Keeping it all in the family

Well, that’s all, folks. At least for this year. If you’ve managed to dodge the leaks and spoilers, and scenes from the script that trickled out not to long ago, it’s pretty great. However, watching this magnum opus of an episode might make you wonder if all the shutting out social media tabs and avoiding your overenthusiastic friends was worth it.

Because for one, The Dragon and the Wolf’s pacing was all over the place, and that’s the biggest grouse one has against what should’ve been an all-guns-blazing finale. With all the main characters and a stunning setting at the director’s disposal, it’s a crying shame that these assets were badly used or under-utilised.

The finale in itself is rather well set up. All eyes are on King’s Landing and getting Cersei to accept the fact that zombie wights exist (even as she orders a resurrected Mountain to smash people’s skulls in). But what’s great about the episode is that it spends no time meandering, getting straight to the point about the battle for the Iron Throne.

One of the high points of the episode is old friends, foes and siblings having to sit right across each other, in uncomfortable silence and talk things out, an uneasy sort of truce and lack of violence hanging over their heads. Talking of uncomfortable sibling meetings, things have also come to a head in the North, with Sansa and Arya’s cold war reaching its peak.

A double-edged sword the show has been toying with this season is going all out to please the audience with bringing fan theories to life. However, to do that, they’ve had to compromise on a lot of storytelling, with big story arcs being reduced to minor plot points that they’ve almost been forced to depict on screen. And it would seem like — in all their Bollywood-esque glory — the story has indeed suffered. What used to once be the USP of the show, the witty, razor-sharp dialogues, are now a laborious add on to the even more painstakingly worked out plot.

Despite all of these niggles, the finale has some rather satisfying moments, which will keep you content — and guessing — for the next year-and-a-half, when the final season is expected.

Game of Thrones Season 7 airs on Star World and Star World HD at 11 PM tonight.

Game of Thrones,
Season 7, episode 7,
The Dragon and the Wolf
3.5/5