There are only a few storylines we follow this week. The briefest of which is at King’s Landing, where Cersei seems to be winning over Mark Gatiss (I know he has a name, but much like Jim Broadbent, I only see Mark Gatiss). Apparently Qyburn is trying to acquire a new ally for her in Essos by hiring an army of sellswords. Good luck with that. Nothing is really accomplished here, but a little exposition being dropped that’s likely to pay off in a few episodes’ time.
In Winterfell, Bran says goodbye to Meera who’s heading back to her home after protecting him for so long and she’s a little annoyed when she doesn’t get much of a heartfelt response out of him. He tells her that he’s no longer merely Bran Stark, and silently affirms her recognition that “Bran” died in the cave. Bran’s just alienating everyone with his new attitude, isn’t he? He’s got a new wheelchair now which is high up on the list of things I didn’t expect to see in a medieval fantasy. He also has a conversation with Littlefinger who gives him the Valyrian dagger that was nearly used to kill him back in the first season, and Bran freaks him out by quoting his “chaos is a ladder” monologue. But apart from incidents like this, Bran has yet to do anything. And he clearly has the power to now. His nihilistic approach to what’s happening in the world whether on a larger political scale or to the people he’s close to is also a little like listening to Marvin the Paranoid Android. I hope the writers figure out what to do with him soon.
The bigger story at Winterfell is of course the return of Arya Stark. After a little trouble with a couple idiot guards at the gate, she makes it in and reunites with Sansa in front of their fathers’ tomb. It’s a really nice moment made better by the fact they don’t know what to say. Both have grown and changed so much since they last saw each other, they don’t know where to begin. I’m curious how the show will delve into their differences in the coming weeks. Sansa initially took Arya’s kill list as a joke -both girls have changed a lot, and though they love each other, their personalities are divergent. But the emotion is truly there even from Arya. The same can’t be said for Bran of course, and though he’s again disappointingly indifferent to seeing his sister after all these years, there is something great in seeing the three surviving Stark siblings back home and on screen together for the first time in nearly seven years. Bran brings up Littlefinger whom he points out is on Arya’s list, and gives her the dagger. Arya later approaches Brienne and under the guise of wanting to train, duels her harshly to prove to herself her training with the Faceless Man paid off. It did, as she swiftly bests Brienne, impressing her and Sansa, and concerning Littlefinger. Maisie Williams and Gwendoline Christie play the fight well as they go from friendly training session to looking like they might actually want to kill each other. Considering the look she gives him when she finishes, this all could be set-up for Arya violently confronting Littlefinger. Apart from that though, the Winterfell scenes don’t really amount to much. As good as it is to see the reuniting Starks, it doesn’t advance much plot where it probably could. The duel, as well-executed as it is, isn’t really necessary. Though maybe I just want to see Arya kill Littlefinger and I’m impatient.
Jon meanwhile at Dragonstone gives Dany a tour of the dragonglass mine, but he takes her beyond what they need into a cavern of cave paintings by the Children of the Forest, the early spirits who inhabited Westeros. The crude drawings depicted the Children with the First Men fighting off the White Walkers. This is incredibly convenient and if I were in Dany’s place I’d find it a tad too unbelievable. I’d at least suspect Jon drew them himself. It’s lazy, but it seems to work at least a little. Dany appears to be convinced of Jon’s claims now, and offers to lend her support, but still on the condition he bend the knee. Jon once again refuses, citing his peoples’ distrust of southerners and Dany insists he put aside his pride to better help them. Dany’s still being too stubborn, but Jon is too. I think he fears he’ll lose the support of the north entirely if he submits to her -bearing in mind none of his lords have seen a White Walker. Though they’re having the same argument, at least they’re coming closer to terms, and Dany’s going to need, that as moments later she hears of the fall of Highgarden and the besieging of Casterly Rock. Understandably, she’s pretty pissed with Tyrion at the failure of his strategies and she resolves to attack the Red Keep. She asks for Jon’s counsel though, which shows her trust in him. As we later see she comes up with her own compromise, factoring in the late Olenna’s advice too. There’s some fluff later when Jon and Davos are walking along, and of course Davos drops the hint many of us have expected -that there might be an attraction between Jon and Dany. It certainly feels like the shows’ moving towards that pairing as such a union would theoretically work for both their causes. There’s a conversation with Missandei about the nature of bastards where she comes from and the difference between her former slavery and current servitude to Dany. She has a good moment where she shuts down Davos’ implication she’s still a kind of slave, and reiterates how her Queen has gained the support she has. Though by this point we know both Jon and Dany are leaders popular with the people, we don’t need it repeated. The last Greyjoy ship returns to Dragonstone and there’s a great awkward moment between Jon and Theon. The fact Theon helped Sansa escape Winterfell is the only thing keeping Jon from killing him, and it’s another reminder to both Theon and the audience of the shitty stuff he did back in season two. In fact, with Missandei alluding to her backstory, and Littlefinger’s earlier gift to Bran as well, this episode has had a number of callbacks to the early seasons. When Theon asks for Dany, it turns out she’s gone.
Not far off from Highgarden, she wants her revenge. Jamie and Bronn are leading their force back to King’s Landing and of course with Bronn around, there’s some comic relief. And while it doesn’t always work, I’m just happy to have Jerome Flynn back, even if his character doesn’t serve much purpose anymore. There’s also a scene where Randyll Tarly’s son and Sam’s brother, Dickon (yeah Bronn laughed at that name too), confides his misgivings for the attack at Highgarden and that he was forced to kill friends of his. It’s a really unnecessary scene and features the recasting of Tom Hopper in the role played by someone else last season. I can only assume this means Dickon will play some part moving forward. But it’s moments later that the action kicks in and with a good build, Jamie realizes they’re about to be attacked. It’s the Dothraki army on the offensive and if that’s not bad enough for the Lannisters and Tarlys, Dany’s riding Drogon at their head and has no mercy as her dragon breathes fire down on them, decimating much of the army. It’s an utterly chaotic battle but a really good one. The tension is felt, the atmosphere strong, the violence vivid, and the dragon adds a welcome and exciting anomaly. There’s a sequence involving Bronn first attempting to joust a Dothraki, and then running from him on the field until finally getting the upper hand by shooting him point blank with one of those dragon-killing scorpions. Bronn the Bowman is able to use it against Drogon, wounding him in fact. Nonetheless, the battle may as well be won by this point. Tyrion watches from the sidelines in shock, right as Jamie attempts to spear Dany who’s tending to her downed dragon. Jamie very nearly gets roasted, but Bronn saves him just in time by tackling him into a nearby river. Whether Bronn survives this is unknown, but Jamie just sinks as the episode ends.
This is a very good battle scene, at last giving us the chance to see a dragon in combat. And it’s fittingly devastating. No one stands a chance and everyone under Jamie’s command knows it. It’s a victory for Dany after her back-to-back defeats, but it’s not really a good thing as is made clear by the tone of the whole sequence. She’s creating plenty of fuel for Cersei’s propaganda that she’s just another mad Targaryen tyrant, and it may just unite a number of parties with Cersei who see her as a common enemy. She’s not really showing she’s much better than Jon said, and Tyrion can see this. At the same time given the circumstances, it’s understandable she’d take this action after her previous losses. If she can have a sure-fire victory, why not have it? But the destructive nature of the battle, shown mostly from Jamie and Bronn’s perspectives, in addition to the injuring of Drogon seems to indicate Benioff and Weiss want this to feel wrong, which I don’t think is the right approach. It should have been played with a little more ambiguity. Drogon’s injury could very likely be a lesson Dany learns for her rashness, which is a little too easy. Also, it frames Tyrion as completely the right mind which as we just saw an episode ago, he’s not.
However I am very interested in the repercussions of this battle. Bronn might be dead, Randyll’s probably dead. I imagine Dickon survived though, and Jamie will resurface and maybe be captured. “The Spoils of War” (which is a very appropriate title) leaves a lot to speculate over with regards to the war between Dany and Cersei. Some of the other plotlines were weak, like Bran’s refusal to do anything with his visions, and Jon and Dany’s scene in the dragonglass mine. I also felt like this episode had more filler material than was needed. But the Stark reunion was great, in spite of not accomplishing much outside of that, and at the very least Snow and Targaryen are beginning to see more eye to eye. However I have hopes, because many of the main characters’ journeys have now come together -which means less jumping around and presumably a deeper focus on each storyline. Something which is more important at getting right, now that there are less than ten episodes left.
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