Game of Thrones Review: Eastwatch (Season 7 Episode 5)

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 5 “Eastwatch” is doing a delicate balancing act of competing pacing urges.

In the past, Game of Thrones has been doing one of two things: laying down track for what’s to come and then taking that buildup and blowing everything up (sometimes literally).

Now, Game of Thrones can’t decide which of the two realms it wants to exist in. The show is fully aware that it only has eight episodes left after “Eastwatch” and can’t really afford to dilly-dally the way that it used to. Every scene has to be precise and purposeful.

In an earlier season, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Varys (Conleth Hill) would be able to just banter with each other, and that in and of itself would be enough to justify the scene.

In this season, that scene has to actually be driving towards a fixed plot point. Having a quiet scene between characters who are simply quipping at each other won’t put gas in the tank anymore. Every scene is now deliberately plotted and executed as such.

Earlier, Jon (Kit Harrington) might have had an interaction with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Drogon for no other reason than it would make for good spectacle. In Season 7, it’s to drive home once more that he is a “Secret Targaryen” — a fact that all of the characters will discover at some point.

It’s a thrilling and, yes, satisfying scene, but one that is almost fan service-y.

Speaking of “Secret Targaryens,” let’s talk about Sam real quick.

Ever since last year’s Season 6 finale, we have known beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. As the Dothraki would say: It is known. Granted, diligent book readers have known for many years that this was the case.

The problem arises that the characters on the show (minus one weirdo Stark) don’t know this particular fact.

Gilly’s reading has enormous worth to the overall series. It further drives home the fact that, not only is Jon Snow a Targaryen by blood, but he is also not a bastard at all. He is instead the (probable) rightful ruler of Westeros.

The specifics of Rhaegar and Lyanna’s relationship needed to be completely clarified before going forward. However, that little discovery means absolutely nothing to Gilly and could potentially mean everything to dear Samwell (John Bradley), if he would just listen to what people are telling him.

Then you could still have him leave the Citadel and arrive at the exact same point for this episode. Not letting Sam have this information is nothing less than a stall tactic — the show isn’t ready for Sam to have this information, and he’s also, quite frankly, acting dumb.

Never to be outdone in the Department of Dumb is Jon, who — with help of the Daenerys braintrust — comes up with the ingenious strategy of going beyond the Wall to capture a Wight (essentially a zombie) and bring it back down to show Cersei as proof of the imminent Long Night.

Gee, it’s hard to imagine how that could possibly go wrong.

The bright spot of this episode has to be Emilia Clarke’s performance as Dany. A good portion of her acting comes solely from her eyes and subtle inflections in her voice that she gives with Jorah (Iain Glen) and Jon, at separate times. What she’s able to do with her eyes is more indicative of her dynamics with both of them than any line of dialogue could ever hope to be.

Back to Jon and Co., it’s hard to imagine that the setup for this excursion to find a White Walker is not a direct reaction to the incredibly popular Season 5 battle episode “Hardhome.” It seems that the writers are trying to reverse-engineer a similar episode.

It would be nice to be wrong, though.

Some stray thoughts:

• Davos: “I thought you might still be rowing.” I’m almost disappointed that that’s not true.
• But, yay Gendry’s back, I guess.
• RIP Dickon.
• Arya has to know she’s being played by Littlefinger, right? She can’t be that dumb.
• Good to see Littlefinger acting like Littlefinger again.
• Tormund’s crush on Brienne continues to be the best.
• You just know that Randyll would rather get burnt alive by a dragon than hang out at The Wall with Sam.

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

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

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