The Game of Thrones finale picks up right after last week’s shocking conclusion of Ned Stark losing his head and Arya holding close to Yoren afterwards. Yoren then takes Arya and cuts her hair to make her look like a boy as they intend to head North. The rest of the Starks soon find out one after another of Ned’s execution. Robb takes out his frustration on a tree until his mother consoles and eerily promises that once they get back Sansa and Arya that they will kill them all.

Afterwards the Northmen have a meeting trying to determine whether to recognize Lord Renly or Lord Stannis as king until Greatjon Umber has an epiphany: make Robb the King of the North and rule themselves which the rest of the Northmen quickly join in on. Catelyn pays a visit to Jaime Lannister afterward, smashing him in the face with a rock after he inquires if she is there to bed him due to the loss of her husband. Catelyn thinks better of it, knowing they need Jaime alive in order to get her daughters back.

Lord Tywin in the meanwhile is infuriated that his better son has been captured, and he shockingly speaks with Tyrion in private to appoint as Hand of The King to Joffrey in his stead while he deals with the River Lords and Robb Stark. He does however tell Tyrion not to bring the ‘whore’ Shae with him to King’s Landing but Tyrion loving his good father so much decides to disregard that memo.

Joffrey on the other hand is having his sadistic fun at King’s Landing, forcing the singer who was on the road with Tyrion and Catelyn to play a song poking fun at King Robert in front of the assembled court. He commands the singer to choose between his fingers or his tongue before leaving the throne room for the day. The singer inadvertently chooses his tongue and we are treated to a zoomed out Ser Ilyn Payne removing the tongue with pliers and a hot dagger. Joffrey then further slides into asshole mode by showing Sansa her father’s head on a spike upon the battlements and having one of his Kingsguard’s slap her for talking back. He is a very manly king I gotta tell ya.

There was also a very interesting scene with Grand Maester Pycelle going on about how many Kings he has served over the years to the whore he just finished with, then after she leaves he stands up like a spring chicken stretching. Then after getting dressed he resumes his stooped and elderly demeanor as he exits the room. This old fart isn’t all he seems to be.

Arya ends up leaving King’s Landing with Yoren, heading North to the Wall in the company of a bunch of dungeon recruits. Before she leaves she has a run in with Robert’s bastard Gendry when he helps her further dissuade two bullies who wanted her sword Needle.

Jon Snow also finds out about his father’s death in King’s Landing, and even after Maester Aemon’s pep talk he makes the decision to abandon his post with the Night’s Watch and join up with Robb to avenge Ned. As he and Ghost race through the forest in the night he is followed by Sam, Pip and Grenn and they remind him of his vows and he returns to Castle Black with them. Lord Commander Mormont even lets him know that he tried to run off, but forgives him his temporary insanity and tells him that he will be coming with him and many other brothers to go beyond the Wall to find his uncle Benjen dead or alive. Mormont is sick and tired of waiting for anything to come and attack them so he becomes a little proactive. Too bad we won’t get to see anymore of the Night’s Watch until next season. DAMN!

Now let’s get to the biggest part of the episode. Last week the sorceress Miri Maz Duur was supposed to bring Drogo back with the offering of the life of another. It turns out that Dany gets Drogo back, but at the cost of her unborn son. And even worse, Drogo may still be alive but he is a husk of a person who just stares off into the distance. Miri let’s Dany know that Khal Drogo should not have razed her village to the ground and that now her son will not become the Stallion who mounts the world and cannot cause death and destruction like her village suffered. Harsh world I suppose.

Dany realizes as she lays with Drogo that he is beyond help and she smothers him with a pillow and prepares his body and the supposedly fossilized dragon eggs to be burned. Dany also throws Miri into the package of to be burned items and Miri declares she will not hear her screams. She was wrong as the funeral pyre is lit and Miri cooks for a bit before succumbing to the screams. Dany then walks through the fire unfazed towards Drogo and the eggs as the scene then cuts to the next morning. Jorah walks towards the ashes of the pyre, and everyone beholds Dany rising up unburned and holding three baby dragons who will come to be known as Rhaegal (Green and bronze), Viserion (Cream and Gold) and Drogon (Black and Red) who gave tiny but ear-piercing roars to end the episode as the remaining khalasar knelt before her. The whole scene gave me goosebumps and could not have been done better. I was a little wary of what the dragons would look like but they were very well done and a true testament to the quality of this show.

I give the episode a four out of five bears because the ending with the dragons was one of the best scenes of the whole series and there was plenty of great set up for the next season. It was heart breaking to see the various reactions to Ned’s death and you can’t help but want to strangle Joff for his treatment of Sansa.

I can’t wait by the way and Spring 2012 is gonna be a loooong wait. So let me know what you thought of the episode because I was digging it and have very high hopes for season 2 which follows book 2: A Clash of Kings. I can’t imagine many viewers feel too bad that the people of Westeros will soon be roasting in dragon fire.