‘Game of Thrones’ – Season 8 – ‘The Last of the Starks’ – Review
I didn’t think it could get any better after last week’s triumphant third episode of season 8 of Game of Thrones. How the hell can you top Arya Stark’s slaying of the Night King himself? Well with some serious intrigue of course and mark my words the game is still at play.
The White Walkers may have been vanquished and with them the long night cast aside from the world of Westeros forever, and so with the dawning of episode four, The Last of the Starks, we see those who fell to the blades of the dead set alight as heroes and their memories preserved by all those around them.
But what of the living. What of those still alive. Well, the game is still at play and things are going to get interesting. For starters, we have the growing rift that is forming between Jon (Kit Harrington) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), which all leads back to the truth and it will not set any of our characters free this time. Instead, all we have is the growing tension of those loyal to Jon and those loyal to Daenerys growing further apart, plus Daenerys’ added desire to push her claim on the Iron Throne.
In every part of Season 8 of Game of Thrones we’ve seen Daenerys shedding her liberator persona and becoming more of a tyrant day by day and that is really getting to a head here. Unconcerned with any notion of strategy she presses on for the Iron Throne and it is a move that costs her dearly. This, plus the bombshell of Jon Snow’s true identity only leads further to this complication and both Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Lord Varys (Conleth Hill), the spider himself, calculate on the matter and I can certainly see the strands of division and betrayal forming here.
However, if I have to choose an MVP for this episode then it definitely goes to Jerome Flynn who once again returns as the sellsword Bronn, a fan-favourite who continues to charm us at every turn, turns up in a scene that certainly gets audiences going. Again it was the unexpected here and I didn’t see this scene coming. His ultimatum is clear and I’ll definitely be interested to see how Flynn plays into these final two episodes.
It’s all getting complicated again, and that’s exactly what you expect from Game of Thrones. And of course, is what we love about it. The politics are getting deadly again, betrayal is in the air and the final scene certainly places the shock value on the audience, while announcing what is to come: fire and blood.
Game of Thrones airs Monday 1pm on SoHo and later in the evening on NEON.
Images: Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO.
