Hold on to your eulogies, Game of Thrones is not done yet. The penultimate episode of season 6, The Battle of the Bastards has been a majestic episode, and possibly the saving grace of this year’s edition.
Viewers have come to expect the ninth episode of each season to culminate in a shocking and grand event, and the episode does not disappoint on this front. The premise was pretty straightforward — evident from the title and the previews. Jon Snow takes on Ramsay Bolton, in a fitting end to the Father’s Day episode.
What was not expected, however, was the delectable choreography of the battle, where Jon’s limited forces take over Ramsay and the North’s systematic army. Sansa Stark has spent a good few episodes trying to make half-brother Jon understand that Ramsay isn’t just pure evil, but is also masterful enough to plot his moves in a way that lets him taste every last bit of his opponents’ pain. Jon, however, seems to be learning his lessons a little too late. He knows nothing, clearly.
Medieval as the setting of the show may be, this episode put up an excellent display of what happens when women want to get involved in a war. Sansa, despite the knowledge that her brother Rickon is captive with Ramsay, and her emotional, fragile state, takes some cold and calculated decisions — some of which took root in the earlier episodes.
In Mereen, Daenerys has been greeted with a strife-torn city, with the Sons of the Harpy running amok and the Masters mounting an attack. The Mother of Dragons, however, is the last person to let stuff like this affect her. Danny is also approached by Yara and Theon, who want to make a deal with her and the underlying sexual tension between the two women is one of the highlight of this episode, well done in its subtlety.
The Battle of the Bastards has some pretty strong dialogues, with one about Danny, Theon and Yara, as well as Tyrion being children of evil fathers, who now refuse to mess things up any further. The episode is also narrow in its plot points in the sense that all the scenes revolve around Mereen and Winterfell. Despite the limited locations and despite the most obvious battle being played out for the majority of the 56-odd minutes episode, Miguel Sapochnik, the director of this episode —and of last season’s magnum opus, Hardhome — presents stunning and detailed scenes of the clashes, keeping you on the edge of your seats throughout.
Granted the character trajectories in this season have been pretty underwhelming, it doesn’t stop The Battle of the Bastards from being a satisfying watch, purely for selfish reasons of wanting your favourites to win. The focus should now shift to King’s Landing for the longest episode in the show’s history to play out.
Rating: 4/5
