Warning: Contains Spoilers
The Long Night was one of the most engrossing television episodes of all time, with the image of the wight army flooding into Winterfell staying with viewers long after the final, quieter moments had passed.
Despite the – pretty understandable – gripes about the directors needing to bob the light on, this was a spectacular moment in TV history filmed on a scale unlike anything else before it.
From the full, ferocious majesty of the dragons, to the intensely raw, personal moments on the battlefield, the Battle Of Winterfell was gruesomely, terrifyingly magnificent.
Plotwise, this was a greater turning point than any other battle episode in the series. The Night King is dead, and at the hands of an beloved – and perhaps unexpected – character.
So where can the series go from here, and can it even hope to top the heart-stopping stakes involved when shattering the Night King like a dropped vase?
Well, according to the Mother of Dragons herself, we are in for a truly wild ride as we head towards the final few episodes, with episode five said to be even ‘bigger’. Yikes.
Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Daenerys Targaryen actor Emilia Clarke described the fifth episode as ‘mental’, stating that ‘episode five is bigger’ than what has come before it.
Emilia advised the next three episodes are ‘going to be mental’, stating, ‘episode five is bigger’. She even advised viewers to ‘find the biggest TV you can’, eliciting delighted cheers from the studio audience.
Clark also spoke about the experience of shooting The Long Night, which took a reported 55 nights of shooting:
What you saw was really what it was like shooting it. So you saw blood and mud and angry screaming people, and then backstage there was blood and mud and asleep people.
Watch a clip of the interview below:
Episode four of season eight will take us back to King’s Landing, with Daenerys now set upon dethroning Cersei Lannister and securing the crown for herself.
You can now – finally – watch the new season of Game of Thrones on HBO or Sky Atlantic.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.