Game of Thrones
“The Wars to Come”
(HBO)
B+
Just when you thought Season 4’s pieces would be impossible to pick up, Game of Thrones’ Season 5 premiere proves those shards of glass weren’t so scattered after all. “The Wars to Come” seamlessly throws us back into this bloody, beautiful world, doing one thing right from the outset: It didn’t boast about its bigger-than-ever-before budget. This show could look like The Avengers by this point, yet it doesn’t, instead opting for a less-is-more approach to special effect. Do we see dragons? Yes, but only briefly, enabling the show to tease and pay off sizably when needed. Because a show so obviously about its characters and their arcs shouldn’t waste scenes with Lucas-like effects just because just because it can, right? Right.
The episode kicks off with two new characters (Why, Thrones? Why?!?) trudging through the woods — two girls we’ve never met. One is confident and stubborn, and the other is timid and scared. The former is belligerent in her conversation with a witch, who offers to tell her future by sucking her blood (which she does — normal for Thrones). It was an offer too good to pass up, and we subsequently hear about the girl’s destination to be queen and her three unborn children. But the witch doesn’t promise some intricately painted mural, instead portraying a future that seems bleak at best. As it cuts to real time, that stubborn little blonde girl is revealed to be Cersei Lannister. Thrones clearly has something in store for Cersei, making it a point in the season’s first episode to flash back to her visiting a clairvoyant — the showrunners’ way of slapping the audience in the face and saying, “This is Cersei’s season.”
With that carved in stone right off the bat, we revisit Tyrion, who has been stuffed in a box and transported to … wait, where again? Lord Varys, who played a part in the box-stuffing, converses with Tyrion over his plan to bring peace to the realm by finding the perfect king … er, wait, queen. Varys wants nothing but peace in the kingdom, and now, with Tyrion on his side, his advancements toward that peace are beginning to take form, and the two embark to meet with Daenerys, the Queen of Dragons. Daenerys is still struggling with her dragons — she can’t control the beasts anymore — and she still has her two children in time out until a solution arises. Perhaps Tyrion and Varys can assist her in that department, assuming they even get to her.
Meanwhile Jon Snow is back at The Wall attempting to be the voice of reason as Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, is about to be put to death. Snow has grown into the show’s most rational character and someone you want on your side. His grounded principles bleed through at the end when Rayder is being burned alive for refusing allegiance to Stanis and a disgusted Snow mercilessly kills Rayder with an arrow to the heart.
One thing Game of Thrones does exceptionally well is its payoff to those who fight to understand it. In the show’s very first episodes, we were introduced to so many (so many) characters it was nearly impossible to not get crosseyed. Thrones even acknowledges its own perplexity in the first episode, kicking off with a character never before seen but revealed as someone we in fact already know. As has been the case for a while now, we get to see our favorite characters unite, whether the outcome is good or bad.
Did this episode set the scene for the rest of the season? Yes. Did it do it painstakingly? Not in the slightest. With such a dense show like Game of Thrones, reintroducing characters after a break is absolutely necessary. “The Wars to Come” made that otherwise monotonous process feel refreshing and interesting, with each character seemingly having only one or two scenes, scenes with loads of purpose and intrigue. A feeling of impending doom lurks throughout, and as the witch says at the beginning of the show, “Everybody wants to know their future until they know their future.” Let’s hope the show’s future remains loyal to itself. If this episode is any indication, we have nothing to worry about.
