‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 8 Episode 2 Recap: We Might Not Get Tomorrow So Let’s Do It Tonight

It has always been difficult to properly unpack the representation of women in Game of Thrones.

On the one hand, the show seems to revel in gratuitously nude female bodies, and lingers far too long on their suffering through rape and other violence. For seven seasons, women were emotionally and physically tortured, subjugated to the roles patriarchy deemed acceptable. David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and co. never condoned such behavior, but they never really sought to interrogate it very much, all while delivering maximum titillation. (They did, however, completely fail to realize that Jaime raped Cersei.)

On the other hand, the show has imbued its female leads with extraordinary power and agency. For seven seasons, many women rose above what men had deemed acceptable for them. They asserted their right to humanity. Sometimes, men aided in that journey. More often than not, these women took it for themselves. Those men had no choice but to listen.

Pause for a moment to consider that three or four of the most powerful people in Westeros are all women. One conquered half a continent and plans to conquer another, all while riding a dragon. One now rules the North. One sits on the Iron Throne, and will keep sitting there, if she has anything to say about it. One is arguably the most lethal person on the continent.

If Sunday’s episode demonstrated anything, it is that women now call the shots. That runs up and down the hierarchy. Sansa’s, Daenerys’s, Cersei’s (in absentia), and Arya’s abilities are a given, but they are not the only ones. Gilly appears ready to lead the women protected in the crypts of Winterfell when the battle begins, reassuring one such serf as she passes Davos in the courtyard. Lyanna Mormont rejects Jorah’s pleas to retreat to safety, instead leading her men into battle. A young farm girl wishes to fight alongside the others when the battle begins. Maybe the sappiest moment in Game of Thrones‘s entire run results in Jaime knighting Brienne–the first female knight in modern Westerosi history–to the applause of the great men of the realm.

Brienne was once the insulted brute of a girl, condescended to and disdained despite her obvious power. Jaime was once “the golden knight,” as Tyrion put it. Jaime is now but another soldier, Brienne a battalion commander. Jaime is now the one who will serve Brienne. It is a small thing that means everything, especially after he gives her the one last thing he can–a knighthood.

Power comes in many forms, and not always through physical strength. You saw it poking around the corner in practically every scene. Men themselves looked small next to women, as Jorah did when arguing with his young cousin. Tyrion was ripped to shreds by Daenerys after his latest failure as her Hand. Brienne couldn’t help but gaze quizzically, even patronizingly, as Tormund peacocked his way in front of Jaime. In another time and place, Tormund’s boasting and strutting would inspire awe; now, in front of soon-to-be-Ser Brienne, he just looks goofy.

Arya is the one to take us all by surprise. She has always believed power to be in strength. That has surely been the source of hers up to now. She doesn’t need strength when she gives the Hound and Beric a dressing down on the battlements. A simple roll of the eyes will do. Then, she delivers the line that summarizes the new world order: “I’m not spending my final hours with you two miserable old shits.” Indeed, Arya. The future is female.

I have often thought that Sophie Turner lapped Maisie Williams in GoT‘s later seasons, as they both came of age. Turner possesses a fearsome interiority that is quieter than the performances of Lena Headey or Emilia Clarke, but is no less subtle or nuanced. Williams was simply breathtaking in Sunday’s episode. Every look, every movement, every turn of phrase was sharp and playful, yet muscular and direct. You see her carry the weight of Arya’s brutal life in her shoulders, and yet is light and ebullient as she walks through the castle.

Williams has somehow reconciled the masculine rejection of traditional femininity that Arya has always represented with an emotional richness that allows for her identity as a woman to become much more complex. This is encapsulated in her seduction of Gendry. She is not only a warrior, but a sexual being with desires all her own. Nothing about her sex scene starts with Gendry. She flirts. She initiates. She takes control. She wants him–not because somebody tells her she does, or that she needs to. There may not even be any fluttery notions of true love attached to it. She just wants him, on her terms. I can’t think of a healthier sexual relationship in the show’s 68 episodes to date. Williams bridges the gap between the masculine and the feminine, and owns every last piece of it. Hers is a masterful performance.

If Arya is discovering a new side of herself, Daenerys is left confronting what she has always been. Clarke’s classic look is one of steely reserve. It inspires awe and fear. Daenerys never flinches when she is convinced of the truth of her position. Men quake before her.

You can see Daenerys’s real struggle with the art of diplomacy when she sits with Sansa. Putting on a friendly face and listening to someone with different ideas is not exactly her strong suit. Clarke makes those conflicting impulses dart across her face, as Daenerys forces herself to smile and hold back the totalitarian decrees (up to a point). She almost gets Sansa to back down and accept her as ruler with a gentle, even humorous plea about Jon.

Sansa hits her with the hardest truth that Game of Thrones can offer, one that Daenerys can’t comprehend, if she were honest with herself. “What happens afterwards,” Sansa asks. “We defeat the dead, we destroy Cersei; what happens then?” Clarke allows for us to see that Daenerys is hiding doubt beneath her certainty of “[taking] back the Iron Throne.” After all, the last time she attempted to rule, Slavers Bay descended into chaos. When Sansa asks point-blank about the future of the North, Daenerys’s mask of fury returns. But just underneath, her lack of diplomacy may give her pause. Sansa won’t back down; will Daenerys?

Daenerys has known fear. She has known doubt. But that was a long time ago. Those moments never called her very identity into question. When Jon tells her the truth about who he is, she darts from heartbreak to fear, on to denial, and finally, defiance. Clarke gives us all of these emotions with hardly a word spoken. It is the last and most devastating blow to her power. Both Jon and Sansa may now be enemies. Nobody can speculate what comes next after the battle is over. That is all thanks to the thousand shades of gray with which Clarke paints Daenerys.

Sunday’s episode often felt like it was spinning its wheels, waiting for the battle to finally arrive. Bryan Cogman’s dialogue lays it on fairly thick, not always sure of when to pull back. Whereas “Winterfell” was a hauntingly silent reunion heavy with the weight of history and loss, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” felt very much like a standard “final season” episode of television–get the gang together, and let them all tell each other how they really feel.

When it was at its best, though, it demonstrated the incontrovertible fact that women now hold the reigns of power. Who runs the world?

REUNION CHECKLIST

• Jaime & Bran: “What about afterwards?” “How do you know there is an afterwards?” LOL.
• Sansa & Theon: That soup sharing scene was a bit too lovey-dovey for my taste. But when in Rome, ‘ship a eunuch and the most powerful person north of the Twins, I guess.
• Jon & Edd: (“Now there’s just us three.” A sweet little smeary-lensed callback to the days when the two of them and Sam would all stand on the top of the Wall.
• Jorah & Lyanna Mormont: OK, not technically a reunion, but damn, lay into him, girl!
• Tormund & Brienne: Brienne’s glad he’s there…to fight for them! I hope Jaime doesn’t get the wrong idea.
• Arya & Beric: “Was he on your list?” “For a little while.” Lucky Beric.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• The dragonglass trench defenses are a brilliant tactic. There’s nothing wights love more than thoughtlessly running straight into a barrier.
• Bran offers up either the best plan or the worst plan of all time: hang out in the Godswood, draw out the Night King, and hope that he doesn’t see Drogon and Rhaegal lying in wait. My money’s on the latter.
• Seriously, Arya’s seduction of Gendry is the sweetest and hottest shit ever.
• The drinking buddies scene is at times cloying and then touching. Pod’s song reminded me of another gang holed up the night before a battle, when the enemy marches to kill them all: Rio Bravo. If you haven’t seen it, it’s one of the best westerns ever made. How can a movie with both John Wayne and Dean Martin be bad? Only $2.99 on iTunes and Amazon!!!

Evan Davis is a writer living in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @EvanDavisSports

Stream Game Of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2 ("A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms") on HBO Go