Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 5: Kill the Boy
Officially at the halfway point and done with the leaked episodes. Now we’re getting into uncharted territory and no one has anymore spoilers. Fortunately, the only spoiler I had heard was of the death of Grey Worm, which was proven to be an incorrect assumption. Unfortunately, Ser Barriston Selmy did die. I liked him. He was wise to a fault and a warrior of legendary standing and I wish we had seen more of him, but I understand what happened here.
In order to push Daenerys forward, they had to start isolating her from her advisors. Barriston is dead, Mormont is gone, now she only has Dario Naharis (who’s been a lesser presence this season) and Hizdahr zo Loraq. She has to make tougher decisions and grow as a character, that’s hard to do when she has people she trusts so much at her side. She even went as far as to ask Missandei (heart eyes) for advice. Interestingly enough, Missandei’s advice was, inso many words, for her to make up her own mind. Next stop, fighting pits and marriage!
This was an episode for character interactions, but it didn’t let the pace get too slow at any point. we went from Grey Worm and Missandei’s kiss that will lead nowhere to Daenerys murdering one of the old masters by having her dragons burn and eat him. Man, now that was an awesome scene. Big moves are being made and tensions are steadily climbing. I’m loving how good this show is at set ups and pay offs. It never feels like it’s denying the viewers rewards or moving too fast. They’ve even slowed the sex down quite a bit since season two was being looked at as Game of Porn.
There was definitely that one sex scene in this episode with Ramsay Snow and Myranda. I was worried that the presence of Sansa was taming him way too much, but clearly he’s still a sadistic psychopath. His lover seems to be just as crazy with her jealous reveal of Theon’s new home to Sansa, but Ramsay simply enjoyed the chaos of that moment even more. Roose Bolton is certainly a psycho as well, but much more calm and tactful. His story of how Ramsay was conceived was gag worthy and seeing Walda reminded us of his allegiance with her father and why he married her. I suspect and hope that Ramsay will kill her out of jealousy of his unborn brother.
Sansa seems to be back to being Joffrey’s Sansa. She’s being kind of meek and naive again, while being the plaything of another sadistic boy. Ramsay is far worse than Joffrey ever got to be though and he is one who doesn’t mind fighting his own battles instead of giving orders and cowering. The good news is that her heart has definitely hardened. That smirk at her new betrothed’s suffering was beautifully executed. Maybe she’s learned a thing or two from Littlefinger after all. With all of the backing she has from the people of Winterfell and the Brienne and Podrick duo, maybe she will finally show some real strength.
Jon Snow is definitely sacking up nowadays. Of course he needed advice before speaking with Tormund Giantsbane and Maester Aemon gave it in true thug life fashion. The blind old man basically told him: “I don’t care what it is. You’re the leader and they’re gonna hate you anyway so just grow a pair and do what you want.” Those weren’t his exact words, but his “kill the boy” speech was pretty much the same thing. He’s finally learning how to become a leader and I’m breathing a little easier about the fact that he’s leaving with the Wildings, because it seems like he’s closer to getting murdered by his brothers in black every episode.
Sam and Gilly seem to be having their first lover’s quarrel. Wait… Can I call them lovers? I don’t think that Sam has sealed the deal yet. So they had their first friend zone quarrel because Gilly is uneducated and basically only good for the things they named. Sam tried to make her feel better, but luckily Stannis arrived and caused her to run away. Why is she so terrified of him? Maybe they’ll explore that later, but for now it was pretty awesome to see the respect Stannis has for Sam’s family.
Stannis may be my favorite character at the moment. He is the most proactive in every episode (Brienne and Jaime are the only others who are constantly in pursuit of something) and he’s definitely the most principled and unwavering. I like pragmatic characters and he seems to be the rare combination of that favored trait and nobility. He is ready to earn his rightful throne through blood and deed and his decisions seem to be pretty on point. He’s definitely my first choice for the Iron Throne and it’s awesome to me that he might have enough dragonglass to truly help fight off the white walkers. I only hope he finds a way to keep little Shireen happy though. Her mother treats her like such a fragile thing when she’s actually quite the bright little girl.
Jorah and Tyrion seem to be getting along much better than last week. The poem and Drogon viewing during their trip seems to have put them in a much better place socially. Which they needed, because they ended up in possibly the worst place ever physically. Old Valyria would have been the creepiest place on the show even without the “stone men” zombie people. Interesting how they explained what Grey Scale was with Shireen in an earlier episode before showing what the results of it could be here. I think these two might end up actually being friends. Jorah is on borrowed time now though. His fate is a definite cliffhanger. Will Daenerys execute him or will his new affliction take him out first?
This was a really well paced and well written episode. They are widening the show versus book gap as much as possible with each episode and doing it in very interesting ways. I was worried that the show would outpace the books, but I’m actually kind of happy to see it unfold differently here. The books are going to stop at seven or eight, but they can do so much more, or less, with the show.
This is something that happens with anime all the time (Full Metal Alchemist and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood for example) so I don’t think it’s a very bad thing. The only difference is that we probably won’t get another show with the same timeline as the books. That’s okay though. Let’s just enjoy the high quality we’re getting here and stop whining about the difference between the book and the show. That’s a debate that’s been going on since movies and TV started doing adaptations and I promise it’s not stopping anytime soon.
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
