As we enter the second half of the final season of Game of Thrones, the pace slows a bit, if not to pick up again in the next episode.
Spoilers are ahead! Why would you play around with knowledge like this if you’re not up to date?
We start with a good ol’ pyre in case we’d forgotten about the deaths of the previous episode. I’m glad to see Sansa is remembering Theon in his death because the summary sure didn’t. Good men also finish last, it seems.
Something Sansa doesn’t remember, though, is to keep her mouth shut. Jon caves and tells her and Arya about his true heritage (because of course he does, it’s Jon and it’s the honest thing to do), but Sansa conveniently ignores the bit where he tells them not to tell anyone because she almost immediately spills the beans to her favourite ex-husband, Tyrion.
Tyrion spills the tea to Varys, who starts to think that treason (and a dude on the throne) might not be a bad bet. Too bad he’s already on a ship with Dany to go and fight Cersei at King’s Landing.
However, before they went to King’s Landing, a few things happened at Winterfell. Firstly, Gendry found that the feast’s wine could not quench all his thirst, so he went looking for Arya. He tries to impress her with his new lordship of Storm’s End and a marriage proposal, but Arya pulls a Brave and rather just wants to shoot a bow and arrow.
Tiffany du Plessis (20), A BSc student, shows off her Game of Thrones-themed shirt. PHOTO: Tiffany du Plessis
Tyrion establishes through a drinking game that Brienne is still a virgin which upsets her, but Jaime gallantly helps her with this conundrum. We’ve all been waiting for these two to get together, so it was very exciting! What we were not ready for though was Jaime being an asshole and leaving — who else could be so heartless and make Brienne cry?
Not to be one-upped with ‘assholery’, Jon opts to send Ghost away without so much as a ‘good boy’ or a pat on the head. It’s fine Jon, it’s not like he’s been with you since the literal first episode and just helped you fight the dead. I hope the wildlings will treat him better.
Dany seems upset with Jon because he isn’t cool with incest and for being generally more popular than she is.
Opinions currently seem divided on Dany. Zoë Human (21), a Journalism student, says that Dany is “being painted in a very bad light” and that “everyone is siding with the men, it’s very patriarchal and I’m not happy right now”. She believes that the Dragon Queen will be “more harsh” in the upcoming episodes.
Nicola du Toit (21), a Stellenbosch University alumnus, sees it differently saying that “she’s a little power-hungry bitch at the moment.”
Du Toit is upset because Dany “just ignored all the advice that people gave her” by immediately taking her army to Cersei.
Cersei surveys all the damage she has wreaked.
Everybody is united in their sadness at Rhaegal dying. Nina Stevenson (20), a BMus student, says: “I’m not averse to anyone dying, but Dany’s on her dragon, couldn’t she see the fleet from high up above?” She adds that she was not happy with the death scene because it was “so emotionless”.
Human mentions that “the killer of my heart was the beheading scene.” She is, of course, referring to the tragic death of Missandei. In terms of future episodes, she says, “I fear for Grey Worm.”
Du Toit says that she wants “to see Jon stand up to Dany, but [she doesn’t] think he’ll do it, yet still everybody is now starting to support him.”
All I know is that the showrunners better have a good episode up their sleeve because fans were not happy with this episode. Stevenson says she is “very disappointed” with the writing that was “so rushed” and labelled this episode as “one of the worst episodes of Game of Thrones I’ve seen”.