TV Review: Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 1 “The Wars to Come” (USA, 2015)

game of thrones the wars to come

The season premieres of Game of Thrones have almost always served the purpose of re-adjusting the show’s landscape to it’s constantly shifting dynamics, slowly but surely rearranging arrows to give us some sort of hint as to what we’re in for over the 10 episodes. “The Wars to Come” is no exception to this pattern, accustoming us to what changes were made in the tail end of Season 4 by bringing us up to speed with half of the current arcs and saving the other half – I assume – until the second episode.

This is a picture of where Westeros and Essos are at right now, and how Tywin’s death has impacted more than just King’s Landing. Episode 1 deals less with the far-reaching fallout of Tyrion’s decision to kill his father and more with the immediate consequences, especially for Cersei.

We begin “The Wars to Come” with the show’s very first flashback, back to when Cersei was a young girl confidently threatening a witch – Maggy the Frog – and forcing a fairly accurate fortune telling out of her. “…you’ll be queen, for a time, then comes another – younger, more beautiful – to cast you down and take all you hold dear”, the witch tells Cersei, making this an important flashback if we are to dive deeper into the ‘Queen Mother’s’ current resistance to Margaery Tyrell – King Tommen’s queen-to-be. But quotes like this, in Game of Thrones especially, could always mean something less obvious. What if the younger, more beautiful queen is Dany? Or even Cersei’s own daughter Myrcella? I have a feeling this flashback has only been half-shown and we will be revisiting that swamp-centered hut later in this season.

The prospect of Game of Thrones possibly using more flashbacks is exciting now that we have spent so much time in the show’s present. GoT has such a rich and important back story that precedes Ned Stark becoming hand of the king. Rather than highly detailed and well-acted storytelling scenes to give us glimpses into the history of Westeros, if we are to actually see such pivotal events and characters as The Mad King and Elia Martell, stories of the past could be even more engaging.

But more flashbacks could add a considerable weight to the already impossibly heavy load for the showrunners, tasking them with constantly trimming down material from the books and balancing that against their need to do the story justice. The accelerated pace of the TV series, in stark contrast to the books, means that fan-service is more common. That triumphant and blood-pumping anticipation that takes over us when these once disconnected characters slowly edge closer and closer together is present here, and it’s only going to get more intense as the show rolls along.

Season 5 marks the most significant change in the series to date; Tyrion is leaving King’s Landing and, with the help of Varys, is on the path leading to Dany. The show wastes little time in making that clear, showing us Tyrion in the beautiful Pentos with the Eunuch softly explaining that he means to introduce the two. Varys and Tyrion have shared plenty of scenes before in Game of Thrones, but these few are their strongest to date. Their on-screen chemistry rivals the show’s best duos like Arya and The Hound or Jamie and Brienne, and it injects some genuine humour into the episode.

That’s not the only change though; our map of the realm is expanding, with promises for the show to reveal more of the happenings at Dorne and Braavos.

With Tywin gone, there seems to be a bigger focus on religious uprisings with the introduction of the sparrows and the revelation that one is the returning Lancel Lannister, who seems intent on helping bring a more stringent dedication to the seven back to the sea of sin that is the capital. The sparrows are already seeming to be wild cards here, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they change the power dynamics in King’s Landing.

Another group sewing seeds that will undoubtedly effect much of this season is the dissenting Sons of the Harpy faction sneaking around the streets of Meereen in a creepy, silent fashion. The rebellion against Dany’s occupancy of the city and her freeing of the slaves is going to add greatly to her pile of Ruling 101 lessons that she is going through. “I’m not a politician, I’m a Queen”, Dany states, showing that hint of naivety that is still getting in the way of her being an effective ruler. The slaves actually want their traditional fighting pits to be re-opened but that goes against what Dany believes in. Her constant dilemma of cultural relativity in these free cities continues to roll on in her arc, slowly building her up until she’s ready to – I assume – take on Westeros and sit The Iron Throne.

Again, this makes the prospect of Tyrion and Dany meeting all the more exciting. Dany is going to need the sharp and learned mind of Tyrion on her counsel, and once she does I expect her capacity as ruler to progress rapidly.

The quest narrative that Brienne and Podrick are on is briefly shown in this episode, as is the intriguing venture out of the Eyrie that Littlefinger and Sansa are taking. These two pairings are bound to intersect this season, and hopefully sooner than later.

Aside from Dany, Cersei, and Tyrion, the other main arc we catch up with is the rejuvenated energy at Castle Black. The scene here is much different, now that Stannis, Davos, and The Red Woman are occupying The Wall. With Tywin gone, Stannis plans on marching against Roose Bolton and wants the wildlings to join his army, putting Jon Snow in a position between Stannis and a captured Mance Rayder, as Jon is the only non-wildling that seemingly has any influence with The King Beyond the Wall. The final scene between Jon and Mance is brilliant, with both Kit Harrington and Ciarán Hinds giving strong performances as they clash in world views.

The rulers in Game of Thrones are flawed and often hypocritical; Mance is no exception here. He has always wanted the freedom to make his own mistakes, as he tells Snow when he refuses to bend the knee and be pardoned by Stannis, but are Mance’s people free to make their own decisions? Mance is making a mistake not just for himself but for his followers, hence undermining the very freedom he fought so hard to give them. Jon is one of the biggest representations of progressive thinking in the show, trying to convince Mance that his stubborn resolve is a “terrible mistake”. He obviously fails here and Mance suffers the consequences of his own single-minded resistance.

Next week is bound to be much of the same re-adjustment work, working through the predicaments of characters like Arya, Ramsay, Theon, and Jamie and setting them on their direction for this season.

Review Score: FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)

Highlights

– Varys and Tyrion scenes
– Jon Snow and Mance Rayder final talk
– Stannis on The Wall
– Sons of the Harpy make Dany’s situation much more interesting
– Cersei’s flashback
– Littlefinger and Sansa no longer at The Eyrie (and no longer with Robert Arryn)

Game of Thrones airs in Australia on Showcase, Foxtel every Monday at 11am with a second screening at 7:30pm

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Chris Singh

Chris Singh is an Editor-At-Large at the AU review, loves writing about travel and hospitality, and is partial to a perfectly textured octopus. You can reach him on Instagram: @chrisdsingh.