The fourth episode of Game of Thrones seventh series brings on the action as Daenerys brings her army, and a dragon, upon the Lannister army. In The Spoils of War, The Stark girls and Bran are finally reunited in Winterfell, and Arya shows off her fighting skills to Brienne while Jon Snow is still in Dragonstone. The Lannister army is on the march when Daenerys decides to take things into her own hands. Jon meets an old familiar face, and he is finally able to convince Daenerys that the threat of the White Walkers is real. The Spoils of War gave us a satisfying reunion, and had us sitting with our mouths hanging open as Drogon reigned fire down upon the Lannister army. This episode left us immediately wanting more. Below is our recap of The Spoils of War… spoilers follow!
Game of Thrones Episode 4 – The Spoils of War
Arya finally makes her return to Winterfell although she runs into a little bit of trouble at the gate. She announces herself to the guards, but they immediately tell her she is lying because Arya Stark is dead. Arya tells them that if they are wrong, Sansa will be very upset with them. They let her in and tell her to wait, but as she soon as they turn their back she is gone. Sansa knows that she will have gone to the tombs. She ventures down there, finds her, and they embrace. Sansa asks her why she ran from the guards. To which Arya says, “I didn’t run, I walked.”
Arya, Sansa, and Bran are all reunited at the Godswood where Bran gives Arya the Valerian steel dagger that was given to him by Little Finger earlier in the episode. Later, Arya finds Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne sparring in the courtyard. She tells Brienne that she is out of practice and convinces her to spar with her instead of Podrick. Brienne quickly learns that Arya is now a skilled swordsman. She takes Brienne every time they go at it, winning the last round by putting the dagger that Bran gave her to Brienne’s throat. Arya is swift and almost catlike in her movements.
At Dragonstone, Jon Snow has found the dragonglass beneath the castle. He finds Daenerys and takes her down in the cave so she can see the dragonglass before they mine it. He also shows her some ancient hieroglyphs that he found which were made by the Children of the Forest. Daenerys is in awe that they are standing in a spot where the Children of the Forest existed before the First Men came into being. Jon then shows her a drawing that represents the First Men and the Children of the Forest joined together, proving that they actually existed at the same time. She wonders what this represents, then he shows her another drawing of the Ice King and the White Walkers. Daenerys sees that they fought together against the White Walkers and finally understands that the threat is real. She says that she will join Jon in his fight… if he bends the knee. Jon says he still cannot do that because his people will not understand. Daenerys tells him that his people will rally behind whatever the king decides. Jon does not commit … it appears the matter is still open for now.
They emerge from the tomb and Tyrion is there with bad news of their defeat at Casterly Rock and at sea. Daenerys wants to take a dragon and ride straight to the Red Keep and lay waste to Cersei. Tyrion tries to convince her otherwise, but she is furious at him because his plans for indirect attacks have not worked. She even insinuates that he may be taking it easy on his family. She turns to Jon Snow and asks his advice. Jon tells her that if she attacks King’s Landing with her dragon, she will instill fear in the people living there and will be no better than her ancestors.
Later, as Jon is standing on the beach with Tyrion and crew, he spies a ship approaching with Greyjoy sails. The crew, which includes Theon Greyjoy, exit the ship and pull it ashore. Jon recognizes Theon at once and walks toward him with a stone gaze. He then grabs him and violently pulls him close and tells him that the only reason is he is not killing him is because of what he did for Sansa. Theon says he needs to speak with the Queen, but he is informed that she has left. Left to where?
Jamie, Bronn, and the Lannister army are on the trail moving away from Highgarden. They have shipped off the gold spoils they collected and sent them ahead to the Red Keep. As they continue moving toward King’s Landing, they hear what sounds like thunder in the distance. They quickly realize that it is an approaching calvary and they rally their troops into position. Bronn tries to talk Jamie into fleeing to King’s Landing because he can tell it is a large force heading towards and he says Jamie can better serve the realm alive. Jamie refuses and stays to fight with his men. As the sound gets louder, Daenerys’ army of Dothraki on horseback appear over the horizon. This following battle sequence from The Spoils of War is the best we have seen in the series so far.
As the Dothraki advance on the Lannister army, Daenerys appears riding Drogon. The Lannister army including Jamie and Bronn, stare in disbelief. While the Dothraki start to breach the Lannister line of soldiers, Daenerys gives a command to Drogon and takes a wide swath of soldiers in a glorious blaze of fire. Jamie orders archers to fire arrows at the dragon, but they simply bounce off his hard outer shell. He then orders Bronn to get to the large-bolted scorpion weapon and take the dragon down.
By this time, the Dothraki have penetrated the line and Drogon has incinerated multiple groups of soldiers and equipment. It is chaos on the ground as Bronn makes his way to the weapon, and he has a Dothraki soldier on his tail. He loses him for a moment, makes it to the weapon, and fires a bolt that impales his pursuer several feet off of the ground. Bronn then reloads and takes aim Drogon and Daenerys. He misses the first shot, reloads and takes aim again as Drogon sets his sights upon him. Bronn lets the second shot fly and hits Drogon on the left side of his body. He falters and begins to descend, but soon regains his composure and burns up the weapon as Bronn escapes. Drogon makes it to the ground and gives the weapon a final destructive blow with his tail.
Daenerys dismounts and is attempting to take the bolt out of him when Jamie, still on horseback, sees his opportunity. He grabs a spear protruding from the ground and charges toward Daenerys. As he approaches, Drogon turns to face him and his throat begins to fill with fire, but at the last second Jamie is shoved off his horse at the last second and is thrown into the water. The last we see, Jamie is awake and sinking to the bottom of the water because of the weight of his armor. Who will save him? We will have to wait until next week to find out.
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Featured Photo: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Credit: HBO)
