Television Review: The Bells (Game of Thrones, S8X05, 2019)

The Bells (S8x05)

Airdate: 12 May 2019

Written by: David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik

Running Time: 77 minutes

To say that Game of Thrones stayed true to the newly established narrative principle of prestige television series is to acknowledge a that the most consequential events are often reserved for penultimate rather than final episodes. While the elimination of the White Walkers—arguably the most important event of the series—occurred two episodes earlier, the fifth and penultimate episode of the final season, titled "The Bells," delivers the event that ends the actual "game of thrones." This episode resolves the conflict which had been the subject of the plot for nine years, delivering a visceral conclusion to the war for the Iron Throne. The Bells was arguably the most spectacular episode of the series, offering a visual grandeur that few contemporary dramas could hope to match. However, it was also the darkest, the least pleasant to watch, and ultimately the most divisive, enraging many fans who felt that iconic characters were assassinated figuratively rather than living out their arcs with dignity. The episode became the most important event in recent television history, but not in the way David Benioff and D. B. Weiss wanted; instead of a triumphant, bittersweet conclusion, it became the defining moment of the show's disappointing decline.

Like all previous episodes of Season 6, The Bells continued to make the plot increasingly simple, a trend that accelerated relentlessly throughout the final season. The writers reduced the number of active characters and their options towards rather predictable outcomes. The entire contest for power in Westeros had been whittled down to two factions and two rulers, and it was all but certain which side would ultimately win. Despite the showrunners’ lame and increasingly implausible attempts to put spikes in the wheels, the outcome never felt in doubt. The narrative tension evaporated, replaced by a series of set pieces designed to deliver spectacle rather than suspense.

Before the final assault on King's Landing could commence, Daenerys has some matters closer at hand to attend to on Dragonstone. Varys, who has been monitoring Daenerys’s actions with increasing trepidation, has begun to plot against her. Having recognised the same tendencies she shares with her genocidally insane father, Aerys II Targaryen, Varys decides that her reign must be prevented. He is reluctantly reported to Daenerys, who promptly sentences him to death and executes him by burning him alive with Drogon. Jon realises that it was his careless giving away of his Targaryen background secret that led to Varys death, and he tries to convince Daenerys of his unwavering loyalty. However, his rejection of her incestuous advances, born of his own desire for Sansa, further hardens Daenerys. Knowing that people love Jon more than her, she tells him that she would rule "by fear."

Tyrion makes the last ditch effort to prevent the sacking and destruction of the city that could lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. After learning that Jaime has been caught trying to reach her sister, he sets him free and offers both him and Cersei a boat for Pentos. He tells them to surrender; the signal would be the ringing of city bells. At the same time, the Hound and Arya arrive in the city to handle their personal businesses—the Hound to kill Gregor Clegane, and Arya to kill Cersei herself.

The assault on the city goes exactly as predicted, with even the presence of a single dragon proving enough to give Daenerys and her forces an absolute edge over the defenders. Learning from the mistakes that cost her one dragon, Daenerys ambushes and strafes the Iron Fleet with fire before they could fire their scorpions, and later does the same with the scorpions stationed on the city walls. Then she destroys the Golden Company forces, allowing the Northmen, Unsullied, and Dothraki under Jon to penetrate the city. Cersei, just as she announced, has opened the Red Keep for thousands of civilians, trying to use them as a human shield. As this happens, Jaime manages to enter the secret underground tunnels, but not before having to fight Euron Greyjoy, who has survived the destruction of his fleet but wants to earn his glory by killing the Kingslayer. Jaime is seriously wounded but manages to win the duel. Euron, mortally wounded, tells him that he killed two kings instead of one.

Seeing that everything is lost, the Lannister soldiers begin to throw their arms, much to Jon’s relief, because he doesn’t want bloodshed to continue. The bells signal surrender. Yet, it turns out that Daenerys has different ideas. She orders Drogon to unleash fire, indiscriminately burning soldiers and civilians alike, and making buildings fall down. Grey Worm, like Daenerys, driven by the loss of Missandei, succumbs to bloodlust and begins spearing unarmed prisoners, sparking a wholesale massacre. Jon is helpless to watch as the siege turns into a gruesome spectacle of massacre, pillage, and rape.

Cersei watches this spectacle from the Red Keep, with Qyburn begging her to flee to safety. When she does, it is too late, but mainly because the Hound has come to block their way. He dispatches the Queensguard, while the Mountain chooses this moment to disobey and kill his "creator," Qyburn. Cersei flees, while Gregor and Sandor Clegane fight to the death. Both die by falling from the tower—a fitting end for the "Mountain" and his brother, the Hound. Cersei does not live much longer, although she manages to reunite with Jaime in the tunnels. With their path blocked by debris, they embrace and falling stones bury them together.

Jon tries to exercise his last vestiges of authority to order his men out of King's Landing, and this is a wise decision because the fires started by Drogon have spread and caused even batches of wildfire, secretly prepared by King Aerys two decades earlier, to ignite, causing even more and complete destruction. Arya, who was talked out of entering the Red Keep by Sandor, barely survives and wakes up surrounded by the burned corpses of women and children, miraculously saved by a horse that would take her out of the ruins of King's Landing.

In terms of visual effects, The Bells is the most demanding episode the series has ever produced. It gives the most comprehensive depiction of a fictional medieval metropolis and shows its absolute destruction in the most believable and visceral way. This is accompanied by impressive scenes of combat, but even more impressive were two duels. The first was the heavily anticipated "Cleganebowl," in which Sandor finally settles accounts with his brother, albeit at the expense of his own life. The choreography was brutal and emotional. The duel between Jaime and Euron is also impressive, but somewhat all-too-convenient. Euron, who miraculously survived the incineration of his entire fleet, happens to stumble on Jaime and decides to have his shot of glory in the most inopportune moment, leading to pointless violence that felt forced rather than organic.

The Bells gives the audience what it wanted for much of the seven-season run: what stands for the Good Guys in the Last War winning, and Cersei gets her just desserts. Yet, the way it is done must have been very frustrating for viewers. Arya, who had single-handedly rescued humanity in the Battle of Winterfell, is deprived of the opportunity to personally remove Cersei from her list. Instead, she is reduced to a witness from whose perspective we see the utter horror of Daenerys’s genocidal action. Furthermore, Cersei goes down together with Jaime, a character whose redemptive arc throughout the last couple of seasons had been carefully built up. That arc had been thrown out for the sake of overmelodramatic, yet anticlimactic, rushed, and deeply unsatisfactory death scene.

But the main reason why so many fans and so many critics felt enraged is what happened to Daenerys, the grand charismatic heroine who had freed the slaves and was supposed to bring a new era of peace, freedom, prosperity, and justice to her newly won realm. Instead, she suddenly turns into a genocidal maniac whose crimes dwarf anything even Cersei, Joffrey, Ramsay Bolton, and other villains of the series have done. By igniting wildfire and burning King's Landing to a crisp, she finishes what her father wanted when he said "burn them all."

A lot of online vitriol has been spilled in arguments over why, how, and whether this transformation was warranted. Benioff and Weiss, in the end, shouldn't be criticised for having this transformation; it is something that often happens in history when grand liberators ultimately turn into tyrants. The showrunners, much to their credit, have hinted at the strain of cold ruthlessness in Daenerys and her willingness to use extreme violence and the destructive power of dragons for years. However, the act here is completely irrational and against Daenerys's long-term interests. By literally "burning the village in order to save it," as some real-life "breakers of chains" have done, she loses any moral legitimacy. She cannot be the queen of love and liberation if she burns her subjects alive.

The real problem for this transformation is that it was never gradual, and it became rushed. The showrunners suddenly decided to push Daenerys over the edge through a series of implausible melodramatic plot points. She sees the bells, she sees Jon, she sees the people, and suddenly—snap—the mask comes off. Furthermore, what was once hailed as a great feminist role model, a character that would do in Martin’s fictional world what Hillary Clinton failed to do in real life, is reduced to nothing more than a crazy woman ruled by her destructive emotions. In essence, she adopts the very same sexist tropes Game of Thrones was supposed to be above.

The episode isn't helped either by the usual inconsistencies and late series' retcons. For instance, Jaime’s claim that he doesn't care about small folk is at odds with the very concern that had motivated him for the infamous act of Kinslaying. His entire redemption was built on love and empathy for Brienne and Tyrion, traits that are seemingly discarded in his final moments.

When the episode ended, so many fans were left with a feeling of shock, disbelief, and utter disappointment that would not only define the reception of the final season, but cast a long, mournful shadow over the legacy of the entire series for years to come.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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