Game of Thrones Retrospective: Blackwater (Season Two, Episode Nine)

Directed by: Neil Marshall
Distributed by: HBO

Written by Anna Harrison

90/100

Overview

In these retrospectives, I will be looking back on “Game of Thrones” through my viewpoint as a fanatical fan of George R. R. Martin’s original book series, “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Mostly, I suspect this will be an exercise in venting my frustration about the adaptation of the books and pointing out where things went wrong in my mind—and I have a lot to work out.

For ease of reference, the show “Game of Thrones” can be abbreviated as “GOT” or “Thrones,” and the books in “A Song of Ice and Fire” can be abbreviated as “ASOIAF.” 

The books in the series are “A Game of Thrones,” “A Clash of Kings,” “A Storm of Swords,” “A Feast for Crows,” “A Dance With Dragons,” and the as-yet unpublished “The Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring.” These can be abbreviated as “AGOT,” “ACOK,” “ASOS,” “AFFC,” “ADWD,” “TWOW,” and “ADOS.” 

Chapters within the book will be referred to by their point-of-view character and a Roman numeral indicating what chapter within the POV it is (ex., Catelyn I, Jaime II, Arya III, and so on), as Martin does not number his chapters nor name them besides indicating whose POV we are about to enter.

My favorite “Lord of the Rings” movie is “The Two Towers,” due in no small part to the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Is it a surprise, then, that “Blackwater” might be my favorite “Game of Thrones” episode? Yes, above “The Rains of Castamere” (good), “The Winds of Winter” (bad), or “The Battle of the Bastards” (worse). I compare it to Helm’s Deep not to cheapen it, but to compliment the show, which had a mere $8 million budget for the episode at the time—a paltry sum compared to the $15 million per episode they would get in season eight or the $94 million (close to $200 million in 2026 money) budget of “The Two Towers.” 

Much of the credit must go to director Neil Marshall, who was singled out because of his ability to adapt action scenes on a small budget and who managed to convey an awe-inspiring sense of scope by keeping a laser focus on only a handful of characters. And, of course, much of the credit goes to George R. R. Martin himself, who whittled down six dense chapters from his books into one hour-long episode of television. (I suppose I must give some credit to showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, too, though I am loath to do so…) 

I have spent much of this season complaining at length at the disparity in storyline quality across our different locations. “Blackwater,” on the other hand, has a singular clarity of purpose; we do not cut to north of the Wall, the Stark camp, or godforsaken Qarth. We follow only the characters whose stories have stayed in or made their way to King’s Landing: Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), Cersei (Lena Headey), and Sansa (Sophie Turner), of course, but also Davos (Liam Cunningham) and Stannis (Stephen Dillane), whose fleet has finally arrived at Blackwater Bay. 

As a result, “Blackwater” is the perfect pressure cooker. 

Though “Blackwater” is but the penultimate episode, much like “Baelor” of season one, this is what the entire season has been building towards. Each piece has been masterfully slotted into place: the wildfire threads throughout these last few episodes, Tyrion and Cersei’s hatred for each other, the Tyrell wildcard, Sansa and Sandor Clegane’s (Rory McCann) relationship, even little Podrick Payne’s (Daniel Portman) quiet appearances in the background. When Tyrion’s long-gestating plan to blow up Stannis’s fleet using wildfire is finally revealed to the audience, it is obvious in hindsight and yet so spectacular that your jaw cannot help but drop.

Later battle episodes might have more extras, more choreographed swordfights, and more special effects, but there are several key elements of “Blackwater” that help it stand out from those latter episodes, starting with the lighting. As time goes on and “Thrones” buys more and more into its own reputation as dark and grisly, the colors on the show—which I have already complained about as being too dull even this early on—seem to vanish. Any sort of brightness, it seems, must be quashed in the name of grim “realism.” Season eight’s “The Long Night” was rightly lampooned online for being nigh impossible to see, and the issue persists into “House of the Dragon.” Yet “Blackwater,” despite having only a fraction of the budget, manages to maintain visibility even whilst shooting in the dead of night amidst freezing rain. (Again, it’s all very Helm’s Deep.) 

Not once did I squint at my screen, and not once did I ever lose track of the characters even as the action picked up. In maintaining its aforementioned laser focus, the Battle of the Blackwater creates a deeply claustrophobic atmosphere while never once becoming disorienting, unlike “The Long Night” and season six’s “The Battle of the Bastards,” which sacrificed logic and character for scale and showmanship. Not so here, and “Blackwater” is all the more agonizing because of it. When Tyrion finds himself forced to wade into battle after Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) abandons his troops, we see the battle as he does; when Stannis makes a heroic stand against the Lannister army, it is heroic not because he faces down an endless mass of soldiers, but because each fight against each single man is a Herculean effort. 

The lighting, cinematography, and blocking work in tandem to make each moment visible, understandable, and effective. Later seasons with a larger budget might have made a bigger spectacle of the wildfire explosion a third of the way through the episode, but the simple flash of green lighting upon everyone’s faces as Tyrion’s trap goes off conveys much more than any lingering on the explosion itself might have. It’s so easy! Show the light from the wildfire reflecting across the cast’s faces, stick in just a couple of brief shots of the explosion itself, and you have successfully conveyed that this is a big, big boom. Good lighting! Such a simple concept, and yet soon enough it will lay forgotten amongst things like “character development.” 

To further differentiate itself from “The Long Night,” “The Battle of the Bastards,” and any number of later-season hour-long slogs, “Blackwater” is not a fight against nameless hordes. Each side has its heroes and each its villains, and the viewer’s resulting ethical dilemma ups the stakes of the battle and makes it that much more personal. To support the defenders of King’s Landing is to support fan favorites like Tyrion, and yet if they win, poor Sansa will continue to be imprisoned, Cersei will keep plotting, and Joffrey will remain on the Iron Throne. To support the rightful ruler of Westeros is to support a more just king in Stannis, whose favoring of Davos speaks well of him, and yet may result in the demise of the most interesting and beloved characters in the show. The Lannisters may be illegitimate rulers of a broken and cruel system, but they are imminently watchable and even sympathetic, sans Joffrey; Stannis, in his own way, has proven to be a high point of this season, and it would be a damn shame to take him away from our screens. For your favorite to live, it means that someone else’s favorite may have to die. As Tyrion says, “Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let’s kill them.”

Contrast this with the rash of Bolton soldiers in “The Battle of the Bastards” and the shambling zombies of “The Long Night.” “Bastards,” at least, has a familiar big bad at the head of those soldiers in Ramsay (Iwan Rheon), but the villain of “The Long Night” is some random ice man who does some half-assed magic and, in the end, poses no big threat to Westeros (apparently). But neither can compete with the cast at the center of “Blackwater.” 

Nowhere is this more apparent than the scenes between Cersei and Sansa as they wait for death or salvation in the Red Keep’s sept. The women might not be on the battlefield, but they still face the threat of rape and murder should Stannis’s men breach the walls. This is not a new feeling for Cersei, who experienced plenty of sexual violence at the hands of Robert (Mark Addy), but for Sansa—despite the horrors she has seen—still cannot fathom the level of violence that might befall her. 

For Cersei, these scenes are beautiful microcosms of her character: she gets progressively drunker as the night goes on, tells Sansa that ruling by fear is best, punches her cousin Lancel (Eugene Simon) in his arrow wound, and laments that she should have been born a man. Headey has never been more delightful. Cersei, rightfully, feels thwarted by her gender, but she was raised by woman-hater-in-chief Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance)—instead of feeling empathy for her fellow women, she disdains them. And yet we feel sympathy for her; she was denied the same opportunities given to her twin, she was forced into a marriage she did not want, and now sits and waits and drinks while the useless men go and decide her fate. “You were Robert’s queen,” Sansa tells her. “And you will be Joffrey’s. Enjoy,” Cersei responds, knowing full well that she is subjecting Sansa to even worse abuse than she suffered. 

Sansa is the perfect foil for this scene. Cersei wants both to warn Sansa and subject her to torture as some sort of twisted revenge for the injustice she’s experienced, and yet Sansa is able to maneuver throughout this episode with a grace and kindness that wins her more friends than Cersei’s acerbic nihilism. It is her courtesy that convinces Joffrey, in honeyed words, to lead the vanguard in the hopes that this will get him killed; it is this kindness that leads to the Hound offering to spirit her away to safety (perhaps a debatable safety); it is these positive traits that will get destroyed by season six by shit writing. But for now, these scenes prove just as riveting as the spectacular battle raging outside, and up the ante for those clanging their swords.

Even amidst the battle itself, “Blackwater” makes room for characterization, not just guts and glory. Tyrion finds himself adept at leading men into battle, not just dealing in the shadows as Hand of the King; Stannis proves his willpower is second to none; Podrick Payne gathers his courage to defend Tyrion and skewers Ser Mandon Moore (James Doran), who tries to kill Tyrion on Cersei’s orders. And, mercifully, this is all very easy to follow as, once again, good lighting proves invaluable. So, too, does sound design, as we clearly hear flames sizzling against flesh and, without a word, we understand the fear it triggers in the Hound, who finally breaks with his Lannister masters and goes to the only one who has shown him kindness.

I would be remiss not to mention Ramin Djawadi’s score in this episode. It goes without saying that his work is always excellent, but his work throughout the season in building up the musical themes of both Stannis and the Lannisters pays off in spades here. From the drums ringing in Stannis’s arrival as the Lord of Light theme hovers in the background to the first time we hear the entirety of “The Rains of Castamere,” the music takes the episode from incredible to epic. The darkness and rain hide the slim number of extras, the lighting and sound convey what otherwise might have been an expensive visual effects shot, and the music gives a grandeur to the proceedings that convinces us this could very well have had a $94 million budget. Limitation begets creativity, and nowhere is that more apparent than “Blackwater.”

But, of course, this would not be a “Thrones” retrospective without some complaints. Bronn gives us some backstory as the camera pans to a prostitute’s breasts, and then the show manufactures some bizarro out-of-nowhere argument between him and Sandor for reasons I cannot fathom. This is annoying, but the biggest issue of “Blackwater” arrives with the Tyrell host. Loras storms into the fray dressed in Renly Baratheon’s (Gethin Anthony) armor; in the books, it’s Garlan Tyrell (eldest Tyrell child and all-around decent guy) who does this and sparks the rumor that Renly’s ghost came back to defend the righteous Lannister cause against the evil Stannis. That this “ghost” is Loras in the show is not revealed until season five, which is kind of silly, but what’s even sillier is how TINY the antlers on Renly’s armor are. You are telling me that the most peacocking of the Baratheon brothers didn’t have massive antlers on that helm? Why are we scared of being a little ostentatious? I know Michele Clapton didn’t have the privilege of seeing Lyonel Baratheon’s (Daniel Ings) antler helm in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” at this point in time, but let’s do a little something to make this stand out! Please! Why are you a coward!

And—worst of all—director Neil Marshall only returns for one other episode, “The Watchers on the Wall” in season four, another excellent single-location battle episode. Cinematographer Sam McCurdy does not return to “Thrones” at all. Perhaps there were legitimate logistical reasons for this, but until Benioff and Weiss tell me to my face (very possible as I once sat next to them and Brian Tyree Henry at brunch, very LA of me) or actually read James Hibberd’s “Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon,” I will continue to believe that this is merely another sign that Benioff and Weiss threw their goldmine away without a second thought.

Still my favorite episode.

Stray Observations:

• Sam McCurdy, more importantly than “Blackwater,” shot four episodes of the 21st-century’s most defining show: BBC’s “Merlin.” For that, I think he should be knighted. Also, Colin Morgan as a Florent… think of the ear possibilities…
• The lack of antlers on Renly’s helm is especially egregious considering the very cool stag mastheads that Stannis’s fleet has.
• In both “A Storm of Swords” and “A Feast for Crows,” Sansa remembers Sandor Clegane (all of thirty years old in the books) kissing her as he leaves her room. Flipping back to “A Clash of Kings,” though, this doesn’t happen, leaving fans to dub this moment the “UnKiss” and to wonder why Sansa is such an unreliable narrator. She’s a romantic!
• A bit of set dressing that absolutely broke my heart: Sansa has a doll in her room. The entire scene with the Hound is so well done, and I found myself almost tearing up as Sandor said, “I can take you with me… I can keep you safe.” 
• Early on in the episode, Tyrion says, “I’m a Lannister. I don’t have a choice in all this.” This is a fundamental mistake on Tyrion’s part as there is always a choice, a theme that Martin loves to touch upon whenever possible. Tyrion actively chooses to be a cog in the machine; he may feel trapped, but he still could have left long before things got this dire. The consequences might have been bad, but he wouldn’t have propped up a rotten regime.
• Cersei wears an armored breastplate, which looks pretty amazing. She also tells Grand Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover), “Be careful on the stairs, Grand Maester. There are so many,” which is hilarious. She also ponders seducing Stannis and then says, “I’d have a better chance at seducing his whores.” She is really on fire this episode. 
• Varys says,  “I’ve always hated the bells.” People like to pretend this is foreshadowing for Dany (Emilia Clarke) going mad in season eight. Real ones know this is actually foreshadowing Jon Connington having a PTSD breakdown and going crazy in “The Winds of Winter,” which is coming out any day now. 
• Roy Dotrice has a nice little cameo again.
• Stannis correcting Davos and saying that “thousands” will die (instead of the hundreds that Davos predicts) is why he is the best claimant to the Iron Throne.

Episode Ranking:

• “Blackwater”
• “What Is Dead May Never Die”
• “The North Remembers”
• “The Ghost of Harrenhal”
• “The Night Lands”
• “The Old Gods and the New”
• “The Prince of Winterfell”
• “A Man Without Honor”
• “Garden of Bones”

“Game of Thrones” Season Two Trailer

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