Game of Thrones Screencap Breakdown: “Dragonstone”

Over in Oldtown, we join Samwell Tarly during his adventures as a maester in training and are treated to a wonderful shot of the Citadel library. The afterglow from that lasts about three seconds before we get a series of shots of Sam restocking books, cleaning bedpans and emptying poop into poop repositories.

We won’t screencap the other aspects of Sam’s job, because quite honestly you don’t want to see it in detail. This is the cleanest shot we could find:

Throughout the extended segment, Sam makes it clear he would like to enter this section of the library, a section reserved only for maesters.

Jim Broadbent! Jim Broadbent!

Okay, we calmed down. Broadbent plays an archmaester. When we meet him, he’s performing an autopsy and requiring Sam to weigh each organ. Sam doesn’t seem to enjoy this very much.

Sam requests to be admitted to the restricted area of the library, but Broadbent shuts him down. He does say he believes Sam’s story about the Night King, though, and delivers an awesome speech about men being no better than dogs without knowledge. Glad to have Broadbent aboard.

Still, Sam is undeterred from his quest to secure knowledge that might aid Jon Snow. After stealing keys to the restricted area of the library from a sleeping maester, Sam absconds with several books that might be of use. Rock on, Sam.

Back to Winterfell, where we pick up Brienne and Podrick in the middle of a sparring match.

Podrick finally manages to get a hit in when Tormund throws Brienne a lascivious look…

…so Brienne smacks Pod into the snow. Poor Pod.

Sansa is observing from the balcony, where she talks with a sentient garden snake named Littlefinger.

I’ll give Littlefinger this: he’s mastered the art of the lean. Big Pun would be proud.

Sansa isn’t buying what Littlefinger is selling, and Baelish takes a sad walk through the courtyard.

Hopefully Sansa remains resolute for the rest of the season.