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choupetit · 7 years

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GOT recap: Stormborn

Airdate: 7/23/17 ; Season 7, Eps 2

Last night’s GOT served up a combo meal of reunions, first meetings, sexy hookups and an adrenaline-filled battle …yet still, I’m left wanting a bit more. It was a decent episode - didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, the most exciting part for me was that it set the scene for things to come. Let’s dive right into the recap of “Stormborn”.

Loyal-tease

It’s a dark and stormy night at Dragonstone and we get a little origin story as to how Daenerys got the kick-ass middle name Stormborn…the night she was born, there was a raging storm. Huh. It seems so obvious that I now feel a bit dumb for never having considered it.

Queen Dany is underwhelmed by her homecoming and ready to start taking back the seven kingdoms. Her team lays out the situation, noting Cersei has very little support left in Westeros, especially now that House Martell and Tyrell are on Dany’s side. Daenerys grills Varys about his loyalties to the previous rulers of the Iron Throne, noting he’s been a fickle advisor and has repeatedly conspired against those he was serving. Not to mention, he helped orchestrate hitmen to kill her while she was exiled. Varys defends his actions saying he was serving kings to the extent that he felt they served the common people, and when they failed, he turned his efforts to better candidates. Also, at the time of that whole assassin recruitment thing, he didn’t know that Dany was such a cool cat and he was just following orders. Tyrion throws in a few good words for Varys and Dany decides to pardon Varys for his past, on the condition that if he ever feels she is failing the people, he should say it to her face rather than his usual MO of secretly plotting against his ruler. She warns that if he betrays her trust, she’ll have her dragons turn him into a human shish kebab. Varys is totes down with this and happy to be an official player on Team Dany.

Next, it appears the Mother of Dragons has a visitor: Melisandre in the hizzy, y'all! The disciples of the Lord of Light have been supporting Dany for a while, so it’s a pretty safe move for Mel to visit Dany, plus, it’s a familiar place for her. Also, she truly believes that Jon Snow and Daenerys are a key to the prophecy to fight the whitewalkers, so she is hustlin’ to make this thing work. She speaks in Valerian to Dany about the “Prince who was promised”, and Missandei points out that the word for "prince" is actually gender-neutral. Could Dany be the Princess that is promised to lead all of Westeros out of the coming darkness? Melisandre may have been banished by Jon, but Dany doesn’t need to know that. Mel touches briefly on the things Jon has done up north to prep for the impending whitewalker threat. Tyrion vouches that Jon Snow is a stand-up guy and a likely ally for Queen Daenerys in her bid for the throne, since House Stark hates the Lannisters. Dany sends out a raven requesting Jon meet and bow down to her. Day-um, Jon Snow is getting all these queen pen pals lately, jonesing for his loyalty. Play on, player!

And with that, we see Jon, Sansa and Ser Davos having a powwow. Sansa worries the invitation from Daenerys is a fake, but since the letter was penned by Tyrion with a throwback to a conversation he and Jon had at the Wall, Jon thinks it’s legit. He asks Sansa for her opinion on Tyrion, since she knew him during her stay at King's Landing. Oh yeah, she used to be married to him! Not sure if Jon knows that detail. Even though Sansa thinks Tyrion is cool, she still thinks it’s too dangerous for Jon to leave, but Davos points out that dragons would be super handy if Whitewalkers ever cross the wall.

We take a quick glimpse at King’s Landing where Queen Cersei is in her throne room talking to a group of nobles and asking for support to fight Dany and her army. Some of the men are pledged to house Tyrell, which is on Dany’s side, so Cersei paints a picture of Daenerys as the boogeyman who will be sending her army to mercilessly slaughter and rape everybody in Westeros, without regard for the folks who are loyal to the Tyrells. Samwell Tarly’s dad, Randyll, is in the group and asks just how they’ll defeat three dragons. Our favorite mad inventor, Qyburn, pipes up “Yeah don’t sweat it, we’ve been working on a solution.” Omg, he created Frankenmountain…has Qyburn been creating some dragon-zombie-hybrids à la Jurassic Park in his gloomy lab?

Jaime Lannister takes Randyll Tarly aside trying to suss out whether he will be fighting for the Lannisters or the Tyrells. Jaime sweetens the pot saying he’ll make Tarly his general and once the wars are won, he can be he Warden of the South. I mean…it’s all good and well, unless Cersei loses. Randyll doesn’t make a commitment either way.

Doctor, doctor, can you help me, help me?

On to the Tarly we like best! Sam and Archmaester Marwyn are examining Ser Jorah, whose greyscale has advanced to an alarming degree. Sam says he’s seen a case - Princess Shireen - where the infection was halted, but the archmaester knocks him down a few pegs saying Sam doesn’t know anything about that case, or the circumstances or really anything about treating greyscale. Jorah’s case is beyond hope and he really just needs to be killed and put out of his misery rather than slowly waste away like the Stone Men. He gives Jorah one last day to live and get his affairs in order, and then it’s presumably Kevorkian time. When Sam offers to send word to his family, Jorah reveals his name but tells him he’s already dead to his family. Sam is taken aback when he realizes this is the son of his old Lord Commander at Castle Black.

Back at King’s Landing, Cersei and Qyburn are walking though the basement of the Red Keep, where the skulls of the deceased Targaryen dragons are stored. Turns out, that solution Qyburn has been working on is basically a giant souped-up crossbow on steroids. He gives Cersei a demo of his innovative weapon, using the largest dragon skull as a target, and it pierces the eye socket and shatters the bone. Ruh roh. Going into this season, I’ve been fearing that we are going to see a dragon die, and this scene pretty much sealed the deal that it’s gonna happen. First they came for our direwolves…and now this. Are no magical animals safe in this world???

We’re back at Dragonstone where Dany is meeting with all the key players in the war room to plot out their strategy against Cersei. Yara and Ellaria think they should just storm in, dragons a'blazing and go full scorched earth on King’s Landing. Tyrion argues this would cause unnecessary civilian casualties and Dany has no interest in being “queen of the ashes”. Lady Olenna counters that her daughter was beloved by the common folk, and it got her nowhere. Dany lays out the plan: The Greyjoys with the Martell and Tyrell armies will lay siege around Kings Landing, waiting it out till Cersei and her army run out of food. Meanwhile, they’ll send the Unsullied to Casterly Rock - home of the Lannisters, the true seat of power in Westeros.

Dany has a quick private chat with Lady Olenna, and the older woman tells her she has managed to live as long as she has by ignoring the advice of others. She suggests Dany do the same, telling her that peace is never really possible and Dany should rule like the dragon that she is. What does that mean, exactly?!

With the Unsullied shipping out the next day, Missandei pays Grey Worm a visit and the two finally admit their feelings for each other and have a hot and steamy love scene, ya know…and the guy just happens to be castrated. I’m not gonna spend too much time wondering how it’s supposed to work other than say that Missandei is getting the better deal out of this and doesn’t have to worry about birth control. Get it, girl.

Weird Science

Back at the Citadel, Sam has done some research and found a treatment for advanced greyscale. The archmaester tells him the procedure is too risky and is forbidden - the maester who discovered the cure ended up contracting and dying from greyscale. Jorah is in his room writing a letter to Daenerys. My best guess is that it’s something along the lines of: “Khaleesi, do you like me? Circle yes, no, or maybe.” There’s a knock on the door and Sam comes in with a book and some supplies, determined to try out that greyscale cure. Considering his only alternative is death, Jorah agrees to let Sam have at it - it’s incredibly painful and grody to the max as we see Sam slowly cut away at Jorah’s crusty pus-filled epidermis. This is gonna take a while so…

We turn to Arya who is enjoying lunch at the inn where her old pal Hot Pie works. He asks her if she ever met up with Brienne and then asks if she’ll be heading to Winterfell. Arya tells him there’s nothing there for her, since it’s been taken over by the Boltons. When Hot Pie reveals that’s not the case and that Jon Snow reclaimed Winterfell, Arya is stunned. Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! This changes everything - revenge can wait, she changes course and sets out for her family home. I want to get super excited for her, but every time Arya thinks she is about to meet back up with family, things go south, so I’m tempering my expectations that this will actually work out for her. I do so hope she finally has a Stark family reunion, though!

Jon Snow receives news from Samwell about the giant mound of dragon glass at Dragonstone, which seals the deal: He’s gotta go meet Dany. He tells the Northern lords he’s accepting the invite and going to get access to that dragon glass. Sansa objects to him leaving, saying it could be a trap and tells him to send an emissary instead. Everybody in the room protests his leaving but Jon can’t be talked out of it. The good news is, he’s leaving Sansa in charge. Brienne smiles with pride for her mistress and Littlefinger makes his usual scheme-y face with extra scheme sauce. Jon pays a quick visit to Ned Stark’s grave in the family mausoleum when Littlefinger pops up and tries to ingratiate himself with Jon. When Littlefinger tells Jon that he cares for Sansa, Jon goes into protective big brother mode. He roughs Littlefinger up a bit and tells him he’ll kill him if he ever touches Sansa.

Arya is making camp somewhere in the north, it’s terribly cold and you can see her breath. Her horse becomes skittish and I’m freaking out thinking it’s whitewalkers approaching - maybe they’ve managed to breach the wall already, but it’s actually a pack of wolves. Well, crap. Arya picks up her sword as the pack surrounds her and then the leader appears - a giant Direwolf…it’s Nymeria, Arya’s wolf which she sent away in order to save her from being killed by Joffrey’s guards way back in Season 1! Nice work, Nymeria, you’ve got yourself a posse!! The wolf recognizes Arya and the whole pack steps down. Arya asks Nymeria to join her on her way home to Winterfell, but the wolf just looks at her and then leaves, followed by the rest of the pack. As she watches her walk away, Arya says “It’s not you.” Does she mean the wolf, or herself? Has Arya changed so much that her wolf wants nothing to do with her? Or is it the other way around? Is it a metaphor for Arya in general - has she realized that maybe she can’t really go back to Winterfell because she can’t go back to how she used to be? Is she doomed to be a lone wolf, never to find a pack of her own??? Oh, the hidden symbolism!!

Let’s get Kraken

Moving on, we see Yara and Theon’s fleet, on their way to Sun Spear with Ellaria where they plan to pick up the Dornish army. Yara and Ellaria are below deck getting flirty, cause what else are you gonna do on the long trip? Suddenly, their ship lurches and we hear screams from above. They’re under attack by Uncle Euron and his fleet! Euron makes a crazy entrance from his ship onto theirs and mayhem ensues. Two of the Sand Snakes are killed in battle, Ellaria and her youngest daughter are captured and Euron has a tête-à-tête with Yara. He gets her in a chokehold with a knife at her throat and calls to Theon to help his sister. Paralyzed with fear, Theon stares at his sister, her eyes pleading with him to step up. “You can do this, man!” His true nature takes over as Theon goes full “Reek” and jumps overboard to save himself. Euron cackles with laughter and pulls Yara away, while Theon clings to driftwood looking up at the wreckage and carnage around him…and the credits roll.

The battle scene was intense, and my heart was pounding for sure, but I’ve gotta be honest, I didn’t really care that much about the characters involved. I mean, nobody likes the Sand Snakes, so no loss there. Ellaria is pretty annoying - and I’m sure it’ll suck when Cersei gets her revenge on her when Euron delivers her to her doorstep like a cat with a dead rat, but again, not really that sad she got captured. In the grander scheme, however, it’s bad news for Daenerys. And now that we know about Cersei’s secret dragon killing machine, it looks like things are gonna be a lot tougher for Daenerys if she ever does engage her dragons in battle over Kings Landing. Meep! I’m really going to lose it if they kill a dragon on this show. I’m thoroughly enjoying characters we all know meeting each other for the first time. Pretty sure Sam will successfully cure Jorah. It’s very cool to see Melisandre back in the picture and I’m looking forward to the big Dany and Jon meeting. Wondering if Daenerys will believe Jon and lend her help, putting her Westerosi domination plans on hold. That seems like it would be the smarter move - but of course she doesn’t know what’s up Cersei’s sleeve, so she may very well change her strategy andnsend her dragons to their doom. Looks like Arya is going to just miss Jon, but hopefully she can have a reunion with Sansa at Winterfell. I feel like she and Brienne could become besties. Anyhoo, the groundwork has been laid for some big events, so here’s hoping that next week things will really take off. See you then!

#GOTrecaps #GameOfThrones #Game of Thrones #Stormborn #Dragonstone #Jon Snow #Daenerys #Targaryen #recap #season 7

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