Review Roundup: Season 5, Episode 8 “Hardhome”

Sometimes, all it takes is one expansive, expensive, extended action sequence to turn things around. After a couple of weeks of people feeling let down by Game of Thrones, “Hardhome” is receiving possibly the most accolades of any episode of the show to date. So, shall we round up some hyperbole?

On Hardhome, the battle that saved the season:

Gee, did people like this part of the episode? I don’t know. Alan Sepinwall (Hitfix)?

It’s been 23 minutes since “Hardhome” ended as I start to write this review. In that 23 minutes, I have stared at my television, breathed heavily, and tried very hard to do anything but goggle at what I just experienced. I’ve been in a daze, the kind of daze I feel when I experience a show or movie that transcends even the abundant greatness we see every day in television, and that wraps me so tightly in its web that I can think of nothing else for a long time after it’s done.

I mean, I GUESS it was okay. Nina Shen Rastogo (Vulture):

It feels odd to describe a relentless 15-minute action scene as luxurious, but that’s how it felt to me — a welcome, almost restful break from the standard episode setup, where we switch to a new location, subplot, and/or character set every few minutes. Your personal mileage may vary, especially depending on your affection/tolerance for the show’s more capital-F Fantasy elements — turn back here, ye haters of grumpkins and snarks — but I, for one, relished the surprise of a big, blockbuster setpiece an episode before expected.

But I’ve been wrong before. David Malitz (The Washington Post):

For the watchers on the couch who enjoy the fantasy element of GoT above all, then Sunday’s episode was an instant classic. There’s no denying it was a visual marvel, the sort of blow-HBO’s-mega-budget episode that happens once a year, reminiscent of season 2’s “Blackwater” or last year’s “The Watchers on the Wall.” I mean, there was a giant stomping zombies to death and swatting others away like he was playing whack-a-mole. That was awesome. You ain’t gonna see that on “Halt and Catch Fire.”

Oh jeez, there’s a time and a place, Tim Surette (TV.com):

When we’re on our death beds and the Grim Reaper digs his claws into our souls to take us to our final destinations (see you in Hell!), these are the things that will flash before our eyes: the faces of our grandchildren, our first kisses, our wedding days, and the final 29 minutes of “Hardhome.” Game of Thrones has always had a knack for big-battle episodes, like “Blackwater” and “The Watchers on the Wall,” but the fight that punctuated “Hardhome” beat them all because of one simple fact: it was simmering in a stew of emotions. Hopelessness, desperation, and awe. But the presiding feeling was nature’s greatest. Fear.

It’s worth noting that Alyssa Rosenberg was not terribly impressed:

We’ve had enough bad action choreography, lately. And the White Walkers are by a considerable margin the most boring element of George R.R. Martin’s fictional universe to see in action, even if they are providing half of our climactic, story-ending confrontation. I appreciate the new information that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers, I suppose. But “Hardhome” was a much more interesting consideration of identity and its evolution, loyalty and citizenship before it got punctuated by ten minutes of zombie fighting.

But on the whole, the general vibe of any given recap of “Hardhome” was “holy $%!# that was awesome”—and yes, I purposefully censored myself for emphasis. Heaps of praise, too, for Karsi, played by Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (who was also the villain in Pitch Perfect 2, and now I want to start a zombified acapella group). Also, the giant was pretty cool.

On Tyrion and Daenerys, contemplating the house(s) of cards:

The other exciting part of the episode was the meeting of minds that took place in Essos. “My fingers could hardly keep up with all the fabulous one-liners Tyrion kept dropping in his conversations with Queen Dany,” writes Julie Hammerle. And while Nina Shen Rastogi isn’t quite clear on what Tyrion sees in Dany re: political skill, she writes, “There’s a certain equality between the two of them that neither has experienced for a good long while now, giving each character a chance to play with a fresh relationship dynamic.”

There was also some puppy-dog eyes for the Dany/Jorah dynamic. Kimberly Roots: “On one hand, “He worships you. He is in love with you, I think,” Lannister points out, BECAUSE HE HAS EYES. Look at the painfully hurt looks Jorah and Daenerys exchange while Tyrion talks!” Of course, Tim Surette had a slightly different take:

The slave master said, “Bro, you were a slave, now you’re not a slave, and you want to be a slave again? Wuzzah?” And you could almost hear Ser Jorah sigh, “I’m back because she’s so pretty and she puts butterflies in my tummy when I just think about her.” Was this a romantic gesture by the truly smitten, or was it creepy because she’s like barely old enough to vote and he’s eligible for senior discounts?

But Todd VanDerWerff, like many others, enjoyed touching on the infamous Daenerys quote (which was featured in the trailers for the season) about breaking “the wheel”:

It’s what she says later, though, that really gives this episode some kick. After Tyrion says that she’ll need to win over the rich and the common people, not just the latter, Dany reveals that she doesn’t particularly care about the current power structure. Targaryen, Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Tyrell — they’re all just spokes on the same wheel that keeps crushing the little guys, she says. And she aims to break that wheel.

It’s a pretty breathtaking moment, and it clarifies the series’ whole view of power — it’s only worth something if you’re using it to better the lives of others.

Julie Hammerle discusses the possible endgames this line implies:

Because what is the end? Dany (or whoever) taking the throne isn’t the end. The end is when all these families can stop bickering and fighting and clawing their way to the top. The end, perhaps, is when there is no throne (which is probably not how Dany intended it, but is probably what is best for the people of Westeros).

Lastly, while Nina found significance in this particular quirk of filming, James Hibberd noted how the way the throne room scene was shot sort of emphasized the height disparity between Tyrion and, well, everyone else in the room: “Jeez Dany, the man’s already a dwarf, no need to be a jerk about it.”

On Arya Lana, who has a secret ingredient for oyster stew:

There was some scattered, holistic interest in the other scenes in this episode—and more schadenfreude for Cersei and general creepy vibes from Qyburn—but there were at least a few comments sent Arya’s way as well. (Sorry: Lana’s way. Wait, her name is Lana and no one referenced Archer?) Libby Hill loved the sequence of Arya detailing a day in the life of “Lana”: “This sequence spent as Lana is lovely and cinematic, as though Arya has somehow stumbled out of the bleak dreary world of “Game of Thrones” and into a droll little French film, full of light and life and fresh oysters.” And James Hibberd enjoys the harsh simplicity of the training at the House of Black and White (“no report cards, no grades, everything you do just earns a Smack or No Smack”) and Arya’s change of clothing (“two costumes changes in one year, she’s becoming a regular Lady Gaga”).

Not everyone is entirely sure of where this storyline is going though. David Malitz sums up his own confusion thusly: “Is she working to become a mystical assassin or just your run-of-the-mill grifter who invents a new identity to get one over on a sketchy gambler? Wasn’t this Sawyer’s storyline from “Lost”?” (Don’t tell David how that worked out for Sawyer, it might be considered a spoiler.)

Other Quotes of Note:

“Her voice is hard, the way it is when you still care too much about someone you hate.” —Laura Hudson, Wired, with one of the most hard-hitting quotes about Dany and Jorah. Like, damn, I feel that in my heart.

“If the primary appeal of horror lay in how it heightens our senses as we await certain catastrophe, then it’s the quiet before the storm that we should most appreciate. It’s in the stillness of that fog where our imaginations run wild with dark possibility, so no loud jump-scare will ever be as horrible as the dread leading up to it. —Price Peterson, Yahoo!, getting super-deep about horror.

“Simply put, the White Walkers are the series’ vision of war itself: death breeding death breeding death until nothing living is left.” —A parting gift from Sean T. Collins at Rolling Stone on the sheer power of the events at Hardhome.

• Published on 06/03/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 06/03/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT