Rate/Review 703: The Queen's Justice

DaveyJoe where's your review, i look forward to this every week

I'll post it tonight. I was drinking Golden Monkey last night and it put me on my ass. 

The more I think about this episode the less I like what I watched. The writing is not good at all this season

I know Bran's zen attitude makes sense, but I feel deprived because of how good of an actor Isaac is. He can emote, so they should let him.

I can't imagine how Bran is going to act towards Arya though. He's properly going to bring up something inappropriate that will trigger Arya.  

It wasn't necessarily the words that were creepy though they kinda were. It was just his complete vibe

Sorry for the delay but last night I sipped on the Golden Monkey and it was not kind to me.

The Queen's Justice starts, and I can all ready see that Rory McCann is not in this episode. This will be the mid-season slump. A ton of exposition in the shortest amount of time possible. Jon Snow descends upon the Dragonstone beach as the waves crash down upon the rocks. This feels like the same level of intensity just carrying over from Stormborn. This is a moment both hopeful and ominous. We're holding our breath as Jon and Tyrion insult each other but then they toss out a modern age hand shake and I'm kind of taken aback because it's the first time in the show they've done that but we'll see it three more times before the end of the episode. Where did this come from and why does everybody suddenly recognize such a modern form of social interaction?
They are starting an arc that will payoff in season 8 when Jon Snow invents the fist bump.

Jon Snow greets Tormund in GoT 8x06



Just as we're gathering our bearings Missandei asks for Jon and company to hand over their weapons like every video game red flag moment in recent history.   Jon wants to know how Tyrion became hand of the Queen Daenerys and he admits that he was drunk most of the time, just like the rest of us were while reading A Dance with Dragons. Jon reminds the audience that he's not a Stark and in the episode's most subtle scene a freaking giant Dragon swoops down for no other reason than to beg the non-reading audience to finally make the Targ connection.  

Dark Souls dragon boss. 2011



I love the moments between characters like Mel and Varys, but lines like "I brought ice and fire together" definitely feel heavy handed. Season 7 in general feels exposition heavy mostly because concepts like the Prince that was Promised were ignored until late last year. I wonder what show fans feel like with all of this mythology coming so late in the game. Like we never wanted Jon Snow to be reborn until we saw those abs on the table. The writing in this scene feels both forced and redundant, but dammit if the actors don't sell it, and what a gorgeous shot of Varys and Mel standing precariously on the cliff as subtle threats are traded back and forth between them. Varys trades a parting barb at Mel and she admits that she'll die in Westeros, just like him, and it definitely fucks him up. Varys is SHOOK as he glances at an isolated sailing vessel tossing and turning in the powerful sea.

Lord Varys after every conversation with a Red Priestess



The great doors of Dragonstone open and Jon's crew walks dramatically toward the throne. Missandei lists all of Dany's accomplishments as Dany sits in the shadowy throne of the island, staring Jon down with a death glare that could melt steel beems. Davos has the funniest moment of the episode here. So we finally get the great meeting between the two most important characters played by the weakest actors on the show. Even though we know Jon is telling the truth it's kind of funny to see him explain the army of the dead situation. Everybody is jazzed up for war and here comes Jon Snow to put a damper on that with the gentle reminder of imminent apocalypse from the White Walkers. Overall, the meeting is awkward and even Davos was like "I'm gonna take a walk while you guys work this out."




Euron parades his prisoners through the streets of King's Landing like I wave a coupon around at Chick-fil-A. I love how Euron's behavior feels more unhinged in every scene he's in. Some folks are critical of the crowd's Euron hype, but think about the average King's Landing citizen and how tough their lives have been since the show started.  The last big social activity was the Walk of Shame, so if you hear the scuttlebutt that there's going to be Pirate Parade down Main Street you're going to be pretty hyped up.  Ellaria spits in a taunting peasant's face but he honestly seems kind of into it.  Euron taunting Jaime is priceless, I'm really enjoying Asbæk's performance this season.

Euron: Does she like a finger up her bum?
Jaime:



I have to admit being initially disappointed with the Queen's Justice scene with Cersei and the Sand Snakes, I was expecting something way more sadistic, but after rewatching it the scene is a major bummer.  Even if we don't like the Sand Snakes very much, it's still tough to watch this scene playing out.  Instead of gratuitous violence the implication of Ellaria having to watch her daughter slowly die and rot away is even more horrific, especially with the acting from everybody involved.  Then a huge confused boner scene comes along as Cersei seduces Jaime and the audience is awkwardly reminding themselves that they are brother and sister.  And bam, that is two oral sex scenes in a row for this show.  Ever notice that an episode can't contain both the Hound and an oral sex scene?  It's either BOWL or blow but you can't have both.

fans watch hot scene between Cersei and Jaime



And the serving girl knows who Jaime's bedsheets smell like.  And I'm loving the return of the Iron Bank.  I was just talking with my boss about this a few days ago, he was saying that the Iron Bank's introduction was pointless since Stannis' story fell apart in the fifth season, but I said maybe they'd be relevant in the end game, we should wait and see.  The very next episode brings them back, I was dying, and my boss was shook when I talked to him today.  Mark Gatiss is positively sinister in this scene and appropriately sassy.  I like how he's dressed and filmed like any other of the royal players, his delivery carries a weight in tonight's episode that could rival Tywin Lannister in his best moments.  This could be one of Cersei's greatest allies.  I'm shamelessly rooting for Cersei since season five, but the first half of the season has been very kind to her and that makes me nervous.  Whenever a character in GoT is having a great run, things go tits up for them by the end of the season.  That pattern is making me very cautious for the big C.  

Cersei Lannister's season 7 arc



Tyrion finally gets a few lines and they are pretty funny.  Jon and Tyrion get some precious moments to attempt to out-mope each other.  I just want to say that this shot is gorgeous.  The shows location scouts and director of photography have outdone themselves this year, every episode has moments like this that just blow me away visually.  The thing that's weird about the pacing this year is that moments that should feel bigger like the Lannister's taking Highgarden and Olenna's death should feel bigger but they're treated more like a footnote, whereas the Dany/Jon conflict feels a little drawn out in comparison.  I understand why they want to put more development into the latter, but the performances really can be a hindrance with them.  But we have another fantastic shot as Jon confronts Dany as she watches her dragons fly in the sunset.

TFW you let him mine dragonglass and he says 'you believe me then about the Night King and the army of the dead'



I have to admit to liking the Sansa running Winterfell scene more than I thought I would, Sophie did a good job, and I liked how she kind of had to coax her advisers into giving her the non-sugarcoated responses.  The scene between Sansa and Littlefinger was fantastic, and Petyr's finest moment since his Chaos speech.  I've always thought that Littlefinger operates less with an orchestrated plan and more of a sow the seeds of chaos and be prepared to react to any possible situation.  I think season 7 has shown that both Varys and Littlefinger have survived on their flexibility and ability to adapt to unexpected moments that tend to throw well-laid plans into confusion.  Petyr's advice of imaging every possible scenario is interesting when it leads right into Bran's first scene after going full-blown Three Eyed Raven.  A character that can transcend time and space and witness every event in the history of man, but that power is in the palms of a hormonal teenage male, so he says the creepiest shit possible in a show that just thirteen minutes earlier had a sex scene with twins.

Sansa is asked if she's happy to see Bran again


What's funny is that after six years of horror, back stabbing, and heart break, the face I fear the most in this show is Samwell Tarly.  Because if season 7 has a scary trend, it's that scenes in the Citadel are sure to be fucking disgusting.  This time a newly cured Jorah Mormont is cleared for the public and his first order of business is to put on his old dirty prison shirt onto his raw and blistered post-greyscale-surgery torso. Then we get the episode's second hand shake scene with an extra little thumb squeeze from Jorah to Sam. After saving a knight's life, The Arch-maester rewards Samwell by letting him copy a bunch of old ass scrolls.



I loved the scene of Tyrion describing the Unsullied attack on Casterly Rock.  It was a great way of adding dramatic weight to a scene they didn't have time to flesh out.  This made the scene feel less like an action set piece and more like a victory for Tyrion's development as a strategist, but also kind of a personal moment as he's trying to orchestrate the downfall of his family.  The fight choreography for Grey Worm was just awesome and overall the sequence had an epic feel.  The loss of Highgarden felt way more rushed, and even if you are comfortable with the faster pacing of this season, this many game changing twists is hard to digest and almost desensitizing.  

The Lannisters confront Lady Olenna


I just didn't think the death of the Queen of Thornes had the impact it deserved, but she was beautifully sassy in her final moments.  Olenna downs her poison like I chug Nyquill on the night of a bad cold.  And dammit if she doesn't make her final moment a brutal jab at the person taking her out.

Littlefinger is asked if he heard Olenna took out Joffrey