Game of Thrones - 'The Winds of Winter'

It was often noted that Cersei Lannister had a smile that could light up a
building.

And so after ten weeks we come once more to the season finale of Game of Thrones and the start of the waiting and speculating season. 'The Winds of Winter' was a big, extended episode, so I'm likely to stray a little from the precise order of events.

We open on a long, disarmingly sedate montage as the Sparrows gather for the trial of Queen Cersei and Ser Loras Tyrell. There's quite a crowd, but no sign of the Queen Mother joining them in her super-slinky black number, while the Zombie Mountain detains the King. The Grand Maester is murdered by Qyburn's 'little birds' (thanks Game of Thrones, my life was really missing scenes of knife wielding small children swarming like rabid weasels,) and despite an heroic effort by the mortally wounded Brother Lancel a cache of Wildfire is detonated beneath the High Sept of Baelor. Margaery realises in the nick of time how fucked they are, but the High Sparrow refuses to let anyone leave and...

Well, you know how I dubbed the walk of shame in 'Mother's Mercy' as 'causes of the Great King's Landing Fire?'

Called it!

For those keeping score, we can scratch a few names off the card. Margaery and Loras, the High Sparrow, Mace Tyrell, Kevan Lannister... in fact pretty much anyone in King's Landing who wasn't on Team Cersei, which really just leaves Ser Gregor and Qyburn, as while Cersei lords it over the Septa who shamed her and brings in Ser Gregor to do horrible things to her (keeping it classy, Cersei,) Tommen takes a walk out of a window, completely overcome with horror.

Later, when Qyburn shows Cersei her son's body, her reaction is cool and collected, as she orders him burned and his ashes buried in the ruin of the Sept with his grandfather, brother and sister. This is where we see just how broken Cersei has become, numb even to the loss of her last surviving child, where her burning maternal protectiveness was once her sole redeeming feature.

"What do we pay you for?"

Jaime and Bron drop in on the Twins (that's Chez Frey for those who had forgotten, not a kinky assignation, although Jaime does hook Bron up with one of those.) Walder Frey is in fine fettle, although Jaime acidly points out that the Lannisters gave him the Riverlands, and what was the point if they have to swing up every time someone rebels? Jaime is clearly not happy about how things ended up at Riverrun, and in particular finds Walder's scorn for the Blackfish hard to stomach. For all he may have said about just wanting to get back to King's Landing and Cersei and not caring how it happened, it's increasingly clear that Jaime Lannister really would like to be the good guy, however doomed that quest.

Speaking of hard to stomach, not long after Jaime leaves, an unfamiliar serving girl brings Walder a Titus Andronicus special; a pie made from his odious sons. Then she pulls off her face and tells him that she's Arya Stark, and the last thing he will see is a Stark, smiling down at him. And it is, and it's almost as creepy as Cersei.

"You're in the Great Game now, and the Great Game is terrifying."

In Mereen, Danaerys prepares to sail, and breaks the news to Daario that his contract with the show is up. She's leaving him to administer the city and the rest of the renamed Bay of Dragons, in order to appear absolutely divine and regal, and yet and at the same time very pretty and rather accessible to the potential allies who might want to get a marriage in. She then talks to Tyrion, admitting she is scared how easy it was to dismiss Daario. She appoints Tyrion Hand of the Queen, once more proving that she has the rare ability to draw absolute sincerity from him. It's probably the most effective of all the show's shorthands to convey the ineffable air of Targarinity. Hell, it works so well I find myself having to caption that picture with an actual episode quote.

In Dorne, Oleana Tyrell meets with the Sand Snakes to discuss the possibility of revenge. Varys appears and promises her 'fire and blood'.

This season's wow shot comes as Sam and Gilly reach the Citadel in Oldtown.

"It's only a model."

As they approach, they see white ravens streaming from the tower, which aficionados know means that the Starks are officially wrong for the first time in over a decade. They run into trouble with the desk clerk, as Maester Aemon's sickness meant that he never reported the change of Lord Commander, so Sam's letter of introduction is met with skepticism. Also, Gilly and Little Sam are forbidden to pass the front desk, which takes a little from the wonder that is the vast library.

North of the Wall, Benjen drops off Meera and Bran, explaining that while he still fights for the living, he is dead and so can not yet cross the Wall. Bran touches the Night's Watch's weirwood tree and goes back to his vision of the Tower of Joy, following his father into the chamber where Lyanna Stark lies in her 'bed of blood', bleeding out after the delivery of her son by Rhaegar Targaryen: Jon Snow.

"Only the true King of the North denies his regality!"

In the North proper, Jon and Sansa play hot potato with the lordship of Winterfell and Petyr Baelish makes his move on the redhead. She walks away, which is a risky strategy at the best of times, and discusses trust with Jon. As they stand on the wall with snow falling around them, he notes the arrival of the white raven, letting them know that winter is here. There follows a meeting of the lords of the North, where a lot of back and forth about what is and isn't over - and Jon and Sansa's debate - is shortcut when Lyanna Mormont gets up, shames her older, male colleagues and declares for Jon Snow, the King in the North. Despite the recent track record of Kings in the North, this goes down a storm. Sansa seems pleased, but is also aware of Littlefinger staring poison daggers. I would honestly not be surprised to see her assassinate him early in Season 7. Jon may need her newfound savvy, having given the other Red Woman the boot on the basis that she arranged the murder by fire of a child. I can not quibble this decision, however useful she might have proved, and the same would be true of giving Littlefinger the terminal elbow.

"Cue the music."

Danaerys and her armies set out across the sea in the Iron Fleet, while Jaime returns to King's Landing to find Cersei having herself crowned Queen.

Once more, for those keeping score, that's Danaerys, Jon, Cersei, Littlefinger and vaguely Euron Greyjoy, so we're basically back to the whole 'War of Five Kings' situation, just with two of them Queens and one too canny to declare until after he's won. I'm glad we've seen such progress after fifty-five hours and 24 minutes of show, documenting years of in-universe time.

Actually, time is an interesting point here, as we see Arya back in Westeros and Varys not only meeting with Oleanna (itself long enough after the fire for the news to reach Dorne, a message to be sent inviting her to visit, and for her to travel to Dorne from Highgarden,) but back in Mereen in time to join Danaerys' posse as they stare forward from the forecastle of her dragon-prowed flagship. Clearly the action of this episode actually takes place over several weeks, if not months (although note also that the ruins of the Sept are still burning at the end.

It's been a mixed season this one, with the second half eschewing much of the really gratuitous unpleasantness and shock value that dogged the first. It also seemed determined to pare the ensemble down from the massively multiplayer setting of the books to a more manageable number of TV protagonists by getting shot of the characters they didn't have much planned for: Rickon and Osha, the Blackfish, the Boltons, 80% of the named population of King's Landing, and possibly even Walder Frey, although Ramsay and Walder might just have reached their payoff stage. The remaining players are still a very strong collective, although this season's standout was 10 year old newcomer Bella Ramsey, playing the no-nonsense Lyanna Mormont with a grit belying her age.

Season 7 is touted to be seven episodes long instead of ten, perhaps as a result of this truncated line-up, and it will be interesting to see if they do tighten things up now that they've pretty much killed off all the loose ends but Gendry.