Episode 3: “The Long Night”
Score: 9.8/10
Does it pass the Bechdel? Yup. Mel and Arya have a conversation about Arya’s destiny.
Sexy-lamp test? PASSED
So, I have emotions. I wasn’t totally able to process them last night after the episode ended and I’ll definitely have to re-watch it a million times until I’ve fully processed it.
Here’s the verdict: I was okay with the Night King being defeated first. I think that it was actually very realistic. Team Living was going to gather in Winterfell. Cersei was going to wait for after they fought the dead. The Night King was going to attack from the North, so the Battle of Winterfell had to happen first. Artificially having the Night King retreat or defeat everyone but leave enough of the main characters alive to continue the show would have been convoluted and cheap. Also, GoT has made a name of itself by disrupting a character right when you think that they are going to win. In this instance, that character was the Night King. I think a lot of the people who were upset with this episode are missing the fact that the Night King should be thought of as the driver of this plot, rather than the villain.
The darkness? I thought it was perfectly creepy and effective.
My one big disappointment was that we didn’t get to see the Dothraki fight. I’ve watched the season seven battle so many times and the Dothraki shooting arrows from horses is the biggest gem.
I also really like how the fact that this arc is over in episode three sets the last three up to be an independent four hour movie.