Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 3, The Long Night review: Was the battle as epic as hoped - or an anticlimax?

Warning: this recap contains full spoilers for episode 3 of Game of Thrones, season 8

Welcome to Game of Thrones, the Everybody Dies episode. There was certainly quite a bodycount as, after literally years of build up, the Battle of Winterfell finally came charging over the hill. The most significant casualty of course was – sorry Dolorous Edd – the Night King, cut down by Arya and her dragonglass super-knife.

Likewise killed in action were Theon, Ser Jorah (sobbbb!), potentially Jon’s dragon (it was dark, I couldn’t tell for sure) and Melisandre, who walked into the frozen wastes and, one discarded necklace later, was suddenly 3,000 years old again.

Those are the cold, hard facts – almost as cold and hard as the many, many fragments into which the NK shattered following his encounter with Arya. But, in the immediate aftermath of the carnage, what’s less clear was whether this was the Greatest Game of Thrones Ever – or an anti-climax for the ages.

It was certainly a rollercoaster, blending the creeping dread of a horror movie, the sweep of a fantasy epic and – very weird this – the delicate piano score of a thoughtful art-house movie. Yet though it gripped you in the moment, in its crucial twists The Long Night didn’t seem to really land. Was killing off the Night King in particular, too perfunctory, given the years put into building him up as the ultimate nemesis?

How easily the deed was done in the end. Theon fell defending Bran – who’d been busy warging into ravens, presumably so that we the viewers could know where NK was at earlier on – and forward the Night King strode. Smirking – apparently his go-to emotion is full-on gloating – he reached for his frost sword. And then, out of the mist, sprang the Lil’ Goddess of Death herself, Arya.

The question is whether the moment landed with the punch that the episode demanded. With the smoke still clearing it’s hard to know how to feel. The internet, on the other hand, knows exactly how we ought to feel and the answer is …muddled, with fans apparently divided down the middle as to whether this was the neat resolution that GoT demanded or essentially grandiose box ticking.

What’s undeniable is that, after all those seasons of set up, it was at least slightly glib to just off the Night King in a single instalment. And with so many questions unanswered too. What was the precise nature of his weird psychic relationship with Bran? Why had the Stark princeling gone to all that effort to become the Three-Eyed Raven when he had so very little a part to play in the NK’s downfall? What about Melisandre’s prophecy of the Christlike Prince Who Was Promised figure coming back to save Westeros? It all turned to ice fragments in the wind as the NK bit the dust. Personally I felt shaken, stirred – but a little cheated too. You may think otherwise. Here are the talking points.

Did The Long Night do justice to the Night King?

The manifestation of all evil in Westeros surely thought he’d secured his long-awaited victory as he strode into the Godswood and, with Theon (Alfie Allen) dispatched, made to skewer Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wight..sorry Wright).

Then up popped Arya (Maisie Williams), with her Gendry-forged dragonglass dagger and it was good night from the Night King. He wasn’t the only casualty: along with Theon we also said adieu to a Ser Jorah (Iain Glen), cut down defending Daenerys (so the death he’d always dreamed of) and, in a haunting final sequence, Melisandre (yes she was back) who removed her magic necklace and reverted to natural state of being 3,000 years old. Striding into the snows she toppled over and was gone. Winter had come for them all. Wait…so that was it?

With a run time of 82 minutes it was a long, long episode of Game of Thrones. So at least the Night King was sent off in reasonably climactic fashion. But still… the series has teased us with the army of the dead from literally its very first scene in 2011. And then, with one screaming Arya, it was all over. Winter had come and winter had been vanquished.

True, it’s hard to process an instalment like this in the immediate aftermath and it may be quite some time before we all know how to feel. But for many the default response seems to be a big, howling gust of anticlimax. Where, especially, was the foreshadowing that Arya would kill the Night King?

This has never been hinted at and feels, honestly, like something cobbled together by the show-runners, rather than flowing from the imagination of George RR Martin.

Because if it was ALWAYS the plan to have Arya take him out then it ought to have been hinted at somewhere in her storyline. It felt as if the writers simply grabbed the nearest piece on the board and decided that this would be the person to checkmate the NK (plus, if Bran had a sense of what was about to happen, why let Theon senselessly sacrifice himself?)

But we got the deaths we deserved

We’d waited all episode for a traffic-stopping, horse frightening casualty – sorry Dolorous Edd and Beric Dondarrion, neither of you count –and it came at the end. Theon, still riddled with guilt over what he had done to Bran seasons previously, sought to make final amends for his sins by running at the Night King with a spear.

Swatted aside, he died gurgling his own blood as the leader of the Walkers proceeded towards Bran. A similar story was unfolding outside the gates as Jorah was cut down defending his Khaleesi and departed for the great friendzone in the sky.

He was obviously distraught but, even as the life ebbed away, part of him was surely satisfied that this was how it ended, with Daenerys cradling her most faithful servant and holding his loving gaze.

While we’re taking hats off and paying tribute to the fallen let us also acknowledge the sacrifice of Edd, Beric and teeny Lyanna Mormont, slayer of giants and (very briefly) a resurrected servant of the Night King. They did their duty in an episode that, whatever else might be said about it, delivered a respectable payload of deaths.

Was this the epic battle that was promised?

As the director of Battle of the Bastards and Hardhome, Miguel Sapochnik knows a thing or 10 about putting on a spectacle. And from the very beginning it was clear that he intended for this to be the sucker-punch in his trilogy. We began with the camera following Sam (scared) and then Tyrion (scared) before alighting upon Sansa on the battlements as Daenerys’s dragons soared overhead (even the dragons looked scared). Goosebumps were inevitable. A truly epic reckoning was underway!

But was it actually THAT epic? The Long Night was its own thing and had the tricky challenge of bringing to a conclusion the war between men and wight. But, when we look back, will this be seen as worthy companion to the Battle of the Bastards, especially?

That hour put you through the ringer and had you truly fearing for our heroes. Whereas here there was lots of muddled set pieces, much mooching in the dark and then Deus Ex Arya, with her plot-destroying dragonglass. Is it right to walk away from 82 minutes of Game of Thrones with shrugged shoulders?

And was it too dark?

Winter has come to Westeros – and to our televisions too as, not for the first time this season, Thrones was smothered in darkness. Shadows fell so heavily throughout The Long Night it was often difficult to work out whether you were staring into maw of evil incarnate or simply missing out on lots of interesting stuff because you couldn’t see clearly.

Forget Helm’s Deep – Battle of the Blackwater was the big reference point. The landmark Lord of the Rings clash was name-checked by the show-runners as an influence going into the episode. But it was the shadow of Game of Thrones itself and season two’s the Battle of the Blackwater that fell most heavily.

That was made explicit as we joined Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) crypt-side as the battle raged beyond. This was an obvious wink towards Blackwater (regarded by many as the greatest GoT ever). The difference, of course, was that back then Sansa was a frightened teenager.

Now she was the Lady of Winterfell, to whom everyone else looked for leadership. The OTHER difference was that where the worst Blackwater held in store was a visit from Stannis and his legions, now the enemy at the gates was an army of undead.

This was not the only callback.  Just like at Blackwater, the Hound took one look at the flames licking the walls and fled (where was he when it was decided to make fire a key plank of the defensive strategy?).

“We can’t beat them!” the mewling Clegane sensibly pointed out to Beric Dondarrion – though his point was rather undermined by Lyanna Mormont single-handedly toppling the wight giant. Only Game of Thrones can bring us a vicious 12 year old poking a towering undead monster in the eye. But did she survive? It was too dark to tell!

Back in the crypts, there was also that weird back and forth between Sansa and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), where Sansa explained that their marriage – and they still are technically wedded – could never work because of Tyrion’s devotion to the “Dragon Queen”. “Without the Dragon Queen we’d be dead already,” chimed Missandei. Whoopsies, should have kept your voice down Sansa! You just know she’s going to tell on you.

Nevermind the Dragon Queen, or the Night King. Bran was the scariest person this episode

“I’m going to go now,” the inter-dimensional weirdo previously known as Bran told Theon (still on his campaign of apology). And like that he warged into a flock of ravens and set off into the Night King’s storm (judging by his expression Theon had half-expected Bran’s wheelchair to sprout propellors and take to the skies).

There at the centre of the weather event was Viserion, the resurrected dragon, and Night King himself, essentially commanding the battle by undead remote control. How pleased he looked – far smugger than a deathless entity immune to human emotion had any right to be– and with good cause, it seemed. You can’t suffer causalities if all your men are already dead – meaning the flaming trenches were Not A Problem.

Here, it helped that the Night King was obviously a fan of underrated Brad Pitt movie World War Z. Especially the bit where the zombies scale obstacles by clambering one atop the other.

That was the tactic deployed at Winterfell as the wights piled high and were soon up and over the walls. The tumbledown old castle hadn’t witnessed so much gratuitous death since it was under the management of Ramsay Bolton.

Was Arya in the crypts the highlight?

Massed ranks of undead throwing themselves on a flaming trench was one thing. However, the tension went to another level as Arya tiptoed through her childhood home pursued by several creeping wights. Because this was Arya Stark you knew she wasn’t going to die . But goodness your heart thumped all the same. There were of many of them – and just one little Arya!

Who should at that very moment thunder to the rescue but Beric…and the Hound! Beric died shortly thereafter – fulfilling the Lord of Light’s plans for him by holding the line so that Arya could escape. This was pointed out to Arya by Melisandre, conveniently mooching in an adjacent room.

What were Jon and Daenerys doing for most of the battle?

Unleashing dragons against the Night King was a key component of the defenders’s strategy. But the Walker leader literally blind-sided Winterfell’s air support with that snowstorm. Back and forth our heroes flew, battling gale-force snowflakes and at one point almost colliding – I think, but again, SO dark– while contributing little to the zombie-slaying.

Alas, without Daenerys’s dragon fire there was no way to set alight those trenches around the keep. Enter Melisandre. She strode through the gateway, summoned her Lord and presto: one huge flaming trench. And just in time too, as the dead surged forward. Thanks a heap, Daenerys!

Also essentially a bystander was Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who spent the episode running around looking perturbed – but had no part to play in actually taking down the Night King (so why had Melisandre believed so deeply in him in seasons past?).

Yes, Melisandre was back

A surprise! From the gloom stepped forth the Red Woman (Carice van Houten). She had a treat for Ser Jorah – naturally on the frontline – and the Dothraki. They lifted their blades and were blessed by the Lord of Light! A field of Dothraki with burning weapons lit up the gloom.  Suddenly all that darkness pressing in was no longer massive annoyance – for them or us.

But where had Melisandre come from? Was it a coincidence she arrived just as the wight horde was marching into town. Who cared! The night was very literally dark and full of terrors. Jon and company needed all the allies they could get.  Even Davos – yes he was scared too – seemed impressed.

“There’s no need to execute me Ser Davos,” she said. “I’ll be dead before the dawn.” Trust Melisandre to drop the mother of spoilers.