After the enormity of last week’s episode, it makes sense that Game of Thrones would ease up on the throttle a bit and deliver a quieter installment – after all, trying to top spectacle with spectacle just turns it into so much sturm and drang. Thankfully, for GoT quiet is usually synonymous with busy; it’s in dialogue-driven, far-ranging episodes like “Eastwatch” that the show really advances its plot. And boy, is there a ton of it in this episode.
Everyone is seemingly shell-shocked by the events of “The Queen’s Justice” (and for good reason), but the episode moves past it pretty quickly in its effort to tell as much story as possible. Jaime has had his come-to-Jesus moment and knows now that the war in unwinnable (also, hard LOL at the smooth-brained dunces who thought Jaime died last week). “That was only one,” he remarks to Bronn, who echoes his sentiment: “Dragons are where our partnership ends.” On a side note, I want to point out how wonderfully Game of Thrones portrays friendships, including and especially reluctant ones, and Jaime and Bronn make for a fine example. Bronn keeps up his act of only sticking around until he’s paid, but he had the chance to grab his gold and escape last week, and instead chose to attack Drogon. He’s sticking around because he’s Jaime’s best friend.
Tyrion’s best friend is arguably Varys; at least that’s who he has the most in common with, and who he seems most comfortable confiding in. This goes both ways; both men are concerned with Daenerys’s increasingly adamantine approach to warfare. She doesn’t take prisoners, and won’t send men to the Night’s Watch. She uses Drogon to execute Randyll and Dickon Tarly, and in doing so is in danger of turning not into Cersei but into the Mad King. “Daenerys is not her father,” Tyrion tells Varys, and it’s hard to tell which of them he’s trying to convince.
A lot of “Eastwatch” is setup, which GoT does exceedingly well – see this season’s premiere, “Dragonstone,” for further proof. The show is trying to engineer a meeting between Cersei and Daenerys, and to its credit it does so in a believable way. Cersei won’t believe in a white walker unless she sees one (and even then, let’s be honest, she’s unlikely to do anything but have her Queensguard kill it and anyone else in the room she disapproves of). Here the simplest answer is also the craziest: Jon, Davos, and a newly-returned Jorah Mormont will venture north of the Wall in order to capture a wight and bring it back to show Cersei. This promises a really fun “men on a mission” episode next week, and also leads to a few wonderful scenes.
First there’s the reunion of Tyrion and Jaime, which in any other episode would be the emotional crux of the hour but here only takes up a few minutes. Tyrion here shows what a dedicated Hand of the Queen he is, venturing to a city where if captured he’ll be tortured to death. But it’s the right time for this meeting, after Jaime’s encounter with Drogon. Jaime tells Cersei about the meeting, only to find out that she knew all along; in a nice character moment, she’s more upset that Bronn went behind Jaime’s back to set the meeting up. Where “Eastwatch” really surprises is in this scene, because for the first time, maybe ever, Cersei allows that someone else has a good idea, and agrees to make nice with Daenerys. For now. (She’s also pregnant, because evidently there wasn’t enough happening in “Eastwatch” already.)
Elsewhere, GoT indulges in some of its occasional fan service, which it does predictably well. Gendry returns, finally putting to a rest all of those hilarious jokes about him still rowing (which Davos hangs a lantern on, in one of the episode’s most knowing lines). I’d be lying if I said Gendry was ever my favorite character, or one I cared about at all, but Joe Dempsie does great work with his return. He knows he has to reestablish himself as quickly as possible, and he does a nice job of it. He agrees to join Davos immediately, he kills two Lannister soldiers with a warhammer (excellent touch to have him use the same weapon as his father), and later he drops his ruse and introduces himself to Jon using his real name.
“Eastwatch” wants nothing more than to unite all of its principal characters. In some senses, this is extremely satisfying; I don’t want the show to end, but at the very least before it does we get to see Jon, Gendry, Tormund, Jorah, Thoros, Beric, and the Hound heading out to capture themselves a wight. It means we get to see Sam grow tired of the maesters’ inaction, and leave the Citadel to head back to Winterfell (Sam cuts off Gilly while she’s telling a story about Rhaegar Targaryen taking a second wife, presumably Lyanna Stark, meaning that Jon Snow is no longer a bastard; this is a huge revelation and not only does “Eastwatch” gloss over it, it doesn’t even finishing revealing it!).
Unfortunately, this mindset is also responsible for the show’s weakest subplot, which is Arya’s growing suspicion of Sansa and Littlefinger. Ayra basically accuses Sansa of trying to shore up support for herself, in case Jon doesn’t come back, which serves to show just how cynical Arya has become. But it rings hollow to the viewer because, unlike Arya, we have been spending time with Sansa for the last six seasons. This is slightly improved by Arya following Littlefinger, who is as underhanded and duplicitous as Arya thinks Sansa is. There’s a great shot of Arya sneaking out of Littlefinger’s quarters, after reading a hidden raven’s scroll; then we see Littlefinger standing in the shadows. Much like Cersei, it’s impossible to go behind his back, and if Arya got into his room it’s because he wanted her to. I want Got to drop the Sansa storyline right away, but I’m definitely open to the idea of war between Arya and Littlefinger.
Overall, “Eastwatch” is a setup episode, which is a necessary evil for shows. It’s also a kind of episode that Game of Thrones does terrifically well. This isn’t an all-time classic, but for the most part it’s damn good, and fits nicely into the breathless momentum of a so-far fantastic season.
A Few Thoughts
- Quick note: sorry all the pictures were from Dragonstone this week. Swear to God, everything else I found was tiny or marred by a tacky watermark.
4/5
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