Daenerys' horrifying vengeance

Game of Thrones' penultimate episode featured one of the most disturbing turns in the series' history

Daenerys is mad.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Helen Sloan/HBO, Julia_Khimich/iStock)

The dragon has finally awoken.

In Sunday night's episode of Game of Thrones, Daenerys mercilessly unleashed her wrath on the innocents of King's Landing, marking one of the most disturbing turns in the series' history. But while many fans were dismayed by Daenerys' perceived swerve in "The Bells," the flight of the Mad Queen was actually a return to the sort of complexity that has made Game of Thrones such an enduring story — a complexity it has often lost along the way.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.