Talkin' Thrones Episode 58 - No One

And the one that no one's been looking forward to, see what I did there? This episode is infamous as another 8th episode that feels like a penultimate to the penultimate, wrapping up a lot of the ancellary storylines before we move on to the explosive climax that is Battle of the Bastards & Winds of Winter. The only problem? This is the episode where it really feels like D&D gave up. While not every storyline in this episode misses, a large chunk of this feels like filler, leading up to an ending action set piece that feels more at home in a Mortal Kombat video game than Game of Thrones. The Hound carries out his revenge against the men who wiped out his friends, leading him back to the Brotherhood without Banners, who have a new mission. Cersei shows the Sparrows that she is not listening to them anymore, but when Tommen bans trials by combat, she seems doomed, at least until Qyburn gives her a valuable bit of information. In the Riverlands, Brienne arrives and offers Jaime a deal to allow her to lead the Blackfish and his forces north to assist Jon & Sansa, allowing him to take the castle back peacefully, but when this fails, Jaime is forced to use Edmure as a bargaining chip. It all ends in Braavos, with a storyline resolution that gets more and more confusing as the years go on. After being rescued and treated by Lady Crane, Arya is attacked once again by the Waif, who kills Lady Crane in a manner that still is confusing 6 years later, before chasing Arya through the streets in one of the most obvious and non-secretive parkour action scenes before Arya lures her to her little hiding spot, and rather than letting us see the payoff for all those training sessions, we're instead treated to...darkness. Its confusing, its out of place, it makes no sense, and it becomes more and more apparent as the years go on that Benioff & Weiss just wanted to be done with Braavos. At least we get Battle of the Bastards next week, only on #talkinthrones