A meeting is held in King’s Landing. Problems arise in the North.

Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Writers: David Benioff
Stars: Alfie Allen, Jacob Anderson, Robert Aramayo

Review by Mary Cox

“The Dragon and the Wolf”

Anyone who didn’t see anything that happened last night coming from a mile away needs to get their eyes checked. Game of Thrones has always been a series that’s heavy-handed with its foreshadowing, but the bombs the series dropped tonight have been on our radars for a good while. That doesn’t mean that last night’s bombshell of a season finale was bad! It’s just that things are getting too predictable after seven years, and I miss the wild and unexpected turns we got in the first few seasons, like Jaime losing his hand, and Ned Stark losing his head.

Jon and Dany’s “Boat Ride and Chill” is made a lot weirder when you learn that he’s essentially boning his aunt, but this is par for the course for the Targaryens, who historically like to keep it in the family anyway. Seriously though, how creepy was Tyrion for lurking in the halls and listening in on their
hookup?

I predicted we’d have a big, heart-breaking death in this finale, and I was a little off-course considering how much Littlefinger’s been asking for it since the first season. It’s a little disappointing that Arya only slit his throat, as a full-on Ned Stark style decapitation would have been much more satisfying and tied together.

Now that the Army of the Dead have their Icy Hot dragon, how in the hell is the North going to stand against them? Even though the Night King is outnumbered two to one when it comes to fire lizards, how is Daenerys going to handle fighting and killing one of her own “children”?

Cersei is reaching Nixon-levels of paranoia and scheming, to the point where she’s finally threatened to turn her sword against her own brother. Again, what the series is implying to us through the language of cinema is that Jaime is going to rehash his Kingslayer role before the end of the final season.

This season finale has left us with a monumental cliffhanger (or should I say wall hanger, considering how Tormund barely made it out alive) and with the Night Kings marching in the direct path of Winterfell. My one hope for the final chapter of the series is that they don’t sacrifice story over time like they did with the last few episodes of this season. We’ll have to wait an entire year to find out