It’s going to be a difficult ten months waiting for season seven.

by Rachel Wilford

(Spoiler Warning) Game of Thrones season six finale was full of surprises, and there were multiple times that I jumped off my couch yelling unintelligible things. I couldn’t help it. This episode, we saw the murder of well over a handful of main and important characters, a royal suicide, some confirmation about a growing theory, a voyage that we have been waiting for for six years, and some deliciously satisfying revenge. It was a captivating episode, to say the very least.

In King’s Landing, the day of Loras and Cersei’s trial has come. This entire portion of the episode is scored simply by an eerie piano melody that warns the audience that death is definitely coming. The creepiness of the melody alone was enough to get anyone’s heart racing. It’s the day of the trial but Cersei, however, does not plan to attend and she does not let Tommen attend either. She enlists the scientist, Qyburn, to set up an explosion of wildfire underneath the Great Sept where just about everyone is gathered for the trial, including Loras Tyrell, Margaery Tyrell, Lord Mace Tyrell, Kevan Lannister, Lancell Lannister, and the High Sparrow. Margaery tries to warn everyone by telling them that something must be wrong because neither Cersei nor Tommen have shown up to the trial, but the High Sparrow dismisses her. Soon after, there is a blast of green that blazes straight through the High Sparrow and instantly kills everyone inside the Great Sept. Meanwhile, the Little Birds lure Grand Maester Pycelle to where Qyburn awaits him. There, he is stabbed to death by the Little Birds. Due to the explosion and the murder of Grand Maester Pycelle, Cersei was able to take out the entire Small Council, her son’s wife and her family, and the High Sparrow and his sparrow followers. Tommen, having seen the explosion from the Red Keep and understanding full well what happened, steps out of his window and commits suicide in an extremely dramatically constructed scene that warrants a scream or two. Cersei then is able to essentially just name herself queen with Qyburn by her side, since there is no one left to stop her.

Game of Thrones
Created by
David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Cast
Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Release Date
26 June 2016
Rachel’s Grade: A+


There is also a scene where Cersei talks to a chained up Septa Unella (the septa who repeatedly told her to “confess” and “shamed” her when Cersei was locked up). Cersei reiterates her promise to the septa, that her face would be the last thing the septa would see before she died, but Cersei lets her know that she will be dying for a long time. The scene ends with The Mountain entering the room and the septa screaming.

At The Twins, Jaime and Bronn celebrate the regained control of Riverrun with the Freys. A servant girl keeps eyeing Jaime from afar, and Bronn teases him about it. In a later scene, we see Walder Frey alone at his table with the same servant girl. He asks where his sons are multiple times, to which she responds, “They are already here, my Lord.” Finally, she points to the pie in front of him, telling him that his sons are carved up in the pie. Before I could even figure out what was going on and why this strange servant girl was feeding Walder Frey’s sons to him in a pie, the girl removes her face and Arya reveals herself, making her entire time getting trained by the Faceless Men completely worth it. She reminds Frey of his crimes and holds him down as he tries to run away, then she slits his throat exactly like Catelyn’s was slit all those years ago in that same house. She smiles as he dies in her arms. That’s one more person she can cross off her list.

North of the Wall, Benjen brings Bran and Meera to the weirwood heart tree and then leaves them. Bran places his hand on the tree and experiences the vision of the Tower of Joy, where he left off with his father traveling up the steps toward the sound of the screaming. Bran watches as Ned arrives in the tower and rushes to the aid of his sister, Lyanna Stark, who is lying on a bed covered in blood. He is handed her newborn baby, and she whispers to him the baby’s identity and makes him promise to keep the baby safe because Robert would kill him if he found out his true identity. The camera shifts to the baby’s face as he opens his eyes, stays there for a moment, and then shifts straight to Jon Snow’s face, insinuating that he was that baby all those years ago.

The Houses of the North are hesitant at first to back Jon Snow, but they eventually agree that they were wrong not to help fight the Boltons and they pronounce Jon King of the North. Sam and Gilly arrive in Oldtown and visit the Citadel. Sam informs the maester there that he has been sent by the Night’s Watch to be trained as the new maester. In Mereen, Daenerys asks Daario to stay behind and makes Tyrion her Hand of the Queen. The Sand Snakes are shown in Dorne having a meeting with Olenna Tyrell and Varys. They form an alliance to go after Cersei Lannister and join Daenerys Targaryen’s army. The episode ends with Daenerys, her army, her alliances, and her dragons all sailing to Westeros.

Finally, Houses are being killed off and character stories are condensing. Things are really narrowing down considerably after this season, and it’s obvious that we’re really getting down to the wire now. It’s going to be a difficult ten months waiting for season seven, but I can’t wait to see how HBO tries to top this fantastic season that we just had.

Director: Miguel Sapochnik