Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4: Winners and losers of “The Last of the Starks”

Four episodes into the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, and it seems like the juggernaut has become a victim of its own hype.

At this point, fans have to wonder how this sprawling narrative will be wrapped up in only two episodes. In “The Last of the Starks” the gang heads south to try to convince Cersei to see reason (a fool’s errand if ever we saw one), Ghost gets ghosted (Jon doesn’t even say goodbye to his beloved and loyal friend — what kind of a king is this?), and a mysterious coffee cup makes a cameo appearance in Winterfell.

Winners

Game of Thrones S8E4 production still. Photo: Courtesy of HBO

Military Technology

Giving credit where credit’s due, Qyburn really upped his game in terms of weaponry while everyone else was busy fighting the army of the undead. “The Last of the Starks” sees the grand debut of his new and improved scorpion artillery weapons, which are now built into the defense of King’s Landing and also incorporated into every one of Euron’s ships. They have the desired effect on dragons (RIP Rhaegal, my sweet angel) but they’re also, you know, pretty good at taking out boats and humans and stuff too.

Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark,

and Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark. Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

The Art of Leaking Information

Did anyone really expect Sansa to keep her mouth shut after learning that Jon actually has a pretty legitimate claim to the Iron Throne? The only real surprise was how quickly she gave up the intel. Calculating to the last, Sansa shares the information about Jon’s lineage where it will do the most damage: with Tyrion, who already seems to be having doubts about Daenerys’ long-term stability. Littlefinger taught you well, little bird.

(L to R)Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister-Photo:Helen Sloan-HBO

Cersei

By any metric, Cersei has won the week. With Euron’s ships and Qyburn’s scorpions, she’s taken out a dragon and struck a major blow at Daenerys’ surviving forces. She convinced another man to fall for her old “Hey this is your baby and definitely not my brother’s” gambit. The strategy of bolstering her forces while her enemies were distracted by the fate of humanity has paid off (at least in the short term) and for the first time in a long time it feels like she has the upper-hand in this fight.

For now, anyway. If Game of Thrones has taught us anything, it’s that power has a cyclical nature, and you’ll be on top one minute and crushed by your enemies the next.

Losers

(L to R) Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister and Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth – Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Shipper Hearts

More than one ship was pierced with an arrow on this episode. For those of us who were heavily invested in the relationships on Game of Thrones, this was a tough one.

First of all, Arya and Gendry split up (although props to Arya for knowing herself well enough to know getting married and becoming a lady is not what she wants). Then we get Jaime and Brienne, a pairing that has been literally five seasons in the making, only to have it ripped brutally away from us.

Jon and Dany are clearly on the rocks: Dany doesn’t seem like she’ll get over Jon stealing her destiny anytime soon, and Jon seems equally unlikely to forget that he’s been hooking up with his aunt.

And finally, Grey Worm and Missandei. What can we say? Grey Worm never should have started talking about what they would do after the war — he jinxed everything.

Rory McCann as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane and Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark. Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Women

Game of Thrones has always had sort of a spotty record when it comes to its treatment of women. But to have one episode contain Brienne bawling her eyes out over a man (when we’ve always seen her lock those emotions way down deep), Sansa suggest that getting raped was a crucial element in her hero’s journey, and Missandei, one of the show’s only female women of color, executed? It’s a lot, and it’s not great.

Kristofer Hivju as Tormund, Kit Harington as Jon Snow, and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen. Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

The Show’s B List

Is it me or did a lot of the characters of middling importance get discharged with little fanfare this episode? It seems like Tormund, Sam, Gilly, Ghost, and a bunch of others are just going to be gone and possibly not seen again for the rest of the season, and we didn’t even get a proper goodbye. I get that the show has a lot of loose ends to be tied up and such a limited amount of time to fit it all in, but that’s a problem of their own making, and we didn’t spend this much time with these characters just for them to be like, “OK bye!”

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

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