Game of Thrones season 7 episode 5 review: The White Walker battle awaits
Tonight, this was made all the clearer as we had a chance to see Daenerys take swift action against those who would not bend the knee — including Dickon Tarly! He had a name that was easy to mock, but now the man is dead and will be mocked no more.
After the gruesome battle, it started to become clear that Daenerys was going to rule by fear (and often against the wishes of Tyrion). That’s unfortunate, and we do hope that this is a sign of some serious growing pains.
In the aftermath of this moment, Cersei Lannister also started to realize that she may be fighting a losing battle. She and Jaime had to discuss what their future may hold, and if they want to move away from the battlefield in order to ensure their safety.
Ser Jorah is back!
There were so many tear-inducing moments in the Dragonstone part of the story, from Jon Snow bonding with Drogon to us seeing Jorah return to Daenerys in one piece. Note how quick he was to bend the knee? That’s how it’s done!
Bad news in Winterfell
Whatever happy news you had seeing Jorah back with his Queen was quickly overtaken by the sheer dread that came with seeing the White Walkers and The Night King continuing their march. Bran saw them through his Three-Eyed Raven eyes, and he had a raven sent down to the Citadel … where Samwell Tarly happened to be located. He didn’t know of his brother’s death, but he knew Bran and could verify that he was a very special boy. He did his best to campaign for the Maesters to take his comments seriously. After all, he’s seen the White Walkers before.
The ravens also eventually made their way to Dragonstone, which brought to Jon in particular ALL sorts of information — including that both Arya and Bran are actually alive. This led to Tyrion having to think of an interesting plan in order to take on the White Walker army using armies of everyone in Westeros, including Cersei Lannister’s army. It would just take him Davos having to smuggle him into King’s Landing to get an audience with Jaime, otherwise known as the one person who would listen. Risky plan, no?
Back in Winterfell, Sansa and Arya had to have some tough heart to hearts regarding the state of the kingdom. There was unrest regarding Jon being away, and Arya was none too pleased with her not standing up for the king.
Was Tyrion successful in finding Jaime?
Thankfully, yes! It wasn’t that easy, but he was able to get a private audience with Jaime to inform him of his plan — while also talking about what really happened with Tywin years ago. He clued him in to the urgency that was coming with the White Walkers.
Meanwhile, Davos took off to the streets, proclaiming that he had some of his own business in the city. As it turns out, he found Gendry! He was working as a blacksmith, somehow hiding in plain sight. The last true Baratheon heir was working in the streets. The funniest thing about this whole ordeal was that in the end, Davos ended up bringing Gendry BACK TO A BOAT. Poor Gendry. He also had to try and sell his boat to a couple of soldiers as a shipping order of fermented crab. All of this led to a brief meeting between Gendry and Jon Snow, where they displayed some trust and/or made fun of their fathers.
Eventually, Jaime went back to his sister to relay some of the information that he obtained from Tyrion, only to learn that she was aware of it the entire time. She also thought that there was some merit to pretending to work with Daenerys for the time being.
Oh, and she’s pregnant and has very little interest in hiding who the father is. It’s probably easy to be bold when you’re the Queen.
Jon heads home … and so does Sam
In the end, Jorah opted to go with Jon north, even if it meant leaving his Queen behind for the time being. He had to return given what was going on up there. The larger surprise was seeing Sam make the decision to head back north, saying that he was “tired of reading about the achievements of better men.”
Back at this home, Arya was watching Littlefinger continue to be a creep, and that included him digging through the archives. Why? Arya was quick to do her own digging to figure that out. What she figured out was that this is a guy who is STILL up to something, and fighting for his own priorities more so than Sansa’s. Is he now officially on the list?
When Jon arrived, one of his first orders of business was to plan out the future and assess the army. That included seeing The Hound and the Brotherhood Without Banners, who were told by the Lord of Light to lend a helping hand.
Oh, and confirmation of a long-time theory
Per Gilly, we pretty much know the truth now about Jon Snow’s parentage — yet, Sam was so preoccupied that he barely even heard it (and we honestly were so caught up in the rest of the episode that we didn’t have it in here at first).
Our overall take
There was virtually no way that “Eastwatch” could replicate the crazy that we had with the battle this past week. Yet, this was a very strong episode (and arguably the best episode ever for Davos) that set in motion another epic battle coming up in the future. It’s not the season’s best episode, but it’s an important one. Grade: A-.
What’s next on Game of Thrones?
Let’s just say that there is a HUGE battle coming in the north. If you head over to the link here, you can get some additional news all about it! (Photo: HBO.)