A girl is stabbed … a couple characters return … and a newcomer steals a scene.
We see a series of scenes that’sWitnessmeets Westeros.
Why the cold open?
Credit: HBO
We’ll come back to this storyline in a bit.
King’s Landing:Sure, it’s a series of meetings … but they’re rather awesome meetings.
Margaery and the High Sparrow: Margaery shows off her scripture memorization.
Margaery and Lady Olenna: Margaery bewilders the hell out of her grandmother by spouting pinwheel-eyed New Gods testament.
Margaery urges her grandmother to go home lest there’s a Walk of Shame for the Queen of Thorns.
Margaery then slips her something: a Tyrell rose.
Olenna is relievedno matter what she’s saying, she’s still a member of the family.
Has she ever done that before?
And then she even says: “We need each other right now.”
This is, once again like in last week’s episode, a newly calm and calculating Cersei.
It’s like Qyburn started spiking her wine with Lexapro.
Then Olenna runs down precisely how screwed Cersei’s situation is here.
“You’ve lost, Cerseiit’s the only joy I can find in all this misery.”
NEXT:Can we just put Lyanna Mormont on the Iron Throne?
Riverrun:Bronn, like The Hound, is back.
Jaime tries to flatter him and offer a high rank, but he wants none of it.
He even shuts down Jaime’s family catchphrase.
We see Edmure Tully, this time with a knife to his throat.
Once again, Tobias Menzies has as few lines as Rickon (which is to say, none).
It’s like the producers are going: “Oh wait, you’re also onOutlander, right?
You don’t get to speak.”
Jaime wants to parlay with the Blackfish, who wears awesome fish-scale armor.
Jaime threatens to kill Edmure and every person in the castle.
But The Blackfish is not impressed and only came out to basically tell him so.
“Sieges are dull, I wanted to see you in person,” says The Blackfish.
No sign of Brienne yet.
Volantis: Remember brothel scenes?
Theon looks utterly miserable, which is also understandable.
Yara wants him to snap out of it and orders him to drink up.
Still, this is the kindest we’ve ever seen the harsh Greyjoys act toward each other.
Yara wants Theon to shed his Reek-dom, and it’s indeed great advice.
I so want Theon, Varys and Grey Worm to meet and form a group of eunuch superheroes.
Like in King’s Landing, this is essentially a trio of key meetings.
First are the wildlings.
Wun-Wun is on board, and once the giant is in their corner, who’s going to refuse?
Next is Bear Island, House Mormont.
Basically there are a lot of Mormonts scattered around the world on this show.
The family has its own Stark-like drama going on.
Now we meet Lyanna, who’s 10 years old and perhaps the biggest badass on this whole show.
She pledges her men … all 62 of them.
Hopefully Lyanna won’t be forced to marry Lord Robin in season 7.
Now we go to House Glover.
Their house was decimated by the War of the Five Kings and Robb Stark’s fatal blunders.
Sansa argues he knows nothing and should gather more men.
She writes a scroll and we think we know who she’s calling for help.
NEXT:Where’s Ray?
We see The Hound in a light we never have before, more reflective of his actions.
“If the gods are real, why haven’t they punished me?”
The Hound asks, in one of many terrific exchanges.
“They have,” Brother Ray replies.
The Hound: “You don’t cure it by dying either.”
They needed at least some semblance of protection.
Thankfully we’re spared from seeing what happens.
The Hound returns and isn’t terribly surprised to find them all dead.
Braavos:Arya is at the port looking to book passage on a ship back to Westeros.
A girl needs to get the f out of town.
She encounters an old woman.
Do you see this coming?
She’s is secretly The Waif wearing somebody else’s face.
Everything happens so fast.
Nobody thinks somebody who looks like Arya is about to suddenly attack.
But The Waif doesn’t underestimate Arya plus has the element of surprise on her side instead.
Arya jumps into the water and loses The Waif.
Eventually she climbs out.
She’s heavily wounded, in serious trouble, staggering through the streets.
Only three hours left of season 7.
Plus there’s still that big battle coming that the producers teased at the start of the season.
And so we cliffhang to next week.
In the meantime, read ourinterview with co-executive producer Bryan Cogmanwhere he talks about the return of The Hound.
Separately, Cogman gives a bit of insight into that scene withinstant breakout Lyanna Mormont.
Plus, we have our weekly trivia question with a prize from the HBO Store.
First correct answer togotpodcast@ew.comgets it.
Easy one this week: This week we saw House Glover and House Mormont.
What are the sigils for each?
