New from my sister, Tina, this week
"We are with chickens...and a rooster!"
Accompanied with photos.
"Think Foghorn Leghorn"
Me, passing coffee through my nose as she told the story of trying to get them in the coop the first night and the rooster evading her (in the mud and rain); where it kept circling the coop until her husband, Chad, had to join the fray...heading him off at the pass.
Get chickens they said.
It will be fun, they said.
And the puppies are growing.
The male is going to be BEASTLY.
The Hulk.
James has decided to keep him and Nicole's brother is getting the little girl.
They have tentatively named him Thanos.
And now about the lawnmowers...
Got Sofi into her harness and leash so she could enjoy the outdoors with me on Thursday.
I bring it out it is going to give her the option of bitching at the birds in the relative safety of my lap. Which she enjoys quite a lot.
This particular day was a Thursday, however, and the lawn crew always arrives mid-day on Thursdays.
In my defense...I forgot.
So there we were. Her relaxed happily beside me as I was weeding my borders. Her chittering at robins and jays.
When around the maintenance shed came a Dixie Chopper.
Roaring.
Suddenly I had what was the equivalent of a jackrabbit at the end of a leash.
Springing into the air. Doing that mid-leap bunny twist. Arabesques.
I am sure the groundsman found it hilarious.
I finally had the presence of mind to just let go of the leash...and she disappeared into the open door of the patio.
When I finished my weeding and checked on her...she had disappeared. Nowhere to be found. Then I spied the end of the leash from under the bathroom curtain trailing into the tub. There she sat...flattened as low as she could get...at the bottom of the tub. Glaring.
She may never trust me outside again.
Enjoyed a drive-by taco-ing by Chris, and dissecting/discussing Episode 5 of Game of Thrones...and later a robust political debate.
Back to G.O.T.
Episode 5 opens with Varys...working on raven scrolls to send revealing Jon's true lineage.
Also having a discussion with little Martha...who he has set to the task (as a member of kitchen staff) of attempting to poison Dany. One of his little birds.
"She is not eating"
We will try again at supper.
Dany is looking pretty rough at this point. Hair bedraggled and dark circles beneath her eyes. She sees Varys meet Jon on the beach. Only moments later Tyrion would tell her that Lord Varys has/is betraying her.
The timing is spectacularly bad, and soon Varys is toast...er...toasted...by Drogon.
Face it...we knew this was going to happen as soon as he started talking Treason, okay?
Loved Tyrion admitting before Varys was sentenced to death...that it was He who had told Dany (sadly).
Dany is in a really dark spiral...Jon doesn't help the issue by recoiling from her advances now
Yeah...but ick...we're related.
Her cold
"Fine...Let it be FEAR. "
She had told Tyrion if he fails her one more time it will be his
"Last Time"
So, of course, the first thing he does is help his brother, Jamie, escape where he was captured on The Kingsroad trying to get back to Cersei and giving him an escape plan for them both.
The scene with Tyrion and Jamie was one of those
" I'm not crying..You are crying."
Moments
"You were all I had growing up. You were the only one that didn't treat me like a Monster."
Embraced- with both of them in tears.
The face off between The Golden company of Essos at the gates of Kingslanding and Jon, the Unsulliies, Various Allies and quite a few remaining Dothraki.
Cersei staring smiling defiantly down from The Red Keep.
"It has NEVER fallen."
(...this rivals Scary Movie- saying You'll BE Right Back...but you won't, of course...)
Dany raining hellfire...or dragonfire onto
Euron and his fleet and Scorpion cross-bows.
Suddenly no more Greyjoy Fleet.
And taking out the wall of the city...the other Scorpions set up to kill Drogon...oh and the Golden Company...before they even had a chance to fight.
The gates exploding outward.
Goodbye Golden Company.
(...most ineffectual mercenaries ever...Cersei should get her money back...)
Huge faceoff between Jon, Ser Davos, Greyworm and the Unsullied and the Kingsguard...
and relief in Jon's face when the Kingsguard drops their swords...and at last the bells are rung signaling their surrender.
Oh you silly man...do you REALLY think that it is going to be THAT easy?
Then the CENTER does not hold.
Dany (who has been building to this for quite a few seasons...and if you haven't seen that by now...I can't HELP you...and I'm sorry you decided to name your newborn baby girl after her...maybe she can go by Danielle...) goes full-blown Mad King.
"Burn EVERYONE...let the gods sort it out!"
On the ground Greyworm throws his spear and kills one of the UNARMED Kingsguard.
Jon is stunned and shocked.
And chaos ensues around him.
He ends up stopping a soldier from raping one of the townswomen, then realizes it is one of his own soldiers.
He runs the soldier through.
Overhead, Dany is laying waste to the city. The city she hoped to rule.
"Queen of the Ashes"
Ayra has a Come to Jesus meeting with The Hound and decides that revenge doesn't mean more to her than...well...breathing.
The Mountain and The Hound (Clegane Bowl) clash and give us a really good and long waited for faceoff...
By not before Qyburn gets his brains literally dashed out by The Mountain.
(...and for the gods sakes...why, when Cersei skirts around them facing off, doesn't The Hound just give her a quick jab with his sword...)
But nooooooooooooooooooooooo.
A satisfying ending to them both as Sandor realizes that Zombies are really really really impossible to kill and plunges them both through the wall and into the fiery death below.
Jamie runs into Euron on the beach...Where Euron is delighted to let Jamie know he
"I slept with the Queen"
But didn't bother to tell him that she is pregnant.
Who would do this???
And, of course, it did not give Jamie the chance to enlighten him to the fact Cersei was pregnant BEFORE he ever left...which would have been a nice touch.
Anyway...
Jamie though mortally wounded eventually bests Euron...who still gloats with his dying breath that he will be the one who Killed the Kingslayer.
He finds Cersei in the Maproom...more than distraught and tries to take them out through Tyrion's escape route but they get there to see all exits blocked with rubble...and the palace is crumbling around them.
Cersei is losing her shit...and Jamie knows it is The
End for him...he holds her face toward him and as the rubble falls dies in the arms of the woman he loves...fulfilling that prophecy.
(...notice that we don't actually see either of them actually die...I think this may be important in Episode 6...we know Jamie will soon be a goner because of his double stab wounds and blood loss, but Cersei..I'm not so sure...)
Ayra is on the ground dodging rubble...dragonfire, people...et al. Covered with dust and bloodied she sees a woman and her child who helped her survive burned to a crisp holding each other.
Then a white horse, bloodied but still with bridle who wanders toward her...amidst the ash...
(...this might have been the most contrived moment of the Episode for me...wth???)
But she mounts it.
A paraphrase of Revelations for a moment
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and her name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with her."
And the screen goes black.
That is it, then?
Only 1 Episode left...a little over 80 minutes long...after 8 years commitment.
We have lost (for certain)
Varys
Jamie
Qyburn
The Hound
The Mountain
Euron
The Golden Company
The Kingsguard
Most of Kinglanding and the Populous.
Might or Might Not Be Alive
Cersei
Remains Alive
Dany
Drogon
Sansa
Ayra
Jon
Ser Davos
Brianne
Bran
Alive But Elsewhere
Ser Bronn
Tormund
Gilly & Baby
Samwell Tarly
A lot of people got really bent out of shape over this episode. Didn't like Dany's spiral into madness. Didn't like Jamie and Cersei's Death Scene. If you paid any attention to the angry howls on social media you would think they had trashed the whole Season 8 and used sock-puppets.
Not so.
Everyone has a right to their opinions...but I am kind of interested in the conclusion on Sunday.
And I think
Season 8 Episode 2 might have been the best episode of the entire series for me.
Absolutely no idea who will sit on the Iron Throne...or even if there is one left.
Here are a few predictions I have:
In the trailer for Episode 6 Tyrion is shown walking through the rubble of Kingslanding.
What if he goes down in the tunnels to see that Jamie and Cersei used his escape route..and finds Jamie dead and Cersei nearby badly injured...but not quite dead? Already angered by the waste that has been laid to KL and then to see his brother, who was everything to him, dead because he ran back to Cersei and Cersei still alive enrages him and he fulfills the prophecy
And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you
It could STILL happen.
I think Dany will execute or attempt to execute Tyrion.
Maybe even Jon.
No idea who ends up on the Iron Throne (or if anyone does)
I think Arya will kill Dany.
But I would like the prophecy to be fulfilled with Cersei.
More anon...
