Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones, “Hardhome”, was momentous to say the least. And it came at just the right moment in the series, as Season 5 thus far has lacked momentum in many of its storylines, resulting in a somewhat uneven season. But “Hardhome” delivered tremendously: we got our first taste of Winter in a big, big way with the massive “Ice Zombie” fight at the Wildling stronghold. It rivals Blackwater as the best action set piece of the entire series, and I’d go so far as to say it may even surpass that battle.

But the “Fight Against the Living” wasn’t the only big moment that occurred on last night’s Game of Thrones, as we also saw the first substantial scene between Tyrion and Dany, and it was everything we hoped for and more. I wrote last week about Season 5’s issues with pairing characters that are uninteresting together, and here comes Tyrion and Dany with the antidote.

As they do with every episode, HBO released an “Inside the Episode” featurette for “Hardhome”, but it may be more noteworthy this time around as showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss discuss the Hardhome battle at length and its ramifications for the series as a whole, as well as the pairing of Tyrion and Dany:

This battle sequence was a massive payoff, and while it was a wonderful dose of “things happening" (finally), it doesn’t entirely discount the fact that Jon Snow’s storyline was rather stagnant and dull for the preceding episodes. However, it’s clear that the Benioff and Weiss were simply biding their time (and saving their budget) for this massive clash in Episode 8, and I can’t wait to see how it impacts the series going forward.


We’re definitely in uncharted territory now, and while I really don’t want Game of Thrones to become The Walking Dead in its final season as the “Ice Zombies” battle the rest of Westeros, I’m optimistic that Benioff and Weiss have their own spin on the proceedings that will continue to surprise.

Catch up on our other recent Game of Thrones coverage below, followed by high-resolution images from the episode:

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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO