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scifi_rewatchLots of reunions this episode. :P People who haven’t seen each other for significant amounts of time seeing each other again. Also, one huge introduction, which some parts of fandom have been clamoring to see for a long, long time. It is sort of foretold in the title of the book series, after all. :P
The women continue to rule the roost as well. There is one particular scene where a trio of women is at the bottom of the food chain (complete with sexist epithets being thrown at them), but the person on TOP of that food chain is also a woman. Dany, Olenna and Cersei all get some pretty kickass monologues. Sansa is freaked out by something, but over all she’s also at the top of her game. And Melissandre, though perhaps personally defeated, maintains faith in the bigger picture.
The human war remains unpredictable, and we’re taking slow steps with the undead war, too! And despite the drama, we even get a scene of camaraderie between strangers via Jorah and Sam. But the crux of this episode’s success lies upon the introduction between ice and fire. I thought it went well, for my part.
Summary
Dragonstone
Lots of introductions and reunions here, ending with the big one: Jon and Daenerys! Despite their lack of common ground in the beginning, Dany ultimately lets Jon and his men mine dragonglass. She has bigger fish to fry, learning that all of her allies have been killed, captured or stranded.
King’s Landing
Theon is saved (by some less than enthusiastic countrymen) but Yara remains Euron’s prisoner as he returns to King’s Landing in triumph. He brings Ellaria and her daughter to Cersei, and she tortures her daughter’s killers. Later she canoodles openly with Jaime, and makes a strong case to an Iron Bank representative about why they should back her over Daenerys.
Winterfell
Sansa meets with her advisors and makes some smart choices about how to bolster Winterfell and the north for the upcoming attack of the undead. Littlefinger attempts to seduce her with the idea of putting her own self-preservation over everything else, but he’s interrupted by the arrival of Bran! The siblings reunite, Bran abdicates the Winterfell seat, and proves his new power to Sansa by recapping her wedding to Ramsay.
Oldtown
Jorah is cured, though he keeps the reason from the archmaester. He’s off to rejoin Daenerys, after he and Sam share a (foreshadowing?) moment about maybe meeting again. Sam admits to curing Jorah without permission, for which he gets to stay at the Citadel but still perform boring tasks.
Casterly Rock
Narrated by Tyrion, we understand that Casterly Rock is an impenetrable fortress. BUUUUT, much like Helms Deep, there’s a hidden passage into the stronghold! So Grey Worm et al seize the day…but for their efforts Euron’s fleet destroys their abandoned ships.
Highgarden
Turns out that most of the Lannister army is here, in order to grab money for Cersei’s Iron Bank promise. They win against the Tyrell army, and Olenna predicts that Cersei will destroy Jaime. But though Jaime gets to poison his foe, Olenna gets the last laugh: by admitting that she was the one who killed Joffrey.
Possible Spoilers
Tyrion’s secret passage into Casterly Rock seems inspired by an older passage from the books…presumably we might see it come to some use, but maybe not. :P Jon and Daenerys’s meeting seems almost certain, since the series is named A Song of Ice and Fire. In the books, Doran sends one of the Sand Snakes to sit on the small council as a spy, so it’s possible that she might be captured and tortured. And GRRM has promised we will see Casterly Rock…some day!
Thoughts
Man, where to begin??? I’ll bury the lede. :P
I think it’s correct that Olenna gets the “mic drop!” moment of the episode. Definitely better to focus here than to waste money on another fight sequence. Of course I love the callback to how Robb bested Jaime the same way in season one (the Lannisters thought the Starks would be in one place, like the Unsullied did now with the Lannisters, but instead they were in another.) But Olenna perhaps also foreshadows the future, when she suggests to a tentative-looking Jaime that Cersei might be the end of him. Yeesh. But man, that ending monologue about Joffrey (and the music!) really took the cake. Once again: Joffrey might have been a monster, but his fate haunts far more complex characters, like his daddy-o.
(Minor divergence just to point out that I appreciated the screen shot, which pointed to the fact that the Tarlys had betrayed their liege house. Traitors.)
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Ellaria and her daughter. Although part of me got the chills about their fate, it’s just difficult to care about them much. You can witness how easily Indira Varma dismissed her character in interviews. She’s pretty one-dimensional. Cersei, on the other hand, we’ve lived in her pain for years. I’m sure most parents or guardians would understand her position here. There’s even a point where Lena’s voice cracks on “why would you do that?” GUUUUH.
Seriously, the most creepy thing is how torturing people makes the girl randy. :P Also, her handmaids are forced to dress like her and have similarly bad wigs, hee. Putting her relationship with Jaime out in the open is also a total power play. But then Cersei is back to foreshadowing new events…mainly how she intends to pay back the Iron Bank. (And I really like her argument about how Dany is more of a revolutionary. That’s rarely a good thing for business.)
Euron makes good on his “gift” promise, presumably allows for Cersei to extend their “engagement,” and then acts the cocky cock. One might wonder if the Ironborn might turn on Theon for obviously not trying to save Yara, but damn. Can’t quite beat that guy. Later he’s off burning Unsullied ships! Dude certainly has a lot of power.
Elsewhere in Creepytown…we have Dudes Around Sansa. Littlefinger remains her strongest contender. “Don’t worry about duty or honor or family; just look after yourself! Focus on POWER.” But then long-returned Bran joins the fray! He kind of ruins the sibling bonding by how he proves his new supernatural abilities. He gives a recap to Sansa’s wedding to Ramsay, and his sister walks away, freaked. My fellow Sansa Stans were annoyed with the Bran.
And this scene was obviously meant to convey that Bran isn’t feeling quite….human, emotionally (I believe Isaac referred to his character as a “robot overlord.” :P). Maybe it’s also meant to convey that Sansa is freaked out by siblings and magic…which could be foreshadowing, too. *zips lips* *still dislikes later Arya storyline* Anywho, I can understand why this whole exchange is a freaky situation. “Gee, thanks, bro, for reminding me of the night I was given over to a rapist psychopath!” And yet…maybe because I wrote an entire blog post about Sansa and “home,” my first reaction was to be moved by this scene. I wonder if Bran, in his own way, was conveying to his sister that she wasn’t alone in her darkest hour. I was moved. I know I’m an outlier, but I was moved!
(Final minor note—perhaps Sansa’s display of leadership was a bit performative, but meh. Can’t it be possible, that Tyrion and Jon suggest, that she’s finally letting onto her intelligence? In either case she’s still far from the worst Mary Sue on this show, so there. :P)
Speaking of being an outlier…I would have luuuuurved Sam’s assignment of copying old manuscripts. :P Is that job still available?? Sam is needed to help defeat White Walkers! (Which, of course, is why the job is stupid. Archmaester continues to ignore the threat!) Seems like this entire magical maguffin “cure Jorah” interlude, besides getting Jorah back to Dany, is meant to signify that there are still good, caring people out there. And presumably if they meet again, they can skip the preliminaries. :P
For our quick jaunt to Casterly Rock, I’ll get a little nitpicky. :P I mean, I know it helped us, as the audience, to have Tyrion narrating the action. But in reality he would have divulged the full plan to Dany before the Unsullied left! No wonder Tyrion’s strategy is out of whack this season. :P
I don’t think there’s much to say about the entire action sequence other than gore, surprising twist at end, yadda yadda. I was most moved by Grey Worm’s pout when he realized he was stranded. :( That boy needs to get back to Missandei! Alas.
Continuing to slowly ease into the Jon/Dany stuff here, I give you Varys and Melissandre. I really love the character stuff here: the reminder that Mel’s position is much different than it was under her hey day with Stannis, and Varys still freaking hates magic practitioners. And that being said…she seems to freak him out with her (foreshadowing?) remark that he’ll die here in Westeros, along with her. And something tells me it won’t be 40 years from now! :P Still…I’ve known these characters for years, so I’m guessing that if I see them offed, there will be some emotional resonance.
OKAY, I CAN STAY AWAY FROM IT NO LONGER! Except that Tyrion is sort of in the way. :P Dude just can’t shut up. Yes, Davos gets some great lines (especially his less-than-impressive heralding of Jon Snow) and I particularly like how Missandei shut down his conversation with a smile. :P But I guess Tyrion’s presence is integral, because would it really make sense for Dany to give credence to this undead nonsense otherwise? Or for Jon to realize that he should ask to mine the dragonglass as the first step towards a relationship? Gotta give Tyrion his due…he’s not perfect (see: war strategy) but he gets things done.
Jon and Dany had a complicated dance to play out. They’ve been the most prophetic characters for years. They’re both in extreme positions of power, due to extreme circumstances. They both pride themselves for aspects of humility, and it seems they recognized that in each other, too. Yet still…they have some fundamental differences in worldview. Namely in who should be ruler over all the world. :P
I really loved Dany’s speech about how she stayed in power, despite all the awful things that have been done to her. This show gets a horrible rap for sexual mistreatment of women (sometimes deserved) but Dany is a success story. Her rapes never define her. She never loses her humanity. Though I suppose it’s fair to say that she’s often more than human, in an Alexander the Great sort of way, and this speech brought her back down to Earth.
And yet, Jon could undo it all with one line: “You’ll be ruling over a graveyard.” That’s the main thrust of this season—these human games we play are meaningless in the face of a darker evil. Death incarnate and all that. It’s not just Dany who must be taken down a peg or two, it’s everyone. But Dany is Jon’s ticket in. And frankly…despite all the tension between them (like why on earth should these folks even give each other the time of day?) I think Kit and Emilia pull it off. It’s like they’ve been waiting all these years to act off of each other. :P Let the shipping begin.
The women continue to rule the roost as well. There is one particular scene where a trio of women is at the bottom of the food chain (complete with sexist epithets being thrown at them), but the person on TOP of that food chain is also a woman. Dany, Olenna and Cersei all get some pretty kickass monologues. Sansa is freaked out by something, but over all she’s also at the top of her game. And Melissandre, though perhaps personally defeated, maintains faith in the bigger picture.
The human war remains unpredictable, and we’re taking slow steps with the undead war, too! And despite the drama, we even get a scene of camaraderie between strangers via Jorah and Sam. But the crux of this episode’s success lies upon the introduction between ice and fire. I thought it went well, for my part.
Summary
Dragonstone
Lots of introductions and reunions here, ending with the big one: Jon and Daenerys! Despite their lack of common ground in the beginning, Dany ultimately lets Jon and his men mine dragonglass. She has bigger fish to fry, learning that all of her allies have been killed, captured or stranded.
King’s Landing
Theon is saved (by some less than enthusiastic countrymen) but Yara remains Euron’s prisoner as he returns to King’s Landing in triumph. He brings Ellaria and her daughter to Cersei, and she tortures her daughter’s killers. Later she canoodles openly with Jaime, and makes a strong case to an Iron Bank representative about why they should back her over Daenerys.
Winterfell
Sansa meets with her advisors and makes some smart choices about how to bolster Winterfell and the north for the upcoming attack of the undead. Littlefinger attempts to seduce her with the idea of putting her own self-preservation over everything else, but he’s interrupted by the arrival of Bran! The siblings reunite, Bran abdicates the Winterfell seat, and proves his new power to Sansa by recapping her wedding to Ramsay.
Oldtown
Jorah is cured, though he keeps the reason from the archmaester. He’s off to rejoin Daenerys, after he and Sam share a (foreshadowing?) moment about maybe meeting again. Sam admits to curing Jorah without permission, for which he gets to stay at the Citadel but still perform boring tasks.
Casterly Rock
Narrated by Tyrion, we understand that Casterly Rock is an impenetrable fortress. BUUUUT, much like Helms Deep, there’s a hidden passage into the stronghold! So Grey Worm et al seize the day…but for their efforts Euron’s fleet destroys their abandoned ships.
Highgarden
Turns out that most of the Lannister army is here, in order to grab money for Cersei’s Iron Bank promise. They win against the Tyrell army, and Olenna predicts that Cersei will destroy Jaime. But though Jaime gets to poison his foe, Olenna gets the last laugh: by admitting that she was the one who killed Joffrey.
Possible Spoilers
Tyrion’s secret passage into Casterly Rock seems inspired by an older passage from the books…presumably we might see it come to some use, but maybe not. :P Jon and Daenerys’s meeting seems almost certain, since the series is named A Song of Ice and Fire. In the books, Doran sends one of the Sand Snakes to sit on the small council as a spy, so it’s possible that she might be captured and tortured. And GRRM has promised we will see Casterly Rock…some day!
Thoughts
Man, where to begin??? I’ll bury the lede. :P
I think it’s correct that Olenna gets the “mic drop!” moment of the episode. Definitely better to focus here than to waste money on another fight sequence. Of course I love the callback to how Robb bested Jaime the same way in season one (the Lannisters thought the Starks would be in one place, like the Unsullied did now with the Lannisters, but instead they were in another.) But Olenna perhaps also foreshadows the future, when she suggests to a tentative-looking Jaime that Cersei might be the end of him. Yeesh. But man, that ending monologue about Joffrey (and the music!) really took the cake. Once again: Joffrey might have been a monster, but his fate haunts far more complex characters, like his daddy-o.
(Minor divergence just to point out that I appreciated the screen shot, which pointed to the fact that the Tarlys had betrayed their liege house. Traitors.)
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Ellaria and her daughter. Although part of me got the chills about their fate, it’s just difficult to care about them much. You can witness how easily Indira Varma dismissed her character in interviews. She’s pretty one-dimensional. Cersei, on the other hand, we’ve lived in her pain for years. I’m sure most parents or guardians would understand her position here. There’s even a point where Lena’s voice cracks on “why would you do that?” GUUUUH.
Seriously, the most creepy thing is how torturing people makes the girl randy. :P Also, her handmaids are forced to dress like her and have similarly bad wigs, hee. Putting her relationship with Jaime out in the open is also a total power play. But then Cersei is back to foreshadowing new events…mainly how she intends to pay back the Iron Bank. (And I really like her argument about how Dany is more of a revolutionary. That’s rarely a good thing for business.)
Euron makes good on his “gift” promise, presumably allows for Cersei to extend their “engagement,” and then acts the cocky cock. One might wonder if the Ironborn might turn on Theon for obviously not trying to save Yara, but damn. Can’t quite beat that guy. Later he’s off burning Unsullied ships! Dude certainly has a lot of power.
Elsewhere in Creepytown…we have Dudes Around Sansa. Littlefinger remains her strongest contender. “Don’t worry about duty or honor or family; just look after yourself! Focus on POWER.” But then long-returned Bran joins the fray! He kind of ruins the sibling bonding by how he proves his new supernatural abilities. He gives a recap to Sansa’s wedding to Ramsay, and his sister walks away, freaked. My fellow Sansa Stans were annoyed with the Bran.
And this scene was obviously meant to convey that Bran isn’t feeling quite….human, emotionally (I believe Isaac referred to his character as a “robot overlord.” :P). Maybe it’s also meant to convey that Sansa is freaked out by siblings and magic…which could be foreshadowing, too. *zips lips* *still dislikes later Arya storyline* Anywho, I can understand why this whole exchange is a freaky situation. “Gee, thanks, bro, for reminding me of the night I was given over to a rapist psychopath!” And yet…maybe because I wrote an entire blog post about Sansa and “home,” my first reaction was to be moved by this scene. I wonder if Bran, in his own way, was conveying to his sister that she wasn’t alone in her darkest hour. I was moved. I know I’m an outlier, but I was moved!
(Final minor note—perhaps Sansa’s display of leadership was a bit performative, but meh. Can’t it be possible, that Tyrion and Jon suggest, that she’s finally letting onto her intelligence? In either case she’s still far from the worst Mary Sue on this show, so there. :P)
Speaking of being an outlier…I would have luuuuurved Sam’s assignment of copying old manuscripts. :P Is that job still available?? Sam is needed to help defeat White Walkers! (Which, of course, is why the job is stupid. Archmaester continues to ignore the threat!) Seems like this entire magical maguffin “cure Jorah” interlude, besides getting Jorah back to Dany, is meant to signify that there are still good, caring people out there. And presumably if they meet again, they can skip the preliminaries. :P
For our quick jaunt to Casterly Rock, I’ll get a little nitpicky. :P I mean, I know it helped us, as the audience, to have Tyrion narrating the action. But in reality he would have divulged the full plan to Dany before the Unsullied left! No wonder Tyrion’s strategy is out of whack this season. :P
I don’t think there’s much to say about the entire action sequence other than gore, surprising twist at end, yadda yadda. I was most moved by Grey Worm’s pout when he realized he was stranded. :( That boy needs to get back to Missandei! Alas.
Continuing to slowly ease into the Jon/Dany stuff here, I give you Varys and Melissandre. I really love the character stuff here: the reminder that Mel’s position is much different than it was under her hey day with Stannis, and Varys still freaking hates magic practitioners. And that being said…she seems to freak him out with her (foreshadowing?) remark that he’ll die here in Westeros, along with her. And something tells me it won’t be 40 years from now! :P Still…I’ve known these characters for years, so I’m guessing that if I see them offed, there will be some emotional resonance.
OKAY, I CAN STAY AWAY FROM IT NO LONGER! Except that Tyrion is sort of in the way. :P Dude just can’t shut up. Yes, Davos gets some great lines (especially his less-than-impressive heralding of Jon Snow) and I particularly like how Missandei shut down his conversation with a smile. :P But I guess Tyrion’s presence is integral, because would it really make sense for Dany to give credence to this undead nonsense otherwise? Or for Jon to realize that he should ask to mine the dragonglass as the first step towards a relationship? Gotta give Tyrion his due…he’s not perfect (see: war strategy) but he gets things done.
Jon and Dany had a complicated dance to play out. They’ve been the most prophetic characters for years. They’re both in extreme positions of power, due to extreme circumstances. They both pride themselves for aspects of humility, and it seems they recognized that in each other, too. Yet still…they have some fundamental differences in worldview. Namely in who should be ruler over all the world. :P
I really loved Dany’s speech about how she stayed in power, despite all the awful things that have been done to her. This show gets a horrible rap for sexual mistreatment of women (sometimes deserved) but Dany is a success story. Her rapes never define her. She never loses her humanity. Though I suppose it’s fair to say that she’s often more than human, in an Alexander the Great sort of way, and this speech brought her back down to Earth.
And yet, Jon could undo it all with one line: “You’ll be ruling over a graveyard.” That’s the main thrust of this season—these human games we play are meaningless in the face of a darker evil. Death incarnate and all that. It’s not just Dany who must be taken down a peg or two, it’s everyone. But Dany is Jon’s ticket in. And frankly…despite all the tension between them (like why on earth should these folks even give each other the time of day?) I think Kit and Emilia pull it off. It’s like they’ve been waiting all these years to act off of each other. :P Let the shipping begin.
