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*Spoilers Ahead
Yeah, yeah, I know this is late. Life got in the way this week. Specifically, PlayStation 4 crashed, and I had to get it repaired, so unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to immediately review Days Gone as I had planned. In fact, I probably won't be getting any new games for quite a while until the announce the release date of either Cyberpunk 2077 or The Outer Worlds. It's not that I don't want too, it's that I don't get sent review copies and I'm on a budget. Sorry. Anyway, onto Game of Thrones.
Episode 2 was a slow burn, there's no real action, just lots of characters talking. This episode is interesting because it took a bit to sink in for me. While I was watching the episode, I felt it was too slow, almost sluggish at times. But the more I reflected on the episode, the more I liked it. Yes, there's no action, because this is the calm before the storm. What we get is one last night with all these characters we've come to know and love over eight seasons, many of whom will not survive the next episode. And that's what made this episode great, all the character interactions. Jamie and Tyrion reminiscing together about how much they've changed, Podrick singing, and Arya finally doing what might be the most human thing she's done since she started down the path of little miss badass in season 1.
Jamie knighting Brienne was the highlight of the episode, and about as close as we're going to get to a declaration of love from those two. Brienne has struggled to be taken seriously in a world with traditional gender roles; seeing her acknowledged as an equal was a great payoff.
The Arya and Gendry scene, apparently, I was the only one who saw this coming, no pun intended. It was implied Arya had a bit of a crush on Gendry back in season 2. She's visibly upset when Gendry refuses to come back with her to Winterfell, and angry when the Brotherhood without Banners sells him to Melisandre in season 3. Since their separation, Arya has become a faceless man and survived a ton of trauma. When she reunites with Gendry, she's no longer a girl, she's a grown woman who has closed herself off emotionally in order to survive. I think it makes perfect sense that she'd want to open up physically and emotionally at least once before what to her is a very likely death. I won't lie, it feels weird watching Maisie Williams in a sex scene, because we've all literally watched her grow up, and to a lot of us she feels like a kid sister. But Williams is twenty-two, and Arya is eighteen. If anything, this was one of the more respectable sex scenes on this show because it felt earned. It wasn't there just to titillate.
It would take way too long to cover every little detail in this episode, but all of it together added up for an emotional episode that is easily one of the best in the series. Writing wise, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is definitely in the top three. I plan on re-watching it before the next episode airs.