Game of Thrones (HBO): Season 7/Episode 1

7.1 Dragonstone

Disguised as Walder Frey, Arya strikes the definitive blow to his house by poisoning all his remaining descendants at a banquet in the very hall where Catelyn, Robb, and Talisa were murdered. Meera and Bran seek refuge at the nearest wall outpost. Jon Snow and Sansa butt heads on how to handle the affairs of the north, a bone of contention that Petyr persistently attempts to exploit. Cersei sends them a raven ordering them to come to King’s Landing and bend a knee or suffer the consequences. Jaime outlines their bleak survival prospects in the absence of allies. The queen covets Euron’s Iron Fleet but finds it hard to trust him. He promises to gain that trust. Sam’s training is not as exciting as he expected it to be. He sneaks into the restricted area of the library and finds vital information they can use against the enemy. Daenerys along with her dragons and her crew dock at Dragonstone, the first Targaryen stronghold which sits on a mountain of dragonglass lethal to white walkers.

Oh look, it’s FRED WEASLEY! Oops, false alarm. It’s just Ed Sheeran. Winter is here, winter is there, winter is everywhere!!! Now that’s how you open a new season, with a death count quota! HAHA. So this is how it feels to wait one whole year for a new episode? I can still feel the euphoria of Queen B’s revenge and that monologue of hers. The episode still reeks of vengeance thanks to Baby Girl Stark’s roaring rampage of revenge. I so want to see her in a Quentin Tarantino movie. The scene felt a bit late, though. It would have easily fit the overall thirst-for-blood theme of last season’s finale, but perhaps this is the better option. It would have been boring otherwise. That opening salvo got us all hooked! Overall the episode is a good intro to the new season. Not too boring. Not too exciting. It’s just right, like, let us breathe first before you hit us with all the good stuff. As for happenings in the north, it’s a good thing that there’s some sibling rivalry going on. At least Dragon Mama has no monopoly of all the exciting subplots. Breathe, guys.

“When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey.” –Arya Stark

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