Small Council: What did we think of “The Dragon and the Wolf”?

“The Dragon and the Wolf” the seventh and final episode of Game of Thrones season 7, has aired. What did we think of it? Read our thoughts below, tell us yours in the comments, and vote in the poll!

DAN: “The Dragon and the Wolf” was a pleasant slow-burner of a Game of Thrones episode. My favorite thing about it was the way director Jeremy Podeswa picked up lots of little details, particularly in the Dragonpit sequence. I loved Brienne noticing the Hound from afar, aghast that he was alive. I loved Cersei watching Brienne watch Jaime. I loved Euron smirking at Theon, and bucking expectation by speaking first. I loved Tyrion, Bronn and Podrick picking up their rapport exactly where they left it in season 4. “The Dragon and the Wolf” gave fans a chance to luxuriate in the small, character-building moments we were missing from the last two episodes. It gave us room to breathe.

And the bit where Daenerys rides in on a freaking dragon only for Cersei to call her out for being tardy is my new favorite Cersei moment. How fantastically petty. Cersei was the MVP of the episode for me, from her side-eye during the summit to her emotionally ragged talk with Tyrion to the revelation that she was playing everyone the whole time. “Making honest feelings do dishonest work is one of her many gifts,” Tyrion once said of her. That about covers it. And the relaxed nature of the episode played to Lena Headey’s strengths as an actor, namely packing monologues worth feeling into her facial expressions.

At the same time, some of the episode’s good moments were blunted by what came before. I enjoyed Littlefinger’s death scene, but I would have liked it more if the build-up had been more carefully written. Likewise, seeing the wight charge at Cersei was a thrill, but I couldn’t quite forget that we only got here because the show forced Jon to go on a wight hunt in the first place. But those concerns are more properly addressed in a discussion of the season as a whole, which we’ll have next week! Looking at the episode by itself (which is almost entirely academic given how serialized the show is, but let’s go with it), “The Dragon and the Wolf” was excellent.

Seeing Zombie Viserion bring down the Wall was a fun bit of fantasy nonsense, and I loved how the show revealed that Jon was Rhaegar’s trueborn son. Game of Thrones has been lacking in envelope-pushing moments lately, and while this didn’t break the wheel, it was hilariously ballsy to show us a tender love scene between Jon and Daenerys while underlining the fact that they were related, basically giving fans a long-awaited moment and then making them feel gross for enjoying it. The weirder the conflict the better, so far as I’m concerned.

Macall B. Polay – HBO

COREY: This may have been my favorite episode of what was a very uneven season. But as with the season overall, my feelings are mixed.

On the one hand, we got some incredibly well-acted, well-scripted moments from characters we love and characters we hate. For instance, Brienne and the Hound’s reunion was perfect on every level. Despite nearly killing one another, they’re united in their mutual love for Arya Stark. The fact that Arya clearly no longer needs either of them is not lost on the viewer, or them.

Jaime and Cersei’s breakup scene was a sight to behold. Cersei has long been emotionally abusive to Jaime, and here that abuse very nearly turned physical. Cersei could never be the warrior she always wanted to be, and the Mountain now acts as a physical extension of her will. The dynamic between Cersei and Jaime has always been toxic, but Jaime still manages to be heartbroken at the though that his lover might cut him down. See him moved nearly to tears was powerful.

These were the kinds of moments that made us all fall in love with the show, and which had by and large been missing from the season. I want the beautiful scene of snow falling over King’s Landing as much as I want Viserion destroying the Wall. The finale gave us many of those kinds of moments, but there were still bumps in the road. Littlefinger’s death scene was fantastic in a vacuum, but we can’t forget the sloppiness of how we got there.

The good news is, Thrones can correct this problem very easily. Slow things down a bit, give us a few more scenes here or there, and we are right back to where we started. I’m not looking forward to the long offseason, but will happily bear it if it means a return to form for the show’s final year.

RICHARD: I agree with everything Dan and Corey have discussed. It’s a fine episode and season finale, but it isn’t going to be my favorite of the season. I’ve had to sit back and let some time pass before I could even tackle how I really felt about this installment. Part of me really liked it, and another, more nebulous part of me had reservations I couldn’t quite put into words.

Dan and Corey’s interpretations have helped me bring my reaction into focus. This episode had some fantastic scenes, like the Hound/Brienne meeting, Jon and Dany’s love affair and Cersei’s paranoia and exile of her beloved brother Jaime. There were some brilliant cinematic moments, such as the snowflake landing on Jaime’s glove, and Wight Viserion blue-flaming the Wall was pure fantasy goodness.

As for my misgivings, I think it boils down to the uneven construction of some of this season’s plotlines and how they added a hollowness to certain big story arcs paying off. Dan and Corey have mentioned them so I’ll be quick. The Sansa/Jon and Sansa/Littlefinger/Arya conflicts at Winterfell have felt forced and over-accelerated all season, and that took some of the dramatic explosiveness out of the excellent scene where the Stark girls finally bring Littlefinger down. The implausible idea (coming from Tyrion, no less) of kidnapping a wight undercut the seriousness of the Magnificent Seven’s expedition north, and continued to undercut the drama of Biff the Wight’s presentation at the Dragonpit.

In the end, it was a successful season finale despite the troubles it carried with it from before. It served up satisfying story and character moments while keeping cliffhangers in play—enough to hold me over for the long winter until season 8—and that is a great accomplishment.

BROOKE: Like everyone else, I appreciated the slower pace of the finale and the return of exposition. The many reunions did justice to the characters and relationships the show has crafted so well over the years. All of them were true to the story that’s been told—Tyrion/Bronn, Pod/Tyrion, Brienne/the Hound, the Clegane brothers—even Sam/Bran. Brienne and Jaime didn’t have much time together, but, as with all their interactions, their brief encounter left a deep impression on Jaime. In fact, I think seeing Brienne was the catalyst for Jaime’s eventual decision to leave Cersei.

The clunky set-up to the Sansa/Arya/Littlefinger scene didn’t diminish the satisfaction of seeing the Stark sisters finally beat Littlefinger at his own game for me. It was no surprise that his own dagger was the instrument of his demise—Bran didn’t just give it to Arya because it was a cool knife. And it was gratifying to see Arya slit his throat, just like she did Walder Frey’s, in poetic payback for the betrayal and murder of her mother.

Dan — is it gross that I wasn’t grossed out by the Dany/Jon Sex scene? I guess the show has desensitized me to incest. After years of brother/sister sex, aunt/nephew sex seems like no big deal. I loved the way Bran’s narration was intercut with Lyanna and Rhaegar’s marriage ceremony, Dany greeting Jon at the door to her chamber, Lyanna and Ned in the Tower of Joy, and Jon/Dany having sex. They used the same technique in “The Queen’s Justice” when Tyrion’s voiceover explained the action at Casterly Rock, and it worked both times.

The one thing that hasn’t seemed rushed this season is Jaime’s refusal to leave Cersei. Aside from revealing the depths of her vindictive and murderous nature to him, she has belittled him, shunted him aside, dismissed his advice, threatened him—the list goes on. With every episode I was wondering what it was going to take for him to walk away from her. Whatever it was that finally convinced him to leave — lying about her intent to join the fight against the Night King, conspiring with Euron behind Jaime’s back, or her subtle nod to the Mountain—doesn’t even matter. He finally, FINALLY left. His glance back at King’s Landing as the snow began to fall was both a lovely coda to his journey thus far and a harbinger of things to come.

The annihilation of the Wall was an objectively awesome scene, I agree, but it was heartbreaking enough to see only two dragons swooping over the dragon pit at the beginning of the episode. Seeing the Night King ride Ice Viserion was just too much.

All in all, it was a great episode.

RAZOR: “The Dragon and the Wolf” was a very good episode. And as finales go, it was satisfying. So, why do I feel so unsatisfied?

I think the answer to that question lies in the lead-up to the final episode of the season.

Both “Eastwatch” and “Beyond the Wall” felt like sloppy rush-jobs filled with plot holes. The storylines felt forced, and the episodes would have been completely forgettable if not for major developments like the return of Gendry, the reunion of Jorah and Daenerys, and the death and resurrection of Viserion.

Obviously, there were some fantastic moments from the season 7 finale:

• The meeting of so many major characters at the Dragonpit in King’s Landing.
• Littlefinger’s demise at Winterfell.
• Jon and Dany’s adventure aboard the Loveboat.
• Bran’s vision of Rhaegar and Lyanna’s marriage.
• Undead Viserion attacking the Wall.
• The collapse of a section of the Wall, ending the episode with the dead crossing over into the Seven Kingdoms as well as the question of Tormund and Beric’s survival.

All in all, I would give “The Dragon and the Wolf” three out of five stars. If the season hadn’t felt so rushed and forced, perhaps the finale would have been more enjoyable. Let’s hope season 8 will slow down a bit, or we’ll be dealing with the same problems we’ve faced all season long.

JULIA:  I was pleased to see that the show came back to its old, slow-burner form. I enjoyed the Winterfell scenes despite the flaws already pointed out in the previous two episodes, and not because we got to see Littlefinger cry like a baby. I enjoyed seeing Sansa exercise her position as the Lady of Winterfell, and as a player of the game. I loved her first dialogue with Littlefinger — I could see the exact moment she realized that he was trying to pit her against her sister. Arya never wanted to be a Lady!

The Dragonpit sequence was pure Game of Thrones. Was I expecting major deaths from that encounter? Sure, but mostly because the director expertly built so much tension. It was incredible to finally see the two queens encounter each other, and Dany’s triumphant entrance was terrific. (One note: I would take out the soundtrack for that scene and let the dragons’ roars grow into a cacophony.) Also: bravo to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey. Nikolaj presented shades of Jaime that I hadn’t seen before, and Lena was superb. They owned the episode. Alfie Allen was excellent, too — I loved Theon’s twitching hands when he tries to convince his shipmates to save Yara.

That leads me to one of the downsides of the episode: Dany’s scenes. The character seemed rather emotionless here, and seemed to have the same expression in every scene, whether she was facing down Cersei or feeling turned on by Jon Snow. She wasn’t the emotive Dany we saw in “Beyond the Wall.”

There are other things that make me agree with Razor’s grade of three out of five stars, namely the strange cut after Tyrion realizes that Cersei is pregnant, the cliffhanger with Tormund’s death, and seeing yet another ending scene showcasing the army of the dead…

All in all, the season finale felt more like the Thrones I love, and it was really nice to get an hour and 16 minutes of the show before The Long Wait.

SARAH: Episode 6 was such a stone-cold disappointment that I approached the finale with trepidation, and found myself pleasantly surprised. I feel particularly vindicated in my continuing support for Theon Greyjoy. I had faith that he would pull himself together and gather the courage to rescue his sister, and I’m beyond thrilled to see that faith justified. His scene with Jon Snow was one of the most beautiful moments in the series so far, and while Kit Harington did a fine job, Alfie Allen continues to bless us with phenomenal performances that are, above all else, immersive and honest. I’ve never believed a character more than I believe Theon Greyjoy.

The reunions in this episode were off the chain. Between Brienne/Sandor, Tyrion/Pod, Jaime/Brienne, Sandor/Gregor and Tyrion/Cersei, I was squirming with delight on so many occasions. Cersei was so unimpressed by Dany’s dragons that I actually cheered for her. She’s such a baller — a terrible, evil baller who must be stopped, but at least she’s damn entertaining. I’m puzzled as to why anyone might believe that Tyrion struck a secret deal with her to spy on Dany or some such nonsense. It’s perfectly clear that she used her pregnancy to manipulate Tyrion into believing that he could manipulate her into calling a truce for the sake of her baby. Try as y’all might, nobody can convince me that Cersei’s not playing the best game of thrones in Westeros. In fact, if it wasn’t for the White Walkers, I’d be genuinely willing to bet good money that she had it in her to end season 8 on top. Ultimately, though, I feel that someone will kill her. I used to think it would be Jaime, but Euron Greyjoy is emerging as a likely candidate.

Obviously, I don’t care for the Jon/Daenerys union because their entire romance is forced with a side-order of incest, but ultimately I don’t care enough to be really bothered. Plus, Bran’s verbal reveal of Jon’s superior claim to the Targaryen dynasty, just as Jon is on top of Dany while she’s at her most vulnerable, paves the way nicely for Daenerys to turn on him in the next season. Otherwise I don’t particularly see the point of holding off on such a reveal. Try as I might, I’ve never been able to see any ending for her other than a heel turn, and nothing I’ve seen in this season has convinced me that she’s not going to become an endgame villain. If, however, Jon and Dany do end up with their cliched, predictable, happy-ever-after ending, I’ll deal, as long as more interesting characters prevail.

Speaking of more interesting characters, Petyr Baelish is dead, which along with Arya and Sansa’s newfound friendship is everything I wanted from this episode, this season, and this show. It’s just a shame that Aidan Gillen was only able to pull out his acting A-game for his final scene of the series. I’ve never rated his ability to recite his lines, and I won’t miss him. Perhaps I’d feel his loss more keenly had he been played by an actor like Tom Hollander, but I suppose I can begrudgingly admit that he gave it his best shot.

The reveal of Arya and Sansa’s sudden decision to stop fighting and band together seems strange — as a result, many fans are of the belief that they were plotting together the entire time, which I don’t believe. Isaac Hempstead Wright’s reveal that the showrunners cut a scene in which Sansa, unsure of whether or not she should have Arya killed, goes to Bran for help, would have done a lot to clear things up but it also would have removed any dramatic tension when Petyr’s death actually came. There’s nothing to be blamed here but bad writing in episodes 5 and 6. This entire storyline could have been handled better. At least Sansa and Arya’s new BFF status is our reward for putting up with it. Not to mention Petyr’s lifeless body.