What Do You Think About GOT Season 8 Episode 4?

Sunday night's episode of Game of Thrones packed so much into its 78-minute run time.

The Battle of Winterfell is over, and we're left with the fallout of the Night King's invasion; the revelation that Jon Snow is actually Aegon Targaryen; and the reality of Cersei's iron grip on the Iron Throne and Daenerys's iron resolve to take it.

Things get off to a very grim start, with Dany weeping over Jorah Mormont's corpse, and Sansa over Theon's and Sam over Dolorous Edd's. Jon gives a powerful speech before they burn the dead.

Things get off to a merry start. All our heroes are gathered around Winterfell's hall, drinking and eating and toasting one another's bravery and good looks after the battle against the Night King is done.

Later on, everyone turns to drink in merriment. Tyrion, Podrick, Jaime, Brienne and Tormund play drinking games. Even Dany seems okay at first, gregariously handing over Storm's End to Gendry, and giving him his lordship as son of Robert Baratheon bastard no more. (Later, when he proposes to Arya she shoots him down. She's not the marrying type, but at least he'll be a lord now and can find a nice lady).

At a certain point, everything starts to take a turn for the worse, as nights of heavy drinking so often do. Daenerys is generous in her words of praise for others, toasting Arya as the "hero" of Winterfell. But when she watches Tormund and the others sing Jon's praises, as they commend his bravery, his return from the dead to "keep fighting" and his willingness to ride a dragon (who else would do that but a mad man or a king?) her eyes grow very dark, indeed. Like black orbs, where only thoughts of power and envy can live and fester.

"I worry about her state of mind," Varys tells Tyrion later. Tyrion is clever. He says that's their job, as advisers of a monarch, but he knows what Varys means. They haven't forgotten her father, Aerys, the Mad King.

Feasting and merriment turn to battle plans. Dany wants to push on to King's Landing immediately. Sansa suggests they wait and let the troops rest and recover from their wounds. It's a rational and perfectly sensible suggestion, but Daenerys responds with anger and pettiness. "I came here and helped you and now you dare suggest that we let the fighters in our armies rest?" is basically her response, and Jon backs her, much to Arya and Sansa's dismay.

I suppose before we go any further, we should talk about that scene between Jon and Dany (before we talk about that scene between Jaime and Brienne). Dany comes to Jon all sugar and spice and everything nice. She says she's not one to beg, but now she's begging that he tells nobody of his true identity. It would only create division, she says (and that's true) but he tells her, despite her cloying attempts to manipulate him, that he owes at least Sansa and Arya the truth. "We can all still live together," he says. "Yes," she responds, all ice and daggers. "And I just told you how."

This is an interesting episode because Daenerys is so bad in so many ways throughout, and yet she's also clearly not as vile as Cersei. Varys is right to not trust that she'll be anything other than the tyrants she truly believes she's destined to overthrow. She is showing every sign of megalomania. But she's still not executing innocent women on the battlements of King's Landing. Missandei's death was horrifying. Cersei is beyond redemption; as bad as Daenerys has gotten, I think she still means well.

"You're not a monster," Tyrion tells Cersei as he pleads with her to relinquish the crown. But she is a monster. She is "vile" as Jaime puts it, as he departs Winterfell to go be with his twin. I'm not sure he's vile, but he's still in love with her in his own strange way. But is Daenerys vile? Or is she simply a little bit mad, a little bit too obsessed with power and destiny and this ugly, uncomfortable Iron Throne?

In many ways, that's what separates her and Jon Snow the most. he doesn't want to be king. She wants to be queen so badly that she's willing to lie and manipulate and be a very shady, very unlikable person. But she's still no Cersei. Will Varys try to kill her? Will Arya come into the picture somehow? She and the Hound are riding together again, and both of them have "unfinished business" in King's Landing.