I enjoyed this episode’s
table-setting more than the table-setting in the season premier.
The battle of the Greyjoys
was fun and impressively shot through flying embers, if a little bit confusing
with everything going on. I don’t think too many people will miss the Sand
Snakes. It looks like Yara and Ellaria are the prizes Euron will bring back to
Cersei. Is Theon playing a long game or did he just lose his nerve?
I liked the scenes with all
the rival families finally getting together to plot their conquering. Daenerys
forgives the treachery of Varys (with uncharacteristic fear in his eyes) conveniently
before forgiving the treachery of another mercenary, Melisandre. How will
Daenerys feel when she finds out about the priestess’ part in Shireen’s
sacrifice? Varys’ words, “Incompetence should not be rewarded with blind
loyalty,” are words we can all live by, even in this world. Missandei again
proves her spot on the team, correcting the gender of the prophecy about the
prince.
Miraculously, everybody
converges from different parts of Westeros to meet in Dragonstone. There’s immediately
bad blood between Tyrion and Ellaria but despite the death of Oberyn, I side
with the Lannisters here. Ellaria says there are no innocent Lannisters but she
killed a kid and I judge.
Up north, Arya finds
Nymeria but maybe has changed too much or been away too long for the direwolf
to recognize her. Now that she knows the Boltons are out of power, can she
waltz right into Winterfell? Jon decides to meet Daenerys in Dragonstone
despite some misgivings. The scene in Winterfell just felt a little too
repetitive of last week, although I’m always grateful for Lady Mormont to get a
word in.
In King’s Landing, the
cognitive dissonance is strong. Cersei tries to convince various factions to
unite with her against Daenerys by recalling the cruelty of the last Targaryen
to sit on the Iron Throne. Nobody seems to realize that Cersei just did what
the mad king did with the wildfire—like, just a few days ago. It seems like
there’s a weird lack of acknowledgement of the firebombing of the sept and
deaths of the king and queen, considering this was the 9/11 of this world. Cersei
appears to be appealing to class divisions to get the soldiers to fight against
the “savages” from other parts of the world.
I’m not buying what’s
happening in Old Town. All those years and all that accumulated wisdom and
nobody thought to try debriding the greyscale? It’s a pretty primitive and
intuitive treatment. It just seems too deus ex machina, like not only is Sam
finding the key to defeat the white walkers but he’s also going to cure a
disease. Come on.
Oh, and Grey Worm and
Missandei give into their urges. Get it, kids.
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