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We needed a little breather from all that dragon fire last week, so this week's episode spent precious time setting up some very important pieces.
Your Westerosi correspondents Dan Miller and Pete Marsh have travelled from one side of Westeros to the other to bring you all the latest.
Spoiler warning. Only continue reading if you've caught up on season seven, episode five: Eastwatch.
DAN: I'm seeing echoes of the Mad King in two Tarly-sized smoking holes in the ground. That was a brutal exit for two men of honour. I guess the Tarly men did have a choice though, but Game of Thrones is always happy to point out that sticking to your honour and duty will get you killed. I sense that the former Tarlys and some very melted Lannister soldiers are giving Tyrion some very conflicted thoughts about his Queen.
PETE: I started to hang up my "Dany is going to be a villain" theory a few weeks ago ... but oh boy did this opening bring it right back. It also doubled down on this Dany/Tyrion stuff that's been bubbling below the surface for a little while now. Tyrion's not the first Lannister to be standing alongside a Targaryen ruler with a penchant for barbecuing their enemies and you've got to wonder if he'll handle it differently than the last one did. Speaking of, we caught up with a soggy Jaime Lannister.
DAN: What a fakeout of an ending last episode. Sinking into the river we thought he was in real trouble — if he didn't drown, it looked like he might be captured. But nope, he and Bronn swam an a-w-f-u-l-l-y long way in armour and remained unscathed to fight another day.
Jamie then slinked back to deliver Olenna's news to Cersei but it was perhaps Cersei herself who had the more surprising news. There's going to be a fourth BABY Lannister....apparently. It's hard to take anything Cersei says at face value (particularly straight after having a dodgy meeting with Qyburn). The baby announcement might well be genuine, but there's still a small voice in my head saying 'maybe it's just to keep Jamie from turning on her?'.
We also had a tremendous amount of teleporting at the insistence of moving the plot along this episode. Barely had Tyrion finished raising the prospect of smuggling himself into King's Landing to talk truce with Jamie, and he's there! However, it wasn't a very brotherly reunion between the Kingslayer and Kinslayer. They're going to have to work on that relationship.
PETE: Given the speed the plot is moving at the moment, I expect we'll meet Cersei's new baby Tywin (Maggy if it's a girl?) in the opening scenes of next week's episode. Although it did take Jorah a whole episode to get back to Dragonstone so I'll give the show credit for that.
I really liked the little scene with Varys and Tyrion. Between this scene and the one a few weeks ago with Melisandre, we've seen our Master of Spiders more than a little unnerved. Much like Littlefinger, Varys wears his intellect and wits as his armour. Being stripped of that demeanour has left him in an awkward position. What power does Varys wield now? Qyburn is the one paying his Little Birds in King's Landing and his sway with the Dornish and the Tyrells was extinguished.
And now be honest dear readers... I want you to raise your hand if for you thought Dany was going in for the kiss on Jorah. Be honest.
Instead we're now set up with one of the weirdest love triangles ever to grace television. Forget Eric/Sookie/Bill and Big/Carrie/Aidan. We've now got Zombie Jon/his aunt Daenerys/definitely-too-old-to-be-a-part-of-this Jorah.
Although if I'm awarding points in this episode it was a clean sweep to the King in the North. Dany is CRUSHING HARD on Jon who is doing his best job of playing hard to get. Nothing kills the vibe of a Netflix-and-chill sesh quicker than a horde of the dead marching on in amirite?
Although maybe we got a peak at a different love triangle a moment before? Drogon sure does like the smell of Jon Snow, Dan. I don't think it's dragonglass cologne he's splashed on...it's prooooobably that Targaryen blood pumping through his veins.
DAN: Going hand in hand with Jon's dragon-enticing smell is the blink-and-you-missed-it GAME-CHANGING NEWS, read from a diary by a very unknowing Gilly. It had me yelling at my TV that the mad-men had done it, they'd actually gone there.
Here's why: We found out Prince 'Ragger' (Rhaegar Targaryen) legally annulled his marriage to Elia Martell (Oberyn's sister) and secretly married Lyanna Stark in Dorne, just as Robert's Rebellion was kicking off. The pair conceived a child, but we saw Lyanna died during childbirth and handed that son, Jon, over to Ned Stark.
Thus Jon is a Targaryen, the son of Prince Rhaegar and ultimately rightful King of the Seven Kingdoms!
Sam! Pay attention to what Gilly is saying! The implications of this are MASSIVE. Pete, how do you think Dany would react if she ever found out?
PETE: I've got no doubt that Dany will eventually find out. I suspect she'll react just like Cersei would should anyone try to challenge what she thinks is rightfully hers. But Jon's made it perfectly clear he's got no taste for this ruling business. I doubt the common folk of Westeros are going to be let in on the secret of Jon Snow's parentage, and he'll be more than happy to let Dany sit on the Iron Throne once all is said and done. But there's a while to go before we reach that potential conclusion.
I don't know about you but I kinda felt a bit sad watching Sam leave the Citadel. Despite all the poop and soup, it's the only place we've seen him really fit in his entire life. In a different time I could see an old Sam sitting around the table with those other maesters chuckling and reading. But Sam the Slayer came back with a vengeance this episode, and he's riding north to Winterfell with a hell of a plot twist in that wagon!
One of the questions we all had going into the season was how Littlefinger was going to manipulate Sansa and Jon. I don't think ANYONE picked that he'd be engineering a fight between the Stark sisters.
I've gotta say though Dan, I'm not really buying it? Sansa has been dealing with (and learning from) Littlefinger for a long time and has watched him pull these same tricks. And we're shown that Arya is a master assassin who's learned to watch her prey to find the perfect opening to strike. I can't imagine that Arya's about to off Sansa because of the note she found, especially when she's got another sibling, a literal all-knowing one, she could just pop on over to and find out what the real story is. Maybe this is a play by the Stark women to flush out Petyr Baelish instead?
DAN: Worst game of spy vs spy ever! It was kind of comical in a bad way.
Good luck playing with Littlefinger, Arya. I'm not sure who's going to win there.
But if you missed the note Arya found (it only flashed on screen for a second), it was the one Cersei had Sansa write under duress and send to King Robb way back in Season 1. Geez, I hope Arya doesn't misinterpret what's going on there...*groan*
Here's the full note:
Robb, I write to you with a heavy heart. Our good king Robert is dead, killed from wounds he took in a boar hunt. Father has been charged with treason. He conspired with Robert's brothers against my beloved Joffrey and tried to steal his throne. The Lannisters are treating me very well and provide me with every comfort. I beg you: come to King's Landing, swear fealty to King Joffrey and prevent any strife between the great houses of Lannister and Stark.
There was a second important reveal this episode that we desperately need to mention — the answer to a question we've been asking since season 3. Where in Westeros is...
PETE: GENDRY?!
DAN: GENDRY! Our favourite blacksmith who escaped the clutches of Stannis and Melisandre in a humble rowboat.
We thought he was still rowing out there for all eternity but he's now come back to us — with a not-so-subtle dig that he "doesn't do swords", instead picking up a massive warhammer — weapon of choice of his pappa Robert Baratheon.
PETE: One of my favourite images the Game of Thrones fans over on Reddit created over the years has been this one:
The SS Abandoned Plotlines arrived around season five and to the showrunners' credit every single plotline has been resolved or has come back! Here's the score:
- Rickon: Dead
- Gendry: Alive and swinging!
- Thoros: Crushingly sober
- Beric: Alive and heading beyond the wall
- Osha: Dead
- Balon: Dead
- Yara: Captured
- Hodor: Dead (#ripinpeace big guy…)
- Bran: A tree
We sadly never got to see Robert Baratheon in his prime with his legendary warhammer Dan, but I'll take his bastard son dispensing some justice to a couple of Gold Cloaks. I seriously thought we'd never see Gendry again, just because I couldn't see what plot purpose he would serve. But I'm really digging his re-introduction as part of the Westeros Avengers!
DAN: Yup, Gendry's now heading off with our heroes to Eastwatch, where we had YET ANOTHER reunion. Jon, Gendry, Tormund, Jorah, The Hound, Beric and Thoros — The Magnificent Seven. So many intersecting storylines all meeting up in the one place. And now they're off on a mission across the wall. Anyone taking any bets on who won't make it back?
Best quote
DAN: "I wasn't sure I'd find you. I thought you might still be rowing." - Davos telling Gendry what we were all thinking.
PETE: "He was going to execute me. He knew I was innocent. He didn't hate me because of anything I did. He hated me because of what I am. A little monster sent to punish him." - Tyrion delivering some truth to Jamie.
Bastard moment
DAN: The maesters casually discussing Sam's dead father and brother.
PETE: Cersei giving Jamie a hug with a little something extra whispered in his ear. That's a threat you know she won't be afraid to follow through on.
What you missed
While Sam was defending Bran to the maester he broke from normal Game of Thrones conventions and gave us a time scale - "I led him through the wall years ago".
Years! That's how long it has been since Bran visited the Three-eyed Raven. We normally don't get specific timeframes mentioned to us in the show, so it always seems like entire armies are teleporting across the world in an instant. So it's good to finally get a bit of a frame of reference.
What we missed last episode
This week we're going back to that amazing fight scene between Arya and Brienne.
We told you that Arya moved just like her first teacher Syrio Forel. But there was so much more.
Over at Vanity Fair, Joanna Robinson has done an amazing job breaking down almost every single detail of the fight, and how it tells the story of how Arya went from the tomboy at Winterfell to an assassin lurking the halls.
Just go read it, it's one of the best takes on Game of Thrones we've read in a while.
Best of the Web-steros
One of the best things we saw on the web this week came from the show creators themselves. Want to know why that incredible battle at the end of the previous episode looked so real? BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY LIT LIKE 20 GUYS ON FIRE AT THE SAME TIME.
This inside look at how the whole thing came together is just fantastic. Grab a coffee and watch the entire 15 minutes. You won't regret it:
Topics: television
First posted