Game of Thrones is finally back. This year, we waited patiently for an additional three months for a show that usually kicks off in April. Was is worth the wait? You be the judge.
Arya Stark poisons the Freys
Let’s pop this season off in true Game of Thrones fashion – by assassinating an entire family! Look – I’m not being ‘high and mighty’ here, the Freys absolutely deserved what happened to them. Whether she intended to or not, Arya helped out the growing rebellion by taking out a Lannister ally. “Winter came for the Freys.” – mic drop from Arya.
Jon and Sansa aren’t on the same page
Jon is the same old Jon, preaching forgiveness and togetherness, but Sansa openly challenges him in front of the Lords and Ladies of the North.Maybe Sansa spent a little too much time around, Cersei, no? He doesn’t take too kindly to it, but they ultimately hash it out. Sansa seems to think Jon is too caught up in the fight coming from North of The Wall. In her mind, he’s not giving the threat of the Lannisters enough credence. All the while, Littlefinger is watching like some sort of puppet master. Still not sure what he has up his sleeve.
Cersei is losing it
Cersei Lannister is a bad, bad bitch. But, with no children left standing, her vindictive, vengeful side is prying any humanity she still had away from her. She very clearly desires to rule the entire world, but as Jaime reminds her, they don’t have many certain allies left. Jaime also appears concerned that Cersei hasn’t stopped to mourn the loss of Tommen. You can see his confusion and disbelief on his face. There’s a popular theory floating around that Jaime will ultimately be the one to end Cersei. If you subscribe to that theory, then this episode probably has you feeling pretty good about that.
Sam is cleaning an incessant amount of shit
I didn’t really need to see that shit montage at The Citadel. I get it – let’s get it through that Sam’s life here isn’t what he thought it was going to be. But, man – did we really need that much old man poop? That was disgusting, and made infinitely worse when they showed the food they were serving those old dudes. It looked the same going in as it did coming out, I guess. Still, there was a point to it all – Sam needed to gain access to the restricted area of the library to obtain information on how to defeat the White Walkers. That he did.
Euron Greyjoy is offering Cersei the Iron Fleet
In need of allies, Cersei invites nu-metal pirate Euron Greyjoy to King’s Landing. The guy actually proposes to her, offering 1,000 ships, but Cersei declines – probably because he smells like cat food. But, Euron promises a gift to win her over. If I had to guess, it’s going to be a dragon. Yep – considering Euron is in possession of a horn called Dragonbinder that will bind the will of a dragon to whoever blows the horn, I’d say he ends up with one of Dany’s dragons.
Ed Sheeran
Yeah, Ed Sheeran showed up singing a song in the woods with other soldiers. La dee da, who cares? Those were Lannister men occupying the Riverlands, by the way. Hope you enjoyed it, because Arya is probably going to be standing over all of their dead bodies the next time we see them. I can do without any of these celebrity cameos – Sheeran’s presence completely took me out of the story for a bit.
The Hound is becoming a believer
Love this guy – he’s one of my favorites. He’s caught up traveling with Beric Dondarrion and Thoros en route to do God knows what. They convince The Hound to look into the fire (it’s magic – or the Lord of Light wills it or something) and he sees a vision of a battle “where The Wall meets the sea.” This is referring to Eastwatch, where Jon sent Tormund and the Wildlings to defend earlier in the episode. My stomach turned a bit – I like The Hound, Tormund, Beric, and Thoros. I like these dudes – and I don’t feel as though this is going to end well for them.
FROST GIANTS
Holy shit! The White Walkers have giants amongst their undead soldiers now!?!
Jorah Mormont is still alive
So, the Greyscale hasn’t completely consumed him, but it doesn’t look like he ever discovered that cure that Dany sent him out to find. The Maesters are notorious for being old prudes, so I’m sure once they discover Sam’s been sneaking into the restricted area, he’ll have to bolt. Jorah could be the one to help him get out. Of course, he’ll have to be cured first. But, I could see some sort of exchange where Sam practices some experimental treatment, it works, and in exchange Jorah gets him back North. Just spitballin’ here – seems like Jorah’s presence was shown for a reason.
Dany arrives at Dragonstone
We haven’t seen this place since, I believe, Stannis and Melisandre made a murderous shadow baby, but alas! Here we are. Dany is ready to start planning shit with her main man (technically, Hand of the Queen) Tyrion. It was clearly meant to show that everything was in place for the war to start actually happening, but in case you didn’t catch it, let me connect the dots for you.
Earlier in the episode, Jon announces a plan to fortify defenses in the North. He wants to know of any known deposits of dragon glass, so that he can mine it and create weapons with it. Sam sneaks into the restricted area of the library at The Citadel, where he discovers that Dragonstone sits on top of a store of dragon glass. So the implication here is that Jon is heading to Dragonstone. We’ve wondered how Jon would eventually meet up with Aunt Dany, this certainly offers a plausible explanation.
Overall, hey – it’s the first episode. What did you expect? This was basically a setup for the rest of the season – we now know where most allegiances lie, and there’s a clear direction for many of the characters. That said, I didn’t find anything overly revelatory. But, it didn’t make the episode less enjoyable…it just feels like we’ll have to wait another week for the real action to kick off.
“Shall we begin?”
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @WrestlingNewsCo
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