Valar Dohaeris
9.5
At the start of this season, I had my doubts about where this show would go. As the season went on and continued to veer away from the story structure of the books, my doubts only increased. However, after watching this episode, I have been fully reassured that the series will never steer to far out of sight of George R. R. Martin's original pipe dream, and that almost all changes in the future will be tasteful and plot-sensitive.
(Spoilers)
Although I was somewhat troubled by the series' decision to kill off Pyat Pree (In the books Daenerys kills off the rest of the warlocks but leaves Pyat, who swears revenge against her), I loved Ian Hanmore's portrayal of the character, who seems creepier and more cognizant then ever. This episode also gives us a far more vivid glimpse of the powers of illusion one achieves after consumption of the warlock's elixir, the foul Shade of the Evening.
Then there's Xaro. Good old clever, scheming, infamously ambitious Xaro. Throughout the series, he has only strayed further and further from the gay, clever pretty boy Martin portrays in the books. Instead, he is a buff giant of a Summer Islander who loves women and steals the throne of Qarth (!!!) from the hands of the Thirteen. Ultimately, however, the character is still the same ruthless bastard. At his essence, Xaro Xoan Daxos is nothing more then a king sitting on a towering throne of illusion, and he teaches Daenerys a priceless lesson: bluffing and deciet can get you a throne, but only with fear can you keep it.
Qarth itself has been greatly changed by the television series, simplified and compounded into a neat little representation of the complicated mess it is in the books. Instead of three governing bodies, there is one. The House of the Undying is (apparently) ruled only by Pyat and his illusions, assumedly because Pyat, who is every bit as ambitious as Xaro, killed the true Undying long ago. Although the city of Qarth falls decidedly flat, Pyat and Xaro give us a good glimpse of what Martin intended the city to represent: a thriving metropolis built on lies and deceit. Qarth is like Xaro's vault: impenetrable, mysterious and intimidating, yet filled with hot air.
At last, we have arrived at the final scene, and oh what a scene it was! At last, after all this anticipation, we get to see a -HOLY SH*T! IS THAT A WHITE WALKER?? JESUS F*CKING CHRIST THAT THING LOOKS LIKE A MUTANT FROST TROLL ON ACID.
Everything about these walking extensions of the Great Other are terrifying. For starters, despite their name, these f*ckers don't walk. They ride solemn white zombie steeds and howl at their wight thralls like a Nazgl on crack. For me, at least, this scene was the crowning moment of the entire episode. When the WW gazes at Sam, his undead mount's mouth churning mechanically with the vestiges of death and the mangled corpses of long-dead wildlings shuffling about him, I felt as if his foul gaze would freeze time itself.
When I looked into that abomination's cold blue eyes, I knew that this episode offers something A Clash of Kings never did: within that gaze, I saw a glimpse at the Great Other himself, the single hivemind which drives the Armies of Night and Winter against the Red God R'hllor and his champions of Light.
With this final climactic close, the second season of this remarkable show comes to an abrupt and lamentable end, but I cannot tell you how much I await next spring. I can tell that the writers of the show worked hard with Martin to tackle the book series' incredibly intricate plot, some of which seemed simply impossible to interpret into a visual media. From here on, however, the series only gets murkier. Plots are woven into plots are woven into plots and then fray apart like torn embroidery. Crazy events crucial to the story line occur at every corner of Westeros, Essos, and ultimately even Sothoryos simultaneously. Main characters die at the blink of an eye to be replaced by new characters who themselves die at the blink of an eye, until the cast swells beyond sense or reason.
How will the show accomplish the feats of the book series? Can we even fathom the possibility that such a complicated plot can be put on the big screen without becoming condensed? Although we must wait many years to find out the answers to these questions, one thing is for certain: seeing Daenerys shitting her guts out into the Dothraki Sea while hallucinating that her dead brother is trying to kill her will make for one hilarious scene.
