Game of Thrones 6x3 'Oathbreaker': So many oaths. So little time.

Game of Thrones 6x3 crosses all manner of cities and places to brief us on all that's going on. And it's a bit too much, but just a bit.

Reviewed while watching this beautiful Star Wars/James Bond mash-up, theme courtesy of Radiohead.

If the Gods are merciful, this review of GoT will be short. I’m tired, I’m think I’m getting sick, it’s already Wednesday, and I’m applying for a big job today (or tomorrow). High Sparrow Gods, let it be short.

The organic experience has a simple, and very strict code: We live. We Die. Then something happens. We don’t know what. Knowledge of what lies beyond is unknowable. We know nothing.

Jon Snow was supposed to know nothing. Jon Snow was supposed to be dead. Not alive. That’s the code. That’s what’s right. And Jon Snow is a man of what’s right. As one of his murderers puts it, however, his being brought back is not right. Does that make Jon Snow the Oathbreaker?

Is he an Oathbreaker for stepping down as Lord Commander? Or was he no longer the Lord Commander when Olly put a knife in his heart? Does Jon get a clean slate, a potential herald of things to come for a broken, bloodstained world?

Jon’s brief arc in ‘Oathbreaker’ may at first seem underwhelming. And it’s hard to juggle such a plot twist that everyone 1) knew was gonna happen, and 2) found mainly pointless because of item 1. But the episode does just enough with everyone at Castle Black to mirror the poignant confusion of such an event. There’s an intimacy to Jon’s fear as he lightly touches his wounds, and to Melisandre’s (literally) revived sense of purpose. Only Tormund takes this impossible event in stride. Because he’s Tormund. He’s seen so much shit that to him Jon’s resurrection is just ‘Pffff… 'nother day.’ And with such an impossible event, that shakes the very foundations of metaphysics (as much as The Night’s Watch thinks on such things), the question they ask is: What now? It was a question posed in the first episode, once it was learned the great leader was dead. They were in part lost and grieving without him. What of Jon’s closest friends? What would Thorne do to the Freefolk with the Lord Commander removed? So much uncertainty in the wake of Jon’s death, they found themselves wishing he were still alive. Well… he’s alive. He has defied the cycle of death that plagues the world, and avoided the Ice Zombie route. And yet the question remains. Jon’s revival has solved little, and only asks more questions. How is this possible? What will Jon be like? What now?

Death. Jon’s resurrection is at the cost of four lives, one of them a child (albeit a murderous shit of one). It’s the pyrrhic event Martin often looks for in his work, and evidently is hoping for with his ending. Jon being alive is a renewed hope that Westeros desperately needs as the wheel crushes everyone and everything in its path south of the Wall. But what is the face of that hope? ‘Oathbreaker’ presents it as the pale, bloated corpse of an angry boy, who even in his final moments knew nothing but hatred. Hatred is the only emotion that thrives in such a world. It breaks Jon, to the point that he removes his coat and hands it to Edd. Because his watch was ended the moment he closed his eyes. Jon Snow knows nothing, not when he is in a place only Beric Dondarrion has been before (Remember him?). There was nothing after death. Will there be nothing after life reborn? It’s a subtle, relatively uneventful, but very intriguing path for the show to take. The euphoria from Jon’s return is quickly quelled by Jon’s execution of his murderers and his leave of post. And we're left wondering if Jon is in the right here. Can a dead man be an Oathbreaker?

No one else on Game of Thrones has that excuse. Danaerys didn’t die after Kahl Drogo passed away, yet she did not go to Vaes Dothrak to join the other widows. Thus, her fate must be decided. Vala’s oath was to the ‘old ways of Meereen,’ kinda like that clerk from Kentucky, stickin’ to what she believes in. Or something, whatever Kim Davis said, who cares. But Varys knows that the only true solution to a horrid problem such as mass murder and the pursuit of slavery is to humanize the opponent. Vala breaks her oath, but for much more admirable reasons than most. Qyburn has no oaths to break, which makes him worse, and more dangerous. If life and death is an oath in itself, he went far beyond Jon’s resurrection and brought back Zombie Gregor. But why? The High Sparrow has broken no oaths to his Gods, nor to the boy he sees as king. ‘The Crown and the Faith are the Pillars of the world’ to him. So to keep from having to defy the crown, the High Sparrow must convince Tommen that what he does to Cersei is right, but that her love for her son is also right. It’s a good argument, and a solemn scene.

The problem is, all of the plots in ‘Oathbreaker’ lack a general cohesion. There not so much a flow of narrative as there is a recap of where everyone is, both literally and in regards to any oaths they took. In the end, that leaves the episode less compelling than it probably should be. There’s little weight to how the council blocks Cersei and Jaime out, because not much has been done to build up to it. As much as I love Olenna Tyrell’s return (it makes me giddy), it’s hard to forget that she’s comes out of the blue. And we just straight up forgot about Kevan Lannister, and I’m sure many had to check just who he was. In all of Game of Thrones' improvement this past season or so in focusing the narrative, it’s burdened by having everyone still so spread out. This is partially Martin’s fault, who chooses to drag out separation of characters for long stretches of time to increase payoff when people reunite or plot threads are resolved. But eventually, the tension for said payoff is weighed down by partial confusion or incoherence, because we're jumping around everywhere now. ‘Oathbreaker’ struggles to evoke any real emotion or connection to the viewer simply because it wants to lay as much foundation as possible for the rest of the season, when it probably would have been better served pairing some plot threads together and focusing on two or three per episode. It may do so still in the future, as it has in the past. But ‘Oathbreaker’ just misses it.

In no scene is this more transparent, with the greatest loss of potential, than the Tower of Joy clash. Firstly, most of the same ‘everyone’ who knew Jon Snow wouldn’t stay dead also knows what’s in that tower, and Bran should be reprimanded for being so slow on it (Ned fucking said 'Where's My sister?' Get your head outta the gutter, Bran!!). I could forgive the tease of showing Ned rush up the steps and then pulling back to the present if the writers had left out Lyanna’s screams (it’s Lyanna. We know this), which all but confirm what she’s doing up there. It’s the show losing its subtlety to entice us while also leaving the plot to hang for another episode’s reveal. The thing is, knowing what the reveal will be wouldn’t hinder the scene itself too much. There is still the potential for suspense… if we are left in the moment a little bit longer, either before the clash or after. But for this scene to stand alone, and serve as a blatant teaser, diminishes it. It’s left alone, cast on a heap of several plots explored but not fully fleshed out. The clash itself is quite masterfully choreographed (Arthur Dayne lives up to the hype of being known as the greatest swordsman), and tension hangs there for Ned as he duels, even though we know his ultimate fate. Knowledge of a plot twist does not in itself harm a scene if handled well. But the Tower of Joy was hardly managed at all in ‘Oathbreaker.’ There just isn’t enough there for substance, and it leaves the purpose of the Three-Eyed Raven somewhat lost. What is the point of training Bran to see into the past if he will not let Bran explore any answers? It’s a contrived narrative approach to dangle a twist, and though it’s not terrible, it is lacking.

Thankfully, though, the question of what now for Jon leaves enough intrigue to salvage this as a competent, if forgettable, episode. He’s back, but he’s back with nothing. No direction, no purpose, and no true answers as to what has happened, how it has happened, and why it has happened. We have only Thorne's last words to go on. 'I fought. I lost. Now I rest. But you, Lord Snow... You'll be fighting their battles forever.' Indeed, there seems no escape for Jon. Where he goes, he has some grand purpose. He is likely the Prince that was Promised... or one of them. So does that mean he is right? If a member of the Night’s Watch leaves his post, but is not considered having abandoned it because he died… but is somehow still alive… what now? For him, and for this dying realm? Will it be ressurrected as well?

That’s enough for Game of Thrones to continue on. For now.

... Sigh. Damn you, Gods. Damn you all to hell.

Grade: B

When I got sidetracked

-Max Von Sydow is just such a tease. Both here and in Star Wars. Seriously, who is he?

-I can't even talk about Ramsay having Osha and Rickon now to play with. I just... can't.

-Tyrion's moment when he was trying to play a game with Greyworm and Missandei, the same game he'd played with Shae... That was a beautifully tragic moment. It deserves mention.

-Apparently Emilia Clarke is in an upcoming romance movie based on a pretty good book, Me Before You. Worth mentioning, I thought.

#review #TV #GameofThrones