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May 5, 2019 · Action Adventure Drama. The Battle of Winterfell is over and a new chapter for Westeros begins. Director. David Nutter. Writers. George R.R. Martin. David Benioff. D.B. Weiss. Stars. Peter Dinklage. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Lena Headey. See production info at IMDbPro. STREAMING. RENT/BUY. from $3.99. Add to Watchlist. Added by 5.5K users.
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- Action, Adventure, Drama
- David Nutter
- 2019-05-05
The Last of the Starks. TV-MA | 1 HR 17 MIN. WATCH NOW. In the wake of a costly victory, Jon and Daenerys look to the south as Tyrion eyes a compromise that could save countless lives. 1. Winterfell. Arriving at Winterfell, Jon and Daenerys struggle to unite a divided North. 2. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
The Last of the Starks. Aired May 5, 2019 Drama Fantasy. TRAILER for Game of Thrones: Season 8 Episode 4 Featurette - Inside the Episode. Jon and Daenerys look to the South in the...
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- Peter Dinklage
- David Nutter
- April 17, 2011
- "We may have defeated them, but we still have us to contend with."
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- Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 4 Review
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By Laura Prudom
Updated: May 15, 2019 11:38 pm
Posted: May 6, 2019 5:20 pm
This review contains spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 4, "The Last of the Starks." Watch our in-depth breakdown of the episode on Dragons on the Wall above, or download our episode 4 podcast here. To refresh your memory of where we left off, read our GoT S8, Episode 3 review, "The Long Night." If you're confused about what "dracarys" means, we've got you covered, plus, did you spot this coffee cup goof?
In many ways, "The Last of the Starks" is the most solidly “Game of Thrones” episode of Game of Thrones we've had in a long time, full of political machinations and whispered schemes. In others, it suffers from the same storytelling frustrations that have plagued this season (and, arguably, every season since the show began outpacing George R. R. Martin’s books).
It’s somewhat realistic that even the most heroic and level-headed characters are beginning to fall prey to mistrust and paranoia when there’s so much on the line (let alone the characters who aren’t that level-headed, like Cersei and Daenerys), but it’s still infuriating that, after everything these people have been through and all the horrific things they’ve seen, they can’t put aside their differences and simply try to see things from each other’s point of view. (Then again, the same can probably be said for our world, and for the many civil wars that Martin drew inspiration from when crafting his narrative.)
Martin has always espoused the notion that power corrupts, and we’re clearly about to see that writ large with the blood of every man, woman, and child in King’s Landing. Cersei’s obviously prepared to use them all as human shields, while Daenerys is so set on her goal and so traumatized by all she’s lost (her two closest friends and two of her children in very quick succession) that she’s too blinded by hatred to stop and consider the collateral damage. Missandei's death feels particularly wasteful - yes, she's the last surviving member of Dany's entourage who could provoke such a reaction, which was surely Cersei's goal, but the death of Rhaegal should've been enough of a catalyst for Dany's vengeance. Plus, basically giving Daenerys permission to indulge her worst, most destructive instincts seems a little out of character for a woman who's seen the cost of such violence (especially aimed against the poor and helpless inhabitants of a city) her whole life.
The show has positioned these two “Mad Queens” in an unwinnable game of chicken where mutually assured destruction seems like the most likely outcome, and yet Daenerys once said she didn’t come to Westeros to be “queen of the ashes.” Has she forgotten that vow, or will Jon and Tyrion be able to pull her back from the brink?
Now that the White Walkers are destroyed, it’s impossible not to look back at the vision she had in the House of the Undying, where something that certainly looked like snow was falling upon the Iron Throne through gaping holes in the Red Keep’s roof. Sure, we all assumed it would be the work of the Night King, but the damage could just as easily be due to dragon fire, or wildfire - and in “The Long Night,” it was impossible to tell the difference between snow and ash outside Winterfell. We certainly wouldn’t put it past Cersei to simply blow the hidden caches of wildfire she’s got around the city, as Daenerys’ father once tried to do, in a petty demonstration of “if I can’t have the throne, no one can,” and in some ways, that would probably be the best outcome for everyone. (Euron has to have done the math and figured out something's iffy about Cersei's pregnancy after Tyrion's impassioned speech, right?)
But the show is leaning so heavily and clumsily into Dany’s Mad Queen routine, I’m still hoping the show will offer us a satisfying twist on that heavy foreshadowing - otherwise what were all her long (and often boring) travails in Essos even for?
Watch the preview for Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 5 below:
We see that Daenerys can be strategic when she needs to be - legitimizing Gendry as a true Baratheon to secure his loyalty - but we also see how lonely she is without Jorah and the Dothraki behind her. What has all of this been for, if she doesn’t have the love of the people or a family who will stand beside her no matter what, like Jon has? How much more does she have to lose before she gains some perspective? In some ways, it seems like the show is setting her up to sacrifice herself for Jon, to finally realize that the realm’s needs should come before her own desires - but it’s equally likely that Varys will be the third betrayal that was prophesied to Dany in the books: “Three treasons will you know: once for blood and once for gold and once for love.” Varys almost outright says that his love for the realm will supercede any loyalty to Dany, so could she be the one to kill him (as Melisandre foretold) after he tries to assassinate her before the final showdown with Cersei?
Jon might be the only character in the show who technically has his hands clean by staying true to his vows, but his naivete also puts everything he loves at risk - and those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. He’s seen what honesty cost Ned Stark, and when Daenerys outright tells him that some truths are far more hurtful and damaging than the cost of concealing them, he selfishly puts his own honor and comfort above keeping the peace, because lying to his sisters would make him feel guilty. Just because he’s a reluctant leader doesn’t mean he’s any more qualified than Daenerys, when he has no sense of how to negotiate or compromise when necessary.
As Tywin Lannister once said, it’s not holiness, justice, or strength that makes a good king, but wisdom - “a wise king knows what he knows and what he doesn’t.” Sometimes wisdom means knowing that a secret - like the one Ned kept from everyone in his life to keep Jon alive all these years, at great cost to his marriage and reputation - is far more honorable than the truth.
In that way, as frustrating as this episode is, because all of these people should know better, it’s perhaps one of the most honest in a long time - especially when Jaime, even after experiencing something truly pure and good and healthy with Brienne, admits that he’s “hateful” just like Cersei is, and rides off to face her one last time. It’s a heartbreaking moment, but despite Jaime’s hard-won redemptive arc over the last few seasons, it feels true to the character - of course he doesn't feel like he deserves the happy ending. Ditto Arya’s polite refusal of Gendry’s proposal - she long ago told Ned “that’s not me” when he predicted she would someday marry a lord, and it’s a satisfying callback to hear her tell Gendry the same. Like her wolf, Nymeria, she needs to be untethered - she still has a name to cross off her list, after all.
Where “The Last of the Starks” falls short is in its recurring shortcuts. We’ve heard that direwolves are expensive (but now that Rhaegal and Viserion are both dead, presumably the dragon budget has dropped by two thirds), and yet Jon arbitrarily decides that Ghost should go North with Tormund with nary a pat or even a goodbye from his absentee master, despite getting his ear torn off and his side scratched up in a battle where we all thought he’d died anyway? The direwolves were such a pivotal part of the show’s early seasons (and are still such a pivotal part of George R. R. Martin’s books, thanks to the A Song of Ice and Fire’s emphasis on the Starks’ warging abilities) it’s heartbreaking to see them so sidelined here. I almost want Jon to die again just for treating his faithful sidekick so poorly.
There are other nitpicks too, of course - why wouldn’t Daenerys just fly around behind Euron’s fleet where there didn’t seem to be any ballistas and torch them from behind? How did the dragons not see Euron’s fleet from miles away? What the heck is the point of Bronn anymore if he’s going to sit out another major battle? But at this point, the show is in such a rush to get into its final stretch, it seems those contrivances aren't going away. It's stunning that Dany lost another dragon so quickly, and between that dwindling firepower, the destruction of the White Walkers and the show's disinterest in the direwolves, it certainly seems like magic is draining back out of the world at a rapid rate.
Perhaps it’s just because of the truncated episode order that everyone’s decisions feel much more extreme and heavy-handed than they used to, when in the good old days, you truly couldn’t guess who had poisoned Joffrey or sent an assassin after Bran (let alone predict that it was the same damn person!). It’s not a dealbreaker, but the show certainly seems to be lacking a sense of nuance compared to the intricate way this game used to be played - and that might be setting us up for a divisive ending.
This is the most deliciously political Game of Thrones has been for some time, and there's something immensely satisfying about getting back to all the scheming and backbiting that drove the show's early seasons, even if Season 8 has lost all the subtlety and nuance that used to be a hallmark of the show. There's something heartbreakingly realistic...
Review scoring
great
A heavy-handed but surprisingly nostalgic installment that stays true to the characters and their hubris.
Laura Prudom
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"The Last of the Starks" is the fourth episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones. It is the seventy-first episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 5, 2019 on HBO. It was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by David Nutter.
- 2 min
- 9
May 6, 2019 · Game of Thrones season 8, episode 4: “The Last of the Starks” disappoints - Vox. Culture. 4 winners and 6 losers from Game of Thrones’ disappointing “The Last of the Starks”...
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May 5, 2019 · Where to watch Game of Thrones · Season 8 Episode 4 · The Last of the Starks starring Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and directed by David Nutter.
