“The Long Night” is the biggest, baddest battle sequence ever put on TV and yet it might be one of the least satisfying of the many Thrones has delivered. It was a perfect storm of factors: a silent, implacable, and one-dimensional villain, the plot armor that kept so many major characters alive to the end, or the dark and occasionally incoherent cinematography.
The show and its characters took a respite this week in the calm before the White Walker storm. Your enjoyment will depend on how much you like the show’s handling of its character reunions in lieu of action or plot momentum.
Overall, a solid return to Westeros: satisfyingly speedy continuations to the remaining plots matched with the show’s less-than-subtle dialogue and messy character motivations.
When last we spoke about Game of Thrones, it was “Beyond the Wall,” the worst episode of the series by far. It was so bad that I lost the will to finish this recap at the time, as Season 7 faded into memory. Now, almost two years later, I’m here to finish what I started, catch up where we left off, and console myself that it probably took as much as effort as the forthcoming episodes did. Probably.
