This Week in Westeros: "The Dragon and the Wolf" (Season 7, Episode 7 - SEASON FINALE)

WARNING: This Post is Dark and Full of SPOILERS

A.K.A. “The One Where Jon and Daenerys Finally Do It”

In King’s Landing, Team Starkgaryen meets with Queen Cersei at the Dragonpit. Like with last episode, we get some reunions that we haven’t seen in some time. Tyrion reunites with Bronn and Podrick, and the Hound with Brienne and his frankenbrother (and basically CONFIRMING CLEGANEBOWL WILL HAPPEN). It doesn’t go on as long as the reunions from last episode, but there’s not a lot of characters in the party who would be familiar with the characters in King’s Landing.

They reveal their captured wight to Cersei, who for the first time in her life looks truly frightened. Jon demonstrates that the army of the dead can be killed with fire and with dragonglass, though I don’t remember us ever seeing anyone kill a wight with dragonglass. Though I suppose if it works on the White Walkers, it should also work on their minions. Euron’s also quite shaken up over the revelation of real zombies, and he flees to the Iron Islands, since the dead can’t swim.

Cersei agrees to help Team Starkgaryen in the “great war”, on the condition that Jon and the Northern armies do not fight the Lannisters. Naturally, being Ned Stark’s son (but not really), Jon’s honor compels him to deny the queen’s request, as he has already swore fealty to another queen already. And then Cersei calls the meeting off and storms away. This the problem with being a “good guy” in Westeros: telling the truth.

So Tyrion, of all people, has to play damage control with Cersei. He’s pretty much prepared to die as soon as he steps into Cersei’s chamber to talk with her. And for what it’s worth, the scene is actually pretty tense. Being the season finale, you don’t really know what curveballs they’re going to throw at you. Especially so on a show like this, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Cersei to all of a sudden order FrankenMountain to cut Tyrion in half like a piece of pumpkin bread. But Cersei lets him talk in an emotionally charged conversation, where two estranged siblings who have been at odds for basically their entire lives get to lay all of their raw emotions on the table as one tries to convince the other to help them. So Tyrion succeeds in convincing Cersei, and she will help back the crusade North to fight the White Walkers.

He bended the knee, now he's getting ready to bend something else.

Let’s take a break from the main action and head over to Winterfell for a moment. Littlefinger continues to drive a wedge between the Stark sisters by convincing Sansa that Arya wants to kill her and take her place as Lady of Winterfell. It’s yet another continuous of the reviled “Sansa vs. Arya” arc, but the show is at least going somewhere with it this time, and here’s why.

So Sansa calls a meeting of the Northern lords and guardsman, with Arya being presented between her and Bran. We’re led to believe that Sansa is putting Arya on trial for murder and conspiracy. Nope. This is Littlefinger’s trial.

Sansa brings to light all of the shady things he had done when she travelled with her – killing her Aunt Lysa and revealing that he had started the War of the Five Kings by conspiring to kill Jon Arryn – and Bran reveals Littelfinger’s treachery towards Ned and how he was the true owner of the dagger used to try and kill Bran, even going so far as to state verbatim what Baelish said as he held the knife to Ned’s throat. None of the lords will back him up, not even Lord Royce and the Knights of the Vale, who are sworn to obey Lord Baelish as Lord Protector. Littlefinger falls to his knees with tears, begging Sansa to spare him, but Arya cuts him off with a slit throat. And so, of the most manipulative minds in Westeros is extinguished. About. Freaking. Time.

As I stated a few weeks ago, I love Littlefinger as a character, but him being the crafty SOB he is, I could not wait to watch him get his comeuppance. And boy howdy, this episode does not disappoint. This was exactly what I wanted from Littlefinger’s death: Bran using his magic eyes to reveal his treachery, Littlefinger loosing a grip on the power and allies he had built up, dying a broken man as he whimpered like a child and begged for his life, and Sansa standing victorious over him. Littlefinger was only a force to be reckoned with because he knew how to amass allies and manipulate people. And what does he become when he has no allies and can no longer manipulate those close to him? Just a man. He didn’t deserve a grandiose death. With all of his power stripped away, he deserved to die like to common street rat he is deep down.

Anyway, back to the A-story. At Dragonstone, Jon and Theon have a conversation where Jon forgives Theon for all that he’s done, and Theon reveals that he is planning to head to the Iron Islands to rescue his sister from Euron. Yara’s remaining forces don’t want to follow Theon back to the Iron Islands because they believe Yara is dead. But Theon won’t have it; his sister was the only one who would come rescue him from Ramsay, and he’ll be damned if he’s not going to repay that debt. What follows is a bloody brawl between Theon and the lead Ironborn sailor, and no matter what harsh physical punishment he is dealt, Theon will not stay down. He finally gains the upper hand when the sailor mistakenly knees Theon in the balls, but he soon finds out he cannot hurt what isn’t there. And so Theon reduces the man’s face to a bloody pulp – possibly killing him – and he and the Ironborn head out to rescue Yara. As I had predicted, Theon has finally redeemed himself after seasons of acting like a cowardly dirtbag, proving that he once again has his balls.

Back at King’s Landing, Cersei reveals to Jaime what’s really going on in her whacked-out head. She has no intention of actually helping Team Starkgaryen defeat the White Walkers, and would rather them deplete their armies fighting the dead while the Lannisters retake the land they lost. Euron wasn’t really retreating to the Iron Islands in fear, he was sailing to Essos on Cersei’s order to ferry the Golden Company – the mercenary army hired by the Iron Bank – to Westeros to join the Lannister cause. Jaime points out how stupid and vindictive this is, and how they should all be teaming up to fight the dead. Since acting against Cersei would be treason, she threatens him with FrankenMountain’s blade if he leaves her. So Jaime leaves her, but doesn’t suffer Gregor’s wrath. I guess Cersei was more bark than bite and couldn’t go through with it. Even after (FINALLY) calling out Cersei and switching sides, the Mad Queen still can’t exterminate what little family she has left. But now with this action, her family has grown smaller regardless.

"Gregor smash?"
"Gregor no smash."
"Gregor sad."

As Jaime rides off towards his new allies, snow finally begins to fall on King’s Landing. Even in a season where winter has finally come, it still takes it friggin’ forever to make it to the rest of the country.

Back at Winterfell, Sam and Gilly arrive, and Sam stops in to see Bran. Bran finally reveals the truth about Jon’s parentage to someone, and Sam chimes in with his knowledge that Rhaegar had his first marriage annulled so he could marry Lyanna Stark, making Jon and legitimate child and the true heir to the Iron Throne. And Sam doesn’t think to mention that Gilly was actually the one who found this out. Typically chauvinistic male, taking credit for the work of a woman. (Am I right, ladies?) And Bran reveals that Jon’s birth name is Aegon Targaryen, revealing that the show has combined Jon’s character with the character of Rhaegar’s surviving son Aegon from the books.

Oh, and while all this is going on, Jon and Daenerys are getting it on. Once again, the relationship feels kind of forced. When they finally make love after a season of “will they/won’t they”, it feels more like they’re doing it because the show told them to, not because the characters want to. It’s also not really helped back the fact that their sex scene is superimposed over narration from Bran talking about Jon being a Targaryen, but it’s whatever. It was a different time, and this is far from the worst incestuous couple on the show.

My only question about these scenes (beside “Should I still be on board with a nephew unknowingly banging his aunt?”) is why Sam had to tell Bran about Rhaegar’s annulment in the first place. If he knows “everything” like he claims, shouldn’t he already have seen this? Or does he have to physically “go” there in order for it to be known to him? Like most of the characters in this show, I’m still not entirely sure how this Three-Eyed Raven thing works.

And finally, at Eastwatch, the army of the dead finally makes it to the Wall. The Night King – riding his zombified Viserion – charges in and demolishes a good portion of the Wall, taking Eastwatch and possibly Tormund and Beric with it. The White Walkers and their zombie army have finally made it into Westeros.

Shit.

How's it feel to get Littlefingered?

“The Dragon and the Wolf” is a good, not great finale. It’s certainly not as bombastic as last season’s, but it’s really hard to top Cersei blowing up the Sept of Baelor and killing six or seven named characters in one fell swoop. But this episode certainly had its memorable moments: the meeting at the Dragonpit, Tyrion’s conversation with Cersei, Littlefinger’s death, Jaime’s bailing after Cersei’s reveal, and that fear-inducing ending. More than anything, this episode felt more like it wanted to set things up for the beginning of next season than to let the season end on a big bang. It certainly wasn’t as heart-stopping of a finale as last season’s, but it still had big things happening.

Final verdict: 8/10.

Overall, Season 7 was an okay one. It definitely moved at a much appreciated faster pace, and there did seem to be important things happening every episode, but the season felt like it was too afraid to take the risks that the show is known for. Who were the named casualties of the Loot Train Battle? Nobody. Jaime, Bronn, and Drogon all came inches from death, but their heavy plot armor deflected all damage. Who were the named casualties of the Wight Hunt? Thoros – who really can’t be considered a main character considering he was gone for so long that half the audience probably forgot who he was – and Viserion, and while his death proved that the seemingly invincible dragons can be killed, he barely got any characterization throughout the series and wasn’t the main dragon we all know and love.

The only "big" deaths this season were Olenna Tyrell, Littlefinger, and Viserion, and considering this is the same show that has killed off its main cast out of nowhere several times, it felt kind of disappointing that the show has seemingly lost a bit of it’s bite. It has strayed away from the realistic approach to a high fantasy world to almost giving us the same high fantasy tropes and clichés that it had previously deconstructed. Mirroring my thoughts on this episode, the whole season felt like it was more concerned with setting up pieces for the next season, especially in the department of making sure main characters survive no matter what.

But I still enjoyed this season. We got a lot of awesome moments with Daenerys and her dragons, we’ve gotten to see more of the White Walkers than we ever have before, we’re getting a lot of new and exciting alliances, and the army of the dead have finally started their invasion of Westeros. It’s hard to believe we’re almost at the end, but I couldn’t be more excited for this big zombie apocalypse of an ending.