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hoopslab · 7 years

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Game of Thrones S7 Ep 4 The Spoils of War: Stark Family Reunion

SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 4 OF SEASON 7. I said, SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 4 OF SEASON 7.

"Dracarys.”

Yo, I’m not even going to lie...that episode was FUN! I could just as easily have put ‘Dracarys’ in the title, then led with the Stark Family reunion down here. Both events have been YEARS in the making, and offered a tremendous payoff for the viewer. And they both happened in the same episode...and a mid-season episode at that! The first few episodes of the season were solid as well, and moved pieces in to place, but on Sunday we started reaping rewards as the show moves into it’s final 10 episodes. Let’s go through it.

Jamie & Bronn’s bro journey

Jamie Lannister is a much more fun character when Cersei isn’t around. When he gets out in the field, be it with Brienne of Tarth or Bronn Stone, he turns into an almost likable guy. With Bronn, in particular, he plays off as the straight man to Bronn’s sarcastic wit. In episode 4, fresh off sacking Highgarden (but being secretly gutted by the Queen of Thorns’ dying confession that she murdered his son Joffrey), Jamie is in a mood as he hands Bronn a sack of gold as payment for his services. Bronn, knowing something is wrong but not what, proceeds to work on Jamie the way one would on a brother, trying to get him to tell him what’s wrong. When he can’t, he starts in on Jamie about how he promised him a castle, forcing Sir Gold Hand out of the doldrums through sheer cheekiness.

Jamie, incredulous: "That’s a lot of money I just gave you.”

Bronn, deadpan serious: “It’s not a castle.”

Cersei redefining “efficient” as creepily as possible

Cersei starts the episode basking in the glory of her successes, promising to give the unctuous leg-breaker from the Iron Bank his money back with the Tyrell gold. The banker guy is practically drooling, eating out of her hands. He can’t remember ANYONE paying back a debt so large, he feels that Cersei is even more efficient than the paragon that was her father, and he hopes the bank can support her on her next venture. That venture? Take it away, Queen:

“My only venture at this moment is reestablishing control over this continent and every person in it.”

WOW. EVERY person? Scary much?

Anyway, after that exchange, I thought the biggest takeaway was that the Iron Bank guy hedged his bets that all of his gushing and support was based on him getting that gold back. I thought that meant that Dany (or someone) might hijack it before it got to King’s Landing, which doesn’t seem to be the case. However, another sneaky nugget in that exchange was that Cersei wants to hire the Golden Company of Essos to join her war, a band of famous mercenaries from the neck of the woods where Dany was before she came to Westeros. Where Day left her own band of mercs, led by her now estranged lover, in charge. Might Cersei’s recruitment effort see Daario brought to the continent in future episodes? Hmm.

Arya kicks in the door, waves in the 4-4

When Arya rides her horse up the hill and looks over to see Winterfell...maybe it was only me, but I heard Biggie Smalls in the background. Yes, it was a touching scene as she was completing her long trip home. But she was also the last Stark kid to make it home, which means that the unit is complete and ready for war. Thus, in my head I heard murder music as her theme song.

Her whole sequence was just fun. It’s a testament to how much she’s gone through and done, that when the idiot guards tried to deny her entry I was almost scared that she would kill them. But instead, the bumbling guards just provided comic relief as a foil to Arya’s awe at her homecoming. Her scene of looking around at Winterfell in appreciation, as the guards nattered in the background, was well done.

Sansa’s face was perfect, as well, when the guards mentioned that the “impostor” asked for Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrick. In fact, Sophie Turner (Sansa) and Maisie Williams (Arya) both just nailed their performances this week. Conveying pages of dialogue with the nuances of their faces.

The sister reunion in the crypt sent a tingle down the spine. Sansa and Arya, remember, “hated” each other as kids. They were rivals, but more the were opposites. Each was everything that the other wasn’t. Would the reunion be tense?

Arya: “Do I have to call you Lady Stark now?”

Sansa: “Yes.”

Then a slight pause, before the sisters come together with a heartfelt hug that lacked the hollywood dramatization of Jon and Sansa’s reunion last season, but had more feeling, especially after the dud of Sansa hugging robot Bran last week. Speaking of robot Bran, Sansa’s hesitation and dread in telling Arya that her little brother was also around was pronounced. Which made sense, because Bran was busy...

Bran & creeps out Littlefinger (yay) & Meera (sad)

Littlefinger has pretty much just lurked around in corners, giving Sansa side-eye, all season. But he approaches a bed-bound Bran and magnanimously offers him he Valyrean steel dagger that was once used to try to assassinate Bran and his mom. It’s unclear what Littlefinger’s angle was, but it seems that he dramatically underestimated the Three Eyed Raven. Littlefinger preachified about how much Bran had seen, how far he’d been, and how it was sad that he returned to such chaos, only to have Bran shut him up by delivering Littlefinger’s own words from an old conversation that he had with Varys in season 3:

“Chaos is a ladder”.

Lord Baelish’s face was priceless.

Unfortunately, the Three Eyed Raven wasn’t done. And he was just about to fumble the very opportunity that Grey Worm had spiked for a touchdown two episodes ago.

Meera Reed, fresh off dragging Bran on a liter across an entire continent, in the Winter, and thus proving her love and loyalty on an absurd level, feels like she should go home. The TER, being clairvoyant, knows it’s coming. Meera obviously doesn’t want to leave and obviously wants Bran to ask her to stay, the same way that Missendei really hoped that Grey Worm wouldn’t really just leave without saying goodbye. But while Grey Worm came through with the “you’re my weakness” speech that led to Missendei smiling weeks later (see below), Bran did this:

Meera: “You don’t need me anymore”

Bran: ”No, I don’t”

OUCH! Party foul! FUMMMMBLLLLE!

The TER says that he can remember being Brandon Stark, but he remembers so much more now. Hopefully, in the future, someone can help him remember his humanity.

All three Stark kids together!

Even though Bran gave Arya the patented robot hug in greeting, seeing all three Stark kids together was awesome. In addition to the emotional payoff, they are a power-packed three-pack right now. Like he did with Sansa and Littlefinger, Bran reveals that he has seen Arya in visions, this time when she was at the crossroads about going to kill Cersei.

I think my favorite part of that scene, though, was when Bran confirmed that Arya hadn’t been joking about having a list of people to kill. Arya looked back at Sansa almost defensively, but clearly Sansa LOVED it. Again, Sophie Turner killed the scene with her facial expression.

Bran also gave Arya the Valyerian dagger, which completed the months-long watch and speculation that began when Maisie Williams posed for a magazine cover with the dagger on her hip. Before the episode is out, we start to see how potent Arya can be with that dagger (below).

Oh, and if you’re emotional like that...the scene of the three Starks walking through Winterfell’s courtyard, with the big sisters pushing their little robot brother in a wheelchair, was almost a tear-jerker.

From Grey Worm to Jon

Small blurb, but Missendei’s wide and unquenchable smile when she talked about her now weeks-old experience with Grey Worm brought a “young love” smile to my grizzled old face. The timing of the scene was also interesting, as Missendei was trying to girl-time confess to Dany that it went all the way down, and Dany was all innocent/shocked...then had the conversation interrupted by Jon Snow, excusing himself into two blushing young women. Followed immediately by...

Tunnel (cave?) of Love...but Bend the knee, tho

I’m not a shipper, so I don’t have a dog in the fight of Dany and Jon potentially hooking up. Kinda icky that she’s his aunt, but a) they don’t know it, b) pretty much all Targeryens ever married family (which is part of why “The Mad King” was so crazy), and c) this show has been rocking twincest since the first episode, so an aunt or cousin barely even compares.

That said, Jon taking Dany into the cave/tunnel, gushing over all the dragon glass, then bringing her through all the hieroglyphics about the Children of the Forest joining Man to fight The Whitewalkers...it felt like a first date. And just when it seemed Jon had a shot at his first kiss, Dany caught him with the “Bend the Knee” curb. Dany’s consistent “Bend the knee” messages to Jon are ridiculously meme-worthy...I don’t know whether to beg that she stop, or secretly hope the showrunners start spoofing it themselves.

At the very least, Dany does seem like she now cares about Jon’s opinion. as she asked him straight out what she should do after her latest defeat. Jon talked her off the ledge of going and burning the whole castle, but either he or she DID come up with a really fun plan (more below)...

The Big Lady vs No One

Even with all of the stuff in this episode, probably my favorite scene was when Arya jumped in to spar with Brienne of Tarth (or “The Big Lady”, as Hot Pie calls her). Brienne started off trying not to hurt the tiny Arya, who was fighting like her sword dancer teacher from season one and pretty much moving faster than the eye like The Red Viper (pre head-crushing, of course).

The fact that Arya is a badass and would have killed Brienne like 11 times if they were fighting for real was cool. But what I loved about the scene was how much fun the two women were having in that spar, both of them rocking huge smiles even as they swung live steel at each other. That scene felt like I must look when me and my best friend play 1-on-1 basketball...like we’re both going for the jugular, but loving the comraderie of going your hardest against someone that can bring it back just as hard.

Another hidden gem in that scene was the look on Sansa’s face, as she looks on. Sansa has been established as the best ruler of the Stark kids, but for the first time she seemed jealous of all of the things that Arya is, that she’s not.

Dracarys, and Jaime’s doomed charge

OK, this is running long, so I’m skipping the scene where The Onion Knight jokes that Jon has been staring at Dany’s “good heart”, as well as the one where Theon comes to shore and freezes up when he sees Jon (I was SURE Jon was about to punch him in the face). But, let’s get to the walk-off home run of the episode: Dany, her Dragon, and her Dothraki reigning havoc (and fire) all over Jaime’s crew. First, the memes:

Tupac weighs in

Horse-surfing cowboy

The memes about cover it. Mega payoff for those that have been waiting since Season 1 (or, like me, 20 years since Book 1) to see Dany’s Dragon(s) in action in Westeros. Also, seeing the Dothraki come in and absolutely wreck shop while doing rodeo archery tricks and talking trash (”Your people can’t fight”) was worth the wait as well.

Dr. Frankenstein’s dragon-killing crossbow was a little nerve-wracking, especially since Bronn was the one firing and I didn’t really want him to get killed either. But Drogon took the quarrel like a G, and still wrecked the heck out of the crossbow.

Then, Jaime decides to charge a dragon with a spear. Yes, he saw Dany standing there and thought that if he took her out, the war was over. But still. Did I mention that he was charging a DRAGON???

I’ll let Tyrion say it

Episode ends with Jaime (and presumably Bronn) taking a swim in armor, which doesn’t seem like it’d end well, but if the showrunners were planning to let Jaime die they could have just let him get barbecued. So, here’s assuming that there’s an epic rescue by next week. And speaking of next week...

In the previews, sure looks like Jon comes face to face with a dragon (with Dany riding). Can it finally be time for the Dragon’s second head to be revealed? I guess we’ll soon see.