Game of Thrones Season 8: Reunions Before the Final Curtain

Game of Thrones Season 8: Reunions Before the Final Curtain

For fans of Game of Thrones, the opening episode of Season 8 feels especially warm and bittersweet. In this episode, the usual ruthless spirit associated with George R. R. Martin is nowhere to be seen—for once, not a single major character meets their end. Perhaps the creators knew that with only five episodes left in the story, it would be too cruel to make viewers endure the loss of a beloved character the moment everyone reunites after such a long separation. That emotional restraint runs deeply through the season’s opening chapter. More than anything, what we see here are familiar faces returning, and one long-awaited reunion after another. Everyone knows that an unavoidable great war is just around the corner, yet we still cannot help but tear up over these rare moments of togetherness.

As the central thread of the story, House Stark has been torn apart since Season 1. Robert Baratheon’s visit shattered the family’s peaceful life in the North, sending them in all directions—some separated by distance, others by death. In this episode, the few surviving members of the Stark family are finally able to reunite in their homeland. Sansa and Jon, who once found each other hard to get along with, have now become siblings bound by mutual respect. And no matter what identity Arya has taken on, the moment she stands before Jon, she instantly returns to the innocent little sister she was when they parted. Only Bran remains calm and distant, with none of the emotion one might expect from such a reunion. Perhaps that is because, for someone who moves through time and space, separation from others has ceased to mean much at all.

Judging from how the episode distributes its focus, Samwell’s importance is clearly continuing to grow. It remains unclear what kind of emotional response the execution of his father and brother by Daenerys Targaryen will stir in him, but at the very least it will likely push him to support Jon Snow even more—that is, Aegon Targaryen, the true heir to the throne. Although the Targaryens have a long tradition of marrying within the family, and Aegon and Daenerys are the last surviving descendants, a union between them would not be considered shocking in that context. But who should actually sit on the Iron Throne is still very much open to debate. One of the conditions for Daenerys’s support of the North was that Jon give up his title as King in the North. But now that Jon is revealed to be Aegon Targaryen—both her nephew and her lover—whether she can set aside the sovereign instinct she has cultivated for so long and fully support Aegon remains entirely uncertain.

Still, compared with the question of whether Aegon or Daenerys should sit on the Iron Throne, that is ultimately only an internal conflict. Before anyone can rule the throne, they first have to survive long enough to sit on it. Cersei in King’s Landing is the first to object. The tens of thousands of mercenaries she borrowed money from the Iron Bank to hire are clearly not intended to fight the Night King. Though it is infuriating to watch her undermine everyone from the rear while a great enemy looms and the entire human world faces catastrophe, after witnessing all that she has gone through over the past seasons, it is still hard to hate her completely when she appears this season. The way she now stands isolated and abandoned by nearly everyone around her perfectly illustrates the old truth that the just have many allies, while the unjust have few. So even amid our anger, there remains a trace of pity.

Tyrion Lannister, Davos Seaworth, Varys, the Hound, Theon, Gendry, Jorah Mormont, Bronn, Lyanna Mormont... Watching one familiar character after another appear on screen (though of course not every surviving character has had the chance to show up in this episode), each one feels like a reunion with the audience who have followed the series for eight years. And even more than that, each appearance feels like an entrance before the final curtain call. After all, once this point is passed, what follows will be a far more brutal war, and by then some may not even have the chance to bid farewell before their exit.

With great intention, the writers give the episode’s final reunion scene to Jaime and Bran. Having Bran be the first person Jaime encounters after his difficult journey to Winterfell makes for a deeply emotional moment—not only for Jaime, but for the audience as well. In an instant, it feels as though all the memories of these past years come rushing back. What Jaime does not know, however, is that this meeting may well have been part of Bran’s design after becoming the Three-Eyed Raven. After all, Bran can know everything. And I suspect that for Bran, the task at hand is not revenge, but helping Jaime resolve the burden in his heart so that he can move forward once more.

Stories in the human world do not truly have a beginning or an end. Film and television merely select a fleeting fragment from the long arc of history and legend. History continues to emerge and repeat itself. Every moment we live in is both an ending and a beginning. And in a life full of danger and uncertainty, there are always warm pauses like the one this episode offers—moments in which we are briefly allowed to rest. For us, it is precisely these moments, these bonds of warmth between people, that give us greater courage and strength to face the next war, no matter how perilous it may be.

This is an ending, and also a beginning. Everything has only just begun. Let us wait and see.