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'Game of Thrones' recap: Everything old is new again

Kelly Lawler
USA TODAY

Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers from Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 2, “Stormborn.” Read our recap of Episode 1 here

“Peace never lasts, my dear.”

After last week’s disappointing and slow season premiere, Thrones is back in full force offering a bombastic battle, forward momentum and surprising returns in its second episode, “Stormborn.” And, of course, it also served viewers a delightful helping of wit and quips from the Queen of Thorns. But the pace has noticeably picked up, and it's for the better. The first blood has been drawn in the war between Cersei and Daenerys, Jon Snow is sailing south to meet his aunt/potential ally, Sam is doing more than cleaning bedpans, and Arya is journeying home, at last. 

And while all that movement shows how much has changed in Westeros over the past seven seasons (as Tyrion helpfully demonstrated on the big chessboard of the continent), so much of “Stormborn” was reminiscent of the events and status quo of earlier seasons, specifically Season 1, when Robert called Ned to King’s Landing and it all went wrong. Rulers in the South are demanding the bended knee from rulers in the North. Lords of great houses are assembling their armies. A Stark and a direwolf meet. Hot Pie is making hot pies. 

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What’s different now is that there is less time (within the narrative of the show and in the number of episodes remaining) and fewer lives to go around as the rulers of the Seven Kingdoms dance around each other. Dany doesn’t want to be Queen of the Ashes. Jon doesn’t want the North to be run over by the Night King. And Arya just wants to go back home. 

But as her meeting with Nymeria showed, Arya isn’t the same person she was back in Season 1. None of them are. You can never go back home, not really. Trying to recapture the past isn’t going to help win the Great War -- the person with the power to see into the past was noticeably absent from this episode. A chronicle of the wars following the death of King Robert I will not help anyone, not unless people actually learn from all that history. 

But, the characters of Game of Thrones have never been particularly good at learning from the past.  

'Be a dragon'

Dany, Tyrion, Yara and Ellaria

Olenna Tyrell is an intriguing figure for this show in more ways than one. Ever since Ned’s execution in Season 1, Thrones has been dominated by youthful, and oftentimes naive, figures on both sides. Robb Stark lost his life and his kingdom for love. Joffrey tortured and preened his way into a poisoning. Margaery thought she was winning the game through charm until the moment she lost.

Olenna doesn’t want Dany to suffer the same fate. 

As a leader, so far, Dany has been a little uneven. She questioned Varys’ loyalty but let Melisandre in (oh, hi, Meli, we didn’t really miss you). Her tendency to let Tyrion speak for her in this episode, and to actually parrot his words, speaks volumes about how dependent she has become on her Hand. But Olenna is right, Dany needs to stand on her own. Tyrion has his own baggage (see his rekindled drama with Ellaria) and his cleverness will only get her so far. And so far, it couldn’t even get a few ships back south to Dorne. And speaking of...

All’s fair in love and war

Theon and Yara

Game of Thrones never could resist an old-fashioned villain. 

Euron Greyjoy has filled the void on the show left by Ramsay Bolton and Joffrey Baratheon before him. He’s mean, he’s ambitious and he’s just a little bit manic. The elder Greyjoy vowed last week to bring Cersei a gift, and it seems his offering will be the woman who killed her daughter, Ellaria Sand. And he also happened to destroy a part of Dany’s fleet, capture Yara and send Theon jumping ship as a bonus.

But beyond its implication, the battle sequence that closed the episode was thrilling and excellently shot, making smart use of its color and staging. The bloody, almost animalistic way Euron’s soldiers fought was striking. They’re all teeth and nails and axes, which overran the streamlined grace of the Dornish fighters. Theon’s betrayal was also well done. The man has been through more than most in the Seven Kingdoms, and the moment just before he jumped felt like an episode of PTSD. He was never going to be the guardian Yara spoke about. And now she’s a prisoner, but at least she’s alive. Never count someone out on this show while they’re still breathing (or even after they stopped breathing if Qyburn or a White Walker is around). 

Cersei’s clutch on the Iron Throne is looking a lot stronger, and she barely had to lift a hand. Don’t count her out.

The last Stark in Winterfell

Sansa

One way to end a sibling rivalry is just to give your sister all the toys. 

Dany’s ruling abilities are being slowly tested in Dragonstone, but Jon is experiencing a trial by snow, if you will, up in Winterfell where his every decision is being questioned by his men and his sister. The news that Dany has landed at Dragonstone and wants to meet him and that Sam has discovered a mountain of dragonglass on the island makes the decision to travel to the Mother of Dragons simple for the King in the North, even if it’s not simple for everyone else. Remember when Rickard Stark (Ned’s dad) went to see Mad King Aerys? Remember when Ned went to Robert? Remember when Robb went to a wedding? The idea of Starks staying behind Winterfell’s protective walls doesn’t seem too crazy. 

But Jon has never been anything but logical, and he inevitably decides to go. But not before transferring power to Sansa, who seems to have been craving it, and threatening Littlefinger, who tried and failed to manipulate his new King. It’s a little worrisome that Jon and Davos, the two most moral and just characters left on the show, are leaving the stronghold. Littlefinger didn’t look happy and neither did the Northern lords. But after all, Sansa has learned, and she has the best hope of keeping everyone in line. 

Now you’re just somebody that I used to know

Arya

Arya, as any young person who’s gone off to college and come home at fall break can tell you, it’s just not quite the same when you see your pets after time apart. 

The season premiere brought up questions about Arya, and whether or not she’s more a Stark or a killer. In “Stormborn” she gets to make that choice, after Hot Pie (now where’s Gendry?) informs her that Jon is ruling in Winterfell. Cersei and a chance for revenge lay to the south and Jon and home lay north, and Arya decided to go home. She got a taste of home on the way when she encountered Nymeria, the direwolf she had to abandon in Season 1 after it bit Joffrey on the road to King’s Landing (ah, simpler times). Nymeria didn’t kill Arya, but she didn’t join her former companion either. Arya isn’t the same girl she was when Nymeria knew her. She may not fit back into the world of Winterfell, either. 

Greyscale’s Anatomy

Jorah

Sam, we know you’re doing great things and saving Jorah’s life and becoming a really smart maester and everything, but goodness, if your scenes this season haven’t been some of the grossest Thrones has ever produced. 

Jon’s bestie continues his unconventional training at the Citadel, and he’s risking it all to perform an outlawed procedure on Jorah to try to save him from his greyscale. It may send the knight back to his Khaleesi, but it’s unlikely to do anything to help Sam’s relationship with the Archmaester. Sam may not always agree with his teacher, but the man makes an important point about documenting and learning from history that the rest of the characters should note. And if he’s looking for a more poetic title to his history of the wars after Robert’s death, how about, ahem, A Game of Thrones? That’s got some poetry, for sure. 

Also of note...

  • It’s nice that, even with so much else going on, Thrones still has time for Grey Worm and Missandei's romance, a quieter, more innocent form of love and passion. 
  • The Sand Snakes never lived up to the potential they had in the book, but they deserved better than their deaths in this episode, which felt unnecessarily grotesque. 
  • Qyburn, sporting his own Hand of the Queen pin, is cooking up more science-driven ways to win the war, now with a giant crossbow that can kill dragons. The fallen maester’s scientific (and potentially magical) powers are, perhaps, the most interesting development in King’s Landing of late. An ability to zombify might come in handy when the Night King comes.  
  • Less interesting but potentially important: Jaime is trying to get Sam’s dad to lead the Lannister army. As if the Tarlys didn’t have enough family drama. 
  • We got just a glimpse of Brienne at Winterfell two episodes in a row. With Sansa ruling hopefully, she’ll have more to do in episodes to come.

Scroll through photos from Season 7 below.

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