Game of Thrones Season Finale Review: Mother’s Mercy (Season 5 Episode 10)

You did it, Game of Thrones.

You’ve tried for years, you’ve emotionally crippled me before, and yet, I’ve always made it out stronger. In a way, you’d lured me into a false sense of security. “What else can they do?” I often asked myself. There’s nothing else they can throw at me. I’m done with getting attached. I can watch this show and just …enjoy it.

I learned two things after watching “Mother’s Mercy.” Number one: I’m very good at lying to myself. And number two: yes, a TV show can break your heart.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, as always.

The episode starts ominously enough, with Stannis. The weather has cleared, Shireen’s death (murder) is not in vain, and he is going to retake the North. It’s all going according to plan, for like, exactly ten seconds. And then karma strikes.

His men, having been forced to watch their King stand aside while his daughter burned alive, have fled into the night, with most of the horses. And who can blame them, really? What Stannis did was abhorrent, and if he expected loyalty when he has clearly shown he is loyal to no one, not even his family, then he had another thing coming.

Everything unravels after that. Selyse, looking so much like her daughter that it’s earie, is found hanging from a tree. Melisandre runs away, presumably because she now realizes she’s got this while prophecy thing wrong, and Stannis, well, Stannis is Stannis. He sees the Bolton’s coming, and he does what we expect him to do. He stays. He fights. Even if that means his death.

And it does.

The manner of his death, however, is much more effective and satisfying that we could have thought. Brienne, who’s been stuck outside Winterfell for who knows how long waiting for a sign from Sansa, is warned by Podric that Stannis’s army is set to attack Winterfell. When she leaves, we assume she’s going for Sansa, come hell or high water. But it seems revenge is on her mind first.

Stannis already lies wounded when Brienne appears before him, and yet, when she sentences him to die, we are actively rooting for her to do it. In a show filled with morally ambiguous characters, Brienne remains one of our shinning lights, and we can trust her to do what she thinks is right.

One death down.

At the wall, Sam asks Jon for permission to leave. He’ll be more useful as a Maester, he says, and he is right. Gilly and the baby don’t belong at the Wall, he insists, and he is right about that too. Except, this being Game of Thrones, and this being the season finale, this just seems like another bad omen to add to the pile.

Back at Winterfell, Sansa finally lights a candle on the highest tower and …nothing happens. We’ll assume Brienne is too busy killing Stannis to come and rescue her, and when Sansa seems to getting ready for another depressing round of How can we hurt a female character this time?, courtesy of Ramsay’s lady friend, the unthinkable happens.

Theon actually saves her.

Yes, Theon. The same one who ratted her out before. The same one who betrayed her family and led her to believe her little brothers were dead. That Theon. He takes care of Miranda, and since, of course, there’s nothing else to be done, takes Sansa’s hand and jumps out of the Winterfell wall and into the unknown.

If my choices had been Theon and possible death, or going back to Ramsay, I would have jumped too.

We then travel to Braavos, where Meryn Trant is torturing little girls again, because, I guess this is what he does, and we need another visual example of that. Thankfully, the violence serves a point, when one of the girls he’s hitting turns out to be Arya, who proceeds to extract revenge on Meryn Trant, in a rather gruesome way.

Make that two deaths. And this one, we kind of enjoyed.

Arya was not meant to take Trant’s life, though, Jaqen H’ghar tells later. She took a life that didn’t belong to her, and now the price is another life. The Many Faced God demands it. In a scene that serves absolutely no purpose other than to show Arya that the path she chose is not necessarily the path of revenge, she sees Jaqen supposedly sacrifice himself, only to find it’s not him, and, in the subsequent realization, lose her eyesight

In Dorne, the most boring place in Westeros, Doran Martell says goodbye to Myrcella and his son, and if you’re so done with this storyline that you miss the way Ellaria kisses Myrcella and then wipes her mouth, I wouldn’t blame you. Later, after a heart-warming conversation between Jamie and Myrcella, when he reveals her true parentage and she tells him something along the lines of, Duh, Dad, I already knew, Jamie gets to hold his daughter without any secrets between them for the first time, only for her to die in his arms.

Three deaths, and yes, there is poison in that kiss.

In Mereen, Jorah and Daario discover Tyrion is good at talking, and, since Daenerys is nowhere to be found, set out on an expedition to find her (Imagine all the awkward conversations!), leaving Tyrion, with the help of Greyworm and Missandei to help.

This sounds like an awesome idea, but we’ll see. Varys suddenly appears too, because, of course, why show up when you’d actually be of some use, by all means, show up when everything is already settled.

Daenerys, meanwhile, is God knows where with Drogon, who doesn’t look like he wants to go anywhere. (Apparently, the training your dragon thing is not as easy as it looks). The moment she steps away from him and goes exploring, we know something is going to happen, and, of course, that’s when more Dothraki than we’ve ever seen surround her.

We go back to King’s Landing, then, and to Cersei, who has decided to confess to her sins. (Well, one of them, because sleeping with Lancel is like the tip of the iceberg). Confessing is good, the High Sparrow says. Mother’s mercy for you! And, boy, if this is mercy, then I can’t imagine what punishment would be like.

Lena Headey hits it out of the park with this performance. Cersei is forced to walk naked through jeering crowds of people who throw food and filth at her, and yet she never looks down, doesn’t break until she makes it to the keep. Once there, Qyburn has a cloak ready and a resurrected night ready to avenge her.

Next season.

And, because life is cruel that way, we end at the wall, where my darling Jon, the hero apparent of this story, must meet his demise. Because that’s the GRRM way. Tricked by the Night’s Watch, he is repeatedly stabbed in front of a hand-crafted Traitor sign. Talk about commitment to the thing. The sign was a bit much in my opinion, but what do I know, I’ve never stabbed my Commander.

This is the fourth death, and the one that really, truly breaks our hearts. Even if it might not stick. Even if it makes no sense. Even if Melisandre is conveniently close and might be able to bring him back. Logic and reason don’t play into the moment where you are forced to watch Jon bleed to death.

No, those come later. With time. And boy, will we have time to obsess about this. Bring on the speculation! Bring on the crazy theories. Book fans and TV fans are finally in the same place. Jon Snow is not the only one who knows nothing; we’ve joined him in his ignorance.

May the Many Faced God, the Lord of Light and the Seven have mercy upon us.

What did you think of this episode of Game of Thrones? Is your heart broken? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Game of Thrones returns next year for Season 6 on HBO.

Lissete Lanuza Sáenz

Lawyer. Writer. Columnist. Geek. Falls in madly in love with fictional characters. Hates the color yellow, misogyny, and people who are late. Can always be found with a book. Watches an absurd amount of TV every week, often, while eating coffee ice cream. She has no regrets. You can check out her blog here: Absurday. Lissete is a senior writer for Tell-Tale TV. Follow @lizziethat