Game of Thrones S07E05 Review: The Westeros Avengers

Game of Thrones, Season 7, Episode 5: Eastwatch

Unite the seven.

This episode is perhaps a lot more chill compared to all the dragon-burning from episode 6. I mean, there's still that taking place in the episode, but by large 'Eastwatch' is more of a chiller episode that takes stock of how people reacted to last week's explosive confrontation... and, well, I won't lie, the series of developments that we got in this episode are things that I wasn't expecting. By now it's probably clear that Game of Thrones have long since gone past the novels that they were based on, and while they may have George R.R. Martin's blessing and rough outline for whatever happens after Dance of Dragons, the fact that there's a clear end goal in sight, and a suddenly limited amount of episodes to do it in means that suddenly every single scene in every single episode is now done in service of expediting the endgame. It's a double-edged curse, where on one hand it makes a far amount of the characterization and progression of events feel rushed, while at the same time eliminating a lot of 'travel' or 'world building' scenes -- arguably the world of Westeros is well-defined at this point after more than six seasons, mind you -- that makes some of the earlier seasons very slow.

Of course, the fact that we're heading towards a clear end has made a lot of people guessing what's going to be the endgame here, and even from the first season there has been two main endgames in sight -- who wins the titular game of thrones, the war for the throne... and what are people doing against the very slowly marching army of the dead coming down led by a personification of the cold embrace of death? And since the announcement that the TV series only had two seasons left before it concludes, smart money goes on the game of thrones ending at season seven, with everyone seemingly gearing up towards Dany-vs-Cersei, while season eight is going to be the huge war with the white walkers. It's not terribly unreasonable to assume that, and maybe there's going to be some overlap... but from what I've seen, and what I personally believe, is that we're gearing towards 'beat Cersei' first before 'beat the Night King'. It's perhaps the video gamer in me, where the most objectively powerful boss has to be beaten last. But here, the plot seems to be moving towards some semblance of cooperation between Cersei, Daenerys and Jon's factions to deal with the undead onslaught while all the political stuff will happen either after the Night King falls, or during the alliance itself.

Considering how batshit crazy Cersei Lannister has been presented to be, and how prideful she is as a character, it has never truly crossed my mind that such an alliance would be possible, nor that Cersei would even entertain the thought of an army of the dead marching down. But she does, and the episode does give us an explanation as to her change in priorities. Suddenly she's no longer the vengeance-happy fatalist we saw at the end of the previous season. Suddenly she has someone else to fight for -- a fourth child who, this time around, isn't fucked over by some prophecy she heard from a creepy witch as a child. 

That scene with Qyburn leaving Cersei's quarters, as Cersei speaks to Jaime, his brother-lover, who himself has been meeting illicitly with their treacherous brother -- however much Tywin deserved his death in the shitter, Cersei and Jaime did love their father, and Tyrion is working together with the queen burning their armies with a dragon. And while I did complain that the series doesn't quite have enough time to properly develop their characters, the show certainly finds the time to sneak it in very naturally. Just look at Cersei's relieved pause when Jaime immediately tells her about his meeting with Tyrion and doesn't keep it a secret from her -- right before Cersei reveals that, yeah, she does know and she isn't just a crazy city-burning queen. Also equally awesome is the scene when Jaime reveals that Tyrion didn't kill Joffrey, Olenna did. And as much as Cersei tries to deflect it as some last-minute gambit to unsettle Jaime before her death, logic wins out, and Cersei's expression as she struggles to remain the regal mastermind and not let emotion take over her is amazing.

Just look at Jaime's conflicted face that alternates between happiness that he's a father again, and the grief that now more than ever he's invested in serving his sister-queen, and whatever doubt that the likes of Olenna have planted in Jaime's head will be buried deep. And the simple tragedy that, having had three children die pretty tragically before, Jaime's so afraid of losing another one. And as Cersei and Jaime embraces each other, going from the tender acceptance of their forbidden love -- Cersei doesn't care for hiding their relationship anymore -- as well as the threat that Cersei gives Jaime to never, ever betray her again... it's quality stuff. It's the sort of great character work that perhaps might get lost under the shuffle of the spectacle of firebreathing dragons tail-whipping ballistas or three-eyed raven elder gods with ambiguous time-travelling powers or an army of icy zombie wights. But characters are the soul of a great story, as much as I loathe Cersei Lannister as a person -- with Joffrey, Ramsay and Walder Frey all dead she's indisputably the biggest hate sink in Westeros -- both the character writing and the amazing acting from Lena Headey make her one of the best, most compelling character in the show. 

Of course, there's still the matter of the ever-slowly marching undead horde bearing down upon the wall, which we see briefly as Brandon displays his brand-new warging ability, sending a swarm of ravens up north to see the gigantic army of the risen dead marching, and to be basically batted out of the sky by a glare from the Lich Night King. Really, if the Night King just teamed up with Euron Greyjoy and his magical boats of instant transportation, the show would've been over a long, long time ago.

And with Bran informing Jon of this via raven, Jon insists that he needs to go back to the north, dragons or no dragons, to fight the undead invasion with the forces of the northern houses and the wildlings. I mean, yeah, he's probably got some of the most badass individual warriors in Westeros with Brienne, Arya and Tormund under his belt, but still insanely undermatched. Daenerys and Tyrion propose a rather unconventional solution -- one that I'm surprised with considering the low esteem Tyrion holds for his sister, and Daenerys's memetic "bend the knee" pride. Though to be fair to Dany, after knowing Jon over the course of three episodes, she seems cool with him enough to not demand the 'bend the knee stuff'. Which is what brings us to the awesomely shot final scene of the episode. Let's just appreciate that we have got what the internet is calling the Westeros version of the Suicide Squad... a very apt description of the band of brave men going up to the north to collect a living wight to drop off as proof to Cersei and Jaime so that the Lannister forces will join together with Daenerys and Jon.

And the team... you can call them the Avengers, the Fellowship of the Wight, the Justice League, the Suicide Squad (a name I find super-appropriate for them), the Expendables or whatever you want, but we have the Westeros version of the 'gather our heroes' episode, except it wasn't made clear until the last scene that that was what we're heading for. Especially with the return of everyone's favourite dangling plot point, Gendry the bastard blacksmith, who Davos rather cheekily asks if he's "still rowing". As Davos walks around King's Landing and goes into the Street of Steel to recruit Gendry, who's been keeping his head down for the past three seasons, I was flabbergasted at realizing that we're getting some payoff to Gendry, a character who I didn't actually think was ever going to return to the show. But he is! And is he going to be another wrench thrown into just who is the rightful heir to the throne at this point, with Daenerys, Cersei and even Jon if his birthright ever comes up? As it turns out, though, Gendry's role, at least for now, is going to become bash-bastards with Jon Snow as they head up north. 

While Davos himself doesn't go beyond the wall, Jon and Gendry are. They are quickly joined by Ser Jorah Mormont, the prodigal son, having been cured of his dragonskin C-plot for a quick reunion with Daenerys... a meeting that was definitely well-done, succinct and short yet indicative of the deep bond the two have. Jorah's role at this point has always been questionable, but having him join the action team going north is certainly awesome.

Another person who joins the Suicide Squad is Tormund Giantsbane, who we know will already be waiting at Eastwatch for Jon's team to arrive, and enough of an action guy to want to go up north and bash some heads. Perhaps less expected are the trio that form the current incarnation of the Brotherhood Without Banners. Despite Gendry's less-than-favourable interactions with the cult that he quickly brings up, it's clear that they need manpower, and the three of them -- the Hound, Beric "can't kill this" Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr -- are badass enough fighters and clearly want to go up north for some business themselves. Thoros and Beric haven't been the show a whole ton, certainly not to the extend that Jon Snow or the Hound are, and are mostly relegated to C-plots, but are still named characters. Like Gendry or Tormund, while disposable, these aren't some random wildlings or nightswatchmen who show up an episode before their deaths. And I absolutely loved the shot of the seven of them marching into the snow.

(Best line has to go to Tormund, right? "Is she the queen who has dragons, or the queen who fucks her brother?")

And the thing is that... other than Jon Snow, honestly any of them can die. Last episode it's a bit hard to believe that Jaime was going to bite the dust outside the brief  ten seconds of"oh my god are they doing it" as he charges Drogon on a horse. Here, though... everyone other than Jon can arguably have their character's narrative end there. Jorah Mormont might go out in a final blaze of glory in service to her queen, having returned and received a brief, tender moment with her, knowing that he will serve to his last breath even if she will never return his love. Gendry, too, armed with a hammer, a bastard from the lower castes who never knew his parentage, and now chooses to serve and save the world. Tormund, the wildling that fights like a maniac and eats people's faces, has also not much left to him as a character beyond being the wildlings' point man. Beric and Thoros, two souls that bounce from one place to another, one unable to die and being revived for a specific purpose, and the other following his faith... is this their purpose? And finally, the Hound. Sure, it sucks that he doesn't get to see Arya or Sansa one last time, but is this going to be his final step to redemption? To die in a blaze of glory, having grown from a disgusting thug to something nobler but still unmistakably the rough, gruff asshole we all love?

And, most importantly... how awesome will it be to have these seven people specifically go up north to do battle with zombies? God, next monday can't come soon enough. 

Let's talk about the other scenes in the episode, too. We've covered King's Landing, and to some extent we've covered the genesis of Jon's Suicide Squad, so let's hop back to the beginning of the episode. We quickly establish that Jaime is alive and last episode's bizarre cliffhanger of him seemingly sinking was just that -- a cheap cliffhanger. How did they survive the river, and how are there no Dothraki soldiers patrolling around whenever they rose out of the river... and if they floated downriver that much, how did Jaime, the dude in plate mail, not freaking drown? For all the talk I did earlier about the great acting and attention to characterization detail, this bit was done well, especially considering how easy it would be to make the escape believable, like have them explicitly swept by a current or have them hide behind like a log or something, I dunno. That was weirdly bad.

But while Bronn makes note that dragons is where he draws the line for his mercenary work, he still hangs around the Lannisters at least to facilitate the meeting between Jaime and Tyrion. A meeting that is one I have been itching to see, and I'm happy that it didn't go smoothly... but they didn't try to kill each other either. At least Jaime knows for certain that Tyrion didn't kill Joffrey, but they still have bad blood for Tyrion's murder of Tywin, something that's certainly justified from Tyrion's point of view... but is hardly the point. We thankfully don't get a recap of the earlier planning session between Tyrion, Dany and Jon, but the meeting between the two is such a great payoff anyway.

We also get to see the immediate aftermath of the battle, because while being the rapey, pillagey, murdery horde, the Dothraki are reined-in enough to capture a not insignificant amount of prisoners that Dany gets to bend the knee. She displays the same type of logic that she employs towards the slavers in Mereen, by choosing one of the unsubservient ones and turning him into dragon lunch. And who gets burnt this time, but Randyll and Dickon Tarly! It's surprising that they don't get to see Sam again, but it's also not a lost plot point I will lose sleep over. It is kind of a neat poetic justice that Tyrion briefly tries to offer Randyll the chance to take the Black and join the Night's Watch, something that Randyll seems insanely uneager to follow considering he sent Sam there.

Drogon burns up the Tarlys in cold blood, and while Randyll was a right bastard and deserved to burn in hell, poor Dickon ends up being the innocent victim. Not that I really condemn Dany that much, though. Both Dany and Tyrion offered Dickon multiple chances to stand down, but he is so enamoured with the idea of honour and knighthood that he chooses to die alongside his father. Throughout this encounter, Tyrion tries his best to suggest alternative measures to Daenerys, having been stunned at the pile of dead, burnt coprses in the battlefield, trying to suggest imprisonment and the Night's Watch as alternative measures. And, well, honestly both sides of the argument are right, and this episode manages to help prove Daenerys's point a lot better than previous ones which paint her more as the strawman character in regards to wanting Jon to bend the knee rather fanatically.

Daenerys gave Randyll and Dickon ample time to surrender, and she clearly doesn't want any more bloodshed. And while perhaps death by dragonfire is a bit too brutal and a faus pax especially considering the last batch of people that died in fire, burned by a ruler -- something that both applies to Cersei Lannister and Aegon Targaryen -- the episode has various characters, thankfully not as blatantly as previous episodes have been, tell Jon and Tyrion to basically get off their high horses. 

Several scenes after Tyrion tries to talk down Daenerys, we get to see him, still stunned over the whole execution thing, share an amazing drink with Varys. Both Tyrion and Varys rank pretty highly in my list of characters I love to watch, and Varys's line about how they need to advise Dany better than how Varys did Aegon, and telling Tyrion that he will always be haunted by the memory of seeing Aegon execute people by burning... while not condemning the execution itself, which I feel is important. Varys seems to have more problems with the method of execution than the fact that Dany executed the Tarlys, which is fair -- Varys himself has engineered a fair amount of deaths, including an attempt on Daenerys herself, and to act otherwise would be hypocritical. And best of all, several scenes later, Davos Seaworth reminds Tyrion that his son died during the Battle of Blackwater, indisputably thanks to Tyrion's own machinations, and Davos's son is a lot more unambiguously good and pure compared to nasty old Randyll. The moral is the whole 'can't make an omelet without breaking eggs', I guess, which is nice. Gotta execute some people to win the war.

There is also Daenerys noting to Jon about how the battle of the bastards was won by a large amount of bloodshed as well, a valid point that shuts Jon up. The two grow more amicable and less stubborn to each other and part as friends... although that amazing scene of Jon reaching out and touching Drogon's snout is amazing. I mean, it might be Jon's Targaryen blood and all, which comes up elsewhere in this episode.

Sam leaves Oldtown, having stolen some old scrolls when it's clear that the Arch-Maesters, even the reasonable one played by Professor Slughorn, are not interested in taking his stories seriously and would rather gossip about random past events. It's clear why the Maesters did it, considering it could easily be a political play, but it's clear that Sam isn't respected at all here and he decides to bugger off and leave and go somewhere he can be more of use. Ironically, though, while everyone is thinking if it's Bran's visions that will tell us Jon's true parentage, it ends up to be Gilly, who, in between reading about the 15 thousand windows or steps or whatever, finds a reference to Rhaegal Targaryen annulling his marriage... to marry Lyanna Stark, making Jon the actual legitimate heir to the Targaryen dynasty as opposed to Daenerys -- the children of the firstborn son would take precedence over the firstborn's younger siblings. I don't think Jon would care much for being King of the Seven Kingdoms -- he can barely handle the North -- but it's an interesting development and also a confirmation that divorce does exist in Westeros.

Jon bro-ing over their daddies with Gendry kind of comes out of nowhere, especially when no mention of Arya is made -- Gendry knows Arya's real identity, right? -- but acceptable. I did really like Davos meeting Gendry in King's Landing, though, and the scene with the two guards are definitely well done. It shows Davos's skill with words and playing the dumb, savvy sailor, it shows Tyrion's nonchalant acceptance and banking on his status as a dwarf to not be noticed by soldiers (though whose idea is it to have him waltz around in full 'hand of the queen' getup?) and finally, that Gendry can bash people's skulls in with a hammer.

The Winterfell scenes are where we'll end this review of, because it isn't terribly interesting. Bran sending the warged ravens are cool and all, but the main focus is on Arya and Sansa, and the two, while not fighting, have some differences in opinion. Sansa is a lot more diplomatic, wanting to ride out the storm of Northern lords dispassioned with Jon's MIA status and deciding that Sansa should rule instead, while Arya sees assholes talk shit about Jon and Arya just wants to solve the problem by killing said assholes, something that not only unnerves Sansa, but also unnerves me. Arya also calls out Sansa for possibly wanting the throne all to herself, and while Sansa doesn't outright say it, her brief pause does indicate that the ambition within her, instilled by so many evil mentors, is starting to rear its head.

Arya has a bit of a cat-and-mouse thing with Littlefinger going on, where we see her tracking down Littlefinger as he speaks to some of the house lords and is scheming, stealing random important parchments and whatnot and trying to... undermine Jon, or undermine Sansa, or something. It's a little unclear if Arya suspects that Littlefinger is in league with Sansa against Jon, or if Littlefinger is trying to set up a conflict by planting Sansa-incriminating evidence for Arya to find -- I'm not sure if the final scene implies that Littlefinger set a trap for Arya or if he is only just now aware of Arya spying on him. It's a neat return to form as he finally gets to manipulate people again, in a quasi-political stage... though I really, really hope Arya and Sansa don't come to blows.

Come on, Bran. You're a prophetic being able to see all time periods simultaneously, stop remembering how your sister got raped on her wedding night and start seeing into how Littlefinger is manipulating your family again, dammit!