My friend just texted me: ”How about all those people who named their kids Daenerys?”

Can you imagine?

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m emotionally drained after watching that episode. I realize that George R.R. Martin mapped all this out long before our current era, but if I wanted to watch a show about a fear-mongering, revenge-obsessed, unhinged sociopath taking power by any means necessary, I would have turned on the news!

I mean, seriously: I know Game of Thrones is a soap opera about power first and foremost, and we all know that power corrupts. But did they really have to turn one of my favorite characters in TV history into the Worst Person Alive in the final three episodes of an eight-season show?

Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be Game of Thrones if we weren’t reeling and gnashing our teeth and asking, “How could you?!” I mean, it’s been almost a decade since they killed Ned Stark. By this point we should all know what we’re dealing with here.

When the episode began, I was still hoping against hope that Tyrion and Jon Snow were right and Varys was wrong, but even then I had to admit: Varys has been consistently shrewd over this show’s entire run, Tyrion has made one mistake after another because he keeps letting his feelings cloud his thinking, and Jon is basically a moron. A lovable, loyal moron—but still.

So it’s fitting that the first part of the episode focused on Tyrion. In a way, he was the stand-in for us in the audience, still hanging on to a thread of optimism that Daenerys—our Mother of Dragons, in whom we’d all invested so much time, energy, and hope—was going to be worthy of our belief in her. I think Tyrion realized how wrong he was to betray Varys as soon as Varys said to him that he hoped, for everyone’s sake, that he deserved his fate. If that didn’t do the trick, maybe the spectacle of watching Drogon roast him did.

But if Tyrion was feeling good about his decision even then, his visit to Daenerys surely cured him of his optimism. It’s not that anything Daenerys said was strictly inaccurate: Jon did kind of betray her, though that’s not how he would have seen it. And Sansa sure as hell didn’t tell Tyrion about Jon’s parentage as a favor to Daenerys. But the way the Khaleesi said it all showed that she was not in a great frame of mind.

And then there was Daenerys’s interlude with Jon, where she complained that no one in Westeros loves her the way they love Jon, and then tried to seduce him—whether out of real interest or as a test was unclear. If it was a test, Jon failed it. He does not share the Lannister taste for incest, clearly. And so she concluded that love is not for her, and she’ll have to lead with the only passion she is capable of inspiring more than anyone else: fear.

Look, I don’t want to spend too much time second-guessing the show runners here, but I saw a bunch of people carping on Twitter as soon as the episode ended that this turn of Daenerys’s is unearned, and I have to say it felt that way to me too. It’s not that we haven’t been warned over and over again that Daenerys has a mean temper, and isn’t afraid to use her dragons to punish disloyalty. But we have seen her balance that violence with mercy, kindness, and above all shrewdness. We have spent years watching her grow from a helpless girl into a seasoned leader who has been through a lot. Enough that it doesn’t really make sense that she would turn completely evil after a run of bad luck that was admittedly pretty bad—especially when she seemed to take the loss of Viserion in stride. Fine, she lost another dragon, she lost two of her closest aides, and she lost the love of Jon Snow. Maybe if that had all happened over the course of six episodes, we might have bought it, but it happened too fast to make me believe that she’d immediately turn into someone who spends an entire episode slaughtering innocent people.

Also, is it not weird that we barely even see her once she has begun this mysterious rampage? Are the show runners trying to make some kind of statement about how mindless her thirst for vengeance is? Or were they unable to credibly convey her state of mind on-camera?

Anyway, I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. I was talking about Tyrion. He realizes that Daenerys really is the Mad Queen in their meeting, even though, again, nothing she says is that mad. She just isn’t wearing makeup and has bags under her eyes and is acting a little loony. Hmm. Maybe this show actually does have a sexism problem, come to think of it?

And so, after she threatens him—again, not without some basis—that his next mistake will be his last, he embarks on this crazy scheme to release Jaime, who’s been captured in the process of becoming a traitor, so that he can go … save Cersei? And Ser Davos … helps him? I guess? By getting the key? Is that what he meant by the favor that involved Davos’s smuggling skills?

Again, I don’t want to spend this whole recap complaining, but … that really felt like a decision on Tyrion’s part that made zero sense except as a blatant ploy to let Jaime and Cersei die together in dramatic fashion. To create a romantic scene that, frankly, those two narcissistic, nihilistic jerks did not deserve.

But back to Tyrion. Really, his actions were inexplicable except to set up the Jaime-Cersei meeting and—more importantly—the moral fulcrum of the episode. If the bells ring, you must unsling. It made sense to him, if no one else. Even Jon Snow looked at him like he was nuts when he brought up the thing about the bells and the gates. Like, really, that’s what you’re concerned about right now?

It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense. There was no reason to think that Daenerys was going to torch the whole city out of spite—until she started doing it. Why did she do it? Because she was mad about Missandei? Because she hated Cersei? Because she just wanted to be LOOOOVED? Because she was tired of winning?

It didn’t make sense. It didn’t.

Grey Worm I understand, moreso than Daenerys. He was in love with Missandei. So he wanted to kill a bunch of people. That seems reasonable. And the soldiers who rape and pillage when their leader stops showing restraint and gives in to rage and insanity? Well, that seems inevitable. But the leader giving in to rage and insanity—that’s the part I just can’t buy.

As for Jon Snow, this was a wasted episode for his character, not counting the scene where he lets Dany know that he’s anti-incest. He doesn’t want the Throne. Yeah, we know. And as he watches all this go down, mostly helplessly (although I certainly was relieved when he decommissioned that rapist soldier), what is he thinking? Does he feel responsible? Guilty? Obliged to offer the people something better than the Queen that he has apparently made the humongous mistake of following? Unclear. Maybe this is all just above his pay grade. If Samwell were here, he’d know what to do.

What can I say about all the fighting scenes? The people who work on this show are good at this. All the technical folks deserve a pat on the back and an Emmy. The butchery was very realistic. I was watching with a relative who has never seen the show, and she was flinching at every operatic splash of blood. Imagine how the rest of us felt, as invested as we are in this thing.

Although, as it went on, the 9/11 echoes became a bit much. Didn’t you think? I lived in New York then, and I know I can’t watch scenes of people covered in ashes without thinking of that awful time. I can’t imagine what people who have fought in wars felt watching this. Maybe that’s the point? I don’t know. There must be a point, somewhere.

Revenge is bad. That’s one lesson we’re clearly supposed to take away. How do I know? Because when the Hound tells Arya that revenge is bad, instead of kicking him in the nuts, she has a sudden awakening that undoes six seasons of character development and decides to run away from the Red Keep that she just risked life and limb to penetrate. Forget Cersei! I don’t want to look like Sandor Clegane when I grow up! Not that I can blame Arya but … seriously? I guess endings are hard.

Sandor and Gregor, the Hound and the Mountain. That fight was fun. Pointless, but fun. Can’t kill an undead man, it turns out. Except for all the other undead men on this show that you can kill. Seems there are different kinds of undead men, and killing this one requires smashing him through a wall and down into an inferno hundreds of feet below. Stabbing him through the brain only stuns him. “Fucking die already” indeed.

Do I have to talk about Jaime’s fight with Euron. Euron really sucked, so I guess this wack-ass death was fitting for him. “I’m the man who killed Jaime Lannister.” How nice for you.

And we already talked about Jaime’s thing with Cersei. I want to get excited here, I do, but I’m still annoyed at how Daenerys and Arya became different characters tonight after eight seasons of character development. Cersei, Cersei, Cersei. Hey, Lena Headey is such a great actress that we need to give her her due. How is she that good at standing on a balcony looking down on a million people she detests? Why is it so fascinating? Why do we care what she’s thinking? Oh, but we do. Headey ensures that we do. We care when she’s in denial, thinking her soldiers will fight to the last man, and we care when the single tear lets us know that reality is beginning to set in.

I very much enjoyed watching Qyburn come to such an unceremonious end, and I very much enjoyed watching Cersei sneak past the Clegane brothers in full “don’t mind me, boys” mode. But the spell started to break at the very end, when she cried to Jaime that she didn’t want to die. It’s not that I didn’t buy it; it’s that Cersei loses her appeal when she loses her icy veneer. I don’t care what Cersei’s feelings are, once she expresses them. I actually was ready for these two to meet their richly deserved fate. Good night to you both!

Back to Arya. Even if she did change her spots in unconvincing fashion, I can never quit her. And it’s not the worst thing in the world to see her shake off the avenging-assassin mode and behave like a more conventional good guy. And I guess now she’s some kind of foil to Daenerys, who really leaned in (sorry!) to the vengeance thing.

Arya really takes a licking and keeps on ticking, doesn’t she? She tried to share the wealth and save a bunch of women and children, but it wasn’t in the cards. She was trampled and torched, and still got up—but I got the sense she was the only one in King’s Landing who did. She and that white horse. Which … wasn’t the one we saw that Lannister general riding at the start of the battle, was it? Didn’t I see that horse get killed? Anyway, the whole thing was magical, obviously. Not subject to the customary rules of physics. Arya is special, you see. Different. Perhaps … chosen?

So what’s next? The “next on” scenes suggest that Daenerys’s army is pretty happy with her decision. And she’s happy to bask in their fear-based adulation. And Tyrion is still brooding. And … that’s really all. So is that it? Is Westeros to be ruled by the Worst Person Alive (who was pretty great until literally one episode ago but whatever)? Is this like real life where we just have to find other things to think about (like ludicrously overproduced HBO shows) because we obviously aren’t getting what we want?

Is Jon going to come to the rescue? Sure doesn’t seem like it! After this episode, I will have a hard time mentally bending the knee to him. He’s just too dumb!

Will Tyrion do something right for a change? That seems highly unlikely.

Will Arya save the day? I mean, I guess she’s literally riding in on a white horse, so … maybe?

Is Sansa going to show up at some point? Brienne? Samwell?

On one hand, there’s only one episode left. On the other, the last few episodes have each been the length of a feature film. There’s time for plenty.

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