Please note that our reviews of Game of Thrones’ eighth season will include plenty of spoilers. You click on the link at your own peril!

Spoilers follow.

Winter’s arrival brings strange alliances and a great many reunions, both happy and sad, to the Kingdoms of Men as the Night King and his army of the dead continue their inexorable march on Westeros.

Two years of build-up and the knowledge that this is really the end of a story we’ve been following for the better part of a decade mean that this season opener came with an awful lot of expectation front-loaded onto it – could it ever really have delivered on that? Well, this is Game of Thrones, so yes, but in keeping with the previous series, this is assured enough to begin with quietly.

As the title might suggest, the majority of the episode takes place in the Starks’ ancestral home, with a beautiful opening shot that harks back to the very first episode of the show. But what becomes clear as the episode progresses is that none of the reunions which take place are necessarily going to go how the various players expect them to.

The North isn’t the most welcoming of places to outsiders, no matter how well-intentioned, and this applies more powerfully to some outsiders than others. There’s also the small matter of the fact that Jon essentially gave up a crown and title which the assembled North folk had bestowed upon him, without so much as consulting any of them. Northern pride is a prickly thing, and it’s fascinating to see how Sansa in particular seems to have inherited that stubborn, unyielding attitude while Jon has become far more pragmatic. It’s equally interesting to see where Arya sits within this dynamic as well – truly, all the Stark kids have grown up.

Elsewhere, Euron continues to live dangerously, pushing his luck with Cersei more than perhaps any sane man who had met her might dare. Cersei, for her part, is about as cheerful as she usually is – evidently she has a plan, and her reaction to the news that The Wall has fallen would seem to be informed by that – but what it is and how closely it might resemble (if at all) what she’s told Jon and Daenerys is anyone’s guess at this point.

New meetings as well hold surprises, some of them incredibly awkward. One in particular reminds us that however much we might like or admire certain characters, they are not without flaw or fault.

What’s nice to see is that the show makes great use of the simple fact that after seven seasons, we have followed and come to know these characters, and so often exposition can be made by a simple look or gesture which is worth a thousand words. Sophie Turner in particular makes some spectacular use of simple facial expression to get her feelings across, but there are other, tiny moments for various characters which tell whole pages worth of story in their own ways.

It’s fairly light on action, and the gore is minimal. There’s a bit of nudity in there, just to remind us that this is Game of Thrones (and HBO), but it has the virtue of at least being in keeping with the character in question, as well as being somewhat undermined in a specific way that’s actually quite amusing.

But it’s Westeros. After all this time every single interaction, reunion or meeting is loaded with expectation and weight, and the script is as tight as a drum, delivering on each and every one. I suspect there’ll be lots to be pored over by the time the season ends in terms of hints at what’s to come and so on, but for now this is a solid start to the final season which ends with a delightfully tense little tease as to what’s to come next time out.

Verdict: Exquisitely crafted, making full use of the familiarity of the characters and the investment of the audience to ensure there isn’t a single wasted line or shot. A slow but perfectly formed beginning of the end. 9/10

Greg D. Smith