Game of Thrones -- "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"

Game of Thrones
HBO
Season 8: Episode 2
"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Game of Thrones' second episode of Season Eight, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," has its flaws. There's a fart-humor scene where giant oaf, Tormund, dumps booze all down the front of his cloak as he's chugging from a horn. There's also that weird, stagey thing, where a character is talking to another character, then one of them walks away to a different spot for no apparent reason, right in the middle of the conversation, and the other follows, then continues the conversation. I know this is simply done for cinematic blocking effect, but if the people in my everyday life walked away from me every time I was talking to them, I would stop talking to them. Outside of those minor complaints, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," which almost entirely takes place the night before the battle of Winterfell, is a fairly stellar episode.
My only serious complaints with last week's otherwise solid hour were the ways several moments catered to both one of the show's most recent negative impulses, and also one of its oldest. For the former, the show took the storyline of Theon rescuing Yara, the two escaping Blackwater Bay, and then just as quickly parting each other's company, and gave it five minutes of screen time. This should have been spread over several episodes instead of so rushed. The show also brought back gratuitous nudity, something it hasn't featured in quite some time (and if anything, that scene simply seemed a "Remember when we used to do this all the time?" callback).
This week, the show somehow uses Theon to ultimate emotional effect, as his reunion with Sansa is shockingly powerful. Sansa and Theon, both survivors of the thankfully departed Ramsay's physical and emotional abuse, weep upon their reunion, and I found myself doing the same. That the show is able to achieve this effect with not only one of its more maligned characters (Theon), but by exploring the fallout of one of its most exploitive and lousy storylines (everything involving Ramsay's over-the-top evil and cunning), speaks volumes to the show's dedication to slow down and truly reflect in this episode.
Truly, that's all "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" does. It gets the last few necessary players to Winterfell for the coming battle against The Night King's army, and it contains any interaction about which the season premiere might have left you saying, "Hey, why didn't this character and this character talk about this thing?" Those interactions are all here, even THAT ONE.
That's right, Daenerys now knows that her lover, Jon Snow, is not only her nephew (yay, incest), but the rightful heir to the throne she not only thought was hers all these years, but whose occupation has given her purpose for most of her life. And before the two have a chance to really emotionally unpack what that means for the two of them, the trumpets sound. The dead are at their gates. Hopefully, we the viewers are in for one hell of a Miguel Sapochnik-directed battle next week. But thanks to this episode, and its multitude of quiet, late-night moments, which give each character a final chance to reflect before the coming carnage, that carnage will mean a lot more. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" will also be lent a more haunting air after the swords come out next week, and we discover just who was experiencing their final moments of peace here.