 Unlike previous seasons that consisted of ten episodes each, the seventh season consists of only seven. Like the previous season, it largely consists of original content not found in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and also adapts material Martin revealed to showrunners about the upcoming novels in the series. Storyline: In the mythical continent of Westeros, several powerful families fight for control of the Seven Kingdoms. As conflict erupts in the kingdoms of men, an ancient enemy rises once again to threaten them all. Meanwhile, the last heirs of a recently usurped dynasty plot to take back their homeland from across the Narrow Sea. Written by Sam Gray 7.01 Dragonstone - At the Twins, Arya fatally poisons the remaining lords of House Frey. The White Walkers march toward the Wall, where Tollett allows Bran and Meera inside. At Winterfell, despite Sansa's disapproval, Jon secures the loyalties of Houses Umber and Karstark, who fought alongside Ramsay in the Battle of the Bastards. At the Citadel, Samwell steals books that reveal a large reservoir of dragonglass in Dragonstone, and sends word to Jon. He later finds Jorah in a cell. In the Riverlands, Arya meets a group of friendly Lannister soldiers, who take her intention to kill Cersei as a joke. Thoros shows Sandor a vision in the fire. The revelation leads him to believe in the Lord of Light. In King's Landing, Jaime tells Cersei of the crucial need for allies. She welcomes Euron, who proposes marriage to her in exchange for his Iron Fleet and a chance to kill Theon and Yara. Cersei declines citing trust as a concern, so Euron promises to return with a "gift" to prove his loyalty. Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone, the home of House Targaryen once occupied by Stannis, with her army and dragons. (Disc.1) 7.02 Stormborn - Daenerys sends the Dornishmen on Yara's fleet to Sunspear, the Unsullied to Casterly Rock and decides to not move on to King's Landing yet, intending to install a complete siege instead. She demands Varys to criticize her future mistakes instead of betraying her, which he did to previous monarchs. Melisandre arrives and tells her about the prophecy involving Daenerys and Jon. Grey Worm and Missandei consummate their relationship. Cersei gathers several lords, asking for their fealties and promising Randyll the title of Warden of the South. Qyburn shows Cersei an invented ballista for killing dragons. Arya meets with Hot Pie, who tells her of Jon's ascension to King in the North; she then decides to return to Winterfell. After receiving Samwell's letter, Jon leaves for Dragonstone in hopes of getting Daenerys's support against the White Walkers, leaving Sansa in charge and warning Littlefinger not to get close to her. Samwell begins a forbidden treatment for Jorah. Euron's fleet attacks Yara's. Obara and Nymeria are killed, while Ellaria, Tyene and Yara are captured. Theon flees the carnage in horror by jumping into the sea. (Disc.1) 7.03 The Queen's Justice - Jon arrives at Dragonstone, where Daenerys demands his fealty. Instead, he asks for help against the Army of the Dead; after advice from Tyrion, Daenerys grants them access to the dragonglass on the island. Bran arrives at Winterfell and explains some of his powers to Sansa. In King's Landing, Euron returns with Ellaria and Tyene as a gift for Cersei, who promises to marry him after the war. She then gives him co-control of her military along with Jaime. Cersei gives Tyene the same poison Ellaria used to kill Myrcella, forcing Ellaria to watch her daughter's incoming death. In Oldtown, a healed Jorah leaves to find Daenerys. Ebrose decides to forgive Samwell. Grey Worm and the Unsullied capture Casterly Rock. However, it is revealed that Jaime took most of the Lannister forces to attack Highgarden, while Euron's fleet arrives destroying the Unsullied's ships. Jaime and the rest of the Lannister forces easily capture Highgarden. He gives Olenna poison as a quick and painless death. After drinking, she confesses to Joffrey's poisoning and demands him to tell Cersei. (Disc.1) 7.04 The Spoils of War - Arya returns to Winterfell, where she reunites with Sansa and spars with Brienne, both of whom are unnerved by her exceptional fighting skills. Bran unemotionally bids farewell to Meera, divulging that he is no longer the boy she accompanied through the North. Littlefinger presents Bran with the dagger that was previously used in his attempted assassination. Cersei assures the Iron Bank a full return on their investment, as a train carrying gold from Highgarden is on its way to King's Landing. In a cave filled with dragonglass, Jon reveals ancient paintings to Daenerys depicting the First Men and the Children of the Forest joining forces against the undead. Later, Daenerys learns of the sacking of Highgarden by Lannister forces and realizes her attack on Casterly Rock was a distraction. Despite Tyrion's protests, she decides to take action. Led by Daenerys riding Drogon, the Dothraki cavalry catches the Lannister army by surprise and decimate or capture its remaining forces. Drogon is wounded during the fight by a spear fired from the scorpion ballista being manned by Bronn. Jaime mounts a desperate charge on horseback at a vulnerable Daenerys, but Drogon spews fire in time to thwart the attack. Bronn tackles Jaime into the river in time to save him. (Disc.2) 7.05 Eastwatch - Jaime and Bronn return to King's Landing. Against Tyrion's advice, Daenerys has Drogon burn Randyll and Dickon Tarly alive for remaining allegiant to Cersei, forcing the other captives to pledge fealty to the former. Jorah arrives at Dragonstone and reunites with Daenerys. Maester Wolkan alerts Jon and the Citadel about the approaching wights to the Eastwatch by the Sea. Jon decides to travel beyond the Wall and capture a wight in order to convince Cersei for a temporary alliance. Davos smuggles Tyrion inside King's Landing, where he secretly meets with Jaime and offers an armistice, which Cersei accepts, informing Jaime that she is pregnant. Davos rendezvouses with Gendry and returns him to Dragonstone. With the Citadel ignoring Wolkan's letter, Samwell steals several books and leaves with Gilly and Little Sam. At Winterfell, Littlefinger notices Arya spying on him and leads her to take a letter written by Sansa from his room. Jon, Jorah, and Gendry, joined by the Hound, the Brotherhood, and a group of the Free Folk led by Tormund, leave Eastwatch and pass the Wall, intending to capture a wight as evidence for Cersei that the Army of the Dead is real. (Disc.2) 7.06 Beyond the Wall - At Winterfell, Littlefinger plots to isolate Sansa. Tensions between Arya and Sansa grow following Arya's discovery of the letter Sansa sent as a child begging for Robb's fealty to Joffrey. Sansa discovers Arya's bag of faces she took from Braavos. At Dragonstone, Tyrion counsels Daenerys about her upcoming negotiations with Cersei. Beyond the Wall, Jon leads a raiding party to capture a wight to bring South as evidence of the White Walkers' existence. After successfully capturing one, the group is besieged by the White Walker army. Jon has Gendry return to Eastwatch and send a raven to Daenerys to request her help. Thoros freezes to death overnight. Daenerys arrives and saves the group from the wights, with the help of her dragons. The Night King, leader of the White Walkers, throws an ice spear at Viserion, one of Daenerys' dragons, and kills it. Daenerys flies off, along with the raiding party, but is unable to save Jon. Benjen Stark intervenes and sacrifices himself to allow Jon to escape. When Jon and Daenerys are reunited, Jon pledges himself and the North to Daenerys as Queen. The Night King resurrects Viserion, making the dragon a part of his army. (Disc.2) 7.07 The Dragon and the Wolf - At King's Landing, the wight is presented to the Lannisters. Cersei demands Jon's neutrality in the Great War, but he upholds his oath to Daenerys, provoking Cersei to leave. Tyrion meets privately with Cersei, apparently persuading her to ally. Cersei later reveals to Jaime that she was lying and instead intends to use the Golden Company of Braavos to secure her hold on Westeros. Disgusted, Jaime deserts her and rides north. Bound for White Harbor, Jon and Daenerys make love. At Dragonstone, Theon earns the respect of his men and leads them to rescue Yara. At Winterfell, Littlefinger sows dissent using Arya's threatening demeanor with Sansa, who assembles a trial. After listing Littlefinger's acts of treason against House Stark and the North, Sansa has Arya execute him. Samwell arrives at Winterfell and meets with Bran, where both discuss Jon's parentage. They realise Jon is a trueborn Targaryen named Aegon and valid heir to the Iron Throne, with his parents—Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark—having married in secret. At Eastwatch, an undead Viserion damages the Wall, allowing the Army of the Dead to march south. (Disc.3) ------------------------------Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 11, 2017 Most series which have achieved seven seasons tend to show signs of aging, along with attrition of audience numbers tuning in, in what is almost a seemingly inevitable trajectory for television popularity. As it has done in so many other ways, though, Game of Thrones continues to defy expectations, and some online data charting the amount of fans watching the show indicate that, if anything, the numbers glued to their screens have grown almost geometrically over the past couple of years, a trend that seems sure to continue as this much lauded show enters its reported final season. This seventh year acts as a bridge of sorts to that anticipated endgame, and as such it may tend to strike some longtime fans as providing what amounts to almost an onslaught of info dumps and plot machinations as the series attempts to stuff a lot of content into a season that has at least a few less episodes than previous seasons, even if some of this season's episodes do run a few minutes longer than usual. As with most (and arguably all) of Game of Thrones' previous seasons, there's a novelistic approach to the show, even though the series has rather famously left George R.R. Martin's source tomes (largely) behind, and as such, season seven is perhaps even more vignette and set piece driven than previous seasons. That said, while the show may be perceived as overly "busy" this year, it doesn't waste much time on "niceties", preferring instead to maraud headlong into any number of long simmering plot dynamics, kind of like a bunch of White Walkers penetrating a certain wall. Perhaps more than any other series running on television, Game of Thrones requires a flowchart for all of the interweaving stories and characters. Those not up to speed on this dense series' often convoluted stories should find a way to see each of the episodes in order. Note: As I've attempted to do in all of the reviews of previous seasons of Game of Thrones that I've personally done, I try in the following summary to deal largely in generalities so that no individual spoilers are posted. However, I do crack wise (what else is new?) about one particular revelation with regard to a major character which probably does in fact at least verge on spoiler territory (at least for those who can read between the punchlines), so forewarned is forearmed. That said, those who do have a history with Game of Thrones but who may not have seen the seventh season of the show yet for whatever reason may want to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below. There's a communal aspect to being an audience member of Game of Thrones that is in some ways quite unique in the television viewing universe. Perhaps because the show has provided such regular "water cooler" fodder for so many for so long, there's a feeling in this season that the writing staff wants to wave virtual shiny objects from time to time, perhaps if only to see if various fans will turn away from underlying plotting to take time to notice. This season has a strangely circuitous feeling at times that seems to defy the fact that it's obvious that a lot of dangling plot threads need to be woven together in order for the show to get to some kind of reasonably satisfying conclusion in the upcoming season. Therefore, while there are overall arcs that portend big trouble for Westeros, the show continually detours into "smaller", almost episodic, treatments of the interrelationships between various characters. Without seeming too cheeky about it, large swaths of this season tend to play like some kind of ancient mythical reworking of The Walking Dead at times, what with a horde of rampaging quasi-zombies threatening to make mincemeat out of the Lannisters and Targaryens and Snows and everyone else should they not put aside their petty (?) differences and learn to work together. That's an underlying if kind of almost inherently incredible seeming subtext throughout most of this season, though as a number of revelations are doled out (Jon's true parentage, Cersei's plans for future Lannisters, etc.), the show also weirdly gets lost in needless detours along the way. There's a whole kind of padded subplot featuring Sansa (Sophie Turner), Arya (Maisie Williams) and Littlefinger Baelish (Aidan Gillen) that is not only completely illogical but seemingly designed just so the show's writers can emit a hearty "A ha! — got ya, didn't we?" to the viewers when a surprise is sprung about what's really been going on. The show is considerably more effective in its arguably upped number of set pieces, which offer various episodes the sort of epic scope that has become one of the series' hallmarks. But perhaps even more interesting here is some of the interplay between the characters. Jon (Kit Harington) and Daenerys (Emelia Clark) develop into something more than merely friends, something that along with the denouement about Jon's parentage seems to suggest incest is all but inevitable in and around Westeros. Even the arguably over extended Sansa — Arya subplot has some interesting development in the relationship between the sisters, with a kind of wry acceptance entering the fray once common enemies are noticed. In fact common enemies in and of themselves are a running current throughout this season, as evidenced by the whole tense "summit" meeting that caps this season, one which suggests Cersei (Lena Headey), for all her "shame" a season or so ago, can at least seem to be acting honorably. A variety of competing allegiances and backstories threaten to keep these wary adversaries from realizing that those "walking dead" types are getting closer every day. I have a friend who's a major Game of Thrones freak (there, I've said it) who insists that the odd numbered seasons are always the weakest, and that the fifth and seventh have proven that beyond a doubt. I hate to argue with friends since I have so few of them to begin with, but I never really saw the supposed downturn this show took a couple of years ago and, despite some missteps (in my perception) this show takes this year, the storytelling is still brisk and often astoundingly exciting. The show continues to have stupendous production values, though this season has a tendency to be a bit more "potty mouthed" than usual, for those who may be squeamish about such things. Technical merits are once again first rate, and the supplemental package is excellent. Highly recommended. IMDb Rating (03/11/18): 9.5/10 from 1,299,828 users IMDb Rating (07/25/17): 9.5/10 from 1,184,287 users IMDb Rating (03/15/17): 9.5/10 from 1,130,436 users IMDb Rating (05/11/16): 9.5/10 from 960,075 users IMDb Rating (04/21/14): 8.2/10 from 32,892 users
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