Game of Thrones S07E07 [FINALE] Recap

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.

Here we are ladies and gentlemen, the final episode of the penultimate season of Game of Thrones. We laughed, we cried, we cheered, lost ourselves in the hype and had conflicted feelings about shipping Jonerys, but eventually got over them (because, come on, we love this ship). Plenty of fan theories were confirmed while others fell by the way side. We got reunions we’d been waiting for and ones we didn’t even know we wanted or remembered we needed. Now it’s all over and winter has truly, finally, come to all of Westeros and the dead are coming with it (We’ve been saying that for how many season now?It’s only now true.).

So many reunions! Next to the gathering of the Magnificent Seven, the armistice discussion had to have been the most reunions we got in a single scene – maybe even an entire episode – for the entire season. Tyrion and Podrick, Tyrion and Bronn, Brienne and the Hound, Brienne and Jamie, Tyrion and Cersei, the Hound and the Mountain…and they all got their little moments with each other. It’s hard to say which of the reunions I liked best because each one was meaningful in it’s own way, but if I truly had to pick it would be the reunion between Tyrion and Cersei. We’ll get back to that.

The armistice discussion went about as well as anyone could expect; unpleasant for the most part. Cersei was as acid tongued and impertinent as always, right up until the Hound released the wight they’d captured.

I know that we’d seen earlier in the episode that it had survived the trip, but I was still on the edge of my seat wondering if it were “alive” or “dead” as he hauled the crate into the Dragon Pit. Cutting it to pieces was the perfect demonstration of exactly what a wight is and is capable of, aside from having one screeching in Cersei’s face. So was demonstrating how to kill them. I didn’t expect for Jon to include that in his presentation.

I was shocked when Cersei actually agreed to the armistice. I thought she had finally seen reason. But that was too good to be true. I didn’t think that Jon not agreeing to stay neutral in her war with Daenerys would push her to reject the armistice. I’m not sure why it’d be so important to her that he did that. It’s not like Jamie said Jon and his Northern forces would be unbeatable, it was the Dothraki and the dragons. Jon’s neutrality would mean nothing.

Tyrion and Cersei had so much to work through. With all of it laid bare there before them and us, I hadn’t realise how much had transpired between the two up to this point. Their conversation was perhaps the best scene in the episode. Headey and Dinklage have always had excellent chemistry and played off each other so well. I felt for both Tyrion and Cersei and it was all because of their performances. I would have liked to see what their conversation was after Tyrion noticed her pregnancy though.

I was shocked again when Cersei said that the Lannister army would head North and fight the Night’s King with Jon and Daenerys. It was such a turn around for her and she went so much further than they had asked her to. Given that the last of her conversation with Tyrion we saw was his realising her pregnancy, it felt like perhaps Tyrion had used her unborn child to convince her. But again, this was too good to be true. Because Cersei is as stubborn as she is selfish, short-sighted and stupid.

Thankfully, her refusal to do the smart thing finally pushed Jamie away from her. As he said, no matter how you slice it she is doomed to lose. If the Night’s King and his army don’t kill Cersei then Daenerys and her Dothraki screamers will. There is no way Cersei can win and yet she remains resolute in taking a kingdom that she will not be able to keep no matter how hard she tries. It’s truly inexplicable why she can’t see reason.

She did admit to Tyrion that she doesn’t care about the realm, only about herself and those dear to her. But she’s only doing everything that will ensure her own destruction. I was expecting Jamie to kill her then, but she is carrying his child so that would stop him. I was, however, taken aback when it looked like she was going to have him killed. Especially since Jamie was the second of her brothers to challenge her to do it. She even nodded to the Mountain and he drew his sword! What a moment it would have been if she had actually killed Jamie.

My question is, though, whether or not he will take their army North. If he does, he’d be leaving Cersei defenseless. Even then, would their men even march with him? He is their commander and I would think they are more loyal to him than to Cersei.

I didn’t think that Daenerys would take Drogon and Rhaegal to King’s Landing with her. One, because she just lost Viserion and I would think that she would want to keep the other two out of harm’s way. Two, just so she wouldn’t show her enemies that she lost one of the dragons (Cersei noticed she was short by one). Sure, they’re an excellent show of force and a wonderful deterrent had Cersei tried anything. I don’t blame her for taking her most powerful weapons. As Cersei showed us, she’s not at all trustworthy and quick to betrayal. Who knew how that meeting would have gone. At least some of the other main players at last got to see a dragon and one had set foot in the dragon pit after a couple hundred years.

The look on Daenerys’ face when Jon turned down Cersei’s terms of neutrality…sure, she admonished him for it later but in the moment, either she looked like she was ready to jump his bones right then and there or my fangirl ways were just projecting. It certainly seemed to me like she was rather thirsty.

Daenerys is totally going to be pregnant at some point next season. If she doesn’t start the series pregnant she will be by or at the end of it. There was way too much talk about succession and her ability to produce an heir between the last episode and this one. With Jon straight up telling her that Mirri Maz Duur is not a reliable source when it comes to her fertility. We all know that she is going to wind up with his baby soon enough. The time is right. Not just because Jonerys was finally solidified, but because if Emergency Awesome is correct, all of the conditions put forth by Mirri Maz Duur have been met for Daenerys to have children again.

The Jonerys sex scene left a lot to be desired for me (no pun intended). I love that we got it and that Jonerys is now an official thing and not just steamy glances and hand holding, but I wish there was more to the scene. They kind of just lied there and kissed and they were holding each other so very, very awkwardly. Also, why did they have to go and ruin it with Tyrion’s worried face? Couldn’t we Jonerys shippers just have that moment without a bad omen looming over it?

On the topic of bad omens, or rather, complications for their relationship, R+L=J has now been triple confirmed! Thanks to Bran and Sam sharing what they both learned about Rhagear and Lyanna, we got to see a flashback to the wedding of Jon Snow’s parents. And they have the Maester’s diary to prove it. It doesn’t make sense though that Bran, having the power to see the past and present all over the world (which in and of itself is nonsensical – to some extent – and irrelevant) didn’t see their wedding until Sam brought it up.

We also finally got to learn Jon’s real name; Aegon Targaryen. If we needed any further proof that Jon will end up on the Iron Throne, that was it. Why else give him the name of the man who made the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in the first place? With Jon and Daenerys now headed to Winterfell, where Bran and Sam are waiting, they’re both about to find out about his lineage. What remains to be seen is how it will affect their relationship when they find out that he is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.

She, of course, won’t be happy that he bumps her down the line of succession but Jon wouldn’t want the Iron Throne to begin with. The obvious solution would be they simply get married. However, that would still make Jon ruler and not Daenerys and it would put him in a position of power that I can’t imagine he’d want. Perhaps Jon will renounce his claim so that she can take the throne, but then their relationship will have to end? Her getting pregnant, though, would force a marriage between them. He wouldn’t leave his child to be a bastard.

Theon finally got a win! He has risen triumphant! He has shed his Reek persona and is no longer the coward he always has been. The scene between him and Jon in the Dragonstone throne room was so touching. His entire character arc has been about him trying to find his identity, as a Greyjoy or a Stark, and Jon just gave him his identity; he’s both. He knows who he is now and in that, he found strength.

Strength enough to prove himself a worthy leader of what remains of Yara’s fleet and convince them to follow him in rescuing her. Given the beating he was receiving, I thought he really was going to die on that beach. Who knew that Ramsay castrating him would be the thing to save his life?

I’m happy that the drama between Arya and Sansa is finally over. It was a ridiculous story line to begin with and some of the most contrived drama ever in the series. It ended exactly how we all knew it would; with the sisters coming together to pull a fast one on Littlefinger and Arya being the one to execute him. I only wish we had seen the moment when the two realised his deception, or at least had one of them mention said moment in passing. That resolution came out of nowhere.

It was still satisfying to see him pay for all he had done. I had forgotten that Sansa was there when Lysa confessed to her and Littlefinger’s involvement in the death of Jon Arryn. Of his whole plot essentially. Littlefinger probably never gave a thought to the fact that Sansa had dirt on him that she could use.

I know I had listed it in my 7 Reason to Be Excited for Game of Thrones Season 7 article and had expected to see it happen this season, but for some reason it didn’t occur to me that the Wall would fall in this episode. So when we got the pan up the Wall, I thought that the Night’s King would just fly over it on the back of Viserion.

The Night’s King using Viserion to burn down the section of the Wall at Eastwatch (Why there?) was as spectacular as it was dreadful. It was awesome seeing Viserion breathing his blue flames and the section of the Wall crumbling, but now the army of the dead is past the Wall.  The Great War, the War for the Dawn really is here.

Random thoughts:

1. How many Unsullied does Daenerys have now?
2. The Hound looked kind of proud to hear that Arya can take care of herself.
3. Isn’t Jon hot under all of those furs so far South?
4. Euron you coward!
5. Brienne swore! And doesn’t care about loyalty!
6. When will they give Daenerys armour? Gendry’s there. He can make it.
7. Littlefinger: “I deserve it.” You deserve death.
8. Rhaegar looks like Viserys.
9. Tormund CANNOT be dead.
10. CleganeBowl didn’t happen…