What I’m Watching: Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 9 “The Dance of Dragons” (B+)

I’ve often felt the need to “go underground” between when an episode airs and I watch it to avoid any major spoilers, but it’s hard to stick to that in the middle of a season of a random show that I watch. TVGuide.com is also notorious for putting spoilers on its home page after episodes have aired, and it serves me right for visiting there on a Monday before I had the chance to watch Sunday night’s episode. Daenerys being reunited with her dragons, or one of them at least, isn’t a huge shock, but the way in which the dragon swooped in to save the day when all the masked assassins had them cornered in a circle in the arena would have been quite glorious had I not remembered moments earlier that I saw something about dragons related to this episode. I’m not sure where Daenerys flying off on her dragon leaves Jorah, Tyrion, and everywhere else, but hopefully it’s a positive step considering she clearly had powerful enemies lying in wait to murder her. I love how honest Elliara, who poured out her wine when Doran toasted the Lannisters, was with Jaime, defending his love for his sister and acknowledging that she was well aware that Myrcella was his daughter. It’s interesting to see Doran as a partner for peace with the Lannisters, and to realize that we’re now rooting for peace with the Lannisters since they’re no longer the brutal threat that they used to be when Joffrey was alive and Cersei wasn’t imprisoned. They certainly seem more humane than Stannis, who let his own daughter be burned at the stake as a sacrifice. Davos is not going to take that well, and it’s possible he’ll sabotage Stannis’ entire army if he has the power since the one good thing he knew has now been extinguished. After a very eventful two episodes, what could possibly still be left to transpire in the season finale?