Game Of Thrones Season 8 Breakdown: What 'A Knight Of Seven Kingdoms' REALLY Means
In which a plan for victory emerges...
How bold HBO and Game Of Thrones' show-runners are to give us not one but two exposition and character-building episodes, despite there only being six episodes in total. How bold they are to focus on the interplay between living characters rather than setting off all of the cannons, throwing out the need for any dialogue and just giving us an hour of gut-punching, heart-wrenching violence.
That comes next, obviously, but it wouldn't land quite as sickeningly as it's definitely going to if we didn't just sit through another episode reminding us all of exactly why we love all of the characters. Oh and Beric was there as well.
This was very much the second half of the opening act of the great, devastating opera of this final season. It was the calm before the storm and despite the lack of blood-curdling action, it was right up there with the very best episodes of Thrones released to date. And naturally, because there was so much going on, there was a lot to interpret.
Here's what everything that happened in the episode means for the rest of the season and the very immediate future of the Battle Of Winterfell...
14. Dany Knows Cersei Lied (And Blames Tyrion)
While the trailer for this episode seemed to suggest that we'd get a pretty heavy focus on the trial of Jaime Lannister at Winterfell, in reality, it was no more than a fairly brief prologue. It was important, of course, not least because it offered Brienne a chance to vouch for Jaime (and him to then offer to fight under her) but also because of what it meant for Dany's position and Cersei's deception.
Dany may feel slightly alienated by the fact that her key allies all end up siding with Jaime: Tyrion matters less because of the blood ties (as she makes so clear), but Sansa shifting because of Brienne's testimony and then Jon's vaguely ambivalent agreement because he can help fight put her in a slightly difficult position.
More important is the fact that Dany now knows for certain that Cersei lied about sending her army North. And rather dangerously for Tyrion, who is already something of an issue for her, she blames her deception on her own Hand. Naturally, Tyrion then believes that he's about to be replaced.