Game of Thrones episode review — 7.7 — The Dragon and the Wolf
By: Patrick J Mullen
Tags: Drama, 2010s, TV, Fantasy, Game of Thrones

Original air date: August 27, 2017

Director: Jeremy Podeswa

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Rating: 9/10

While this has easily been my least favourite season of the show so far, it at least ends on a pretty high note. While the plan to bring a wight to Cersei was incredibly stupid, the negotiations are interesting to see.

The first portion of the episode is just kind of a reunion tour, so it feels a bit fanservice-y. Tyrion sees Podrick and Bronn, his old friends. The Hound sees Brienne and later his brother, the Mountain, promising to someday kill him.

During the negotiations, Euron storms out, claiming he’s going back to the Iron Islands because the army of the dead can’t swim. We later learn that’s not exactly the case. Cersei agrees to the truce if Jon stays in the North and does not pledge allegiance to Daenerys. But Jon says he’s already sworn allegiance, and can’t take back that oath. So it’s sort of his fault everything’s fucked up for about five minutes, but Tyrion goes and sorts some things out with Cersei.

Cersei agrees to send her army north, but when Jaime is making plans, she reveals to him that she had lied, hoping to leave the Targaryen and Northern troops to die, having purchased an army from Essos. She notes that Daenerys now only appears to have two dragons, therefore indicating that she’s more vulnerable than she has let on.

Jaime says that’s a terrible idea, and still hopes to personally aid those in the North, but Cersei nearly has him killed.

Up in the North, Littlefinger thinks Sansa’s about to execute Arya, but instead charges are brought against him. Charges ranging all the way back to before the show, as he’s murdered Lysa Arryn, Jon Arryn, conspired against Ned, etc.

He argues that nobody was there so nobody can truly say for certain that he betrayed Ned, but of course Bran reveals his exact words, so Sansa has Arya kill him.

It’s nice to finally see this guy go, as really he hasn’t served a purpose in the story all season. He was one of my favourite parts of the show early on, but he’s gotten really, really stale. Glad he’s gone.

Sam and Gilly arrive at Winterfell, and Sam speaks with Bran. He learns that Bran’s now the Three-Eyed Raven, of course, and Bran reveals that Jon isn’t Ned’s son, but the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, making him Jon Sand. But Sam reveals that he had transcribed the private diary of a maester who claimed to have married the two in secret, thus making Jon not a bastard, and the legitimate heir to Westeros.

This is all revealed while Jon and Daenerys have sex, but more so than the incest, I’m distracted by how the show has just contradicted itself with Bran’s omniscience, since he didn’t know about what Sam was telling him.

Anyways, the episode and the season end with the army of the dead approaching the Wall, and using their new dragon to bust it down. It’s pretty cool.

This episode may have its share of dumb things going on, but it at least partially redeems the otherwise fairly bad season. All the nonsense with capturing the wight is redeemed by Cersei ultimately betraying the truce. All the nonsense with Littlefinger is redeemed because Sansa sees right through him, as she should.