Game of Thrones
“Kill the Boy”
(HBO)
B-
“Kill the Boy” starts out exceptionally: We find out right away that Ser Barristan didn’t make it, and the consequences are interesting to say the least. Daenerys lashes out vengefully, not caring about who is innocent and who is not. She takes all of Meereen’s Great Masters down to her two chained dragons and threatens the leaders until truth and justice are served. She immediately makes this decision, showing how emotionally unstable she can be when upset — not a plus for her leadership qualities but it makes for good entertainment, because she does end up feeding one of the masters to the dragons in a fiery, blood-splattering scene. It’s the first time a dragon has eaten someone on the show and definitely the first time it’s been done so brutally. Thrones doesn’t hold back when given an opportunity for gratuitous violence.
After this bloody bang, it’s back to slow pacing and uninteresting dialogue. “Kill the Boy” is intent on setting up the second half of the season, with most of the action taking place in the blue lens-tinted North (hard to stay awake with that lens!). Don’t get me wrong; Game of Thrones is about the characters, not the violence. But some big reveals lack big payoff in this episode. When Sansa meets Reek (the bowman formerly known as Greyjoy), her reaction is borderline emotionless — suspect considering she hasn’t seen him since Season 1 and he (presumably) murdered her two younger brothers. Sure, Littlefinger told her to play it cool in the situation he left her in, but come on.
The essential movements in this episode are when Stannis decides to march his army toward Winterfell, and when Jon Snow decides he needs the wildlings on his side (so they don’t become a bigger threat when the white walkers get their [literally] cold, dead hands on them). These moments are necessary, but the dialogue in these decisions was a drag, and things played out as tediously expected.
The absolute best scene was at the end, something Thrones has a tendency to do. You can look at the running time and know if you have 10 minutes left, whatever character is on the screen is who will close the episode out and typically have the best moment. No exception to the rule is “Kill the Boy,” which ends with Tyrion and Mormont floating up to the “abandoned” ruin of Valryia/House Targaryen. This place is the epitome of what a city from a fantasy novel ought to look like, which is what makes this scene so great. Tyrion, after realizing where he is, begins to recite a passage from some old text, giving the audience a colorfully abstract history of the old place. Then Daenerys’s one loose dragon gracefully flies overhead as Tyrion gazes at it like Sam Neil seeing his first dinosaur in Jurassic Park. If only Tyrion had removed some medieval sunglasses in disbelief over what he was witnessing.
Ultimately, “Kill the Boy” was like eating a sandwich made with two delicious pieces of homemade bread, but with Best Choice salami crammed between them. Its beginning and end were top-notch, but the meat in the middle just couldn’t keep the story interesting. We’re at the season’s midway point now. Hopefully the second half proves worthy of all this setup.
