Game of Thrones review: “The Long Night” delivers on the epic battle but lowers the stakes for the rest of the season

The 90-minute Battle of Winterfell was every bit as epic as promised, and the outcome was one that fans weren’t expecting. Still, “The Long Night” has left many of us wondering what could possibly come next.

The showrunners, cast, and crew of Game of Thrones have been building fans up for the huge, 90-minute Battle of Winterfell since they started releasing details about the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. And after watching “The Long Night,” most fans can agree that the battle itself was every bit as intense and epic as promised. The army of the dead made a formidable—and nearly unbeatable—opponent, and we lost several key characters in the fight against them.

And on top of the well-executed action sequences, the episode does a fantastic job of building the tension until the very end. The fast-paced nature of the battle keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, and we’d be remiss not to mention the score. Music is purposeful, whether it’s swelling or just a few strokes of a piano key, and any silence is purposefully placed to do the same.

The conclusion of the battle is also an ending that maintains Game of Thrones’ reputation for shocking its fans, and we’re not going to lie—watching Arya kill the Night King is one of the coolest things about the episode.

The fact that Jon and Daenerys were supposed to take him down but failed to is a tribute to how human the characters are, and it’s something we can get on board with. Arya being the one to do it also made sense of plotlines that began long ago, including Melisandre’s prophecy and the meaning behind Littlefinger’s dagger.

Still, some fans are disappointed in how abruptly the battle ended. It seems there was no other way for any of the main characters to survive without someone taking out the Night King, but most viewers went into “The Long Night” expecting tragedy. And while we certainly got some of that in the form of Theon’s sacrifice, Jorah’s death, and Lyanna’s final charge against a giant, the Night King himself didn’t exactly deliver on all the buildup from the past seven seasons.

For an enemy that’s supposed to be the most powerful being in Westeros, it seems outlandish that he’d be defeated in a single episode. And it’s not that Arya killing him is necessarily a problem—but the timing does sort of feel off. Not only did Game of Thrones write off one of its most interesting villains and storylines midseason, but it left fans with only the battle against Cersei to look forward to during the final three episodes. Taking the army of the dead out of the equation has lowered the stakes a bit going into the final season of the series, because let’s be honest, how many of us actually believe Cersei will win?

And it’s possible that the showrunners will play with our expectations in that way. Cersei and Euron could surprise us, especially now that Dany’s army is essentially gone. The twist could very well be that the humans are more dangerous than the monsters.

Still, Daenerys has some powerful players on her side—including the faceless assassin who just destroyed the greatest threat in Westeros. There’s hardly anyone fans care about backing Cersei, and even Stannis almost took King’s Landing from her. Short of the show throwing a major curveball at us over the next few episodes, it seems impossible she’ll keep the throne in the end.

On top of that, for a series finale that was meant to be about more than the throne, the final season is shaping up to be exactly that: the same characters squabbling over the Iron Throne… again. It always seemed like the forces of nature would be the real “big bad” of Game of Thrones, but that concept seems to have died with the Night King. In some ways, that’s the biggest loss of “The Long Night.”

Game of Thrones continues next Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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