"Game of Thrones" Season Finale: "Nobody Wins When the Family Feuds."

On today’s episode, we're talking about Game of Thrones season 7, episode 7. Thanks for listening! Subscribe on iTunes and SoundCloud. @bsvocalfry on Twitter!

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Show Notes

0:23 – The title of this week’s episode was “The Dragon and the Wolf.” It was the season finale…allegedly. But this finalized nothing! 0:50 – We start the episode in King’s Landing—the Kings and Queens are Landing! The gang’s back together again! But, nobody wins when the family feuds. 1:40 – This week’s episode highlighted issues with the season’s plotlines. Tyrion’s plan all season has been to show Cersei a Whight, hoping it would activate humanity in her, and push her to fight with the North against the Whights. 2:09 – Let’s get into Cersei’s fashions! She mixes textures like nobody’s business! I have so many questions for the costumers! Cersei is giving me fall 2017 luxe plush crushed black velvet. Armor has been incorporated into her character’s wardrobe from season 1. Back then with the armored corset belt in season 1, to the intensification of it after Robert’s death. After a mother’s mercy, we see another full shift in her costuming. But post mother’s mercy, she’s like READY FOR THAT WAR READY FOR THAT WAR READY. 3:30 – This season felt like x-over fanfiction, and like they had too much money to spend. It was all pyrotechnics, live animals, and CGI. 3:45 – Family dynamics at plat across the board! The Clegane’s the Lannister’s. The most entertaining reunion was Tyrion and Bron! 5:30 – Daenerys and Jon are in King’s Landing calling for a truce with Cersei. Cersei’s ultimatum, after she experiences the terror of the Whights, calls for Jon Snow to remain neutral in the North. 6:00 - Cersei is trying to make Jon Snow the same offer she made Ned Stark--“Go die in your frozen wasteland and leave us alone.” Ned said no, got imprisoned, and we know how that worked out. We see the same thing happening now, the same offer being extended. Instead of saying “No,” Jon says, “No, because I’m with Daenerys Targaryen!” 8:00 – Meanwhile, while the male starks continuously ride south to fight the battles of others, WHO RUNS THE WORLD/ THE NORTH?! GIRLS! 8:22 – This was my favorite part of the episode. This was one part of the season that seemed to actually pay off. 8:30 - Brionna is shimmying in the studio 8:45 – Sansa’s talking over her thoughts with LIttlefinger regarding Arya. LIttlefinger discloses to Sansa how he manages to “have it all”—he assumes the worst, always. 9:35 – We’re back in King’s Landing, where Tyrion is preparing to talk 1-on-1 with his sister Cersei. 9:50 – Tyrion decides its time for a good ol’ fashioned heart-to-heart with his big sis. This, to me…I love when Cersei talks about family, because you get a glimpse into how deep her delusion is. I feel like her children masked that for a while. Now, she’s using the idea of a child and projecting herself into the future in order to harness herself in the now. that’s why she’s manipulating Jamie. 10:38 – I’m frustrated with the TV trope of impending pregnancy and the impending doom of a miscarriage. It’s happened over and over (see Downton Abbey). I’m sick of Thrones leaning on women’s sex and sexuality as a cliffhanger. Maybe that’s how Cersei is. 11:30 – Cersei meets up with Trion and they barter a deal. Later, Cersei emerges and says she’s going to partner with Daenerys and Jon to fight the Whightwalkers. 11:45 – Then Cersei reveals her master plan to Jamie! And Jamie delivers his greatest line of the series: “You made a promise!” Jamie’s in the exact same place he was at the end of season 6. Why does he continue to be surprised at Cersei’s secretive shenanigans? 13:05 – Eventually Jamie has enough, and he’s like, “Screw you guys, I’m going home!” This has been a long time coming for Jamie. 14:00 - …And then winter descends on King’s Landing. After we leave King’s Landing, Jon, Jorah and team Dany are at Dragonstone plotting next moves. 14:30 – It felt like an arranged military marriage—as a show of strength together, let’s present a united front. 15:08 – Dany and Jon decide to sail together, but not before Theon has a private conversation with Jon. 15:20 – This felt, again, like crossover fanfiction gone awry. In these two AUs that have never had any slash or interaction, it seems irresponsible for someone to hang their moral hat on someone else. 15:53 – Theon’s character arc is very weird. After he helps Sansa escape Ramsey at the end of season 5, you feel that he’s redeemed himself of most things. But then he abandons his sister! 16:59 – And we’re back in Winterfell, pouring one out for the homie LIttlefinger, who rode the car (wagon?) until the wheels fell off. 17:30 – Why is everyone so mean to Sansa?! A flashback to season 2 gives us a glimpse into how deep her survival instincts run. 18:45 – The Stark kids are back in the ‘Fell, and Sansa turns the tables like a G. 19:20 - “My sister asked you a question!” DRAG HIM!!!! 19:45 – Rush thinks the Sansa-Arya character arc is the strongest of the season. “A lot of times in shows like this, women are strong if they take up male characteristics like Arya. But they’re rarely strong if they take up feminine ones like Sansa. You see Arya abandoning her femininity (something she never really cared for to begin with) to become a warrior. But Sansa never abandons her femininity, but uses it and her experience as a survivor to beat LIttlefinger, the guy who had been manipulating things from the jump. 22:30 – MEANWHILE, AT THE WALL, THE NIGHT KING HAS A NEW WHIP! The ice-zombie dragon starts breathing ice fire…? A song of ice and fire?! The fire destroys the wall, and we see Tormund and the team running from the wall as a portion of the Wall at Eastwatch comes down and the dead come marching through. 23:35 – I feel like this season was rushed. Not only logistically (time, continuity), but also in terms of plot and suspended disbelief. It feels like what happens when you’re working with a live entity like high-budget primetime TV. It comes with the territory-you have a lot of money you need to spend quick fast in a hurry and BIG. The focus was “CGI! LIVE ANIMALS! PYROTECHNICS!” which are all expensive AF. There are big machines behind endeavors like this. It felt like the first half of season 7 suffered under the weight of that machine. 25:05 – Yes, everything felt rushed. It was a shorter season, which comes with the territory. This was a sprawling season with a lot of plotlines. But what’s upsetting is, if you watch earlier seasons of GoT (1-3) and compare to this season, it’s like night and day in terms of character dev. What made me fall in love with the show wasn’t that there were dragons and half naked women in every other scene. I can watch any show with that. It was the political intrigue, the writing, how it all felt like a chess game. Now it just seems like all the characters are stripped down and their plots are moving at warp speed to fastest possible conclusion. It feels like the writers are done with the show and have been done for a season and a half.