Monthly Archives: April 2019

Synopsis: Another surprise scene before the opening credits, the first since last season’s “The Broken Man,” and this one also featuring the return of character. This time it’s Walder Frey. But didn’t he die, you say? Wait for it. Walder gathers all the men in his family and serves them wine, offering them a toast. As the men all drink, he celebrates them for their behavior at the Red Wedding, and the slowly chastises them. The men start to choke and cough up blood. As they fall to their deaths, Frey pulls his face off. It’s Arya. In one fell swoop she has ended the Frey line. She tells Frey’s young wife that to tell people that the North remembers. Turns out the winter that is coming is helped by the cold front following the Night King and his army. We haven’t seen the crew in a few episodes, but they’ve picked up some new recruits, notably a couple giants. Bran and Meera arrive at the wall where they meet with Eddison Tollett. Meera introduces them, and Bran creeps them out by telling Edd about his past. Jon talks with the Northerners about prepping for the war to come. He sends Tormund to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, as it will be the first stop if the undead army gets past the wall. As they discuss what to do with the Umbers and Karstarks, Jon says he will not punish children for the acts of their fathers. Sansa is openly defiant and Jon shuts her down. After, Jon chastises Sansa for undermining him and she compares him to Joffrey before quickly taking it back. She concedes that he’s doing okay at the leading thing. Sansa pushes Jon to be smarter than Ned and Robb. They both made bad decisions and got killed for it. Jon is summoned to King’s Landing to bend the knee for Cersei. Sansa reminds Jon that she knows Cersei, and that she’s killed every enemy she’s ever had. Reluctantly, she admits she learned a great deal from the new Queen.

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Synopsis: It’s the day of Cersei’s and Loras’ trials and everyone is getting ready. Cersei puts on her best Wicked Queen in Snow White outfit. The Tyrells, minus grandma, are gathered in the Sept of Baelor with Kevan Lannister, The High Sparrow, the Faith Militant, and dozens of townsfolk. Loras bypasses his trial and simply confesses, and he is branded/scarred by the Faith. Margaery is upset, this was not part of their deal. Back at the Red Keep, Tommen prepares to leave, but the Mountain arrives in his room, and refuses to let him pass. Pycelle follows one of Qyburn’s little birds (a street urchin) to Qyburn’s lab, where he faces down Q as he has an army of little birds take out the old man, stabbing him all over. The High Sparrow orders Lancel to fetch Cersei and when he leaves the Sept, he sees another of the kids, running away and he follows him. In the  cavernous tunnels beneath the city, Lancel follows the kid, discovering hundreds of barrels, a green liquid dripping out. Looks a lot like that stash of wildfire that the Mad King was rumored to have. Before he can react, Lancel is stabbed in the back and falls to the ground, where he sees candles slowly burning away in a pool of the wildfire. He drags himself closer. Margaery, realizing Cersei and Tommen are absent, puts it together that Cersei is up to something and if they don’t leave the Sept ASAP they are well and truly fucked. She pleads with the High Sparrow to let them go, but he says no, and the Faith Militant bar anyone from leaving. Lancel crawls forward, but doesn’t make it and the fire erupts, bursting green flame everywhere, turning him to ash. Margaery, Loras and the others hear the rumble, but can’t react fast enough, and the Sept goes boom, exploding into green flame, with everyone inside now ashes. The High Sparrow? He gone. Margaery? Toast. Loras? Bye bye. Kevan? Seeya. Mace? You too. You get the idea. Cersei watches from the Red Keep, a smile crossing her face as she takes a sip of wine. And we’re only fifteen minutes in.

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Synopsis: Meereen is under siege. Dany has returned to see her city pelted with fireballs. Tyrion is apologetic and Dany doubts that Meereen has been thriving in her absence. Dany is ready to get to work and Tyrion asks if she has a plan. Her plan is to kill the masters and burn their cities down. Tyrion cautions her not to follow in the footsteps of her father. Tyrion has an alternate approach. They meet with the heads of the slave cities to discuss terms of surrender. As the slavers make their demands, Dany says they are there to discuss their surrender not hers. They tell her her reign is over, but she shoots back that it has only just begun. Just then Drogon arrives and she mounts him, riding him into Slaver’s Bay to destroy the ships. Then, Dany’s other dragons bust through their walls to join the fray. As the Sons of the Harpy fight on the land, the Dothraki horde arrives to destroy them. After the fighting, Grey Worm tells the remaining slaves they are free. Of the three masters that remain, Tyrion says one of them must die for breaking their pact, as two of them throw the third under the bus, it is the third whose life is spared. Tell your people you live by the grace of Queen Daenerys, Tyrion says. And tell them what happened should the idea of an uprising come back around.

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Synopsis: Lady Crane performs in the play recounting Joffrey’s death and this time she’s an angry Cersei, per Arya’s prior direction. Backstage, she is stunned to find a wounded Arya. Lady Crane stitches Arya up back at her place. Arya asks about the actress that wanted Lady Crane dead. She says she took care of her. She invites Arya to join the troupe, but Arya says she has other plans. Some of the men that slaughtered Brother Ray’s group are sitting in the woods having a chat when they are disrupted by the Hound and his axe. Heads roll, entrails unleashed, and Clegane asks the last one where their leader is as he’s bleeding out. Tyrion and Varys walk the streets of Meereen and catch one of the women who serves the priestess spreading the heroism of Daenerys. Tyrion’s plan was successful. As they approach the gate, Varys takes his leave. He is needed elsewhere. Qyburn tells Cersei that members of the Faith Militant have been invited into the Red Keep wishing to speak with her. She sees the men with the Mountain. She has been summoned by the High Sparrow, but Cersei refuses to leave. Lancel cautions her that if she doesn’t come with them there will be violence. She agrees to that and they all watch as the Mountain rips the head off one of the Faith. Cersei tells the others the High Sparrow is welcome to visit her in the castle. Brienne and Podrick arrive in Riverrun and see that the Lannister army have camped outside. Bronn and Podrick get reacquainted and Bronn helps with Pod’s training. Jaime and Brienne catch up and Brienne updates Jaime on Sansa’s plan to take back Winterfell. As they discuss each other’s allegiances they realize they are on opposite sides. Jaime lets Brienne offer Brynden safe passage out of Riverrun to support Sansa in exchange for surrendering Riverrun to the Lannisters and he agrees. She tries to return his sword to him but he refuses. It’s hers. Brienne fails to convince the Blackfish to surrender. Brienne tells Pod to get a raven to send back to Sansa. Tell her I failed, she says.

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Synopsis: What’s this now? A scene before the opening credits? The first time since the season 4 premiere, and the first time it hasn’t been a premiere. We see a bunch of men pulling a Habitat for Humanity as they build a house, under the tutelage of Brother Ray (guest star Ian McShane). One of the men is revealed to be none other than the Hound, who is apparently not quite dead. Brother Ray comments that he’s never seen anyone swing an ax like the Hound. When the crew breaks for lunch, The Hound eats by himself. Brother Ray says the other men are afraid of him, but Sandor is used to that. It was Ray that found the Hound near death and brought him back. He asks what kept him alive and the Hound says “hate.” Brother Ray says the gods have plans for him. The High Sparrow visits Margaery as she’s reading one of the holy books. They discuss the religious texts and then the Sparrow asks why Margaery hasn’t resumed trying to make a baby with her husband. She doesn’t have the interest, she admits, but he assures her that she must provide Tommen with an heir to keep all the good work that they’ve done. Then, the Sparrow manages a veiled threat against Olenna. Margaery is allowed to see Olenna under supervision, which grandma is none too excited about. Magaery maintains all of her support for the faith, and tells Olenna she needs to go home, while slipping her grandmother a small paper with the Tyrell rose on it. Margaery letting Olenna know she’s still on their side. In the field, Jon Snow, Davos and Sansa meet with the Wildlings who don’t want to give their support to Jon. His fight is not their fight. Jon agrees, but if they don’t help him now they will be fighting the Boltons once he destroys Jon. Tormund convinces his people to support Jon, but the giant’s support helped too.

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Synopsis: Meera continues to drag Bran through the cold, and he’s still out of it, flashing throughout time. He sees himself falling out of the tower, the mad king Aerys shouting “burn them all,” Jaime stabbing Aerys in the back, Ned’s beheading, Robb’s death, and many other events.  The wights move in closer and Bran awakens saying “they found us.” Meera apologizes. As the wights attack, a cloaked man on a horse with a flaming weapon stops them. He tells Meera to follow him. Sam, Gilly and baby Sam approach his home. Gilly notes Sam is nervous, and he admits he never thought he’d be back there. She also figures out he never told his family she was a wildling. Sam and Gilly enter the massive Tarly estate where he is reunited his mother and sister. He tells them Baby Sam is his son. The High Sparrow and Tommen meet in the Sept, discussing Margaery’s conversion to the faith. Tommen finally gets to see his wife and they share a warm embrace. Margaery admits she’s made mistakes but Tommen says she’s a good person. She hopes that Loras will get the same chance at freedom. Gilly, all made up and in a dress joins Sam for dinner where we meet Lord Randyll Tarly and Sam’s brother Dickon. Dinner is quiet and tense. The elder Tarly is cruel and vile towards Sam, and Gilly sticks up for him, referencing his killing of a White Walker. Randyll figures out Gilly is a wildling, and he is the opposite of ecstatic. He points out the Valyrian steel sword, Heartsbane, that has been in their family for 500 years, and vows that Sam will never have it because he has dishonored the family. He tells Sam he has to leave in the morning and never come back. Instead, Sam takes Gilly, baby Sam, and Heartsbane and leaves in the middle of the night.

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Synopsis: Sansa is knitting when she received a note from Littlefinger. She takes Brienne with her to meet him. He says he’s happy to see her, but she is cold. She recounts the horrors of her wedding night and asks if Baelish if he knew what a monster Ramsay was before he had her marry him. She threatens Petyr and tells him to go away and that she doesn’t ever want to see him again. Before he goes he tells her that her uncle, Brynden the Blackfish, has retaken Riverrun and she might seek him out should she need an army. Arya fights with the Waif (ugh, the Waif) who tells her she’s not ready, because that’s the only thing she seems to know how to say. She manages to knock Arya down as Jaqen walks by. Jaqen takes Arya back to the Hall of Faces, and offers her membership into the Faceless Men. He gives Arya a second chance, by giving her some poison, and a target, a local actress. Arya watches the actress, Lady Crane, who is Cersei in a play covering King Robert’s death, Ned’s beheading, Tyrion’s marriage to Sansa and other events, but mostly exaggerated. Backstage, Arya spies on Lady Crane and later tells Jaqen how she plans to do it. Bran is visiting the past. He watches as Leaf and the other children create the Night King, who is just a man until she plunges dragonglass into his chest. Bran awakens and questions Leaf about making the White Walkers. She says they did it to defend themselves from men.

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