Note: This review contains spoilers for “The Queen’s Justice.”
I think I can sum up my reaction to this week’s episode in one phrase: “I mean, duh?” Not to be hyperbolic, but there just wasn’t much surprise here. Sure, Jon and Dany finally met and Lady Olenna went out like a badass, but I’ve come to expect bigger shocks on Game of Thrones. As I mentioned in my review of last week’s episode, storylines just seem to be taking the expected direction and the show feels like a television show, now — that is, everything gets a resolution with a nice little bow around it.
First, let’s talk about the obvious highlight of “The Queen’s Justice” — the long-awaited meeting between Jon and Dany. It was a surprisingly long scene, with the two making excellent arguments for their opposing positions, aided by Ser Davos and Tyrion, respectively. I love Ser Davos. He’s the best. He has surprising eloquence when called upon, but he’s also a straight shooter that doesn’t bullshit, doesn’t mince words, and offers proper respect to his superiors while also speaking his mind. He isn’t anyone other than who he is. I just think he’s a great partner for Jon, and the little introductions between him and Missandei were brilliant. For my Shakespeare loving friends, I’ve always gotten a strong Horatio from “Hamlet” vibe from him, like he’ll be the last man standing at the end of everything. But I’m also terrified that he’ll go out in some noble way at the hands of the White Walkers. He’s my favorite character so he better not die, is what I’m saying.
But back to the Jon/Dany scene, it totally makes sense that the two of them would come down on either side of the argument, considering their histories, experience, and priorities. Plenty of people have theorized the two of them will end up romantically involved, and while that’s still possible, there were no hints of it here. They were just two stubborn, young adults wanting to work together but finding it difficult. I’m glad Dany is at least letting Jon dig up some dragonglass — the viewers definitely know the war against the White Walkers is the more important one.
As for the actual “surprises” of the episode, Bran made it to Winterfell and Cersei/Jaime outsmarted Dany/Tyrion by taking Highgarden and wiping out the Tyrells. First, the north.
I know I wasn’t the only one expecting to see Arya when Sansa got her summons, but that was more due to it feeling like Bran had work to do at The Wall before riding south. His appearance confirmed three things for me. One, the Night’s Watch is going to get absolutely wrecked by the White Walkers. Two, Bran is prioritizing informing Jon of his true parentage. And three, Arya isn’t going back to Winterfell. I know she was originally heading there, but her “that’s not you” moment with Nymeria also felt aimed at herself. Plus, I don’t think we’re going to get another Stark reunion until Bran and Jon meet. The show is still too much of a downer to bring everyone back together at once, especially in such a short timeframe. I think Arya’s still going to King’s Landing to take out Cersei.
As for Bran’s actual scene, he’s gone full mystical weirdo and it’s kind of annoying. I hate, hate, hate the “it’s a long story so I’m only going to give you vague clues” storytelling trope. It’s lazy, pointless writing. That scene really only existed to confirm Bran’s intentions with Jon and to point out that he isn’t interested in ruling Winterfell.
The second point gets back to my whole “being obvious” complaint. The show is giving us information that we already have. It feels like a crappy network drama, where characters must spell out every little detail so all the casual viewers at home don’t get lost and need to use their brains for once. Game of Thrones has never worried about leaving people in the dust. It’s a complex show that juggles dozens of characters and stories at once — sometimes even leaving characters out of the action for an entire season if they don’t serve the story. That’s one of the things that makes it so special. It’s obvious that Bran doesn’t want to rule Winterfell — his destiny diverted from that a long time ago. We didn’t need him to literally say it.
In Highgarden, I did appreciate most of the back and forth between Olenna and Jaime. Jaime is possibly the most complex character on the show, wavering back and forth between likable and disdainful about as often as he bangs his sister. At face value, he’s certainly committed fully to Cersei, but I can’t help but feel an underlying conflict in him. He’s become a better person than he was, and Olenna certainly made him pay for that. I still hope it’s Jaime that finally ends Cersei’s reign of terror. It would be just, ironic, and a nice callback to his murder of the Mad King.
However, this scene had another example of too much information, though this was less egregious. Olenna’s final sick burn was telling Jaime she was responsible for Joffrey’s poisoning after Jaime went out of his way to give her a painless death. We always kind of knew that Lady Tyrell was behind it, having worked with Littlefinger. But neither of them ever came out and admitted it. That was part of the fun — there was always a tiny bit of mystery there. Maybe, just maybe, they were taking credit for something they didn’t do because it made them look more powerful than they actually were. Story-wise, I get why Olenna told Jaime. Now he can take the news back to Cersei and also let Tyrion off the hook for at least one murder. Still, I would have preferred he find out about Tyrion’s innocence some other way to keep the mystique alive.
I also take issue with how brilliant Jaime and Cersei now are as military tacticians. They’re outsmarting Dany and Tyrion at every turn, and it’s kind of unbelievable. The writers tried to justify this with Jaime saying he’s learned from every defeat, but I’m still not buying it. Either they’ve made the twins too smart or our heroes too dumb.
Another scene I did enjoy was the taking of Casterly Rock. Part of that was being able to finally see the castle after it only being referenced for seven seasons, but mostly it was due to Tyrion’s neat framing device. We’re bound to get a lot of action this season, with trailers showing Jaime’s Lannister army facing down with the Dothraki, so it was cool to get a different sort of battle scene. Tyrion narrated things as they happened, allowing us to get the full picture of events without spending a ton of time there. The whole “Tyrion’s secret entrance” thing was a bit convenient, but I’m okay with it.
On the other hand, this story approach also led to the battle having less impact, and Euron’s appearance kind of coming out of nowhere. Seriously, that dude’s boat must have some major cloaking and fast traveling capabilities. There is no way in hell the Unsullied wouldn’t have seen him coming. But whatever, just builds on his “best pirate in the world” thing he has going.
Some other quick hits:
- I see what you’re doing, show. Trying to make me believe that Sansa is a capable leader and that a wedge will continue to build between her and Jon. I’m not buying it. She’s still a whiny, entitled moron and there’s no way she’ll fall back under Littlefinger’s sway at this point. Littlefinger did have a cool speech about seeing every possible outcome from every possible angle, though.
- I’m glad to have Jon and Tyrion back together, at least for a little while. Their characters go well together.
- Can’t be sure of the importance of that scene between Cersei and the rep from the Iron Bank of Braavos. Presumably, Cersei will get more support from them in the war in exchange for something? I’m guessing she’ll be paying back the Lannister debt with Tyrell gold. We’ll see.
- Why is Yara still alive? I guess it’s so that Euron can kill her on the Iron Islands, but I’m willing to bet the writers are setting up some valiant rescue by Theon where he’ll die to save her. Too little, too late, in my opinion.
- Ser Jorah is cured and Sam is back to tedium. Nothing essential here, but I like Ser Jorah so I’m glad he’s sticking around. Also, Jim Broadbent continues to be excellent as the Archmaester.
- Weird that a completely random character discovered Jaime and Cersei sharing a bed. It obviously shows that Cersei just doesn’t give a shit anymore, but I’ve also read a theory that the pixie-cut messenger could be Arya wearing a face. I’d hope her journey into King’s Landing would be a tad more difficult, but it would help explain the character’s presence in that scene.
Finally, let’s talk about that scene with Cersei, Ellaria Sand, and that third daughter whose name I can’t be bothered to remember at this point. Basically, see my argument above about giving us more info than we need. This scene was actually quite long and didn’t give us any surprising information. There were only two ways Cersei would have the Sand Snakes die: at the hands of The Mountain, or by the same poison that killed Myrcella. Well, she chose one and referenced the other directly. Brutal, to be sure, but not all that creative. This was compounded by the fact that I just could not care less about anyone from Dorne at this point. That whole story was so poorly handled early on that I’m just not interested. I seriously hope this was the last we’ll see or hear about the Sand Snakes or Dorne. And that’s a shame, because it could have been a cool setting and addition to the world of Westeros.
This is a rare circumstance where I would have preferred a character die off-screen. Everything could have played out similarly — Qyburn and Cersei walk up to two cells, one with Ellaria and one with the daughter. Cersei puts on the lipstick, Qyburn hands her the antidote, she smirks at Ellaria, and walks in the daughter’s cell. The door closes, Ellaria screams. Not only would it have saved us five minutes, but I think it would have been just as clear and impactful. Sure, we would have missed out on the whole “you’re going to literally watch your daughter rot” thing, but it’s not like we needed more evidence that Cersei is a monster. As it was, we just didn’t learn anything new about any of the characters in the scene. Cersei doled out her brand of insane “justice,” and two characters we didn’t need or care about were killed or written off (presumably).
In case you couldn’t tell from this review, I wasn’t a big fan of this episode. The show has mostly become predictable, and I feel more and more like it’ll actually give us some kind of lame fan-fic ending where Jon and Dany get married and ride their dragons into the sunset. That kind of shit would never have happened when George RR Martin was running things from a story perspective. But, as always, I hope I’m wrong.
7.3/10
So, what did you think of “The Queen’s Justice”? Let me know in the comments below, and be sure to check out my ranking of all six seasons of Game of Thrones!