Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 3, The Queen’s Justice review

Game of Thrones Episode 3, The Queen’s Justice review: The show brings its one of the most tightly packed, unexpectedly emotional episodes with parallel stories almost poetically entwined.

The Queen’s Justice, Game of Thrones
Director: Mark Mylod
Cast: Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Rating: 4.5/5

Game of Thrones is at its structured best right now.

SPOILERS

If this is what we could have had instead, each of the previous six seasons of Game of Thrones should also have been seven-episodes long. With its third chapter of the season, the show brought to the table its one of the most tightly packed, unexpectedly emotional episodes with parallel stories almost poetically entwined.

The episode’s title, The Queen’s Justice, should have placed the apostrophe after the ‘s’. Daenerys and Cersei are given opportunities to deliver justice and while one chooses to be more benevolent, the other shows unimaginable cruelty to her enemy, even by the show’s very high standards.

The makers perfectly handle the curveball of uniting their two lead characters, Daenerys and Jon. It could have been too indigestibly sweet had they been made the best of friends or even ambers of romance had been sparked, as many suspected. It could have been too unbelievably horrific if Daenerys and her dragons chose to make kebabs of Jon. But what happens instead is logical and respectable.

We have seen their struggles, the hopelessness they once lived, their rise to power and the occasional stabbing in the hearts, separately. Now, with the two facing each other, you are left to wonder which side to really take. Who is right in this long, very fulfilling, exchange of dialogue?

While it may seem at first that she is being too demanding by wanting him to bend the knee to her, from her perspective, it only sounds reasonable. Who could be a better ruler than her? Why can’t this Lord see it? Can’t he see all the men she has freed, the dragons she has? How could he not already agree that she is the rightful queen? We have not been made to take sides between Dany and Jon so far, seeing them as heroes of their separate stories, but as worlds collide, we must not make the mistake of choosing one now.

On the other side of Westeros, Cersei brings to reality the part we have dreaded since last week. After all this time, one would believe that the slightly demented creative heads on the series would have run out of ways to kill people but I guess not. I found Ellaria one of the most irritating characters since her introduction on the show. Her motivations were not interesting enough and she was just too selfish to care about. But in her last moments, Indira Varma gave a performance so stunningly emotional and brimming with pain and torture, with only her eyes. She was the highlight in an episode that is screaming to be crowned perfect.

With Stormborn and The Queen’s Justice, the show has been successful in making us invest in the wars the humans are waging against each other. Yes, there may be an army of the undead approaching soon to rip everyone to shreds but this war is still not boring. By the end of last season we almost knew for sure that Cersei stands no chance but the swift sudden blows to Dany’s cause have raised the stakes too high to not be interesting.

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From a first time union and a reunion with an enemy, it’s now time to address a reunion with family. Bran finally meets Sansa in what felt like a bit of a downer. Of course, if he had jumped into her arms, it may have dissolved his whole Three Eyed Raven vibe. He reminds her of the night she was raped just to stress on what he can do with his new found abilities. Could he have chosen a softer memory that he had no reason to know? I don’t know. But maybe flashbacks to getting raped by a maniac could have been avoided.

The show is at its structured best right now. I don’t remember not checking my phone or getting spaced out in any of the 2-7 episodes in the series and now, I find myself lusting for more every time the screen goes dark. Things are better than ever. Can’t say the same about the people on the show though. Jon better start mining soon.

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