What I’m Watching: Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones: Season 7, Episode 3 “The Queen’s Justice” (B+)

I’m extremely impressed with the writing on this show this season, with lengthier conversations between characters as the players contending to be rulers of the realm are made clearer with explicit discussions of just where things stand. Daenerys and Jon meeting each other was well worth the wait, and they both held strong, even when Daenerys told Jon that a king of the north would be considered to be in open rebellion. Jon struggling to convince people that the white walkers are real is understandable, and I like that Tyrion came up with a compromise solution that didn’t hurt Daenerys if it turned out that he was making it all up. Two great Tyrion moments this episode: telling Jon that he looked a lot better brooding and quoting himself and trying to pass it off as an ancient saying. After Euron paraded in his captives, Cersei continued the Lannister tradition of brutal torture by poisoning Ellaria’s daughter in front of her and forcing her to watch her slowly die in that cell. Sam managed to save Jorah, which is great, though the praise he got was immediately counteracted by his continued low standing. Tyrion was smart to think to attack Casterly Rock via the tunnels he built, and it’s just a shame that Jaime used his military prowess to take the entire army to conquer a different enemy so that they wouldn’t have lost anything except a stronghold. Jaime, to his credit, did a decent job trying to defend his horrific sister, and Olenna accepted the certainty of her death with dignity and class, even getting a final jab in at Cersei in her final moments.