Game of Thrones: Eastwatch
Oh. My. Fecking. Gawd. Just when I think it can’t get any better: they bring back SO much that I almost don’t know where to start. Thank goodness this is a recap and I just go down the line right? Well, if you’re ready my friends, let’s dive right into the recap of Season 7, Episode 5: HBO’s Game of Thrones: Eastwatch.
The episode begins with Bronn pulling a half-drowned Jaime from the lake. Thank fucking god. I knew they wouldn’t kill him off just yet, as I know they have plans for poor Jaime. However, the thought crossed my mind: hey, this is GoT, no one is safe. Bronn proceeds to tell Jaime he’s fucking stupid for charging a dragon with a spear. He also tells Jaime that dragons is where his alliance with Jaime ends, that he’ll fight all he can for him, but burning alive – ain’t nobody got time for that. Jaime tells Bronn that he’s got to tell Cersei what happened – and I swear that is the most scared I’ve ever seen him look in the whole damn show. Bronn tells him he might as well just jump back in the water and drown.
Next, we go to the other side of the lake, where Daenerys has the survivors gathered up. Tyrion takes a solemn walk through the complete burnt carnage, with bodies and horses lying everywhere amid the ruins of the wagons. He comes up to the gathering set before Dany. She tells the men gathered there she’s not there to murder anyone, and gives them the option to bend the knee or die. A few bend. Then Drogon roars and more shoot down to the ground. Lord Tarly and Dickon Tarly, along with a group behind them, continue to stand.
Daenerys tells Lord Tarly to approach and gives him the option to join her or die. Tyrion pleads with Tarly to bend the knee. He even reminds Tarly that he switched sides to fight for Cersei, so he must not be too loyal. Tyrion tells Daenerys that she can make Tarly take the black, which Tarly says she’s not his queen so she can’t do that. Tarly will not and she sentences him to die. Then Dickon tells Daenerys that he’ll have to die as well because he won’t kneel either. Lord Tarly almost begs his son to bend the knee, Tyrion does beg him to, but he refuses. Tarly fights a small sad smile as Dickon is pulled over to join his father. Daenerys tells Tyrion that she didn’t come here to put men in chains.
Tyrion tells Daenerys that if she starts cutting off heads, she’ll have problems. But she cuts him off and tells him she’s not cutting off heads. She goes through a long thing with her titles and then sentences them to die, spitting out ‘drakarras’. Tarly and Dickon are engulfed in flames, which continue until they are nothing more than piles of ash. Suddenly, everyone else wants to bend the knee.
From here we’re taken to King’s Landing, where Cersei is sitting on her bed as Jaime comes in as Qyburn is leaving. She starts by asking how many men they’ve lost. Jaime says he hasn’t got a good count yet. She then begins to talk about how they can buy mercenaries, no worries. Then Jaime tells her how the Dothraki fought and how it won’t matter what mercenaries they have. He tells her how he watched the dragon burn everything and tells her they can’t win this war. She asks what they should do then, ask for peace? Then runs through the betrayals the Lannisters have made to Daenerys’ family.
Cersei says that maybe Tyrion can intercede for them as a way of apologizing for killing Lord Lannister and Joffery. Jaime then tells Cersei it wasn’t Tyrion that killed Joffery, it was Olenna Tyrell. At first, she doesn’t believe him, then he tells her more and asks her who should would rather her daughter marry: Joffery or Tommin and which one of those two sons could Margaerey control better? Cersei says that she should not have let Jaime talk her into letting Olenna just get off easy with poison. Jaime reminds her that the entire Tyrell house is now gone. The conversations turns back to what their options are now that their army is decimated. Then she gives Jaime the cold Cersei-ness that only she can provide, telling him he needs to know his place as a soldier.
And now on to I think my favorite part of the episode. Jon stands on a cliff outside Dragonstone as Daenerys comes flying back on Drogon – apparently he’s all better now. She lands before Jon, maybe to show her power, I don’t know, and Drogon comes striding up to Jon, right to his face. Instead of cowering or running, Jon stands still and takes off a glove. He then reaches out to touch Drogon as the dragon is snarling in his face. Oh the special effects here are amazing, let me tell you. Not gonna lie – I cheered as Drogon let Jon pet him.
Daenerys gets down and walks over to Jon as Drogon flies off to play with the other two. Dany says how beautiful they are and Jon says that’s not quite the word he was thinking of, but yes, they are gorgeous. He mentioned that she wasn’t gone long and she says now she has fewer enemies than she did yesterday. Jon doesn’t really like that but she asks how many men his armies killed taking back Winterfell. She says they both want to help people but they can’t do it without strength, which is terrible. She then mentioned the ‘knife in the heart’ thing and Jon says that Davos gets carried away.
Enter in a convenient Dothraki group saying they have a friend of Daenerys to see her as a distraction from the knife in the heart. At this point, I actually did cheer when I saw that it was Jorah Mormont, all healed up and whole. You can tell that Daenerys is trying not to cry when she sees him too. After a short hello, she finally reaches up and hugs him tight.
Now back to Winterfell, where Bran takes over the ravens there and sends them on a quest north. They fly over the wall, over mountains and throughout the north until they come over a ridge and find what they were looking for: the army of the dead. It has grown and is headed toward the wall faster than they thought. Close to the middle, perched on a little outcropping, is the Night King and his minions. As the ravens fly close to them, the Night King’s head snaps up and Bran loses his hold on the ravens as they scatter. Bran comes back to himself and tells the maester that they have to send ravens – now.
At the Citadel, the Archmaester is sitting at a long table with a group of master maesters. Sam comes in to deliver some scrolls and books as they are going over the raven they just got from Winterfell. Sam listens for a moment as they talk about what nonsense it is. Finally, Sam gets mad and interrupts, telling them that he knows Bran Stark, that he let him out of the Wall to go north and that Bran somehow survived for years out there as a cripple. He says that Bran is telling the truth and they should listen to him. He also tells them that he’s seen the white walkers too.
The Archmaester tells Sam that he knows Sam has more to say and Sam agrees. He tells the group that if they tell the other maesters about this threat, they will believe them. If they tell lords to send their armies north, they will do it. Basically, that they need to quit being little bitches in a tower and do something. Another maester there kind of dismisses the whole ‘magic three-eyed raven’ thing. But the Archmaester tells Sam that they will send a raven for clarification to Winterfell. Sam takes a stack of books and slams the door, angry that they are dismissing this so easily.
After he leaves, one maester asks the Archmaester if that is the son of Lord Tarly who was just burnt alive with Sam’s brother, Dickon. The Archmaester says yes, that Sam is a good kid and he hasn’t had the heart to tell him yet.
Back at Dragonstone, Varys and Tyrion are sitting in the throne room, discussing what Daenerys just did to the Lannister army. Tyrion makes the comment that he can’t tell her what to do, that she’s making her own decisions. Varys says that’s what he told himself all the years that he was serving her father. He says that he kept telling himself that it was the Mad King who was burning people to death in the throne room, that Varys only found the traitors and such. Finally, he tells Tyrion that he has to find a way to make Daenerys listen to Tyrion’s advice.
In Daenerys’ ready room, Dany, Tyrion, Jon, Davos, Jorah and Varys are meeting. They have the raven scroll that was sent to Jon, telling him that Bran and Arya are alive and at Winterfell. It also tells him about the army marching toward Eastwatch by the sea. Jon tells Daenerys that he has to go and fight them and he’ll go with just the army that he has unless Daenerys goes too. She almost laughs, saying if she leaves, Cersei will fly right in and take over. Tyrion says maybe not, that if they can make her believe the white walkers are coming, she will agree to fight with them against the dead. He says that Davos can smuggle Tyrion into King’s Landing to meet with Jaime.
Of course, the only way to do that is with proof, meaning that they have to capture one of the dead and bring to Cersei to show her. Jon agrees that could make Cersei believe there is a bigger threat than Dany. Davos says he will go but he won’t go beyond the Wall, Then Jorah says that he will go and serve Dany there too. They talk about who will go and Jon tells her that he has to go, and Dany doesn’t like that one bit. Jon says that he’s the only one who’s been beyond the Wall and who’s fought the dead. Daenerys says that she hasn’t given him permission to leave yet and he tells her he doesn’t need her permission. He says that he came to her castle knowing she could kill him easily but he still came, trusting a stranger. He asks her to trust him now.
Back at Winterfell, things aren’t peachy cheery. Arya walks in to the great hall and sees Sansa sitting at the head of the table while the Lords badmouth Jon to her. She sees Arya and finally tells them that Jon is still King and she is there for him. The two girls walk to Sansa’s chambers afterward and talk about the Lords and what they said. Sansa tells Arya Jon is not making things easy for her and the Lords of the North are proud.
They enter the chambers and Arya realizes that it’s their parent’s rooms. Sansa says “And?” Arya blows it off and Sansa tells her to say what she thinks. Arya basically tells Sansa that Sansa has always liked nicer things to show she’s better than everyone else. Sansa realizes that Arya is angry and asks why. Arya says that the lords were insulting Jon and Sansa did nothing about it. That she knows Sansa has been thinking about taking over Winterfell and can’t stop thinking about it now that Jon is gone. Sansa doesn’t admit it, but barely denies it. Finally, Sansa dismisses Arya and you can tell there’s a rift growing between these two.
On the beaches below King’s Landing, Davos and Tyrion pull ashore in a small boat. Tyrion goes to meet with Jaime, Davos goes to the city as he has ‘business’ of his own. Tyrion is amazed they are leaving the boat unattended, so Davos says they better hurry then so no one takes it.
Down in the crypt under the Red Keep, Bronn and Jaime are walking along the huge dragon heads, talking about training. They finally come to a stop and Jaime sees Tyrion walk out from between two heads. Bronn leaves Jaime and Tyrion alone. Jaime threatens to kill Tyrion, and Tyrion says he really can’t do that with a sparring sword. Finally, Tyrion tells Jaime why he’s there and tells him that Daenerys wants to have a truce for a more important reason than to win the war.
In King’s Landing, Davos is walking along the blacksmithing shops. He comes up to one shop and stops. And YAY! Gendry is alive and well! Davos begins to nicely tell Gendry that he’s come to take Gendry away from here. Instead of resisting, Gendry says he’s ready. He grabs up his bag. Davos tells him he needs to grab a sword and Gendry pulls out a majorly insane hammer instead. They make their way back to the boat and as they are getting ready to pull off once Tyrion gets there, two guards appear. Davos pays them to go away, which they don’t right away. Instead, they want to search the boat. A seasoned smuggler, Davos is prepared for that and offers them an aphrodisiac and tells them to head to their favorite brothel before it puts a hole through their chain mail. As they are leaving, Tyrion comes down and heads to the boat.
They recognize him and ask where he got that scar. They tell him they were looking for a dwarf with a scar not that long ago. Davos tries to pay them off again, but they say Cersei will pay better. Gendry ends up pulling out his hammer and smashing both of them in the face before they can do anything else. The trio leaves really quickly on their boat.
Back in Cersei’s chambers, Jaime walks in as Qyburn is offering to give Cersei something medically. She refuses. Jaime tells her the he met with Tyrion and about Daenerys’ offer. Cersei laughs when she hears about the army of the dead. She then asks if Jaime is going to kill Bronn since he betrayed Jaime by setting up the meeting with Tyrion. Jaime is surprised but Cersei asks him if he really thinks that anything happens in the castle without her knowing about it. Jaime realizes that she’s controlling all this stuff and asks why. She says that she’s come to realize that working with the Dragon Queen would be in their best interest. Cersei is already conniving to befriend Dany and then kill her as soon as she can.
She says that they have to fight her like their father would have. She says that anything that stands in their way, they will defeat. She says it’s for their house, for the kingdom and for ‘this’, then puts her hands on her belly. Jaime realizes that she’s preggers and almost cries. He asks who she’ll say the father is and she says him. People won’t like it but their father used to say the lion doesn’t worry about what the sheep think. They then hug and kiss and she whispers in his ear never to betray her again.
Back at Dragonstone, Jon is gathering up dragonglass to leave as Davos and Gendry come up to the cave. Davos is going to introduce him to Jon and tells Gendry to keep quiet about who he is. Gendry agrees, but as soon as Davos tries to introduce him, Gendry tells Jon he’s Robert’s son. He then tells Jon that their fathers were good friends and they should be too. They share a little bit of fun, and then realize that they are like their fathers. Jon says he grew up on stories about their fathers and Gendry says all he ever knew is that they fought together and won. He says that Davos told him where they are going and why and he wants to go. After a little chat, Jon agrees to take Gendry with him.
On the beach outside the cave, Tyrion and Jorah are talking as Jorah loads the boat. Tyrion pulls out a coin that the slaver gave them when they were caught. Tyrion gives it to Jorah for good luck but tells him to bring it back to him. As he hands Jorah the coin, Dany comes up to say good bye. Dany doesn’t like saying good bye to any of them.
Jon comes up and he tells her if he doesn’t come back, at least she won’t have to worry about him anymore. She says that she’s gotten used to him though. They shove off, headed for the north.
At Old Town, Sam and Gilly are going through books while Sam is copying them. Gilly starts rattling off stupid stuff one of the old maesters recorded, such as the number of steps in the citadel, number of windows at the Sept of Baylor and how many poops he ever took. She starts to tell Sam that one of the Targaryens had a marriage annulled and then was remarried to… and Sam cuts her off. He then gets up and leaves, goes to the citadel, steals a ton of books, and they pack up and head off to the north.
At Winterfell, Arya is following Littlefinger around, watching him sneak here and there, pay off people, whisper to the maesters, etc. She follows him around and finally hears a conversation outside his door where the maester is giving Littlefinger something. Littlefinger asks if that is the only copy and the maester assures him it is. Littlefinger goes in his room and comes out a minute later. Arya breaks in his room and finds the scroll and reads it.
While it seems that Littlefinger was trying to betray Sansa, it looks like he was taking the only copy of the letter that Cersei had Sansa write to Rob before the Red Wedding. Arya now will be looking differently at her sister. As she leaves his room, Littlefinger is watching from the corner.
At Eastwatch, Jon and his party are meeting with our favorite Wildling, Tormund. He’s asking Davos why he’s letting Jon do stupid shit. Then he asks which one of the queens they have to convince that the walkers are real. Jon says both. As they agree to go north, with Davos staying behind, Tormund tells them there’s another group there that they caught trying to go north.
He takes them down to the dungeon and there is the Hound and the brotherhood. Jon recognizes the Hound. Gendry recognizes the brotherhood. Jorah recognizes Beric, who says Jorah’s real name of Mormont, which Tormund recognizes as the lord who hunted and killed his people. Thoros says that it doesn’t matter who they all are or why they are going north, that they are all going for the same reason. He starts to talk more and the Hound tells him to shut up. But Jon agrees with him, saying they all are on the same side. When he gets weird looks, he says they all are still living.
Now to the Wall, where the group is standing. The gate lifts and there is a crazy blizzard on the other side. The men pause for a moment then head out into the snow.
And this is where the episode ends my friends… we now have to try and wait a whole other week to find out what happens from here.
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Posted by MD Weems
on Sunday, August 13th, 2017. Filed under Dark TV.
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Tags: cersei, daenerys, dragons, game of thrones, jaime, jon, lannister, night king, tyrion, white walkers
