(This post contains huge spoilers for the fourth episode of the final season of “Game of Thrones”)
We’re so close to the end now that we can taste it. This week, “Game of Thrones” gave us a transition episode, moving us from the madness of the Battle of Winterfell toward what will no doubt be the madness of Danerys’ attack on King’s Landing next week. The tension in the air is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Things get off to a rough start with Euron and his Iron Fleet ambushing the ships carrying the Unsullied forces and wrecking them — and managing to kill the dragon Rhaegal in the process. The situation has never felt more precarious for Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) since she came to Westeros. With so many of those Scorpion crossbows out there and seemingly most of the Unsullied dead, things really don’t look good for her.
But given how the episode ended, Dany may not be overly concerned with how bad the situation is. I’m speaking, of course, about how Cersei had the Mountain behead Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel). In that moment, Cersei told Missandei to utter any last words she might want to say, and Missandei went with just one word: “dracarys.”
This, as we all know by now, is the thing Dany says when she wants Drogon to breathe fire — the word literally means “dragonfire” in Valyrian. So why did Missandei say that? Drogon is nowhere to be seen in that scene, so surely she wasn’t trying to get him to light Cersei on fire or whatever. Right?
Right. No, Missandei was just doing a badass sendoff. By choosing “dracarys” as her last word, she was basically telling Daenerys, “F— these guys.” Or as the Mad King might say, “Burn them all.”
Series creator David Benioff emphasized this point in the aftershow, phrasing it a little bit differently: “Missandei knows that her life is over, and she is saying, you know, ‘Light them up.’”
And given the look on Daenerys’ face after Missandei was killed, it sure seems like that’s exactly what she’s going to do. And with “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Long Night” director Miguel Sapochnik at the reins for next week’s episode, you can be sure there’s going to be plenty of fireworks. Hopefully she’ll at least wait for Jon (Kit Harington) and his army of Northmen to show up before making her move.