Season 7, Episode 1 “Dragonstone” Recap
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Game of Thrones isn’t about the big spectacle that many people seem to love it for. Sure, the Red Wedding and the Battle of the Bastards are exciting and incredible to watch, but many people forget that the biggest draw of the show are its rich characters and the fact that all of them have developed as the show has progressed.
Characters who were good are now jaded and angry at the world, characters who committed bad deeds in the name of a leader have now become good and these interesting motivational changes and development with our characters is what makes the show so interesting in the first place. What makes “Dragonstone” such an incredible episode is it is very low on spectacular moments but delivers on incredibly good character development while also doing the difficult setup that Game of Thrones must endure every new season.
We open on The Twins for one of the coolest cold opens the show has ever had. It’s no question that David Bradley’s Walder Frey hasn’t been an iconic and character in the show, so for the finale of Season 6 to end with him dying was victorious but somewhat sad considering how incredible Bradley portrayed him. It becomes quickly obvious that this isn’t some flashback and Arya has taken on the appearance of Walder and is having all of the Frey’s in an effort to trick them into drinking poison. She leaves the young women alive and tells them to inform people that “winter came for House Frey.”
It’s a jaw dropping moment that certainly captures how truly dangerous and committed Arya is. She’s certainly grown to be very different than her father and she also has abandoned the rigid structure of her list. It’s not only Walder that must go, but the entire household. Bradley does some incredible deadpan in the scene, giving a very different performance than how Walder usually acted when he was alive, but it’s clear that Arya was relishing in her trap and let some of her excitement slip through while portraying the man who ordered the death of her brother and mother.
We later find Arya traveling farther south in The Riverlands where she runs into some friendly young lads singing “Hands of Gold.” This scene is pretty intriguing as the soldiers Arya encounters are Lannister soldiers. Yet, they’re just normal people. This is a position we rarely see Game of Thrones focus on. These men may be under the command of Cersei, but they harbor no love for her. They may be on the wrong side, but they aren’t bad people. They want to see their children or go back and help their father run the family business. Sure Ed Sheeran is here and ginger head messes everything up by totally ripping you out of the believability of the scene, but it is overshadowed by the great commentary happening here.
Shows like Game of Thrones which are filled with large personalities rarely takes the time to focus on the normal everyday people thrust into the wars of the unimaginably wealthy or untouchably famous. So when it takes a brief moment where a bunch of men forced to fight on the side of a tyrant regale tales of life at home it makes an impression.
Elsewhere in The Riverlands Sandor “The Hound” Clegane has arrived with The Brotherhood Without Banners at an inn that Sandor once visited when he was hauling Arya around. While staying at that inn years ago Sandor stole the family’s silver. It’s no surprise when we learn that since then the father and daughter starved when the harsh winter rolled around. Rory McCann’s performance in this scene is incredible as he rebuffs and insults every quip or comment thrown his way by Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion. Yet, you can see that Sandor has grown and changed ever since he helped Arya and his friend Brother Ray was killed. Clegane has always been a great example of characters who are more than what they initially seem. The Hound masks his fear and desire for justice with a cold and angry outlook at life and its many tragedies. McCann handles all this with a very relaxed but fragile performance. The old Sandor would never consider to bury the bodies of the two innocent people who died because of his past cruel actions, yet now he can’t even sleep through the night without going outside and putting the bodies to rest. Choking out the only prayer he can think of: “I’m sorry you’re dead. You deserved better. Both of you.” The best scene of this episode ends.
The scene also reveals that R’hllor is allowing Sandor to see visions in the fire and he sees something that Thoros and Beric could never see. The White Walkers are advancing towards Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, a castle harboring the far eastern side of The Wall.
Bran also sees a vision of The White Walkers in this episode. The army of the dead has not only become completely massive, but undead giants are now part of the army as well. There are several interpretations of this vision and I’ll highlight one of them in the “Whispers from the Little Birds” section at the end of this article if you’re curious as to what it might be. Additionally in this scene Bran reaches The Wall and meets the new Lord Commander Edd Tollett at the gate to Castle Black. Edd is initially suspicious when Bran identifies himself as Jon’s relative, but Bran proves who he is by telling Edd he’s seen him fight against the White Walkers. Who knows how this is proof of Bran’s identity, but nevertheless it seems to really disturb Edd who lets Bran in anyway. Not much to this scene. It’s an important development but nothing in the way of character development or insight like other scenes in this episode had.
We then move to Winterfell where Jon discusses strategy with his bannermen. He proves himself to be just and merciful by offering to allow the new lords of House Umber and Karstark to keep their ancestral homes despite their family’s involvement being on Ramsay Bolton’s side in the Battle of the Bastards. Sansa disagrees with him and the two fight about Jon’s choice. Jon is a powerful leader but his half-sister (technically cousin) is right. If he trusts his bannermen too much he will inevitably have the same fate as Ned and Robb Stark. Jon also decides that young boys need to start training so they can protect the North in the war to come with the White Walkers, but he also says girls and women need to begin training as well for they will also have to fight. “We can’t protect the North with only half the population.” A choice that Sansa, Brienne, and Lyanna Mormont all approve of and one that certainly cements Jon as removing himself from the outdated ideas that women do not belong on the battlefield. Apparently when the end of the world and an endless winter are at stake it doesn’t matter what’s between your legs.
All this sets the seeds for a lot of Jon and Sansa conflict but also dives a bit deeper into their relationship. Sansa is a much different woman with many different ideas of ruling. Jon’s thoughts that a house should not be punished based on the acts of reckless leaders is clearly something that neither of his two female sisters (yeah I know cousins now, it’s just easier this way, okay?) agree with him on. Sansa undermines his idea directly in the hall and Arya just killed an entire house based on the actions of Walder and the two sons who killed her brother and mother. It’s clear that the Stark girls have seen too much cruelty from this world to believe and trust people the way Jon does. The last scene at Winterfell this episode finds Sansa brushing off the continued advances of Petyr Baelish stating the only reason she’s keeping him around is because the army of The Vale is necessary in the wars to come.
In King’s Landing Cersei has a huge mural of Westeros painted on the floor. She and Jaime agree that their lack of allies puts them in a dangerous position since they are surrounded by enemies. There’s some interesting moments here between the two lovers as we see Jaime saddened that he has had no time to mourn Tommen. Clearly Jaime’s inherent morals are on the complete opposite end of Cersei’s madness so as they argue we see how Jaime may be truly afraid of the woman he once loved. His devotion to her runs too deep sadly.
Cersei decides their only potential allies are Euron Greyjoy and the massive fleet he has built. The pirate brother of Balon has a whole new makeover looking like a Hot Topic model and his flair for comedy has also expanded. Honestly there isn’t much explanation for this change but it is welcome. This version of Euron is infectiously fun. Poking fun at Jaime as he proposes his hand in marriage to Cersei. “Ever since I was a young boy I wanted to marry the most beautiful woman in the world. So here I am with a thousand ships… and two good hands.” Cersei denies the request and he says he knows he will win her heart if he brings her a priceless gift. He leaves promising her exactly that but no direct hint as to what it will be. Honestly both King’s Landing scenes are simple setup and exposition but once again the first provides us with some rich dialogue focusing on the fragile relationship between Jaime and Cersei and the second provides quite a bit of fun with Euron’s silly and sarcastic demeanor as he tries to win over Cersei with his wit.
Sam’s start at The Citadel has been an eventful one. The poor young Tarly boy has been saddled with carrying out menial chores everyday as he urges to help locate information that will help Jon in uncovering how to take out the White Walkers. He cleans up poop pails, distributes food, restocks books in the grand library, and assists maesters in weighing organs. The most interesting part of this scene has to be the style in which they carry it out. Montage is a very specific type of scene and Game of Thrones has never really done the montage style, and they certainly haven’t done a humorous one. It’s this sort of experimentation that really gives Game of Thrones its sharp edge in recent years. The show’s steadfast fanbase has allowed the writers to work and dabble in different form recently and the show is better for it. There’s also a pretty big announcement that Jorah is with Sam! Trying to cure that blasted Grayscale of his! Who knows if the maesters hold the key, but his journey has been rough.
Finally, Daenerys lands on Dragonstone. This scene is majestic. Choosing complete silence the writers had all of Dany’s emotions conveyed through music and set design and action instead of words. It’s a truly beautiful scene and Dragonstone is a beauty to behold. Every moment of this scene pulled me in and I felt just as excited as Daenerys was to finally arrive home.
She ends the episode with the words that sum up how excited fans will be for the new season: “Shall we begin?”
Whispers from the Little Birds
So the intro to the show had a big change where instead of ending with an Essos location we ended the intro with Oldtown which reveals that the entire map in the intro sequence is located at The Citadel as we see the giant astrolabe that is around the sun in the intro sequence is also spinning inside The Citadel at Oldtown! Really cool meta commentary!
If you look closely you can see that the book Sam reads to find the location of the dragonglass also posits that the dragonglass could be a potential cure for … Grayscale!
Sandor’s vision mentions a mountain with a point that looks like an arrowhead. There are several interpretations. The tip of the Fist of the First Men once had dragonglass daggers on top of it. Although we’ve seen the walkers at Hardhome so they’re already far past the Fist. Alternatively, he could be talking about his own brother who is nicknamed The Mountain and his new helmet kind of looks like an arrowhead. It’s a stretch but it might be the answer.
Bran’s vision may be one of the future which we have seen him do before when seeing Cersei exploding the Sept of Baelor. This is backed up by the fact that the Walkers are walking on green grass which of course is nowhere to be found Beyond the Wall. There’s also a certain character involved in the vision which is handled in the next point.
One of the giants in the army of the dead has one eye which may be a reference to Wun Wun, the giant who broke down the door to Winterfell in the Battle of the Bastards and then lost his eye due to Ramsay shooting it with an arrow. Technically it’s the wrong eye, but if it his him than this proves Bran’s vision was of the future then that explains why Wun Wun is there due to the fact he could only be present since he died at Winterfell and not Beyond the Wall.