Fire and Ice finally meet in the third episode of Game of Thrones‘ seventh season. In this episode we saw Jon Snow make the long trek from Winterfell to Dragonstone, against his sister’s wishes, to meet with Daenerys Targaryen. Cersei wins a battle and gets some long awaited revenge for the death of her daughter. Olenna Tyrell serves up some revenge of her own, and the Unsullied bring their forces upon Casterly Rock. Being early in the season, there are of course still more questions than answers, but we did get one answer that we didn’t even know we were waiting for. Below is our recap of The Queen’s Justice… spoilers follow!
Game of Thrones Episode 3 – The Queen’s Justice
As Jon Snow makes his way up the long steps at Dragonstone, he suddenly leaps to the ground as a huge dragon flies overhead screeching as it passes. He lays for a moment in awe of the creature, and when he does get up, he still stares at it as if he can’t believe his eyes. Tyrion tells him, “I’d say you get used to them, but you never really do”. This may be the first time that Jon feels intimidated by his upcoming meeting, but if he does, he does not show it in front of Daenerys.
When the two meet in the throne room, Daenerys asks Jon to bend the knee and swear loyalty to her. Jon tells her that he will not and that he has come to ask for her help in fighting the White Walkers. He tells her that the different houses all vying for control of the kingdom are just children’s games. The White Walkers are the real threat that everyone needs to band together to fight. They cannot come to an agreement and when Jon leaves the throne room, he asks, “Am I your prisoner?” To which Daenerys replies, “Not yet.”
This scene displayed the meeting that we have all been waiting for, and it was beautifully written to highlight the differences between the two leaders. Jon went into the meeting with the preconception that Daenerys was just a spoiled rich kid begging for what daddy left her. While Daenerys looked at Jon as if he was just a brutish Northerner who was not as civilized as the rest of the world. Both of them realized they were wrong in their preconceptions, but they are both also stubborn enough that they could not back away from their stance at this first meeting. The next day the two meet again outside of the castle. They seem to have found some common ground after a night’s sleep because Daenerys agrees to let Jon mine the dragonglass and even offers her men to help him.
In King’s Landing, Euron parades Yara, Ellaria and Tyrene through the streets as people throw garbage and feces at them. When they arrive at the throne room, Cersei awards Euron by making him captain of the navy. Euron wants a reward of sex from Cersei, but she tells him that his reward will come when the battle is over. Euron provokes Jamie in the throne room by quietly asking him what Cersei likes in bed. Jamie can do nothing in front of everyone but is visibly irate.
Cersei has Ellaria and Tyrene placed in a cell facing each other from opposite walls with their arms bound in chains and their mouths gagged. Cersei recounts how Ellaria must have felt when the Mountain killed her lover, Oberyn Martell. She cruelly recalls the events of the fight and in only the way Cersei can do, she wonders aloud if Oberyn would have won if he had not stopped to gloat. She likens the way Ellaria feels to how she herself feels about the death of her daughter, Myrcella. Cersei then crosses the cell to Tyrene, kisses her, wipes her lips with a cloth, and then drinks a small vial of liquid. Ellaria fumes as she realizes that Cersei has just poisoned her daughter the same way that she poisoned Myrcella. The difference is that Ellaria will be forced to watch her daughter slowly die in front of her. The Queen’s Justice is indeed harsh.
Cersei then finds Jamie and the two have sex. Apparently feeling empowered by her victory at sea and her revenge on Ellaria, she is no longer hiding her relationship with Jamie. When a servant knocks on the bedroom door, she opens it with Jamie in full view and tells the servant that they will need new sheets.
In Winterfell, Sansa is preparing for winter as she is checking the amount of food available and ordering more to be stored to be sure there is enough. She also makes an observation that the armor should have leather applied to the inside to keep their men warm. All the while, Little Finger is never far from her side. As they walk through the courtyard, Bran arrives and Sansa breaks down in tears of Joy. Later, as they sit beneath the Godswood, Bran tells her that he must talk to Jon. Bran has changed and has a more stoic way about him that she is not sure how to take.
At the end of The Queen’s Justice, Jamie has led the Lannister army to the reach where he won a swift and decisive victory against the Tyrell army. He finds Olenna and she tells him of the impending Unsullied attack on Casterly Rock, but Jamie is already aware of this attack. He tells her that Casterly Rock is now worthless so they left a small army there to defend it because their forces could better serve the realm elsewhere. Olenna knows she is going to die and is not surprised when Jamie pours poison in her cup. She drinks it and then gets her final revenge as she tells Jamie to inform Cersei that she was the one who poisoned Joffrey. Olenna wants to make sure that Cersei knows it was her that did it.
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Featured Photo: Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington (Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO)
