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Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7, The Dragon and The Wolf review: Jon Snow, Daenerys come together
Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7, The Dragon and The Wolf review: The future doesn’t look too peaceful for Jon Snow and Daenerys who are still oblivious to the big truth that Bran and Samwell know about.
Game of Thrones: The Dragon and The Wolf
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Kit Harington, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Rating: 4/5
With a million theories floating all over the internet, it is near impossible to surprise a fan of Game of Thrones. But the show manages it every time, if not in plot twists then in the superior execution of the road that led to them. The season finale, The Dragon and The Wolf, unfolded like a familiar book one had read a few years ago. But like any good piece of writing, it makes you sink knee-deep in it, again and again, and you earnestly wait for the next chapter.
Cersei’s meeting with the few good men in Dragonpit panned as expected. It was obvious that Daenerys will swoop in with her dragons and make a whole show of it to intimidate Cersei, who will still be too selfish to agree to the truce even upon seeing the walking dead. But to have it come screeching at her and to show the dreadful queen what real, urgent dread looks like, worked wonders in making the audience feel scared once again. A measly wight would not have even registered had it been just a part of the undead crowd beyond The Wall but changed things altogether as it charged at one of the strongest, stern and brutal characters and left her frightened.
In a quick aside, Lena Headey rose as the star of the episode. From horror that was obvious on her face in the Dragonpit, the words gnashing between her teeth as she met with Tyrion, or the way her deep eyes and fearful words fooled everyone into believing she had submitted to whatever little goodness still remained in her heart. Cersei finally does what was expected of her but for a really short while, she managed to have us scratching our heads in disbelief if we had indeed failed in our assessment of her through the seasons. I think it a big feat on the makers’ part considering the aforementioned million theories that should have prepared us for anything and everything.
Jon and Daenerys finally did what everyone was expecting (or dreading, depending on your opinion on incest) in the season finale right as Bran realised who Jon truly is. As he says the words out loud, ‘Jon is the heir to the Iron Throne’, miles away, as he and Dany did ‘it’ in Dragonstone. While in some other situation, this could have been a very sexually charged, even romantic scene, but with Bran’s narration, it seemed like a prophecy coming to life, higher and bigger than the two mortals (more or less) that participated in it.
What it promises is not just a love story but a conflict between the two biggest heroes on the show, in the next season. Daenerys wanted the Iron Throne for years while Jon was named King In The North by his people. However, now that he is the rightful king, how will Dany react to it? Will their love for each other be enough? It’s indeed very uplifting to know the next season will not be all about shattering zombies.
While several complaints have now piled up about how the show is handling the passage of time this season and not paying enough stress on journeys, it should be forgiven if that amount of time is being better utilised elsewhere. With the army of the dead melting Walls, it is to be expected that more important things will happen now with minimum time given to buffer conversations. However, Tyrion still finds time to small talk with Podd, Bronn, Jaime and Sandor Clegane finds time to shit-talk to his brother, ask Brienne about Arya, among several other conversations that were fit in the little walk to the Dragonpit. With so many characters assembled in the same place, none feels secondary to another. Their journeys through the season get acknowledged, making them appear as more than just set pieces in a pivotal scene.
Talking of a pivotal scene that was being built up since the very beginning of the season, things finally took a less sombre, more ‘slit-throaty’ turn in Winterfell. It was again as clear as day that the sisters have been though enough in seven years to be fighting each other like that. Littlefinger’s execution was more or less certain but it is still a bit hazy as to which part turned Sansa’s mind. It is never touched upon whether the girls were pretending to be hostile to each other in Arya’s room or in any of the scenes when it was just the two of them. Were they expecting Littlefinger to eavesdrop? How much of it was pretend? Did Sansa talk to Arya about his intentions just before the execution or was it staged all along? Is that why Bran gave her the dagger the day she arrived in Winterfell?
These few questions aside, it was the sweetest end possible to Lord Baelish. In what was a prime example of poetic justice, the three Stark children punished him for all the several times he betrayed their family. And to have them read out once again why he truly, utterly deserved getting his throat pierced with the same dagger that he wanted to use on Bran.
One last thing to talk about is not really the melting wall (as expected) but Theon’s redemption. We didn’t know we needed to spend all that time in an important episode on a character that has forever been in the shadows of greater ones but it was as wise a use of essential minutes as there ever was. Theon has been a subject of ridicule for years on the show, only gaining sympathy after his torture at the hands of Ramsay but never anyone’s respect. We hated him in episode two when he left his sister in yet another bout of cowardice but today, he finally redeemed himself, first with the forgiveness of the people he has wronged (the Starks) and then with the approval of his own men. Also, Alfie Allen may just be the most underrated actor on this series.
With that, the season comes to a close and so our watch begins for the next and last. After season 7, we only expect good and greater things as Dany’s claim to the throne gets jeopardized as two people now know of Jon’s true parentage. Will the two be able to work a way out considering their love for each other? We have a long time to wait.
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The author tweets as @soumya1405
