GoT Ep 702 “Stormborn”

This episode opens and closes with a storm, which is a perfect metaphor for where we are with the show.

We first go to Dragonstone where Daenerys, Tyrion and Varys are in the Chamber of the Painted Table. Varys says the storm is very similar to the one that was raging on the night Dany was born at Dragonstone. He distinctly remembers all of the hounds in Kings Landing howling. Dany isn’t much for reminiscing and is ready to get on with the war for Westeros. Cersei holds less than half of the seven kingdoms so now is the time to strike. She is tired of waiting. If her brother, Viserys, had three dragons he would’ve conquered Westeros by now. Tyrion tells her it would be very easy to conquer Westeros with her dragons, but she doesn’t want to be the ruler of ashes.

Dany turns to Varys and says she never thanked him for bringing House Martell of Dorne and House Tyrell of Highgarden to her cause. She brings up the fact that he once served her father, the Mad King, as the Master of Whisperers, but then he turned on her father and counseled the usurper, Robert Baratheon. However, at some point after the rebellion, Varys then decided to secretly back and help her brother, Viserys to one day win back the iron throne. She says he backed Viserys even though he was known to be cruel, stupid and weak. Varys seems to be fickle in her eyes and now he’s joined himself with her claim. She isn’t sure she can trust him.

He says that something had to be done about her father, the Mad King, before he ruined the kingdom. So, he helped Robert Baratheon once he became king. There was peace while Robert was king, but he wasn’t a good king because he didn’t care about ruling and his so-called children weren’t even his and would certainly not be fit to rule, so he turned to her brother. Varys tells her he didn’t know much of anything about her until she married Khal Drogo and her dragons were born. She says he knew enough to sell her to the Dothraki like property and he points out that she turned that to her advantage. She also asks him who sent the message to Essos to assassinate her after she became pregnant. Varys fumbles for the words to say, but she knows he is the one who sent the order from King Robert. He says he did what he had to do to survive. After all, he didn’t grow up in a great house. He was born into slavery and was mutilated. His loyalties lie with the people of Westeros and, if she lets him live, he will serve her well because she is the best chance for the people of Westeros. She asks him to swear to her that if she is ever failing the people - instead of plotting to put someone else on the throne behind her back - he look her in the eye and tell her she is failing her people and that if he ever betrays her she will burn him alive. He says he would expect nothing less from the Mother of Dragons.

They get an announcement afterward saying a red priestess from Asshai has arrived and would like to speak with Dany. It is Melisandre. Varys tells Dany that Melisandre backed Stannis and helped him in his conquest for the iron throne. Dany says it’s a good thing that she came on the right day where people have been pardoned for backing the wrong king. Melisandre tells Dany of the prophecy of “the prince that was promised.” Dany says she’s not a prince, but Missandei – being the expert translator she is – tells Dany that the word for prince in High Valyrian isn’t gender specific. So, the prophecy refers to a prince or princess. Dany notes that the prophecy does sound better as “the prince that was promised” though she also likes the ring that “the princess that was promised” has as well. She asks Melisandre if she thinks Dany is this savior in the prophecy. Whether Melisandre has given up on trying to declare who this prophecy is specifically referring too, or because she’s trying to latch on to the last person in Westeros who would give her a chance and purpose, she simply states that prophecies are hard to decipher, but she does think Dany has a role to play in it along with the King of the North, Jon Snow. Dany doesn’t necessarily know who Jon Snow is so Melisandre fills her in. She tells Dany that Jon joined the Night’s Watch and became Lord Commander. Under his command, the Wildlings were allowed through the Wall where they joined the Night’s Watch against the real enemy. Then, Jon joined the Wildlings with the houses of the north to reclaim his home, Winterfell. She urges Dany to summon Jon and ask him what he’s seen, obviously referring to the Night King and the White Walkers. Tyrion tells Dany he knows Jon from when he went to Winterfell with Robert’s entourage when Robert asked Ned to be his Hand in season 1. He says he can’t speak to the prophecy, but he likes Jon and trusts him and he reminds Dany that he is an “excellent judge of character.” He also tells Dany that Jon would be no ally to Cersei after what the Lannisters did to his family. She tells Tyrion to send a raven north to Jon inviting him to come meet his queen and bend the knee. She’s very direct about Jon bending the knee, so I don’t think she is open to the idea of the north being a separate kingdom.

Jon receives the letter from Tyrion. Sansa thinks it’s a trap, but Jon knows it is from Tyrion because he mentions the line, “all dwarfs are bastards in their father’s eyes.” This is what Tyrion said to Jon so many years ago during their conversation outside the great hall of Winterfell. Jon asks Sansa what he should do because she knows Tyrion better than the rest of them. She says he’s not like the other Lannister’s. He was kind to her, but she thinks it’s too risky for Jon to go himself. Ser Davos says the dragons – if they are real – would come in handy in the war with the White Walkers, but he also thinks Jon should send someone else to meet with Daenerys.

Cersei has gathered all of the lords of Westeros that would come to Kings Landing to try and win them to her side. She spits out lies about Dany saying she is just like her father, the Mad King, and that she will destroy the kingdom with her dragons and her army of Dothraki and Unsullied. I find it fascinating that Cersei calls her the Mad Queen and compares Dany to her father when Cersei herself just used the stores of wildfire left by the Mad King to blow up half of the capitol, as the Mad King wanted to do before Jaime killed him. According to Cersei, Dany flays and lets her dragons eat her enemies for the fun of it and she wants to conquer Westeros and kill all of the people in it. Some of the lords there are bannermen for House Tyrell, such as our old friend from season 6, Randyll Tarly. Cersei urges the lords of the south to join her because Lady Olenna has betrayed their years of loyal service by joining the Mad King’s daughter. Lord Tarly asks Cersei how she plans to fight against Dany’s three full-grown dragons. Qyeburn interjects and says they are working on a solution for that.

Randyll Tarly is leaving Kings Landing right away to ready his army for the war. Jaime comes to speak with him. We get to meet the new Dickon, now played by Tom Hopper from Black Sails. Jaime wants to know where Lord Tarly’s alliances lie and who he is rallying his army for. When Lord Tarly doesn’t answer, Jaime says that he wants Lord Tarly to be a commander in Cersei’s army to help him with the fight against Daenerys. Lord Tarly says he won’t go against the Tyrells and he won’t join the Lannisters because they play dirty by stabbing people in the back, cutting their throats at weddings and other dishonorable acts such as oathbreaking. The Tarly name means something and he doesn’t intend for it to be tarnished. He says he swore an oath to House Tyrell, but Jaime reminds him he also swore an oath to his kingdom so Lord Tarly has to make a choice. Then Jaime says that if Lord Tarly joins them he will talk Cersei into naming him Warden of the South after the war. We don't know which side Lord Tarly will choose for now.

Archmaester Marwyn and Sam are examining Jorah at the Citadel. The grayscale now covers the left half of his chest, torso and back and is not looking good. The archmaester tells Jorah he would’ve been better off if he had cut his arm off when he first started showing symptoms. Then he tells Jorah that he will most likely live for another ten years, but his mind will be gone in six months. Sam mentions the Princess Shireen - Stannis Baratheon’s daughter who was also afflicted with grayscale – who survived and whose grayscale stopped spreading. The archmaester asks Sam if he’s ever treated anyone with grayscale before. Of course, Sam says no. Archmaester Marwyn tells Jorah he will allow him to stay one more day in the Citadel, but after that he must leave Westeros. There is nothing the maesters of the Citadel can do for Ser Jorah. Before leaving the cell, Sam finds out that this is Ser Jorah Mormont, son of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, but he doesn’t say anything about knowing Jorah’s father as he leaves the room.

We get to see what Qyeburn has invented to defend Cersei’s army against Dany’s dragons. He takes Cersei below the Red Keep to the place where Robert stored the dragon skulls that used to adorn the throne room during the Targaryen reign. There are massive dragon skulls to varying sizes of the last dragons who were no bigger than dogs. He takes Cersei to the skull of Balerion the Black Dread, the largest dragon that ever lived. This was the dragon that Aegon the Conqueror rode when the united the seven kingdoms. Balerion’s flames forged the iron throne. Qyeburn heard that Dany’s dragon, Drogon, was wounded by spears at the fighting pit in Mereen, so they are powerful, but not invincible and they can be hurt and killed. He shows her a weapon the blacksmiths have been working on. It’s a ballista, which is a large crossbow that shoots spears. Cersei tests the weapon and shoots a spear that penetrates Balerion’s skull, which really pisses me off as a dragon fan. So, Dany’s dragons could be in trouble. Dragon hides should be fairly impenetrable as they are hard and have scales, but if the weapon is aimed at their heads or eye sockets it looks like this could be a dangerous weapon. Leave it to Cersei to unknowingly try and kill a great weapon against the White Walkers.

Plans are being made at Dragonstone. Yara thinks the army should take Kings Landing now, but Tyrion says they cannot just release the dragons because thousands of people would die. Ellaria Sand says that is the cost of war. Tyrion brings up the fact that she killed princess Myrcella, an innocent in the war between the Lannisters and the Martells, but Ellaria says there are no innocent Lannisters. She is still pissed that Oberyn died defending Tyrion. Dany shuts her down quickly telling her to have respect for Tyrion as he is Hand of the Queen. Lady Olenna Tyrell speaks up and says it’s all good and well for people to like Dany, but the common people loved Margaery and she is dead. The people should fear Daenerys. Dany repeats what Tyrion said to her about not wanting to be the ruler of ashes. So, they want to know what Dany’s plan is for conquering Kings Landing. She says she plans to use Westerosi warriors – meaning the Greyjoys, the Dornish and the Tyrell armies – to attack Kings Landing. Yara’s fleet will take those armies by boat to Kings Landing to launch an attack. The Martell’s and Tyrell’s aren’t too happy that only their men will be used in the fight for Kings Landing, but Tyrion tells them it is vital to use a Westerosi army instead of a foreign army because Cersei would use that to her advantage to get more Westerosi lords to join her side. The Dothraki and Unsullied won’t be sitting on the sidelines though. They will attack places around Kings Landing cutting off the food supply, starting with the seat of the Lannister’s, Casterly Rock. They support this decision and go to prepare.

After the council, Daenerys asks to speak with Lady Olenna Tyrell alone. She says she realizes that Lady Olenna is there because of her hatred of Cersei and not because she loves Dany, but she will bring peace to Westeros and revenge to Cersei. Lady Olenna says there have always been times of peace, but they don’t last. She also suggests that Dany quit taking advice from Tyrion. He is a lord of Westeros and they are all sheep. Dany is a dragon though and she needs to embrace that.

Missandei goes to visit Grey Worm before he leaves since he didn’t come to her to say goodbye. She tells him she wishes him good fortune. He says it’s hard to say goodbye to her because she is his weakness and his fear. When the masters train the Unsullied as little boys, they find out what their fears are and then use it against them. He didn’t have any fears though, until he met Missandei. He fears losing her. She says she feels the same way and they kiss. Then she undresses herself and tries to undress him. He stops her when she gets to his pants and he says he doesn’t want her to see him. She says she wants to see all of him and he says it’s okay. They kiss and go over to the bed and…

Sam has been tasked with recording the history of the Wall after the death of King Robert Baratheon and Archmaester Marwyn is picking out books that will help Sam with his writing style. Sam wants to talk about Jorah’s grayscale because he thinks he knows of a way to cure it. He says there are two confirmed cases of grayscale being cured by a maester. The archmaester asks Sam if he knows how the maester died, and of course he died from grayscale. So now, the methods that he used are forbidden so that other maesters don’t contract the disease.

Jorah spends his last day at the Citadel writing a letter to Daenerys. Sam interrupts him, bringing a rolling cart with all kinds of goodies on it into his room. Sam tells Jorah he knew and served under his father, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and that he was with him when he died. He tells Jorah that he is not going to die today and that he knows of a treatment for grayscale. However, he’s not supposed to be trying it on Jorah, so no one can know that he is in the room. And, this treatment is going to be painful. It consists of Sam removing all of the diseased tissue from Jorah’s body, which means he is essentially flaying him. All he can give Jorah to dull the pain is rum, which he takes a few swigs of himself. Then he gives Jorah a piece of wood to bite down on and tells Jorah he cannot scream. Jorah asks Sam if he’s done this before and Sam says he hasn’t, but he is the only one willing to try. Sam begins cutting away the affected skin as Jorah tries not to scream in agony. It’s gross and even has puss and the director so nicely edited this together to then change to a scene where….

…a pot pie is being cut open. Lovely imagery to go with the puss and grayscale of the last scene. Arya is eating said pie at the inn where she left Hot Pie. She hears men talking about Dany being in Westeros and how she has dragons. Hot Pie notices her and comes to see how she is. He asks if the “big lady” – referring to Brienne – ever found her. Arya said she found her, but left it at that. He wants to know what has happened to Arya, but she doesn’t say. Instead she wipes her mouth with her hands and asks for some ale in a very Hound-like fashion. Hot Pie asks where she is heading and she tells him Kings Landing. He’s surprised she would go there and not Winterfell. She asks why she would go to Winterfell when the Bolton’s have it. He tells her the Bolton’s no longer control Winterfell. That her brother, Jon, regained it after winning “The Battle of the Bastards.” She thinks he’s lying, but he swears he isn’t. He tells Arya goodbye and says he can’t believe he ever thought she was a boy because she is actually pretty. She tells him to take care of himself and he says he’ll be okay. When Arya leaves the inn, she debates whether to continue her journey to Kings Landing to meet out her revenge on Cersei, or to head home and reunite with her family. She turns her horse north and heads towards Winterfell.

Jon gathers all of the lords of the north and tells them he received a letter from Sam at the Citadel. Sam has discovered an underground mountain on the island of Dragonstone that is made of dragonglass. He also tells them of the invitation from Tyrion to visit Dragonstone and speak with Daenerys. Obviously, since they have never seen them, the lords of the north aren’t sure if they believe Dany has these dragons. Jon says he will accept the invitation because they need the dragonglass and they need Dany as an ally. Ser Davos will go with him.

Sansa asks Jon if he’s forgotten what happened to their grandfather when he travelled south to visit the Mad King. This refers to Ned’s father Rickard Stark and also Ned’s older brother Brandon. After the alleged kidnapping of Lyanna Stark by Rhaegar Targaryen, Brandon Stark rode to Kings Landing demanding justice from the Mad King. He was arrested for treason and King Aerys declared that his father, Rickard Stark come to the capitol to ransom him. When Lord Rickard arrived, he too was arrested and ordered to stand trial. Lord Rickard demanded trial by combat. At this point, the Mad King was completely lost in his obsession with wildfire, so he declared fire the champion for House Targaryen. King Aerys had Lord Rickard hung from the rafters in the throne room while pyromancers ignited wildfire beneath him. His son, Brandon Stark was brought to the throne room and tied with a leather cord around his neck. The Mad King had a sword laid between Brandon and his father and told Brandon that if he could reach the sword and cut his father free then he would be saved. Brandon struggled to reach the sword, strangling himself more and more the closer he got to it, until he finally strangled himself to death and his father burned alive.

Jon says the he has not forgotten, but Dany is a queen and since he is the King of the North (a position he didn’t ask for, but accepted) he needs to meet with her face to face. Lord Royce, from the Eyrie, tells Jon that a Lannister and a Targaryen cannot be trusted and even his usual champion, Lyanna Mormont, says he needs to stay in the north. Jon reminds them that the odds are against them in the fight with the White Walkers. They haven’t seen the army of the dead like he has and they cannot defeat it alone. He knows it’s a risk, but he has to do it. Jon decides to leave Sansa in charge, which arouses something in her and she looks to Littlefinger, who smiles. Brienne takes notice of this.

Before he prepares to leave, Jon goes to visit his father in the crypts of Winterfell. Littlefinger walks up and tells Jon how he hand-delivered Ned’s bones to Lady Catelyn. He says he was sorry Ned died and then tells Jon he is “the last best hope against the coming storm,” which is something he just told Sansa not too long ago. Jon gives Littlefinger the side eye. He knows not to trust this conniving, scheming person. Jon looks at Littlefinger and tells him he doesn’t belong in the crypts. Littlefinger apologizes and says that he and Jon had never properly spoken and he only wanted to rectify that situation. Jon says they have nothing to talk about. Littlefinger asks if he’s not even going to thank him, because if he had not brought the Knights of the Vale, Jon would be dead and the Bolton’s would still have Winterfell. Littlefinger professes his undying love for Sansa’s mother, Lady Catelyn, and then admits to being in love with Sansa. This is too much for Jon. He grabs Littlefinger by the throat and throws him against the wall saying that if Littlefinger ever touches Sansa Jon will kill him. There is definitely some Targaryen fire in Jon. Ser Davos and Jon leave for Dragonstone, which means Sansa will be left alone with Littlefinger. Here’s hoping she can stand up to his manipulation!

Luckily, Arya is on her way back to Winterfell. So maybe she can stop Littlefingers plans. She has made a camp and started a fire. After all, it’s winter in Westeros, so the closer you get to the north, the colder it gets. Her horse is going crazy and suddenly they are surrounded by a pack of wolves. Arya pulls Needle out, though she is outnumbered. Then, the alpha wolf comes up. It’s a huge wolf, resembling a direwolf. Arya thinks this may be her wolf, Nymeria whom she had to leave in the riverlands in season 1. Arya talks to her and slowly approaches the wolf. She tells Nymeria she is heading back home and asks the wolf to come with her. The wolf looks like she is listening to Arya and it looks like it will be a happy reunion until the wolf turns around and leaves as the pack follows. Arya says, “it’s not her.” So, was this a tease by the showrunners for the book readers? We know Nymeria is alive in the books and that she has her own wolf-pack that is terrorizing the riverlands. Arya has dreams of being a wolf while she is at the House of Black and White, though she doesn’t realize she’s actually seeing through the eyes of Nymeria. No happy reunion for now, but we can still hope.

Yara’s fleet is on its way to Kings Landing. Ellaria and Yara are getting to know each other and doing some heavy flirting. Theon leaves them, when suddenly the ship hits something. All hands are on deck as they are under attack by their dear uncle Euron. Since he just left Kings Landing they basically sailed right into him. There is a great storm like the one at the beginning of the episode. Euron and his army board Yara’s ships and it’s a blood bath. One of the Sand Snakes goes to protect her mother, Ellaria, but they are captured by Euron’s men. She thinks they mean to kill her, but they take her instead. This is most likely going to be one of Euron’s gifts to Cersei. All of the ships are overrun. The other two Sand Snakes die fighting Euron and, finally, he gets a hold of Yara. With his arm around Yara’s neck, Euron calls out to Theon to come fight for his sister. We see the deterioration of Theon as he goes back to being Reek and eventually jumps ship to save himself leaving Yara as yet another gift to Cersei. Theon seems to be the only one left alive floating in the water as the ships burn and his uncle sails off with the sister he swore to protect.

So, Dany’s fleet and Westerosi army are now destroyed. Meaning, if she decides to take Kings Landing she is going to have to use the Dothraki and Unsullied. Unless she can forge an alliance with Jon, but he is going to be more concerned (and rightly so) by the Night Kings army. I would've thought that Yara and Theon (and even Tyrion) might guess that Euron would ally himself with Cersei. At the Kingsmoot he said he was going to go to Dany and marry her, but Yara and Theon beat him to that. Euron's only other choice would be to join Cersei, which is a move I think they should've seen coming. As I said before, they basically sailed right into his fleet. Arya is on her way back to Winterfell and I hope she can curb Sansa from falling for any of Littlefinger’s whispers along with Brienne, who definitely knows something is up between those two. Cersei, unfortunately, now has a weapon to fight the dragons with (and after she defiled Balerion – dragon lover here – I am even more ready to see her die a horrific death).

It looks like Jon and Dany will actually meet and be in the same room next week! So exciting. I’m anxious to see how this plays out, especially when Ser Davos sees Melisandre there. Hopefully Tyrion can broker a peace between Dany and Jon.

Until next week...

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Courtenay | Mother of Dragons

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