Game of Thrones recap: season seven, episode two: Stormborn | Television & radio
Spoiler alert: this blog is published after Game of Thrones airs on HBO in the US on Sunday night and on Foxtel in Australia on Monday. Do not read unless you have watched season seven, episode two, which airs in the UK on Sky Atlantic on Monday at 2am and 9pm, and is repeated in Australia on Showcase on Monday at 7.30pm AEST.
‘Peace? Do you think that’s what we had under your father, or his father, or his? Peace never lasts, my dear.’
Phew. Excuse me while I take a few minutes to remember to breathe. The pulsating final five minutes of this episode, in which Euron Greyjoy brought House Targaryen’s motto, fire and blood, to life, eliminating two thirds of the Sand Snakes in the process, made it clear that budget is not an issue this season.
Yet, as the focus narrows and more characters are swept from the board, it becomes clear that behind the big set pieces this show’s main interest lies in the nature of governance, in how one should rule and to what end. The opening scene between Dany and her advisors took the time to establish how unstable her grand alliance really is thanks to its many competing interests: Olenna and Ellaria desperate for revenge, Yara hopeful that a Targaryen Queen will allow her to rule in the Iron Islands, Varys keen to stabilise a nation and Tyrion (well let’s just say that I thought the plan to use the Unsullied to attack Casterly Rock was both astute and very beneficial to a certain smart Hand of the Queen).
There are a number of solid points that lie behind the self-interest, however. Olenna was right that peace doesn’t last and you need to think about how you would respond to insurrection. Tyrion is right that if Dany simply sailed to King’s Landing and burnt its inhabitants into submission the talk would all be of her father, the Mad King, and that fear is no way to rule. Varys is right that kings come and go but stable nations last, that it’s not a question of who rules but of how they intend to do so. This last detail finds its counterpoint in the alliance between Euron and Cersei, two people for whom power is just a game and who have no plans beyond seizing the throne, and laughing as their enemies are crushed beneath their feet.
And what of Dany? She stressed throughout this episode that she had no interest in being the Queen of the Ashes or in being her brother Viserys, yet her message of forgiveness to Varys was tempered by the threat of death by dragon burning â€" and her summoning of Jon very much from the Stannis Baratheon school of Bend The Knee or Be Damned. Interestingly Tyrion’s note to the North was far more conciliatory. That’s diplomacy in action my friends.
‘I never wanted it. I never asked for it. I accepted it because the north is my home. It’s part of me and I will never stop fighting for it no matter the odds, but the odds are against us.’
Jon, meanwhile, has his own game to play, and if the odds are stacked against Dany and her rapidly depleting band of unlikely allies, they’re even worse for him. Consider this: he not only has to hold the uneasy Northern Alliance together and prepare them for the great battle that’s looming with the Night King, he also has to convince Dany that she should stop worrying about claiming her family’s gloomy birthright and instead join forces with him. Oh, and could he just take the time to dig up her ancestral home for the cache of dragonglass that’s buried there? It won’t take that long and it’s not as though anyone likes spending time on Dragonstone anyway. Throw into the mix Dany’s propensity for demanding vocal displays of support and Jon’s strong dislike of doing so and you have the sort of ingredients that fuel many a bad romcom. This is Game of Thrones, though, so I’d say the meeting is more likely to ruin everyone’s lives than end in happily ever after.
‘I wasn’t born into a great house. I came from nothing. I was sold as a slave and carved up as an offering … you wish to know where my true loyalties lie? Not with any king or queen but with the people.’
Those who enjoy finding modern-day parallels will have had a field day tonight: from Cersei’s attempts to whip up hatred of the Dothraki to Varys’ “power to the people†speech, the hour was full of moments that deliberately echoed modern upheavals. Entertaining though these echoes are, Game of Thrones’ real strength comes from the way it continues to subvert our expectations: there was gentleness amid the violence as Grey Worm and Missandei finally shared a bed in a tender scene and a sweet reunion between Arya and Hot Pie (who continues to excel in his small but vital role of providing key information to characters at crucial moments) as well as a sadder one between Arya and a pack of wolves (of which more below). Best of all though was the scene at the end when poor broken Theon faced off against his uncle as he held his sister captive. In a lesser show, Theon would have broken free of his paralysis and either saved Yara or died trying â€" but Game of Thrones’ greate st strength has always been its clear-eyed acceptance that not everyone can be a hero. The final scene â€" in which Theon floated on a piece of driftwood gazing up at the dead bodies of Obara and Nymeria Sand as hell burnt all around him â€" was a bleak reminder that some things are simply too broken to mend.
Additional notes
- The meeting between Arya and the Wolves was key. From the start of this series we’ve been told that the pack is important and we know Direwolves are famously loyal. So either that wasn’t Nymeria (as Arya so desperate to find her pack sadly suggested) or it was but she rejected Arya as having been a lone wolf too long.
- We’re clearly being set up for Sansa to struggle in Winterfell, almost certainly because of Littlefinger’s machinations. That said, it would be more interesting if she proved to be a good Queen in the North.
- I don’t think I’d want to be in the room when Melisandre and Davos reunite.
- I wonder about Sam’s belief that he, an untrained trainee maester, would be able to successfully carry out advanced greyscale removal singlehandedly â€" although I do applaud both his loyalty to his late Lord Commander and his unswerving belief in the power of the written word.
- Also worthy of applause: the cut from the suppurating greyscale wounds to the food at the inn.
- I was entertained by Dany’s dislike of her new rain-lashed home. Ah Dany, we all know what it’s like when the reality doesn’t match up to the dream.
- “Why are you standing all the way over there when a foreign invasion is underway?†is one of the worst chat-up lines ever delivered, but like Yara I would probably have gone for it.
- So the Archmaester needs a better title for his proposed work: “A Chronicle of the Wars Following the Death of King Robert the Firstâ€. Hmm, I think we might all be able to think of one.
- Goodbye to Nymeria and Obara Sand: you were poorly written and rather summarily dispatched to bolster the villain credentials of your executor. Let’s raise a glass of Dornish red and imagine a different version of Game of Thrones in which you had better lines.
Violence count
What seemed as though it was going to be a relatively quiet episode violence-wise â€" unless you count Sam’s attempts to remove Jorah’s greyscale - ended in mayhem as Euron’s magnificent fleet of unbelievably quickly assembled ships attacked Yara’s somewhat less impressive fleet of excellent flirtation and less than fine ale. The result? Several gruesome deaths, most notably those of Nymeria and Obara Sand, who were killed by their own weapons in an extremely brutal interpretation of the phrase hoist by your own petard.
Nudity count
A touching moment between Grey Worm and Missandei which managed (just) to avoid any schoolboy jokes about the state of things below for the Unsullied.
Random Brit of the week
Was that a different Dickon Tarly you ask? Why yes. Young Dickon, hope of his family’s name (and therefore almost certainly doomed) is played this season by Tom Hopper aka Merlin’s Sir Percival and the conflicted Billy Bones on Black Sails.
So what do you think? Can Dany hope to stop Cersei and Euron or is she better off joining forces with Jon to fight the evil beyond the Wall? Whose viewpoint of power do you think was the best? And does Tyrion hope to become Lord of Casterly Rock? As ever, all speculation and no spoilers below ...
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