Recap: Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 5 – ‘Eastwatch’

Warning: The night is dark and full of spoilers!

Despite her losses so far this season, Daenerys showed her enemies just how powerful she and her allies can be on this week’s episode of Game of Thrones. The Dothraki have completely overtaken the Lannister army, leaving very few survivors.

In a not so shocking turn of events, Jaime Lannister and Bronn find their way out of the body of water they dove into last week to avoid getting burned alive by Daenerys’ dragon. They must have traveled in that water despite their heavy armor because they resurface on a comfortable strip of land, not amidst charred bodies and a war-torn landscape. Now, Jaime is free to run back and tell Cersei how terrifyingly awesome Daenerys’ army and dragons can be. Lovely.

Back at the battlefield, Daenerys has rounded up all of the survivors of the fight. When she offers their lives in exchange for their loyalty, very few manage to actually bend the knee until Drogon lets out a horrifying roar. Still, Randall and Dickon Tarley refuse to bow to her, so she sentences them to death.

This seems to trouble Tyrion, who even tries to get her to send them to the wall. The Tarleys also refuse to go to the wall, because Daenerys isn’t their queen, and only the Queen can send them north. Their pride and honor doesn’t work well in this situation, and in front of the entire Lannister army, Randall and Dickon Tarley are burned alive in a quick fashion, making every other Lannister kneel to their new queen out of fear. Probably not the best way to get trustworthy allies, but it’s not like Daenerys can trust any Lannister completely to begin with.

Jaime runs back to Cersei as quickly as possible to spread the word, though she already knows. He tries to warn her of the threat, but Cersei refuses to back down, despite her significantly smaller numbers and lack of fire-breathing dragons. It seems Westeros has a Mad Queen, and it isn’t Daenerys! Cersei brings up Tyrion, and the big reveal finally happens.

Jaime reveals it was Olenna who killed Joffrey, and not Tyrion. It certainly took long enough, and it took a while for Cersei to accept it, too. It makes sense when Jaime explains it; Joffrey was an uncontrollable monster after all.

When Daenerys flies back to Dragonstone atop Drogon, she lands near Jon Snow. Drogon takes an interest in Jon and goes as far as to let Jon pet his snout. It’s something we haven’t really seen Drogon do with anyone apart from Daenerys, which she notices as well. Maybe it made her like Jon just a little bit more seeing that even her dragon trusted him. Jon asks Daenerys how the battle went, and she replies in a witty fashion:

I have less enemies today than I had yesterday.

The Dothraki bring in a guest who says he knows Daenerys just as Jon avoids talking about his resurrection. Jorah Mormont makes his return to the Queen after being cured by Samwell Tarley in the last episode. Despite his past and nearly betraying her, Jorah has proven his love for Daenerys on many occasions, so it’s nice to see her gain such a good ally again after losing so many in the past few episodes.

Back in Winterfell, Bran uses ravens to track the army of the dead. They’re approaching quickly, and when his ravens catch sight of the Night King, they are dispelled with a wave of the King’s hand. Bran calls for more ravens to send word of the approaching army to his allies.

Those in the Citadel don’t think much of it, despite Sam’s pleas to legitimize the warning. The maesters simply say they’ll search for the truth in it, and send Sam on his way to do more. Sam eventually gets tired of waiting, and despite his dreams of being a maester, Sam sneaks into the vault and steals enough scrolls to learn more and leaves the Citadel. He claims he’s tired of reading about men doing great things. He wants to do great things.

When Jon gets word of the approaching army, he immediately wants to leave Dragonstone and return north. Daenerys doesn’t seem happy about it, but Jon delivers a compelling speech without bending the knee. Daenerys seems to respect him and allows him to do so, and Jorah offers to head north with him. Their goal is to capture a White Walker and make it so that everyone in the south knows that the army of the dead are real.

The North might see an upcoming power struggle, and Little Finger might also be behind it. The Northern Lords are taking more to Sansa than they were to Jon, even going as far to insult him in front of Sansa at a council meeting. Arya doesn’t take too kindly to this and calls her sister out, claiming that, despite not saying it, Sansa is thinking that she wants to rule in place of Jon. Family drama, right? Little Finger is manipulating his way to Sansa’s good side, and while she may not know it, it’s pretty safe to assume he’s the one turning everyone against Jon and toward Sansa.

Tyrion and Ser Davos sneak into King’s Landing. Tyrion stages a meeting with his brother Jaime to warn him about the army of the dead, while Ser Davos finds and recruits Robert Baratheon’s bastard, Gendry. The trio get stopped by a couple of goldcloaks on their way out of King’s Landing, but they are no match for Gendry’s powerful hammer. After making quick work of the soldiers, they leave to return to Dragonstone.

Jaime – once again – goes to speak to his sister/lover/queen/…whatever, to tell her about his meeting with Tyrion. She already knows, of course. She is upset, and urges Jaime to feel betrayed by Bronn for setting up the meeting without informing Jaime exactly where he was going. Cersei mentions attempting an alliance with Daenerys, though is quick to mention it’s merely a clever plan to beat her. She seems confident that she’ll win, no matter her inferior numbers. Good luck.

In Dragonstone, Gendry and Jon bond over stories of their father’s friendship. Gendry is quick to volunteer himself to head north with Jon to apprehend a White Walker. Ser Davos reluctantly vouches for Gendry’s ability to defend himself, and it’s settled. Gendry, Jon and Jorah head north to gain support from the Free Folk and the northerners to assemble a squad to go past the wall and complete their task.

Tormund isn’t that happy about going back to his homeland, but he points Jon in the direction of a few that are. The Hound and men from the Brotherhood of the Red God sit in the cells at Winterfell. After a scene of arguing amongst people who inevitably are going to work together, the Hound and the men are released, and the party heads north.

That’s the last thing we see. Who knows how it’ll end? People are probably going to die, but that’s Game of Thrones for ya. We’ll have to wait until next week to see how the expedition goes.

Tune in next week, and I’ll let you know how things go in my recap of this season’s sixth episode! Missed an episode? Catch up on recaps of the entire Game of Thrones Season 7 here.