Last week on Game of Thrones, we had probably our biggest battle yet as Danny finally left Dragonstone to take the fight to the Lannisters herself. In doing so, she unleashed Drogon and the Dothraki upon the Lannisters. It was a very well-done battle (as almost all the Game of Thrones battles are), which makes you really look forward to seeing how the show will outdo itself for the rest of this season and of course, during the final season. Of course, kick-ass dragons weren’t the only thing last week: Arya returned home giving us yet another moment of the surviving Stark children reuniting after so many years. Arya also showed everyone just how awesome she was by going toe to toe with Brianne. She also got a brand new Valyrian steel dagger, thanks to Littlefinger, which will surely be of importance later on.
So how did this week go? Here are a few highlights:
The Reach:
Last week, Game of Thrones left Jamie’s fate up in the air. After barely escaping a fiery death by Drogon, Jamie was launched into the river by the best number two is Westeros, Bronn. It looked like Jamie was going to instead die via drowning as he was sinking towards the bottom, and his armor and golden hand surely was weighing him down as well. Lucky for Jamie, he always has Bronn in his corner. Just as Bronn shoved Jamie out of the way, he also pulled him from the river. What does Bronn have to do to get his castle already? When Jamie gets out, he knows it’s a game changer now. Before, when it was just armies and battle strategy, the Lannisters had a chance at retaining power. Now he’s seen what the Dothraki and dragons can do, and there’s nothing they have that can fight that. Jamie is now afraid of what will happen when Danny gets to Kings Landing. He’s no longer thinking about the Lannisters, but the entire city could be reduced to ashes.
On the other side of the river, Danny has defeated Jamie’s army. As her army is rounding up the surviving Lannister army, she’s won and is now a conquering hero. Danny gathers all the remaining Lannister army and gives them an ultimatum: bend the knee or die. Of course, she does this with a giant dragon right behind her. It’s pretty much a no brainer for the Lannister army, but they still have some holdouts: Randall Terley and a few others won’t kneel. Danny even allows Randal to state his case. The defiant man tells her that he already has a queen (even though he joined her to fight his long-time allies the Tyrells) and Danny is a foreign-born woman with a “savage” army. Danny respects his decision, so now it’s time to kill him. Tyrion, seeing how easily Danny can turn into the mad queen tries to reduce the bloodshed and offer for Randall to join the Nights Watch, which he refuses, he is content with what will happen next. Randall did not factor in that his son would follow suit. Dickon states that if Dany will kill her father, he might as well join him. Both Tyrion and Randall lease with Dickon to bend the knee, but he refuses. Both the Tarleys are then lined up to be burnt to a crisp and after they are ashes, all the others in the Lannister army bend the knee.
Dragonstone:
Jon, still at Dragonstone, is still Danny’s de facto prisoner. While she was off burning Lannisters to a crisp, he’s been twiddling his fingers all this time. Danny rides back to Dragonstone on top of Drogon and they land right in front of Jon where a very interesting thing happens. Drogon comes face to face with Jon and the dragon doesn’t intimidate him or try to burn him ashes without Danny needing to ward him off. The dragons are intelligent, and it looks like they also have a familial sense of smell. Drogon gets within inches of Jon and it looks like he can recognize Jon is a Targaryen by how similar to Danny he smells. After all, if “R+L=J” is true (which it is), Danny is Jon’s aunt. Jon then pets the dragon, which surprises Danny as well. She still thinks he’s the Stark Bastard like the rest of Westeros does, but now she knows he’s special and her dragons warm up to no one but her as they are her “children.”
Dragonstone gets another visitor as Danny returns as well: Jorah, completely cured of his grayscale has returned to his queen. Even though Danny is happy that he’s returned, it looks like he’s still completely in the friend zone, and he can tell that Danny at least has an interest in Jon Snow (even though they’re related but don’t know it).
Later on, they receive a Raven from Winterfell, thanks to Bran using his Three Eyed Raven Powers, the army of the dead is on the march and will arrive at Eastwatch. Eastwatch is where Jon sent Tormund and his Wildlings to defend earlier this season. Jon realizes that he has to leave and continue the real mission of fighting the dead. Tyrion, desperate to get Danny to scale back from her Mad King ways proposes a radical idea centering on ceasing the hostilities between her and Cersei. They know Jon’s story is true no matter how incredible it is, but Cersei will never believe it on words alone. Why not go on an insane mission to kidnap one of the wights that the White Walkers have turned and bring it to Kings Landing as proof that they are all fighting the wrong war. First thing they have to do is find a way to Kings Landing to set up a possible parlay with Jamie (as Cersei will not listen).
Kings Landing:
Thanks to Davo’s expert smuggling, he and Tyrion are sent into Kings Landing. Tyrion’s mission is to meet with Jamie and try to convince him of the real war ahead. Davos has another mission for himself. A few years ago, he sent Gendry away before Melisandre was going to sacrifice him to the Lord of Light on Stannis’ behalf. Being one of Robert Baratheon’s bastard children, he had the blood of the former king coursing through his veins. Last we saw, Gendry was rowing away three seasons ago and was an afterthought. Turns out, he’s been working as a blacksmith all these years in Kings Landing, and is more than willing to go off on some adventure with the group.
Tyrion meets secretly with Bronn and coordinates for a secret meeting with his brother Jamie. Now because the two are on opposing sides (and when they last saw each other Jamie freed him from a death sentence only for Tyrion to kill their dad Tywin). Tyrion explains his reasons, which Jamie knows to be justified, but the bigger issue at hand is the army of the dead Tyrion states that they will have proof, but will need Cersei to back down on the war and Jamie agrees to talk with his sister.
Jamie catches up with Cersei and tells her not only about their defeat and that they cannot win this war, but also about Danny’s parlay in regard to the war with the army of the dead. Turns out Cersei knew about the meeting and let it happen either way in the hopes that something could be used to her advantage. Cersei also had her own news, she’s pregnant! This might throw a monkey wrench into that prophecy about the three children dying and her being killed by her brother if she has another child.
Winterfell:
Bran is able to use his Three Eyed Raven powers to warg into a group of ravens who are flying past the army of the dead. The Nights King sees them and Bran quickly stops. However, he knows they are on their way to Eastwatch and send ravens across Westeros.
Meanwhile, Sansa is having a few problems of her own. Many of the fellow lords of Winterfell are getting tired of Jon’s absence. Sansaa give a weak apology and Arya calls her out on her BS. Arya upset with her sister for not standing up for her brother as she thinks Sansa secretly wants to assume leadership of Winterfell full time, and not as Jon’s temp. Sansa denies, but she probably didn’t even convince herself.
Arya, knowing Littlefinger is the snake we all know he is, is untrustworthy. She uses her faceless man ninja tactics and follows him, knowing that he’s up to no good. He gets a letter from the Winterfell archives and then locks them into his room. Arya break in and gets a look at the letter. Turns out, it’s the letter Sansa wrote to Robb when she was held captive by Joffrey calling her brother a traitor. Rob knew it was junk, but it looks like it will create a wedge between Sansa and Arya, and Littlefinger is expecting this. As Arya leaves his room, he’s been hiding in the shadows, knowing what she was up to. If he can set some distance between the two sisters, he can continue to try and manipulate things in his favor.
The Citadel:
Sam is continuing the demoralizing job of taking crap from the maesters when he runs into them reading Bran’s letter about the army of the dead. Now, these maesters are supposed to be the wisest people of Westeros, yet they immediately say his letter is “fake news” and dismiss it. Sam tries to interrupt and tell them that the Nights King is real, but is dismissed, so he heads back to his room.
This is probably the most important scene of the episode!
Sam tries to continue his studying on the low with Gilly and baby Sam when Gilly reads a random historical fact that’s pretty much a game changer for Game of Thrones. Gilly discovers that there was a marriage annulment for Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s marriage to Elia Martell in Dorne so that he could marry someone else. If this follows the “R+L=J” theory, Jon is NOT a bastard and in fact was born via proper marriage. In fact, Jon now has a better claim to the throne than Danny does, as he’s the prince’s rightful son.
However, Sam was busy being frustrated that he dismissed Gilly details out of hand. Eventually, everyone will find out the truth.
Eastwatch:
Jon, Davos, Gendry, and Jorah meet up with Tormund to discuss the new plan of capturing a wight. Turns out Tormund has been busy as well. In a jail cell, there’s member of the Brotherhood without Banners who were trying to go north of the wall as well. At this point, we got a full on superhero team assembling. The Westeros version of Suicide Squad now has an impossible mission, and they’re heading to go capture a zombie as the fate of Westeros depends on them!
