The “Game of Thrones” finale grandly tipped its hat to Father’s Day, wrapping up with a showdown between the death-sentenced Tyrion and a latrine-seated Tywin that gave viewers something we’ve all learned through painful experience not to expect from this show: catharsis.
After being held captive by his family for weeks — but, really, his whole life — Tyrion learned to speak a language the old man could understand. “Why?” he asked Tywin of the trumped-up execution order, following on the heels of his beetle-smashing monologue two weeks ago.
Turns out, the well-aimed crossbow explained things more clearly.
It was an episode that started out as a slog — really, we’re back at the Wall? — but snowballed into several shockingly violent conflicts, as well as some painful verbal ones.
Cersei finally came clean with Tywin, telling him frankly that the rumors about her and Jaime are true, and that she would never marry Loras Tyrell: “Your legacy is a lie.” Jon Snow and Mance Rayder had a prickly sit-down, interrupted by the arrival of Stannis and his army, humorless as ever.
Dany, presented with the charred skeleton of a 3-year-old girl, made the wrenching decision to chain her dragons in the catacombs under the city.
And speaking of bones: Bran, Hodor and company discovered yet another thing that can kill you in Westeros. Emerging from the snow like some ridiculous “Pirates of the Caribbean” army, murderous skeletons attacked before being firebombed by a mysterious little girl: “The First Men called us the Children,” she told them, “but we were born long before that.”
Director Alex Graves saved the best for nearly last: first, a meeting between two of the show’s fiercest females, Brienne and Arya, who swapped stories about being told not to fight with the boys. And then, an epic swordfight-turned-brawl between Brienne and the Hound, culminating in head-smashing, ear-tearing and, eventually, his being flung off a cliff — where Arya got her wish as Sandor Clegane begged her to kill him, before she headed off on her own, buying passage to Braavos with a coin and a catchphrase.
But this was really Tyrion’s night: Freed by Jaime, he sneaked into his father’s bedroom, only to find a traitorous Shae in his bed, wearing a necklace that conveniently doubled as a murder weapon. And then on to the confrontation we’ve all been hoping for since the first time Tywin was awful to his youngest son. It was bloody, it was brutal — and it was about as close to a happy ending as “Game of Thrones” ever gets.