A stately version of the Rains of Castamere is playing during this scene. Cersei lists all of their enemies, including the soon to be arriving Daenerys. Jaime says they need more allies. Since it's winter it's not time to fight and anyway they need to talk about what happened to Tommen. Cersei chides her brother for excessive caution and reminds him that she is also Tywin's child. She has a plan.
Cersei's plan is to ally with Euron Greyjoy. She has invited him to King's Landing. Euron Greyjoy wants to marry Cersei and offers her the Iron Fleet in return. Jaime is against this idea. Jaime reminds Euron of Euron's past treachery against the Iron Throne, which includes launching the Iron Islands rebellion by attacking the Lannisters. Twisting the knife even more Jaime also asks if Euron remembers that it was Jaime who helped suppress the Greyjoy led rebellion. Jaime put in some work back in the day. Evidently unbothered by this Euron responds that he was impressed by Jaime's swordwork back then even if Jaime was killing his relatives and retainers. But that was then and this is now. And anyway Euron still has two hands (ha-ha Jaime), which he would like to put at Cersei's service. Both the Mountain and Jaime look as if they would like to kill Euron. Cersei declines Euron's offer, saying that Euron is untrustworthy. Euron promises to bring back a gift to win Cersei's trust. And then they can ally to kill their faithless relatives, Yara, Theon and Tyrion. And Euron can get himself a Queen to marry.
In the episode's ending scene, which is almost entirely wordless and more impressive for that, Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone, the place of her birth. Reminiscent of King Canute, she drops to her knees to grab the sand on the beach. She enters the throne room and pulls down Stannis' banners. She silently walks though the castle. As the episode ends she looks at her councillors and warriors and asks "Shall we begin?"
What I liked
- Arya's revenge against the Freys. Unlike last season's rushed Frey Pie or murder of Walder, this actually felt a bit more cathartic and thought out. I loved the "As long as one wolf is alive" line.
- I appreciated that Jon and Sansa have taken different lessons from their horrible experiences. Jon learned to be in charge. He doesn't shirk from violence when need be but his first choice is usually to try to avoid conflict or violence. Sansa has never been able to be in charge. She is eager to wield power, maybe even too eager. Having been terrorized and exploited by the Lannisters, the Boltons and Littlefinger, Sansa might be chomping at the bit to dole out some payback, even to people who might not deserve it. These different views could be a source of conflict between the
siblingscousins. - Cersei standing on a map of Westeros perfectly captured that character's resentments and inflated sense of self.
- Euron Greyjoy. The actor even resembles his "nephew" Theon (Alfie Allen) His little dig at Jaime's loss of his sword hand and implied impotence was pretty good.
- Not much Bran.
- The fact that it took two men of the Night's Watch to haul Bran when Meera was doing it by herself. Funny.
- Sam's work at the Citadel and his brief encounter with Jorah Mormont, Ser Friend-Zone himself, who seems to have almost fully succumbed to greyscale.
- Tormund. A player's got to play. There's no shame in his game.
- The Hound showing that even as he tries to hide it there is still a bit of decency left in him.
What I didn't like
- Sansa saying that Jon has to be smarter than Robb and Ned rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps Sansa has forgotten her eagerness to marry Joffrey or her willingness to marry Ramsay on Littlefinger's say so? She's not exactly shown herself as the family brain trust. She is at least considering sleeping with the man who betrayed her father and murdered her aunt. Even if she thought that about her father and brother, it still seemed churlish to say that out loud.
- I think there needs to be some sort of explanation given for the North to accept, even if he is publicly known as Ned Stark's son, a Lord Commander of the Night's Watch leaving his post to lead the North. Do people know that Jon rose from the dead? That is pretty f****** big news. People start religions over such things. If the Northern warriors do know then they would follow Jon anywhere. Does Sansa know? What about Littlefinger? We know that Tormund knows because he was there. Hasn't he told anyone about this? I mean if I saw someone rise from the dead I think I might mention that to a few folks. Do people believe it? Seriously this is important given that one of the major roles of the Starks is to EXECUTE deserters from the Night's Watch.