But everything went her way regardless.
The sound of ocean waves outside.
I find myself increasingly agreeing with Cersei’s snobby assessment of Winterfell in the show’s first episode.
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
This is not a vacation spot that would get even three stars on TripAdvisor.
We can picture this in our minds and smile.
Arya also reveals she was in the crowd when their father was executed.
Being the younger sister, naturally Arya threatens to tattle.
She even raises the visual of Lynanna Mormont’s reaction, which would indeed be entertaining.
Sansa snaps out of her shock to shoot back, “You should be on your knees thanking me.
If Sansa posted this on Facebook, everybody would Like it.
For once, our longtime fan favorite Arya is so very in the wrong.
Though to be fair, neither Sansa nor Arya would have survived each other’s journeys.
If Sansa had gone through what Arya has, she’d be dead.
They’re both just good at handling what they’ve been put under.”
Despite the logic of Sansa’s points, Arya refuses to change her mind and remains angry and intractable.
She can’t help but think:Sansa may be a capable politician, but what about her r-mails?
Next: Twisted Sister
Sansa meets with Littlefinger.
The man’s barely resisting twirling his mustache.
Littlefinger wants to push Sansa into seizing more power.
But until now this season, she’s been ignoring him and making him feel useless.
He also wants Sansa trusting only him.
Plus the lords at Winterfell are mulling pushing for Sansa to take charge instead of Jon.
Put another way: Littlefinger is creating chaos and hoping it’s a ladder.
Later, Sansa receives a letter asking her to attend a summit with the Lannisters.
Sansa is like:No.
Lady Stark will never put herself in a position of trusting the Lannisters again.
C’mon, Sansa, we’re on your side in this episode; don’t be mean to Brienne.
Also, a question: Does this mean that Brienne might see Jaime again?
Sansa is freaked:What kind of creepy psychopath has my sister become?
And why do Bran, Jon, and Arya all get to do magic stuff and I don’t?
Arya needs some therapy, or some time at the Winterfell spa day, or something.
“What’s the point in serving a god when none of us knows what he wants?”
I realize that Beric has a really cool voice; I want him to narrate audiobooks.
Gendry is razzed by the older men for complaining about Melisandre’s bondage rituals.
[Beric’s] been killed six times and you don’t hear him bitching about it."
We can all use “whinging” instead of “whining” now if we want to sound well-traveled.
They’re two noble men being all noble.
The Hound doesn’t buy Tormund’s attempt to pass off Brienne as his fake Canadian girlfriend.
They enter a blizzard and see something ahead.
A zombie polar bear!
This is something theGoTteam has wanted to get into the show for years.
The gang forms a circle, back to back, coming together now that they’re under threat.
They fight the bear, setting it ablaze.
Except the toughest talker of all of them freezes in the face of danger.
The Hound, to use aWatership Downterm, once again goestharnwhen facing the threat of fire.
I like that none of the men give him grief about this afterward.
Next: The Wight Stuff
Later: They spot some wights and a White Walker and attack.
The White Walker is killed by Jon’s Valyrian steel sword.
The wights the White Walker “turned” also disintegrate.
So this is a rather key addition to the Army of the Dead canon.
They’re like ice zombie vampires, kind of?
The captured wight screams like a wounded baby T-Rex, and we know trouble is coming in response.
But it’s all very exciting, so we go with it.
Gendry runs and runs.
He eventually collapses at the Eastwatch gate.
All that cardio from three years of rowing has clearly paid off.
Tyrion suggests Dany is hot for Snow.
“He’s too little for me,” she replies to exactly the wrong person.
It’s an honest point, though.
Their conversation goes downhill from there once they start talking about Tyrion’s family.
We love the tantalizing prospect of Dany meeting Cersei, and they debate laying traps.
Dany doesn’t want to even talk about this until after she wears the crown.
She’s focused on victory; planning for failure is not something she wants in her head.
Still, this topic raised a red flag for me.
Why is succession suddenly being discussed?
Whether foreshadowing or red herring, we shall see.
Later, Dany and Tyrion receive that urgent message from Gendry.
I assume Dany is super excited to have a reason to wear her awesome dragon queen snowtrooper winter-wear ensemble.
Daenerys is the one who knocks.
Beyond the Wall: Jon Snow runs like mad from the wights.
He’s a great action-scene runner, almost Tom Cruise-level.
The group flees to a rock formation in the middle of the frozen lake.
The wights start to converge on their position but fall through the ice.
So the wights stop their advance, surrounding them.
The Night King arrives and sees Jon.Hey, it’s you again!
The men talk through their options as Thoros dies and gets cremated by his own booze.
No more resurrections for Beric, who suggests they just make an attempt to kill the Night King.
Next:Exit the Dragon
The Hound tries kicking the captured wight.
He does this to make it scream and lure the wights across the thin ice.
Smart idea, but it doesn’t work.
Fighting, fighting, fighting!
Anonymous grey shirts get killed.
I’m itching to play as Beric with his flaming sword, and totally X+Square+RT these wights.
There’s a harrowing moment when Tormund gets dragged toward a hole in the ice.
Once again, things are looking bleak for Jon Snow.
It’s Daenerys to the rescue, her dragons cooking the wights.
C’mon, let’s go!
The Night King has a spear.
He aims like a javelin-throwing Olympian bringing winter to the summer games.
The Night King just took out a dragon.
It’s a brutal, ugly demise too.
The visual effects are just … incredible … flawless.
Most movies don’t look anywhere near this good.
And it’s great to have director Taylor back in theGoTworld.
And when the Night King clams gets asecondspear, the suspense of this sequence flies through the roof.
Jon Snow falls through the broken ice.
and Dany takes flight, barely missing the second ice-and-magic spear.
Jon climbs out of the water, as we knew he would.
We’re not falling for Jon Snow almost dying anymore.
Who thought Dragon No.
2, Rhaegal, was going to circle around and Jon was going to mount up?
Instead, it’s Save-y McSaverson Uncle Benjen to the rescue.
He puts Jon on his horse and then gets swamped by wights.
Look, the White Walkers found some chains, all right?
The Night King touches the dragon, and we wait.
His eyes turn blue.
Of course, it’s the dragon named after Dany’s brother that went bad.
Boat: Jon made it back to Eastwatch and then was put on Dany’s boat.
More importantly, she sees the King in the North is totally ripped.
Dany vows to help Jon destroy the Night King and to “do it together.”
Jon thanks her, calling her “Dany.”
He’s trying out the nickname used by author George R.R.
Martin andGoTrecappers everywhere who get weary of spelling out “Daenerys.”
Emotionally, it’s a side of her she didn’t really show to Daario.
“You should get some rest.”
Jon looks at her like:Hey, I ain’t THAT tired.
