Chaos reigns in our final review of Sky Atlantic's Season Two re-run...Following up on the rather epic and grandiose masterpiece that was Blackwater couldn't have been a easy prospect for the production team behind Game Of Thrones Season Two. Nevertheless, for the most part the season finale Valar Morghulis has an admirable stab at matching the heights of its predecessor, even if it does miss the mark on occasion.
It's great to see Danerys back in action after a two-week break from her Quarthian antics, and sure enough the last Stormborn's encounter in the House Of The Undying is worth the wait. The CGI effects used to power Danerys' return to form along with her developing dragons were spectacular, truly bringing viewers into the moment as it became clear that when these fearsome creatures are unleashed, Westeros will never be the same again. Perhaps it's something of a shame that the original novel A Clash Of King's rather visceral depiction of flashbacks to key moments in Danaerys' life- e.g. Viserys' golden crown; Drogo's death- were excluded in favour of a cameo hallucination from Khal Drogo, yet that sequence did a strong job of replacing the hefty content.
Over in King's Landing, we had a few more significant plot developments too- Tyrion has been replaced by his father as the King's hand, Littlefinger has offered Sansa a way back to Winterfell and Joffrey has found himself a new bride to gain power. It would have been even better to see Tywin finally interact with Cersei and Tyrion beyond his brief acquirement of the role of the Hand in a ceremony, but those conversations are likely due to come in the early episodes of Season Three. Certainly, with the kingdom fully back under control, Joffrey will no doubt revert to his tyrannical and cowardly campaigns, something which the rest of the Lannisters may well disagree with in the days ahead.
That these weren't even all of the episode's progressions of story arcs shows how much was going on in Valar Morghulis. Jon Snow was left alone with Ingrid to meet the King of the North, Robb Stark went against his mother's wishes and broke his vow of marraige to a stately woman, Theon was taken home by his guards as Winterfell burned and Master Lewin died, Varys took hold of the brothel and gave a rather reverent speech of gratitude to Tyrion and the White Walkers were back on the loose as the season's climactic cliffhanger. I would argue that since we've been waiting twenty entire episodes since our brief glimpse of the Walkers in the Season One premiere to see them strut their stuff, the cliffhanger was more of a relief than the massive shock that Danerys' dragon reveal was last season, but fans were no doubt on the edge of their seats all the same.
Given all of the major step forwards in plot arcs, and indeed the stunning direction of it all, it would almost seem churlish to pick out any shortcomings in this dramatic finale. However, there were one or two gripes for this reviewer- once again, juggling so many narrative plotlines so rapidly worked a little to the episode's detriment, and the role of Jaquin was more irritatingly ambiguous than it was effective in the end. In spite of those flaws, Game Of Thrones: Valar Morghulis was a fantastic final episode for Season Two, and one whose implications in Season Three next week and beyond should be infinite!
4.5/5
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