The penultimate episodes of a Game of Thrones season have traditionally been jaw-dropping shockers, and Death is My Enemy is no different. A battle, dragon action, witty dialogues, a major death, the penultimate episode of Season 7 had it all. But we can’t help but feel that for a show that took six seasons to get all the pieces in place it is now rushing a little too fast through all the major plot points.

The highs

Jon and his Suicide Squad are walking (yes, that speed of light travel is at work here) to get themselves a wight, and there is a lot of bro-bonding happening. Jon Snow and Jorah Mormont share a moment about Jorah’s father, Jon offering to Jorah the sword Jeor had given him. (What are you doing Jon! That’s Valyrian steel! It kills White Walkers! Duh!) Gendry buries the, well, leeches, with the Brotherhood, who sold him to Melisandre. But it is Tormund and the Hound who steal our heart. The Hound says he hates gingers. Tormund replies with, “Gingers are beautiful. They are kissed by fire.” When Tormund tells the Hound that he has seen how Brienne looks at him and the Hound replies with, “How does she look at you? Like she wants to carve you up and eat your liver?” Guess what Tormund says with awe and wonder? “You do know her. I want to make babies with her. Think of them, great big monsters. They’d conquer the world.” Absolute gold!

The Stark sisters are fighting, exactly as Littlefinger had planned, but Arya is proving to be the better sister with every single interaction. We love how she puts Sansa in her place when the older sister whines on about the unfairness of her life. And Arya has Sansa scared.

Let’s get back where the action happens for the rest of the episode — beyond The Wall. That zombie bear came out of nowhere, making us shriek. He kills one of the Brotherhood and mauls Thoros of Myr. Man, that is brutal! And when they do find the wights it is glorious to see Jon slice the White Walker with them down the middle with Longclaw.

Things obviously go south for Team Jon and they are on thin ice soon after, literally, as that wight army we’ve been hearing about and the Night King are right round the corner. As Team Jon makes a run for the only rock outcrop in the middle of a frozen lake, it is only the thin ice breaking and swallowing the wights, that prevents their immediate and gory deaths. What follows is a battle that is brutal, with five men pitted against thousands of undead, but not quite as spectacular as the Battle of Hardhome in Season 5. That moment when Tormund is almost pulled in by the wights is terrifying.

But just as they are about to be overwhelmed, thanks to the warp-speed travel thing, Gendry not only runs all the way back to Eastwatch to tell Davos to send a raven to Dany but Dany gets on her dragons and rides in to save the day. Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal torching wights across the lake is a sight to behold. When the Night King brings Viserion down with an icy spear, Dany’s face isn’t the only one which is slacked-jawed with shock. And then Jon is dragged under the icy water.

Jon reminds me of Harry Potter, who is always saved from harm by other people. When he climbs out of the icy depths it is Benjen Stark who rides in to save his life.

But the biggest shocker? The icy blue eye that Viserion opens right at the end.

The lows

This time Sansa hit the lowest point, coming across as the weak, whiny, self-important person she used to be in the beginning of the show. She was either crying about how she was a child, when confronted with the letter she had written to Robb, or tried to prove how important she was because she was the one who won back Winterfell or how she faced the most horrible things that no one else could have survived. And then she runs to Littlefinger for advice! Oh, I can’t wait for Arya to kill Littlefinger and then wear his face to manipulate Sansa!

Also may be Tyrion should just give up being Dany’s Hand. All he does is give horrible advice, which Dany doesn’t listen to anyway, or make cute comments about Dany and Jon’s chemistry (what are they, high schoolers?!).

WTF moment

A dragon died. A dragon! One of Dany’s children! And she is ogling Jon’s naked, scarred body?! He says sorry, she says never mind, she needed to see. She says she can’t have any children, he calls her ‘My Queen’, all the while holding hands. Huh? I thought Dany would be more upset about one of her children dying. But even more worrisome is why Jon wasn’t panicking the hell out about how the Night King could turn the dragon!! Did he not see that bear? Why aren’t they freaking out?

Death count

We don’t know if we should count Viserion as dead, since he has been raised by the Night King again, but for what it counts, he is dead to his mother and brothers. That sight of him plummeting to the ground covered in flames with a stream of blood flowing behind him and his body sinking beneath the water is gutting.

We also said goodbye to two members of the Brotherhood, and to Thoros of Myr. May the “drunkest man”  to charge the Pyke rest in peace.

Sex and nudity

Well, Jon is bare chested for almost three whole minutes!

Best lines

“Mance Rayder was a great man. A proud man. The King Beyond the Wall never bend the knee. How many of his people died for his pride,” Tormund asks Jon, when he tells her Dany will fight alongside them only if he bends the knee.

“Sometimes fear makes them do unfortunate things, I’ll go with anger,” Arya tells Sansa after confronting her with the letter she sent Robb and Sansa accuses of her letting anger make her do unfortunate things.
Oh and every single thing that Tormund says to the Hound.

Chandreyee Chatterjee
GoT S7E06 airs tonight at 11pm on STAR World, and STAR World HD