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For me, The Dragon and the Wolf is the best episode to date, HANDS DOWN. Cinematic, unpredictable (for those who haven't read the leaked plot), incredibly thrilling, and it felt like an episode from the earlier seasons with a GRRM touch.
Aug 27, 2017 · The Dragon and the Wolf: Directed by Jeremy Podeswa. With Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke. Everyone meets in King's Landing to discuss the fate of the realm. In Winterfell, Sansa confronts Arya.
- (71K)
- Action, Adventure, Drama
- Jeremy Podeswa
- 2017-08-27
- Queen Drama.
- Game of Thrones: "The Dragon and the Wolf" Photos
- Every IGN Game of Thrones Review
- Verdict
By Matt Fowler
Updated: Aug 28, 2017 5:31 am
Posted: Aug 28, 2017 4:37 am
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
And that's all she wrote for Season 7 of Game of Thrones! Let's hope this is enough to tide us over until quite possibly 2019, for the eighth and final season, though I don't think we've left all that much on the table here as far as pretty bows placed atop fan theory gifts. Unless you count the recurring theory that Bran is somehow also the Night King thanks to a Three-Eyed time travel snafu and the Prince Who Was Promised prophesy.
"The Dragon and the Wolf" was almost feature-length, shaving it close to 80 minutes. It's definitely the longest episode of the series to date and, unsurprisingly, it was heavily dialogue-driven. Here's the thing: We've reached the end of the seventh season and when you combine all the characters killed off and storylines ended thus far, there's not much going on all over the place compared to the way it used to be. Right now we've got, at most at a time, four places to hop around to per episode. It used to be that you could flip back and fourth from anywhere to five to eight separate stories in a single chapter.
Everything's streamlined now. What was once a vast world has now contracted. It was true especially here, in this finale, as two huge factions gathered together in King's Landing for an epic meeting. Some of it involved mighty characters seeing each other for the first time (like Daenerys and Cersei) while most involved reunions big and small - from Tyrion and Pod to Tyrion and Bronn to...well, Tyrion and Cersei. This massive parley took up the bulk of the episode...but let's jump to the end and work backwards, shall we?
Just when you may have thought the episode would end without some sort of scene of sweeping violence, the Night King rode his new pet into battle and destroyed the chunk off the Wall by the sea at Eastwatch. It was a really impressive way to end the season and one that, seemingly, killed off Tormund and Beric. That is unless the two of them (and I went back to watch the last moment we saw them in a few times) made it to the side of the wall that was still standing afterward. It feels unlikely though.
The Wall coming down was the image I had in my head for how Season 7 would end, but the answer as to how it would happen didn't present itself until the very end of last week's adventure "Beyond the Wall" (which, in its own right, unfortunately wasn't spread out over two episodes). Back at the top of the season, I wondered if the "Horn of Winter" might finally get introduced (a book element that never made it to the screen), but Weiss and Benioff found their own way around it with the debut of a death-breathing wight dragon. It was pretty awesome spectacle, no matter the tool, that chunk of Wall coming down and the undead army flowing into the North.
Right before that though, in the first half of the one-two punch capper, Bran told Sam all about Jon's true identity. There was no way we were headed into Season 8 STILL not knowing this. Not only have fans been waiting for years, but Jon and Dany are more or less actively courting each other right now. In fact, that's sort of what made the revelation feel more vital and interesting. Again, the whole "R+L=J" thing has been a theory since before the show even aired and there were only the books to go by so at this point it really just becomes about "how do you tell everyone without it feeling, basically, like 'too little, too late?'"
You spice it up by now adding to it the fact that Jon's a legit heir and not a "Sand" (oh, how I wish Gilly had been in the room with Sam and Bran to be the one to actually connect those dots) while also fully giving us a Jon/Dany sex scene. Now it's too late for them to choose otherwise, right? At some point they'll realize they're aunt and nephew and have to deal. Also, she might be pregnant at the time. Also also, we got to hear Jon's real name: Aegon.
Now this was a fun morsel on a few levels. For one, I guess he's named after his own...half brother? Because Aegon was the name of one of the babies Rhaegar had with Elia Martell - an infant boy who was killed by The Mountain. So it's as if Rhaegar really liked that name and wanted a son named Aegon, but then really really wanted the son to be with his true love and not Elia. Secondly, in the books -- and this was scrapped from the show -- Aegon is revealed to be still alive and represents yet another contender for the throne.
Working backwards still...it was huge relief to see Cersei renege on her deal. I know the series could have moved forward with her being an actual ally because of her pregnancy. Her unborn child is there to make her see things differently and care about things she'd never expect to care about, but it wouldn't have felt right. Not all the way. And neither would her letting Euron off the hook so easily for tucking his tail and running. Yes, there were a few scenes throughout the episode that didn't land all that well but Cersei's big lie wound up explaining them all.
I didn't buy that Euron was instantly terrified of the undead ghoul or that Cersei would just let him go. The fact that she pledged to fight with Dany was a crowd-pleasing beat, but ultimately it didn't fit the "most murderous woman in the world" label. It also felt too on-the-nose for Cersei to touch her belly with concern in front of Tyrion. But she was playing everyone. Most of all, naturally, she was playing Tyrion who she only didn't kill outright because she needed to fake this truce. She's certainly going to be crafty and cruel until the end, isn't she?
Also, how ill-timed is her betrayal right now given the snow falling on King's Landing and the Wall toppling down? At least her swerve worked to, finally, drive Jaime from her side. This, I feel, is the closest we'll ever come to him turning his back on her. She even threatened him with The Mountain. If Brienne had an actual purpose this entire season (except for being a part of Tormund's dreams for monster babies) it's that she seemed to, during the Dragonpit meeting, speak briefly to Jaime in a way that helped him see the light in all this.
To Winterfell now, which gave us the best possible outcome for all this sisterly mess. The two Stark girls were having a go. It only seemed, most of the time, like Arya was putting on a performance for Littlefinger (especially the way she "hid" from him in plain sight when snooping) but the real wild card here was Sansa. Would she either come to her senses and see Littlefinger for the parasite that he was or - even better - would we discover that she and Arya were both in on the outing? As it turned out, the Starks united and expelled the toxic element from their midst. What a lovely scene Littlefinger's undoing was.
While last week's episode seemed to rush through big moments, "The Dragon and the Wolf" slowed things down considerably, delivering lengthy meaningful scenes filled with dialogue, deception, revelations, twists - and the most major characters ever assembled into one spot ever on the series. To cap it all off, we got a big action sequence that drast...
[24] [25] The episode has received an 88% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 64 reviews, with an average score of 8.93 out of 10. The site's consensus reads: "While much slower in pace than the season that preceded it, 'The Dragon and the Wolf' delivered satisfying conclusions to several story arcs, and masterfully set ...
Aug 27, 2017 · No big deal. The gripping final moments of the episode, called “The Dragon and the Wolf,” featured Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) and Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) helpless as...
- Josh Wigler
Aug 28, 2017 · Game Of Thrones season 7 episode 7 review: The Dragon And The Wolf. The Game Of Thrones season 7 finale packs a great deal in, including brilliant acting. Spoilers ahead in our...
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Reviews. Game Of Thrones – Season 7, Episode 7: The Dragon And The Wolf Review. by James White |. Published on 27 08 2017. Beware! The night is dark and full of terrors, and...
