PICS: Game of Thrones – The Bells

***Update: The entire boxset of Game of Thrones S1 to S8 is now available to binge-watch on Showmax.***

Episode 5 of Season 8 of Game of Thrones is perhaps most accurately characterised as 75 minutes of cold-blooded, fiery murder.

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t watched it on Showmax yet, look away now.

 

Daenerys now fully realises the threat that Jon Snow poses to her lifelong dream of sitting on the Iron Throne. Nobody loves her (not even Jon – who loves her only as his Queen); everybody loves him. That basic truth is arguably what drives the carnage that unfolds over the penultimate episode.

If they don’t love her, they have to fear her, and so she and Drogo spend the day sowing terror into the hearts of anyone who, by some miracle, survives their assault on King’s Landing. And this after The Bells of the Red Keep sounded, which meant the city had surrendered.

We’d like to write that it’s not all gloom and doom, but that would be a lie. There’s plenty of doom (women and children fleeing their inevitable deaths by the droves) and boatloads of gloom (so it seems Jaime wasn’t planning on killing Cersei after all – he wanted to rescue her, and, when it became clear he wouldn’t manage, he wanted to die with her).

We finally witness the long-awaited clash of the Cleganes. Despite ourselves, we wanted the Hound to win, of course, but while Game of Thrones is fantasy, it’s also true to itself. The Mountain was still an immortal zombie, the Hound was still a man. So in a way, we should be grateful that neither of them won, in the end.

And after the way Arya left the ruins (she survived!), we’re more sure than ever that she’s destined for great things.

Only time will tell – and it’s not long until we find out how it will all play out. We don’t know about you, but we’re going to be watching the finale on Monday, 20 May at 22:00 on Showmax with our hearts in our throats.

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