It took seven long and grueling seasons, but two pivotal characters on Game of Thrones finally met in the third episode. Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rightful Queen of the Andals and the First Men, protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains. Jon Snow, the King in the North. Despite the difference in their titles, these two have been pivotal in the show’s narrative yet have never even been in a scene together. Within the first ten minutes of the episode titled “The Queen’s Justice,” that was finally remedied and the electricity in the throne room at Dragonstone was palpable.
The previous week’s episode saw Jon Snow receiving a raven from Tyrion Lannister, the Hand of Daenerys, inviting the Bastard of Winterfell to meet in hopes of creating an alliance against Tyrion’s sister Cersei. With three dragons looming above, Jon and Ser Davos Seaworth fully realize that the rumors about Daenerys’ “children” are indeed real. As expected, Daenerys fully expected Jon to bend the knee and honor an oath sworn by his ancestor, Torrhen Stark, to her own ancestor, Aegon Targaryen. With this being Game of Thrones, no easy resolutions are to be expected as Jon and Ser Davos have been dealing with both the Lannister forces as well as the threat of the Night’s King and the advance of the White Walkers.
Meanwhile, at King’s Landing, Euron Greyjoy arrives in triumph with his niece Yara, and surviving Sand Snakes Eliara and Tyene Sand of Dorne as spoils of his naval attack. The masses cheer Euron on while showering his prisoners with trash and insults. Standing before Queen Cersei, Euron gleefully asks for her hand once more, something which she is only willing to give once this war has been won. Though Jaime Lannister is repulsed by Euron’s advances on his sister, he is caught off-guard when Cersei seduces him after a long period of not doing so.
A short interlude shows Cersei visiting Eliara and Tyene in the dungeons, and her explaining how she will slowly kill the younger Sand as vengeance for their murder of her own daughter Myrcella. When Cersei welcomes the arrival of Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank of Braavos, she is informed that the Lannister debts remain substantial and that he isn’t sure that her side will win the war.
When Jon Snow and Tyrion were last together, they were standing on the Wall in the show’s first season. Many, many things have happened to both characters since, yet the respect they have shown each other remains strong, something critical if their side is to survive the current conflict. Despite Tyrion’s doubts about Jon’s tale of the White Walkers, he trusts his friend and believes their relationship will be mutually beneficial. As Hand of the Queen, part of Tyrion’s job is to provide wise counsel for Daenerys, and he believes that if she allows Jon and Davos to mine the dragonglass in Dragonstone, then a true partnership will be forged.
With Jon meeting Daenerys, it falls to his sister Sansa to serve as lady of Winterfell. The once-shallow daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark has matured and now pays more attention to detail regarding food reserves and even body armor. She is shocked, however, when her brother Bran, long believed dead, appears at the gates of the kingdom. Sansa is confused by Bran’s revelation that he has become the Three-Eyed Raven, and how he has seen a vision of a married Sansa in a white wedding dress.
In Samwell Tarly’s attempt at becoming a maester at The Citadel, he had attempted to cure Ser Jorah Mormont’s supposedly incurable greyscale. Though he was ordered by Maester Marwyn not to do so, Sam persisted, resulting in one of the most painful scenes in recent television. Yet it seems that Sam was successful, and Ser Jorah walked away from The Citadel cured of his affliction.
Consulting with Tyrion, Missandei, and Varys, Daenerys believes that only she (together with her three dragons) can find and destroy Euron’s fleet. She is dissuaded from doing so even as Tyrion relays how Grey Worm and the Unsullied can take the Lannister stronghold of Casterly Rock through clandestine means. Grey Worm and his army are surprised that The Rock is not well-defended though, only to see Euron’s fleet burning their own boats.
It turns out that the Lannister forces, supported by Sam’s father Randyll Tarly and Tyrion’s former friend Bronn, have instead taken the fight to Dorne and the home of Lady Olenna Tyrell. The Tyrell matriarch addresses Jaime Lannister, and seemingly accepts that she will soon be executed based on Cersei’s wishes. Jaime notes that Cersei had more gruesome plans for Lady Olenna, but he convinced his sister to just allow him to give her poison to drink. This is when Olenna presents a most cruel revelation: that she was the one who poisoned Jaime and Cersei’s son Joffrey in Season Four. “Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me,” are her final words to a shocked Jaime as death beckoned.
