It’s hard to believe after all that waiting that we have now finished the penultimate season of Game of Thrones. Episode 7 aired last night, an especially long episode which gave us some amazing reunions, big reveals and sped the plot along exponentially. It’s been an amazing season and I have so many predictions and theories on what might happen in the final season, which I’ll be writing in another blog this week, so stay tuned. And without further ado lets take a look at what happened in Season 7’s finale.

We start at King’s Landing, where Dany’s forces have rallied outside almost sending a message “If you touch our queen, you’re fucked” and it’s a very strong message, as we see the size of her Unsullied army, regimented and in order, swiftly followed by her Dothraki screamers who continue to remain terrifying to the Westerosi.

Tyrion, Varys, Missandei, Greyworm, Jorah, Davos, The Hound and of course John are all attending; and this cannot be understated. A lot of these men and women have bounties on there heads and to set foot in Westeros let alone King’s Landing is practically suicide. They know Cersei blew up the Sept with wildfire, which contained a large number of her enemies and it feels like they’re walking straight into another of her traps. Not a great idea but the plan is to plead for a truce whilst they fight the only fight that matters, the White Walkers.
Cersei meanwhile heads to the meeting place, the dragon pit, but not before instructing her crazed zombie bodyguard The Mountain to kill them if anything is to happen. You kind of feel like Cersei plans to kill them anyway, but as we see later in the episode, it appears she has different plan, which we’ll come back to.

Episode 7 was full of reunions, as when Tyrion and co arrive at the dragon pit we start to see some fantastic character moments, moments which fly by so quickly you really need to pay attention to realise how significant they are. First we have Pod and Tyrion. Pod was Tyrion’s loyal squire for years until Tyrion was locked away for the falsely accused murder of King Joffrey, and then sent North with Brienne to be her squire. Pod was always loyal to Tyrion, even when he was locked away. Pod was a character who never stood trial against Tyrion and I’m sure there must have been plenty of offers flying his way from the Lannisters, if he was to give evidence against the Imp; so this moment is truly great and brought a smile to my face.
Secondly we have The Hound and Brienne, both with one thing in common; their need to protect Arya Stark. You’ll remember Arya was originally The Hound’s captive and it wasn’t until they travelled together that they actually became quite fond of one another, cemented by The Hound’s relief in this episode that she was alive and in Winterfell. Remember, Arya left The Hound for dead for his role in the betrayal of her family, so for The Hound to still care for her is great to see; he obviously sees a lot of himself in her. Brienne and The Hound’s epic fight in season 4 saw Brienne nearly kill him and for them both to walk side by side with mutual respect for each other was also a nice moment; they don’t like each other but there is a certain admiration between them.
Finally there’s Bronn and Tyrion. Tyrion bought Bronn as a sellsword to fight for him way back when Cat took him captive for the false accusation of the attempted murder of Bran (instigated and manipulated by Littlefinger). These two have been through a lot and whist Bronn’s motives have always been about money, there was always a connection between the two. Tyrion actually tries to buy Bronn by claiming he’ll double whatever the Lannisters are paying him, to which Bronn (for now) refuses. With Jaime leaving Cersei later in the episode, you’ve got to wonder how long Bronn will actually stick with the Lannisters, I’d personally like to see him turn cloak with Jaime and head North the fight the undead army, but it would be slightly out of character for a man who only cares about his pocket.
Other nice mentions before we get into the meeting itself is the fact that Jorah is back in Westeros. Jorah was exiled for selling slaves, and dishonouring his family, so for him to finally be back is a big deal for him. The same with John, considering we know he was actually born in the south. Varys, like Tyrion has also not been back since he betrayed Cersei and fled King’s Landing with Tyrion, so there’s a lot of risks involved here.

Tyrion and Bronn travelling together in early Game of Thrones.

At the meeting, all of Dany’s followers arrive without her as Cersei enters the dragon pit flanked by her Hand Qyburn, brother Jaime and The Mountain. The look she gives Tyrion is outstanding, if looks could kill. Lena Headey plays Cersei, so well; she’s a mixture of badass and pure evil all rolled into one and the tenseness of the scene when she asks “Where is she?” is followed by a cutting silence within the court. Cersei has the ability to cut atmosphere with just a look at somebody and it’s fantastic to watch.
Whist we’re waiting for Dany to arrive, The Hound confronts his brother The Mountain, having not seen him for many years. He sees his zombified sibling, which doesn’t seem to shock him much but before he sits back down he claims “It’s not how it ends for you brother, you know who’s coming for you”, potentially setting up one of the most anticipated fights we’re ever likely to see, The Hound vs The Mountain. It’s something I’d personally love to see, but I struggle to see how they’ll both be in the same place again, assuming Sandor goes back north with John and Dany, but either way it lays down a hint that this may come next season. Perhaps once the Night King is dealt with and Dany turns her attention back to Cersei?

Anyway, Dany flies in on Drogon and we see where all that Ghost budget has gone, it’s an amazing scene and no matter how many times we see the dragons, it never ceases to give you goosebumps. He drops her off but Cersei kills the moment by saying “We’ve been here for some time.” un-phased by the dragon. It takes Tyrion to start proceedings by explaining exactly what’s going on north of the Wall, followed by John who tries to express the importance of stopping the Night King. Remember, anybody south of the Wall, especially Cersei would find it very hard to believe that any of what John and Tyrion is saying is true, so it does show the importance of the little demonstration they put on as Sandor kicks over the box containing the Wight. As it rushes towards Cersei you see genuine fear in her eyes. It’s very rare we see any emotion apart from anger from Cersei so it just goes to show the importance of her fear for her baby. The Hound stops the Wight before it gets to her and cuts it in half. John proves that burning or killing these things with dragon glass will stop them and Euron seems to have had enough as he struts off claiming he’s never been more terrified of anything like this before.
Cersei decides to accept the truce but on one condition, that John bend the knee and swear he will never take up arms against Cersei or take sides for that matter. It’s a clever move as she knows he’s Ned’s son and knows he’ll be honourable to his word, just like his father. She gives him an impossible choice; betray Dany or watch Dany fight Cersei alone. Of course the obvious answer would be to lie and take on Cersei regardless of any oath he makes to her, but that’s not John. He declares he cannot accept, much to Cersei’s fury as she claims there is no point in continuing discussion and leaves. John’s decision to be a man of his word seems a stupid one, as Dany and Tyrion both rightly point out, and let’s remember, honourable men don’t tend to last long in Game of Thrones, Ned Stark being case in point. John has been reborn and near death so many times and you start to wonder when his luck will run out. After all, stupid decisions get you killed, so my prediction of John not making it to the end of this wonderful show may yet come true. Anyway, Tyrion decides he must speak with Cersei alone and try to convince her; another stupid move which seems to pay off on the face of things, but probably not in the long run. Tyrion and Cersei spa with words as The Mountain oversees the whole thing, Tyrion even goads Cersei into executing him to which Cersei declines despite the temptation being great. She still blames Tyrion for her father’s death, which is correct and as a consequence of his actions, also blames him for the death of Myrcella and Tommen. It’s nice to see she does’t blame him for Joffrey any more though, although clearly has no intention of apologising to sentencing him to death for it. Cersei is consumed by hatred and convinces herself time and time again that every decision she makes is the correct one and nobody can tell her otherwise; which makes it even stranger when after their discussion Cersei pledges to fight alongside Dany in the war against the Night King. You have to wonder a few things here, did she plan this all along? Making sure Dany and John think she’s on their side whilst plotting behind their back is a shrewd yet dishonourable move, and John not playing ball complicated it. To then give into a conversation with Tyrion seems unlikely. Another scary thought is that Tyrion has either made a deal for his life with her or worse potentially betrayed Dany. This is something I think deserves its own blog, so I won’t go into too much detail yet, but what if Tyrion has changed his mind? All this talk about family, Tyrion’s clear regrets when seeing the Lannisters slaughtered in episode 4 and finally the reveal of Cersei’s baby, his nephew or niece. Could this has swayed his allegiance back? After all, he is a Lannister. Time will tell on this, but can we explain the regretful look he gives as he watches John enter Dany’s bed chamber at the end of the episode?

Tyrion and Cersei appear to make some kind of deal off-screen.

Back at Winterfell Littlefinger is up to his old tricks, he converses with Sansa in private yet again and continues to put thoughts in her head about Arya. Notice how he constantly suggests “why this” or “why that”, enticing Sansa to make decisions on certain things whilst clearly implying them himself. Littlefinger is an amazing character and in the books I’m very convinced that if not for a small amount of time, he will sit the Iron Throne. Show Littlefinger though is clearly doomed and as we see later in the episode, meets his end. After conspiring with Sansa, Sansa orders Arya to be brought to the main hall where she sits flanked by Bran. Sansa at first looks to accuse Arya of treason against her House until she directs the accusations to Littlefinger instead. His response his priceless, he literally has no idea this is coming, and why would he? He is the master manipulator and he probably would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for Bran. I have no doubt he could have manipulated Sansa into imprisoning Arya or worse, but he wasn’t to know of Bran’s supernatural power. It’s clear off-screen that Bran has banged his sister’s heads together and explained what he has seen with his greensight visions. So what exactly has Bran seen?

  • He saw Littlefinger conspire with Lysa Arryn to murder King Robert’s Hand, her husband Jon Arryn.
  • He saw Littlefinger manipulate Lysa into telling Cat and Ned it was the Lannisters, which ultimately started the entire war of the five Kings and the hatred between Lannister and Stark.
  • He saw Littlefinger push Lysa out of the Moon Door so he could take control of the Vale.
  • He saw Littlefinger conspire with the Bolton’s to sell them Sansa, despite knowing what Ramsay was capable of.
  • And finally he saw Littlefinger promise to help Ned reveal Cersei’s treason and incest, before betraying him last minute, ultimately leading to Ned to be imprisoned and beheaded by Joffrey.

Littlefinger has done some horrible, cruel things and whilst he’s not always been the direct reason, he’s always played a part in something horrible. He’s always created chaos to allow himself to climb the metaphoric ladder to the top. He pleads with Sansa to spare him after trying to talk himself out of his, but is killed brutally by Arya as she slashes his throat with the same dagger used on the attempted murder of Bran. The knife was Littlefinger’s, but it was Joffrey who called the order, which which Littlefinger once again lied and claimed to be Tyrion. Another lie to create bad blood between Stark and Lannister. It was fitting he’d die by this blade and the poetic irony of him getting his throat slit was not lost on me; after all for a man who prides himself of talking his way of everything, he was physically unable to utter his last words.
I also want to touch on the brilliant positioning of Arya in this scene. She starts behind Littlefinger and slowly makes her way around him. The 3 siblings are truly a wolfpack at this point, circling their prey, knowing they have him where they want him and I’d love to think this was intentional.

Littlefinger betraying Ned Stark in court after promising to help him.

Back at Dragonstone, Dany and John decide to travel together to White Harbour just south of Winterfell. Jorah is concerned that the Northmen won’t take kindly to Dany walking across their land, considering her ancestors conquered and killed their men when they took over Westeros hundreds of years ago with fire and blood, but John claims they need to see her with him. Theon also approaches John looking some kind of forgiveness from his brother. Whilst neither are the true son of Ned, it’s nice to see they do both have some of Ned in them. Theon is a coward, but there’s a brave man in there somewhere, which is proven as he beats one of the Ironborn men who question he position and plan to save Yara. It seems as though Theon is on the road to redemption and looks as though he’s going to be taking on his Uncle Euron next season to free his captured sister.

Back at King’s Landing we see Jaime planning his expedition north with his men, which Cersei interrupts. We quickly find out that she actually has no intention at all of fighting alongside Dany and instead will watch on as Dany and the north get themselves killed by the undead army, whilst she continues to build hers. Remember she’s using Iron Bank’s gold to hire the Golden Company in Essos and we also find out that Euron hasn’t actually left and is instead ferrying them back to Westeros to fight for her. Whatever outcome she’ll take on whoever wins. It’s a dirty trick and one I’m surprised even I fell for. Cersei has promised a truce, promised to help Dany and figure out what happens next once the Night King is defeated and it was safe to believe she wasn’t lying; as it did seem she had a new perspective on life with her newfound pregnancy. None-the-less she’s the same old scheming Cersei and Jaime hates it. He wants to fight the dead, he fears them and as his story ark has turned him from the cruel oath-breaking Kingslayer to the honourable gentleman, and it’s clear he’s had enough. Cersei tries to manipulate him out of his reasoning by talking about their baby but it seems like enough is enough for Jaime who claims he will fight regardless. Cersei threatens to have him killed as one last attempt to force him to stay, but Jaime calls her bluff and leaves. For a moment there I thought he was going to die and it was great to see him finally leave the grasps of Cersei and also leave King’s Landing. Jaime will now travel north to meet up with John and Dany, where I feel he’ll probably meet his end and I really hope it’s met in the arms of the woman who truly loves him, Brienne. But we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
As Jaime leaves we see these amazing shots of snow falling on King’s Landing. Further proof that winter is indeed coming. These shots were some of my favourite of the entire season, as we get some awesome wide panned shots of the city in all its glory with the white snow descending on top of it.

Dany sees King’s Landing destroyed and covered in snow in one of visions in early Game of Thrones.

The final Winterfell scene of the season sees Sam arrive back north with Gilly, he goes straight to Bran who remembers him well. You’ll remember that Sam actually helped Bran through secret passages north of the wall and as both of them sit in front of the fire, put together to biggest confirmation in Game of Thrones history. Bran explains that John is Rhaegar and Lyanna’s son. Sam then explains what Gilly read to him back at the Citadel, that they were actually married in secret, which means John isn’t a bastard at all and is in fact a true born Targaryen, with the rightful claim to the throne; his claim even being stronger than Dany’s. Both Sam and Bran put this information together and Bran sees through his visions, the marriage of both Rhaegar and Lyanna. This was an amazing moment as we’ve only ever heard about Rhaegar and it’s so great to see him in all his glory. I really hope we see another flash back next season containing more Rheagar as Bran continues to explain to John what exactly his father was like.
As Bran is explaining this to Sam we see Dany and John getting it on in her bed chamber. It’s a little creepy considering she’s technically his aunt, but Game of Thrones has never shied away from it before. Targaryens actually wed Targaryens often throughout there history to keep their blood lines pure, so I don’t even really expect this to be so strange to Dany when she does finds out. It may be a little weird for John though. We see Tyrion watch on as he realises that what they’re doing may complicate things. Of course Tyrion doesn’t know John’s true heritage but he’s right to be concerned that emotions and feelings could get in the way of the true fight. Of course this could also be a look of guilt, which I’ve also touched on, but again we’ll have to wait to find out if Tyrion has actually done something bad next season.

Finally we get the big ending we were all hoping for. The army of the dead descend on the Wall and as you’re wondering how they plan on passing it, the Night King flies in with his brand spanking new weapon of mass destruction in the form of Dany’s dragon Viseron. Breathing blue fire, he proceeds to start burning down the Wall and we see two of our favourites Tormund and Beric barely escape with their lives. We also see the shear size of the Night King’s army as they start to cross the crumbled Wall which has kept them at bay for centuries. This moment is one book and show readers have been waiting for, for years, the Wall finally coming down and what a way to do it to. Another example of what a stupid idea it was for Dany to travel North with her dragons just to save John and his crew. Tyrion did advise her against it and not only did it cost her a dragon, but gained the Night King one. The last shot we see is the Night King flying atop his dragon above his army, heading South to consume all, before the credits roll.

Wow, what a season it’s been and if you’ve managed to read through each of my reviews I can only say thank you and I really hope they’ve helped you grasp more of what’s going on in each episode. I live and breath Game of Thrones, both the show and the books and to know that there are people out there who feel how I do and appreciate what I write each week is such a great feeling, so cheers. I can’t wait for next season and don’t worry this isn’t the end of Game of Thrones for Bearded Robot. I’ll have a Tyrion blog up by the end of the week, my thoughts and theories of what’s to come next season and finally we’ll have a History of the Dragon Pit blog from Danny later in the week.

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