Game of Thrones Review: Stormborn (Season 7 Episode 2)

As Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 2 “Stormborn” moves into the homestretch, it becomes abundantly clear that the show can’t afford to waste any more time and as a result is barreling ahead at full speed. At the same time, however, we’re still very much arranging pieces on the board.

Whereas in earlier seasons it would have taken a couple more episodes for Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Jon (Kit Harrington) to meet, “Stormborn” is setting it up to happen in the very next episode. The sea battle at the end with Yara (Gemma Whalen) and Euron (Pilou Asbaek) might have occurred at the midpoint of a regular season, but here it happens at the end of the second episode.

Game of Thrones is at an odd crossroads presently. It needs to barrel towards an ending, but it also needs to do momentary, place-setting things, like stating Varys’ (Conleth Hill) loyalty to Daenerys — because this will come up again, no doubt — and finally getting Arya ( Maisie Williams) back to Winterfell.

It’s fascinating, if nothing else, to watch the show have this internal battle with itself and go back and forth on how quickly it wants to pace this penultimate season.

What is happening, on the other hand, is simply great.

A particular joy of these later seasons is watching characters that have been disjointed from each other for so long finally be brought together and chew the scenery.

Some of the most enjoyable of these interactions occur between Daenerys and the various people advising her. Whether it’s the aforementioned Varys justifying his past actions, Lady Olenna offering campaign advice in the most Lady Olenna way possible, or Melisandre introducing her to the existence of Jon Snow — each of these interactions allows for interesting conversations about the ways in which Dany can be different from her father.

While there have been elements of this conversation before in the past, the talkiness of this episode really puts into the forefront the question of how destructive an invader or ruler Dany wishes to be — which is not at all. She’s not aiming to be the Queen of the Ashes, as Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) puts it.

It’s the small moments that make Game of Thrones the interesting series it is — the quiet scenes where no one is on the verge of shockingly stabbing someone else. “Stormborn” has that in spades.

Jon’s storyline is less entertaining on a scene-to-scene basis, but it is still essential to get him on his way to Dragonstone. The show needs him to make it to Daenerys in order to push it one step closer to the season’s big conflict. Whether Jon is going south so that Daenerys can join forces with him or kill him is yet to be determined, but if the pattern holds, it’ll be immensely satisfying.

The big set-piece of “Stormborn” is the sea battle at the end, which serves to effectively neutralize the Greyjoys and the Dornish, to keep them from the coming battles. By and large, it’s not one of the series’ better battles. The shots and choreography, along with the lighting, is too confusing and dark for it to be enjoyable in the way that past battles have been.

This was most likely done because it’s generally cheaper to film a battle like this in the dark so that they can only show specific things, but the end result is a battle that feels clunky with a bad sense of geography and tracking characters. The ultimate result of this battle is to get Theon (Alfie Allen) in a position where he needs to be redeemed once more, which is now feeling profoundly exhausting.

With some aspects of this season, it’s hard not to see the seams. Sam (John Bradley) discovers Dragonstone has a secret cache of dragonglass — which can kill White Walkers — while at the same time meeting and (maybe) curing Jorah (Iain Glen), who conveniently has an in with a certain Queen at Dragonstone.

So, they’re obviously going to go on a trip there together, since Sam is definitely getting kicked out of the Citadel once they find out that he did an extremely brutal treatment on Jorah, let alone stole books.

These aren’t bad seams, though. Perhaps the days of Game of Thrones surprising us are gone — but the ways in which it marches to its endpoint are still so rewarding.

Some Stray Thoughts:

• Do we have to see Sam do a gross thing every single week?
• You know you’re in a bad sort when Lyanna Mormont won’t stick up for you.
• Finally someone brings up the fact that Varys’ actions towards Dany have been crazy inconsistent over the course of the series.
• I was really hoping that Melisandre would just casually drop the fact that Jon Snow died.
• Ellaria:  “A boy in every port?”
  Yara: “A boy, a girl. Depends on the port.”

What did you think of this episode of Game of Thrones? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!