- Ser Meryn Trant
- Princess Myrcella Barathon (?)
- Lord Commander Jon Snow of the Night's Watch (?)

Previous Game of Thrones reviews:

Season 5:
- The Wars to Come (Ep1)
- The House of Black and White (Ep2)
- High Sparrow (Ep3)
- Sons of the Harpy (Ep4)
- Kill the Boy (Ep5)
- Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (Ep6)
- The Gift (Ep7)
- Hardhome (Ep8)
- The Dance of Dragons (Ep9)

Season 4:
- Two Swords (Ep1)
- The Lion and the Rose (Ep2)
- Breaker of Chains (Ep3)
- Oathkeeper (Ep4)
- The First of His Name (Ep5)
- The Laws of Gods and Men (Ep6) 
- Mockingbird (Ep7)
- The Mountain and the Viper (Ep8)
- The Watchers on the Wall (Ep9)
- The Children (Ep10)