Dragonstone (episode)

"This article is about the episode. For the large island, see 'Dragonstone (island);' for the eponymous castle, see 'Dragonstone (castle);' for the Histories & Lore special feature, see 'Dragonstone (Histories & Lore).'"

"Dragonstone" is the first episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixty-first episode of the series overall. It premiered on July 16, 2017. It was written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Jeremy Podeswa.

Plot
Jon organizes the defense of the North. Cersei tries to even the odds. Daenerys comes home.

In the Riverlands
At The Twins, "Walder Frey" presides over the second feast that he has organized in a fortnight. "Lord Frey" has summoned every Frey whom he cares about under the pretext of revealing his plans. "Walder" orders the servants to serve them wine from the Arbor but harshly tells his wife Kitty Frey that he is not wasting any wine on her. "Walder" thanks his family for helping him to slaughter the Starks and details the violent deaths of King Robb Stark, his wife Talisa Stark and her unborn child, and Lady Catelyn Stark much to the laughter of his family.

However, he chides them for missing one Stark as the Freys begin to choke from poisoned wine. As his family members die around him, "Walder" then remarks "leave one wolf and the sheep are not safe." "Walder" then reveals himself as a disguised Arya Stark, who has exacted vengeance on her family's murderers. Arya spares Walder's surviving wife and the servants and tells them to tell the others that "the North remembers and that winter came for House Frey."

Later, Arya, having acquired a horse, is riding south when she stumbles upon a group of Lannister soldiers who have been sent to the Twins to keep law and order. The soldiers are singing "Hands of Gold" and offer to share rabbit meat for dinner. When the soldiers ask why she is riding south, Arya tells them that she is traveling to King's Landing. Arya learns from the soldiers that the Great Sept of Baelor and its surroundings have been destroyed. The young soldiers insist that she join them around the campfire to eat and rest. When she asks about their adventures, the soldiers admit that they are homesick and once they left home they wished to return to their families. The young soldier offers her blackberry wine while his brother in arms asks why she is traveling south. Arya tells them that she is going to kill the Queen. Thinking that she is joking, they all burst out laughing. Arya smiles and laughs with them.

Elsewhere, Sandor Clegane is riding north with the Brotherhood Without Banners, through thick snow. They decide to shelter for the night at an abandoned home but Sandor thinks it is unsafe. Beric Dondarrion dismisses Sandor's unease and orders that they set up camp for the night. The men enter the house where they discover the corpses of the Farmer and his daughter Sally, whom he and Arya Stark had encountered two years prior, following the Red Wedding. It appears that the father killed his daughter and himself so that they would not starve to death.

In private, Sandor recalls seeing Beric at the tournament at King's Landing. Berric confides that he does not know what R'hllor, the Lord of Light, is telling him. Sandor remarks that he does not believe in divine justice, citing the fate of the father and his daughter. Despite Sandor's fear of flames, Thoros tells him to look into the fire. He tells him that only the fire can show him what the Lord of Light wants him to see. At first, Sandor can only see burning logs but he then sees a Wall of Ice. He also sees a castle where the Wall meets the sea, presumably Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Sandor sees a mountain that looks like an arrowhead and thousands of the dead marching past. Beric then asks Sandor if he now believes that they are here for a reason.

Later, Thoros finds Sandor burying the dead farmer and his daughter Sally in the snow. The Brother asks if he knew those people but Sandor admits that he doesn't. Sandor is about to deliver an epitaph to the Seven but can't remember the rest of the verse. Instead, he simply tells the dead that they deserve better.

In the North
At Winterfell, the King in the North Jon Snow orders his bannermen to conscript all able-bodied men and boys aged 10 to 60 in his kingdom in order to train them and equip them for war. But because having only half of the population in the North fighting the White Walkers is not enough he also orders that every woman and girl should also be trained and equipped as well. He also asks that all maesters should start searching for dragonglass stressing it is now more valuable than gold due to the threat of the White Walkers. When Robett Glover questions Snow, Lady Lyanna Mormont remarks that girls will not remain idle and volunteers to help. Sansa Stark urges her "half-brother" to strip the Umbers and Karstarks of their castles as punishment for turning against the Starks. However, Jon advocates forgiveness and insists that children will not be punished for the crimes of their fathers. Despite Sansa's continued insistence, Jon insists his decision is final and summons Ned Umber and Alys Karstark to reaffirm their loyalty to House Stark. They oblige and kneel before King Jon. Jon says that the mistakes of the past don't matter anymore. Petyr Baelish watches the proceedings with a smile.

In private, Jon Snow chides Sansa for questioning his decision-making in front of the other lords and ladies and tells her to trust him. When Sansa reminds him that the late Joffrey Baratheon did not tolerate dissent, Jon reassures her that he is not Joffrey. Sansa tells Jon that she knows he is nothing like Joffrey and assures Jon that he is good at leadership but she wants him to be wiser than their late father and brother. She confides that their father sought to protect her from the harshness of reality including swearing. Maester Wolkan then delivers a message from the newly-crowned Queen Cersei Lannister; though she is not opposed to House Stark reclaiming the North from House Bolton, she demands that they submit to her authority. While Jon is preoccupied with preparing to fight the Night King, Sansa warns him not to underestimate Cersei.

Later, Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne spar with swords. Podrick is struggling and Tormund tells him that he has long to go. Petyr and Sansa are watching Brienne and Podrick sparring. Sansa dismisses Littlefinger's attempts to get under her skin by stating that she is safe at Winterfell because Brienne is protecting her, and retorts to his prodding that she looks unhappy only because she yearns for peace and quiet. When Brienne, having seen what is going on, moves over to intervene, Baelish scurries off. When Brienne asks why Petyr is still here, Sansa replies that the Knights of the Vale helped to turn the tide of the Battle of the Bastards. However, Sansa is confident that she knows what Petyr wants.

At the Wall
Beyond the Wall, a column of White Walkers riding undead horses leads a horde of Wights through a snowstorm. Their numbers include at least three undead Giants. Meanwhile, Bran Stark and Meera Reed reach the gate beneath Castle Black. They are greeted by the Acting Lord Commander Eddison Tollett and several armed Night's Watch. Edd thinks they are Wildlings but Meera introduces herself and Bran. When Edd asks them to verify their identities, Bran reveals that he knows that Edd fought alongside his half-brother Jon Snow at the Fist of the First Men, and has seen the army of the dead. Edd decides to bring the two of them inside.

At King's Landing
At King's Landing, Queen Cersei shows Jaime Lannister a giant map of Westeros she is having painted on a floor. Jaime has not spoken since his return due to his anger with Cersei over the death of their youngest son, the late King Tommen Baratheon. Cersei tells Jaime that their estranged brother Tyrion Lannister has returned with Queen Daenerys Targaryen at the head of an armada. Jaime thinks that Daenerys will land her forces at the fortress of Dragonstone: the Targaryen princess is likely to be drawn to her birthplace, and more importantly, the deep water around the island will allow her fleet to make anchor. Cersei notes that they have enemies in the south and the north: the Tyrells, the Martells, and the Starks.

While Cersei has dreams of ushering in a long dynasty, Jaime tells Cersei that they are losing the war, and with all their children dead, there is no Lannister line to inherit the Iron Throne. When Jaime asks Cersei about Tommen, she responds angrily that he betrayed them by committing suicide. Cersei adds that they are the only living Lannisters who count. Jaime tells her that they need allies and reports that House Frey has been exterminated. Cersei angrily reminds him that she has been listening to their father's counsel for the past forty years and has learnt some things.

A large Ironborn fleet bearing the sigil of House Greyjoy sails into King's Landing. Cersei tells Jaime that she is planning to forge an alliance with Euron Greyjoy. Jaime criticizes her decision and points out that the Greyjoys are oath breakers and "bitter killers." Cersei responds that she plans to marry Euron. In the throne room, Queen Cersei and Jaime host Euron. Seeking revenge against Yara and Theon Greyjoy for running away with part of the fleet, Euron proposes that they join forces to murder their enemies including Tyrion.

When Jaime questions Euron's legitimacy and trustworthiness, Euron talks about the Greyjoy Rebellion and praises Jaime's swordsmanship. Euron adds that he went into exile because of the Greyjoy Rebellion. He boasts that the Iron Fleet is the greatest fleet that Westeros has ever seen. Euron proposes to marry Cersei to seal a marriage pact. Cersei declines due to his history of oath breaking and his role in murdering his brother Balon Greyjoy. Euron seems neither fazed nor disappointed and promises not to return to King's Landing until he has delivered his "finest gift."

In Oldtown
At the Citadel in Oldtown, Samwell Tarly is assigned menial work. His duties include serving the Maesters' meals, emptying their chamber pots, and storing books. While browsing through the library, he stares at a book behind a locked grate in the restricted section. Later, Samwell helps Archmaester Ebrose to dissect a corpse. Samwell asks the Archmaester if he has read his proposition. In light of what he has seen in the North, Samwell asks for permission to read the restricted section. When Samwell says that he has truly seen the Army of the Dead, the Archmaester responds that Maesters are naturally critical.

Still, he accepts Samwell's claim because the stories about the Long Night are corroborated in a number of sources. The Archmaester reminds him that Maesters are guardians of knowledge and history. Still, the Archmaester believes that the Wall will not fall because it has stood for millennia. He tells Sam to finish his job. Later that night, Samwell steals a Maester's key and enters the forbidden section.

While Samwell studies, Gilly entertains her young son Sam, who is now a toddler. Gilly asks him about the book he is studying, which is about The Long Night. Samwell mentions that Stannis Baratheon told him that there was a cache of dragon-glass hidden beneath Dragonstone. The next day, while gathering empty bowls from the cells of the Citadel, Samwell meets a shadowy figure whose arm is almost completely covered in greyscale who asks him if the Dragon Queen has arrived.

At Dragonstone
Meanwhile, Queen Daenerys Targaryen along with her closest advisers Tyrion Lannister, Varys, Missandei, and Grey Worm land at Dragonstone island. After landing, Daenerys bends down and touches the sand. She and her entourage then climb the steps to Dragonstone castle. Accompanied by Grey Worm and other Unsullied guards, they silently enter the main gates and courtyard. Daenerys enters the empty throne room and the Chamber of the Painted Table. Surveying Stannis' former battle plan, she remarks "shall we begin?"

First

 * Ned Umber
 * Alys Karstark
 * Archmaester Ebrose

Deaths

 * Harald Karstark (Confirmed Fate)
 * Sally (Confirmed Fate)
 * Sally's father (Confirmed Fate)
 * Many unnamed Frey men

Production
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's guest role was announced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss during the GoT panel at South by Southwest Festival on March 12, 2017 after years of getting the musician on the show as a surprise for Maisie Williams who is a fan of his music.

Main

 * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as King Jon Snow
 * Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Conleth Hill as Varys
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Guest starring

 * Jim Broadbent as Archmaester Ebrose
 * Pilou Asbæk as King Euron Greyjoy
 * David Bradley as Arya Stark disguised as Lord Walder Frey
 * Anton Lesser as Qyburn
 * Richard Dormer as Lord Beric Dondarrion
 * Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr
 * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm
 * Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed
 * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Tim McInnerny as Lord Robett Glover
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce
 * Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Richard Rycroft as Maester Wolkan
 * Lucy Hayes as Lady Kitty Frey
 * Ed Sheeran as Lannister Soldier
 * Thomas Turgoose as Lannister Soldier
 * William Postlethwaite as Lannister Soldier
 * Megan Parkinson as Lady Alys Karstark
 * Harry Grasby as Lord Ned Umber
 * Vladimir Furdik as the Night King
 * Neil Fingleton as giant wight
 * Ian Whyte as giant wight
 * Paul Ward as
 * Brendan Morrissey as Frey Lord
 * Eamon Draper as
 * William Nevan Wilson as Baby Sam
 * James Robert Wilson as Baby Sam
 * Kate Dempsey as

Cast notes

 * 18 of 23 main cast members appear in this episode.
 * Main cast members Carice van Houten (Melisandre), Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), and Joe Dempsie (Gendry) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.

General

 * As of the end of Season 6, all plotlines have surpassed the current novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, though the TV series has also drastically changed several of them. Season 6 surpassed the novels on some plotlines when it began, such as Jon Snow's, but others were holdovers from prior books (the Ironborn and Riverrun subplots). Whatever the case, from this point onwards, no one can know with certainty if any characters will survive from one episode to the next.
 * The title sequence is notably different now that no storylines take place outside of Westeros. The production team explained that there are actually formal rules for it, the first of which is that they are required to show four locations: King's Landing, Winterfell, The Wall, and "wherever Daenerys is" at the moment. Daenerys's travels far to the east explicitly helped show just how vast their fictional world is, i.e. the Dothraki or Slaver's Bay, that it's bigger than just the continent of Westeros. The Season 7 title just focuses on Westeros itself. Another rule was that they physically only have so much time for the camera to move around, so they can only show a limited number of locations in each (never more than six so far). Moreover, they only make specific title animations for locations which they know will be recurring, to justify the time and expense in creating it (they never made an animation for Volantis or Runestone). Now that Oldtown is a major recurring location for Samwell's storyline, they introduced a new title animation for it starting in this episode.
 * Most remaining storylines reappear in this episode. As the showrunners have noted, so many characters are meeting each other again - after scattering in intervening seasons - that they don't need to compete for as much time or take an episode off, i.e. Tyrion is with Daenerys now. Dorne and Olenna Tyrell do not appear but are mentioned. Yara and Theon, despite being part of Daenerys's faction now, also do not appear, but are mentioned.

At the Wall

 * The opening shot of the White Walkers and their undead horde reveals for the first time that they can resurrect Giants as undead Wights as well. This was strongly implied but not yet confirmed in the current books, which do show that the White Walkers can resurrect seemingly any once-living creature into a wight: at the Battle of the Fist of the First Men (off-screen in the TV series), the Night's Watch was attacked by a huge wight-snow bear. Both the books and TV show, however, have shown the White Walkers resurrecting non-humans, in the form of their undead wight-Horses.
 * Neil Fingleton is credited as playing one of the giants in army of the dead: the 7 foot 7 inch tall stuntman, tallest man in Britain, actually died of a heart attack in February 2017 (related to his size). Apparently he finished his footage before production ended, around the same time.
 * The status of what's left of the Night's Watch wasn't made entirely clear on-screen when they last appeared in mid-Season 6, but was explained in several online posts. In their last appearance, Eddison Tollett was said to be the new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, to his own surprise, as there hadn't been an election. Online posts explained that one of Jon's last acts before he quit was to simply name Edd as the new Acting Lord Commander, assuming he would be confirmed in that role by a subsequent formal election at some point.
 * Jon says in the Winterfell storyline that he intends to re-garrison the meager defenses of the Wall with the surviving wildlings, which happened earlier in the novels (see below).
 * Of the companions that Bran Stark left Winterfell with at the end of Season 2, and picked up in Season 3, only Bran and Meera Reed are still alive. He left Winterfell with Osha, Hodor, Rickon Stark, and their two direwolves - in the books, he left with Meera and Jojen Reed as well, but the TV show pushed back their introduction to the start of Season 3, immediately after he fled Winterfell, due to time constraints. Some of these characters may survive in the book version - though the showrunners have confirmed that Hodor will die in broadly similar fashion in the books, and Jojen has had visions that he will die on his quest to bring Bran to the Three-eyed raven.
 * Bran's return to the North raises issues of the rightful heir to the North: due to the male-preference primogeniture laws of inheritance in the Seven Kingdoms, Bran Stark was always ahead of his older sister Sansa in line of succession to Winterfell - just as Sansa, as a trueborn daughter, ranks ahead of a bastard son. No one, even Sansa, would challenge that he has a better claim than she does - they knew this since they were small children. Robb Stark even spoke of Bran as his direct heir at the end of Season 1, not Sansa or Arya. In addition, Bran brings with him the shocking news that Jon Snow isn't even Eddard Stark's bastard son, but the son of Ned's younger sister Lyanna Stark, in which case he'd rank behind both Bran and Sansa regardless of being a bastard or not.
 * There has been some fan speculation that the sword Meera Reed brought back from the Cave of the three-eyed raven is actually Dark Sister, the Valyrian steel sword that once belonged to Visenya Targaryen and remained the secondary family sword of House Targaryen. The novels all but state that the Three-eyed raven was originally Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers, a bastard son of House Targaryen and a major character in the Tales of Dunk and Egg prequels who later became Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, but disappeared beyond the Wall decades ago. He wielded the sword Dark Sister but it was lost ever since. Neither Meera nor any of Bran's other companions brought a sword with them beyond the Wall - Meera just started using it in the cave against wights without explanation, the tacit assumption being that the Children just scavenged it from somewhere. She never used the sword against a White Walker so if it was in fact a Valyrian steel sword, its true nature hasn't been revealed. There is as of yet no confirmation of this, given that the pommel design doesn't match a specific description (it doesn't overtly have a Targaryen sigil on it).

At Winterfell

 * Alys Karstark first appears in this episode: her role was heavily condensed from the novels, in which she is the center of a subplot involving House Karstark, which chronologically happened during Stannis Baratheon's campaign in the North. Alys is by right the new heir to House Karstark but her father's uncle Arnolf Karstark wants to usurp her position, so he sides with the Lannisters and Boltons. Arnolf joins Stannis's march but intends to betray him mid-battle, and to force Alys to marry his own son to claim rule through her. Alys learns of their plans, however, and flees to the Wall to seek the aid of Jon Snow. Due to the Karstarks being younger cousins of the main Stark line, she actually closely resembles Arya, and she met Jon and Robb at Winterfell when they were children. Jon sends Tycho Nestoris to warn Stannis, and arranges for Alys to voluntarily marry the new Magnar of the Thenns so she can't be forced to marry Arnolf's son.
 * In the novels, Alys is the daughter of Lord Rickard Karstark, while in the television series, she is his granddaughter, the daughter of Rickard's son, Harald Karstark. The episode confirms that Harald died in the Battle of the Bastards along with Ramsay Bolton and Smalljon Umber. With Harald's death, Alys inherits Karhold, and swears fealty to Jon Snow, once again allying House Karstark with House Stark.
 * As pointed out by Michele Clapton, Sansa Stark's new costume has semi-circular embroidery on the chest to evoke fish-scales, for her mother Catelyn of House Tully. Tully costumes, as seen with Brynden and her uncle Edmure, feature armor with a more prominent fish-scale design motif.
 * Brienne of Tarth's storyline is drastically diverging from the novels by this point. In the novel series, after Brienne left King's Landing (corresponding to the start of Season 4), she continued to travel around the Riverlands on foot with Podrick Payne searching fruitlessly for Sansa and Arya, far away from their actual locations, without encountering either of them, and without getting involved in the siege of Riverrun either. Her storyline ended on a cliffhanger confrontation with the Brotherhood Without Banners which also involved Jaime Lannister at the end of the fifth novel. Anything Brienne does beyond this point is apparently an invention of the TV series.
 * Brienne traveling to Winterfell and the Wall in Seasons 5 and 6, and meeting Sansa, was purely an invention of the TV series. Then in the second half of Season 6, the TV series brought back Jaime's subplot at the Second Siege of Riverrun (which takes place throughout the second half of the fourth novel - the TV series instead invented the subplot of sending him to Dorne, while in the novels that mission was given to Ser Balon Swann). Brienne then encountered Jaime at Riverrun - while this did not happen as such in the novels they did meet again in the Riverlands under different circumstances. Brienne returning to Winterfell once again afterwards may not happen in the unreleased novels.
 * Given that Brienne never went to the Wall in the novels, Tormund being attracted to her in Season 6 was an invention of the TV series. It does somewhat match the point that the wildlings actually respect Warrior women (who they call Spearwives) - in contrast with how Brienne is seen as a target of mockery in the courts of southern Westeros.
 * Surprisingly given how prominently it appeared, director Daniel Sackheim said in an interview with TVGuide that he thought the amorous looks Tormund was giving Brienne in Season 6 were so subtle he feared fans didn't notice: "I wasn't even sure that when I delivered the episode it was really clear. It was like a fun little bit, but I wasn't sure it was really clear that he had these amorous feelings for Brienne. I'm always amazed what fans pick up." The first time that Tormund gives an impressed look at Brienne when they were in the mess hall at Castle Black was just a brief note in that script, but the production team liked it so much they invented more scenes of it.

In the Riverlands

 * According to Dan Weiss in the Inside the Episode video for this episode, Arya's massacre of House Frey was not originally going to be the cold open scene for this episode and Season 7 (it seems that the army of the dead shot in Bran's storyline was going to be the cold open). As Weiss said, they were so impressed with actor David Bradley's performance that they reshuffled the scene out of its original order to go first (i.e. Bradley gives little affectations to his performance to hint that he's really Arya pretending to be Walder). The ripple effect from reshuffling the scene may have affected others (see notes on "Oldtown" below).
 * The expensive fine wine that Walder/Arya serves to the assembled Freys is stated to be Arbor Gold, in dialogue. In the books, Arbor Gold is broadly held to be the finest wine in all of Westeros, with a very sweet flavor. It is produced on The Arbor, the large off-shore island/region ruled by House Redwyne (Olenna Tyrell's family). Characters have actually mentioned fine "Arbor wine" since Season 1, but this episode is the fist time that its full formal name has been used. Given its quality, it is a very expensive wine, normally only drunk by kings and great lords (Cersei starts drinking it heavily in later books). Smallfolk rarely even see it. Indeed, it is joked that a commoner would sell his infant firstborn son for a cask of fine Arbor Gold.
 * "Walder" also remarks that it isn't that awful "Dornish" wine. Dornish Red is the other very expensive and high quality fine wine in Westeros, produced in Dorne, flavored with spices and with a very sour taste. It is somewhat exotic and foreign to people in the rest of Westeros, but many great lords have developed a taste for it as fancy import (characters like Renly Baratheon have mentioned enjoying a fine Dornish wine since Season 1). Conversely, Oberyn Martell remarked in Season 4 that he brought his own fine Dornish wine with him from home because he can't stand the stuff they serve at the royal court (i.e. he thinks Arbor Gold is too sweet and bland). There's some debate in-universe about which is the best wine, but largely it comes down to personal taste: those who prefer a sweet white wine prefer Arbor Gold, while those who want an exotic spicy and sour red wine prefer Dornish Red.
 * RobettGlover-Square.jpg isn't the first time that actor Tim McInnerny (Lord Robett Glover) has appeared in a TV episode in which an entire noble court full of people was killed with poisoned wine - albeit this time not in the same storyline his character is in. A similar scenario occurred in the final episode of The Black Adder, in which McInnerny's character, Lord Percy Percy, supplied poisoned wine to the six assassins of the Black Seal and killed them all (one of them portrayed by Patrick Malahide), but accidentally poisoned the entire vat that led to the death of Blackadder, his family and the entire royal court; Percy and Baldrick were the only survivors, bursting into the court only seconds after the poisoning and shouting to everyone not to drink the wine.
 * In the Season 6 finale, the official Lannister house words were spoken aloud for the first time: "Hear Me Roar!", to which the Freys responded with a toast of "We Stand Together!" - the motto of House Frey actually hasn't appeared in the current novels, and this is apparently the first time that any house motto was revealed in the TV series before the books. It wasn't directly confirmed that this is the Frey motto, though this episode reinforces it when the Freys toast again - though this time they just say "Stand Together!", leaving it a bit unclear.
 * Given that Arya Stark's storyline has surpassed the novels it is unknown if she will kill off most of House Frey in this fashion. There are several dozen major Frey characters and the TV show understandably condensed them into a few composite characters. It is hinted that the Brotherhood Without Banners is actually planning an attack on some of the Freys, and Arya may or may not aid them in the future.
 * There was some concern from reports on this episode that Arya killed all the male Freys, even the innocent ones and children. The actual episode dialogue, however, does not strictly state this: Arya (as Walder) explicitly says that she invited all of the important Freys who matter to Walder ("Every Frey that means a damn") - i.e. if there are younger Frey sons that had nothing to do with the Red Wedding she didn't invite them. On top of this, the TV show never established that there were "good" younger Frey sons, i.e. in the books, Olyvar Frey loyally served Robb Stark as his squire - so loyally that the lead Freys didn't trust him and sent him away from the Twins before the Red Wedding. Given that the TV show didn't introduce them, it didn't have to expend time explaining how Arya spared the innocent ones.
 * If Arya was going to kill every male relative of House Frey, she'd have even killed her infant first cousin, son of her uncle Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey - and thus make herself a kinslayer.
 * It is unclear who the new head of House Frey is at this point, if any. There are still female Freys and rule would pass to them if there are no male heirs (though it is implied Arya didn't kill them all down to the last baby son). The Freys are a very large family and the books strongly imply that after old Lord Walder dies, the various internal factions of the family's different branches (by Walder's different wives) are going to turn on each other in a fratricidal bloodbath. This involved over a dozen Frey characters, which the TV show has understandably not introduced.
 * The question arises about Edmure Tully's fate. In the Season 6 finale, Lord Walder said he was a prisoner in the Twins' own dungeon, but Arya made no attempt to free him. It's possible that the dungeon was too well guarded. Another possibility is that, in the novels, the Freys later send Edmure away to Casterly Rock for long-term imprisonment, so he might just no longer be at the Twins.
 * Kitty Frey, Lord Walder's new wife, returns again in this episode. She has no book counterpart, because in the novels Catelyn Stark slit the throat of one of Walder's grandsons; the TV version condensed this so that Catelyn killed his current and eighth wife, Joyeuse Erenford.
 * As noted in the King's Landing storyline, the Lannisters are running low on soldiers, after losing so many due to attrition in Joffrey's wars. The Lannister soldiers that Arya encounters seem to be green conscripts who just left home, are worried about their families, and aren't wary of strangers. A hint at how the Lannisters are scrapping the bottom of the barrel for manpower.
 * When Arya meets the friendly Lannister conscripts, her dialogue can't express it aloud, but it appears that she was assessing whether she should kill them or not - but then stopped because they technically offered her Guest right by offering to share their meal with her. The camera pans around from her POV to note that they left all their swords piled up out of reach - indicating that she realizes she could probably kill most of them with Needle before they can defend themselves. In her overt dialogue, she repeatedly tries to decline their offer to share their meal, because she intended to kill them. After they repeatedly show her hospitality, hand her a cooked rabbit and outright call her their "guest", however, she visibly relents, realizing she won't lower herself to Walder Frey's level by breaking guest right (technically she "fed" the Freys she feasted with poisoned wine, but they broke guest right first - the stories seem to indicate the gods think that's fair punishment).
 * Popular contemporary musician Ed Sheeran cameos in this episode as the Lannister soldier singing a song around their campfire. Fantasy fans will remember him for singing the end credits song for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Apparently, the production team gave Sheeran a cameo because Arya actress Maisie Williams is a fan.
 * Sheeran's presence brings up a production issue: most actors aren't also trained musicians and singers, so the TV show has actually cut out several major songs that appear in the novels. For example, the wildlings have an important song in the books called The Last of the Giants, which sums up a lot of their mental state about how their world is ending. The TV production team originally intended to have Ygritte sing it at some point, but actress Rose Leslie was so terrified of singing on-camera that she politely refused. Similarly, in Season 2, Sophie Turner said that what she was most afraid of filming that year wasn't any of Joffrey's torments, battles, or the riot scene, but the brief moment when she had to sing a hymn (Gentle Mother, Font of Mercy), because she isn't a professional singer. A few actors on the show were also professional singers, specifically Jerome Flynn (Bronn) and Kerry Ingram (Shireen Baratheon), so at various points the TV show had them perform song that other characters do in the novels. Given how reluctant actors with no singing experience are to sing on-camera, in several ways the only guaranteed way to incorporate these book-songs into the TV show is to have professional singers make cameo appearances to sing them. Indeed, in similar fashion, in Season 2, the lead Bolton soldier singing The Bear and the Maiden Fair was a cameo by professional musician Gary Lightbody.
 * The song that Ed Sheeran's character sings is from the books: Hands of Gold. A minstrel called Symon Silvertongue came up with it to mockingly hint that he knew Tyrion Lannister was continuing his affair with the whore Shae even though his father told him to break it off - apparently hoping to blackmail him. Instead, Tyrion ordered Bronn to kill Symon, and Bronn disposed of the corpse by selling it to a pot-shop that makes bowls of brown out of "all kinds of meat". The song has added irony, as ultimately, Tyrion murdered Shae by strangling her to death with his chain of office as Hand of the King - a necklace made of stylized interlocking gold hands.
 * The Lannister conscripts Arya encounters mention wanting to see King's Landing, but now Cersei's guards aren't letting anyone within one mile of the Red Keep, the Great Sept of Baelor was blown up, and the Dragonpit is a ruin. This marks the first mention of the Dragonpit in a live-action episode (the Histories & Lore featurettes have mentioned it in prior seasons), setting up how it will be a major location later this season. King's Landing was built around three large hills, and these three structures were built at the top of each. The Dragonpit is at the top of Rhaenys's Hill, above Flea Bottom. It has actually been in ruins for around 170 years, since it collapsed in riots during the Dance of the Dragons.
 * One of the Lannister soldiers says that King's Landing at this point is filled with people who would kill you to sell your hide for just two Coppers. Copper Pennies are the lowest denomination of the Gold Dragon currency used in Westeros, and a good-sized loaf of bread is worth around three Coppers.
 * Beric Dondarrion mentions that he first met Sandor Clegane at "that Tournament" - actually, this was the Tourney of the Hand which was held during Season 1. The parts of the tournament seen on-screen were condensed due to time and budget limitations: Sandor was present but wasn't shown participating (though he did fight off his brother Gregor to defend Loras Tyrell). In the books, Beric and Thoros participated in the tournament as well - as did many of the other knights that Ned Stark sent out to find Gregor Clegane. They formed the original core of the Brotherhood Without Banners. Beric appeared in the TV show but not at the tournament, simply played by a stand-in when Ned sent him to the Riverlands. In the book version of the tourney, Sandor actually beat Jaime Lannister. Sandor apparently encountered Beric and Thoros off-screen in the TV version.
 * Sandor and Arya encountered Sally and her father on their farm back in Season 4 episode 3 "Breaker of Chains". They gave Sandor and Arya food and shelter, but Sandor broke Guest right by then beating up and robbing the man of his remaining silver. At the time, he rationalized that so many bandits were roaming the countryside from the war that there was no way they'd survive until winter anyway, but it would help Sandor and Arya flee the area.
 * Sandor's final appearance in the episode digging graves for Sally and her father is apparently a reference to his appearance as a gravedigger in the books, under different circumstances: Brienne of Tarth didn't fight Sandor in the books, instead he was left mortally injured after fighting sellswords from the Brave Companions, after which Arya left him for dead. Some time later in the fourth novel, however, Brienne and Podrick came across a monastery where refugees from the war were seeking shelter, and saw a very large and hooded man with a limp digging graves for the fallen. Their interaction with the Elder Brother heavily implied that the gravedigger was in fact Sandor: the Elder Brother said that he found him near death and nursed him back to health.
 * Sandor and Arya encountered Sally and her father's farm not long after they started heading south from The Twins after the Red Wedding - now, Sandor and the Brotherhood arrive there while heading north. Meanwhile, Arya just left the Twins and is heading south again. It is possible that they might cross paths soon. Back in "Breaker of Chains", around the same time Sandor first encountered this farm, he remarked to Arya that they were near Fairmarket, which is on the Blue Fork of The Trident.
 * It is unclear why it is snowing more heavily in Sandor's scenes south of the Twins, but not particularly hard in Arya's scenes slightly farther north at the Twins (one could argue that the Twins are closer to the swamps of The Neck, so there may be some regional lake effect retaining heat - either that or Sandor's scenes aren't chronologically in synch with Arya's).

In Oldtown

 * The montage of Samwell Tarly doing drudgery work for the Maesters at The Citadel, emptying chamber pots, pouring soup, stacking books, lasts a full 90 seconds.
 * It seems very probable that the montage of Samwell emptying chamber pots was originally meant to be comic relief for the very dark Sandor scenes, in which he is digging a grave for the decayed skeleton of a little girl who died because he robbed her. The showrunners actually confirmed that scenes were reshuffled within the episode at the last minute: they were so impressed with David Bradley's performance as Arya-pretending-to-be-Walder that they moved it to be the new cold open. In the final version, Samwell's Oldtown scenes are split into two major blocks - the comic scene earlier, but the second immediately after Sandor's gravedigging scene. It is possible that as originally envisioned, all of Samwell's scenes were going to be in one long block at the end - in which case the comedic montage of Sandor emptying chamber pots was meant to lighten the mood after such a somber scene with Sandor. Reshuffling the episode to put the Frey scenes first may have somehow resulted in Samwell's comedic relief going before the scene it was meant to compensate for.
 * The appearance of Gilly's son Sam raises the issue of the TV-series internal Timeline once again. Time proceeds more slowly in the TV show, and he's just a baby at the end of the current novels, but starting last season the TV show tacitly acknowledge this is impossible by starting to cast toddlers to play him. It largely avoids the issue here, but given that he is this large and trying to talk at this point, there's no realistic way he's younger than around three years old. He was born during Season 3, and prior seasons did broadly follow a pattern of one TV season equaling one year of story time. Not every storyline was in synch with each other, and some seasons were a little short (Season 4) while others a little longer (Season 5), but broadly, characters state in Season 6 that "years" plural have passed since the Red Wedding in Season 6 (at least two, more likely three). Generally the approximate pattern holds on a season level - or at least has so far. There's no guaranteed plan of this, and for all we know, all of the events of the unpublished seventh novel might only span a single month's worth of internal story time. Thus, while one TV season has equaled one year in the past, there is no guarantee that the final Seasons 7 and 8 will fit the same pattern (i.e. perhaps the showrunners consider them combined as one really long "season" split into two halves, etc.)
 * Last season left some question of how Samwell could keep Gilly with him at the Citadel even though women aren't allowed to be maesters, and they take vows of celibacy so they wouldn't have accommodations for families. The answer as revealed in this episode is simple:  he isn't a sworn maester yet, he goes to work at their university-like building complex during the day, but at night stays with her in an "off campus apartment" of sorts in the main city.
 * Gilly can now read fairly well, albeit a little slowly as she only recently learned how. Shireen Baratheon started teaching her how to read (along with Samwell) while they were at Castle Black in Season 5.
 * There is no "Maester Weyland" in the books, the man that Samwell is helping perform an autopsy on, who died from alcoholism complications.
 * Archmaester Ebrose is in fact a character from the novels: each archmaester is the foremost expert in a given field of knowledge, like a university faculty, and Ebrose is indeed the archmaester of medicine and healing - thus it makes sense that he is introduced performing a medical autopsy. His willingness to believe Samwell's stories about the White Walkers, due to weight of evidence, gives his TV version some shades of Archmaester Marwyn - a separate character from the books, considered an oddball by the rest of the Citadel because his field of focus is the "higher mysteries" (Magic).
 * The scene between Archmaester Ebrose and Samwell raises a point about medical knowledge in Westeros: the novels apparently indicate that they actually don't have a stigma against performing autopsies on human corpses to further medical and scientific knowledge. The real-life history of human dissection has gone through cycles in many cultures in which human autopsies were forbidden, such as medieval Christianity and Islam, and before that, the Greco-Romans. Famously, late third century Greek physician Galen had to dissect macaque apes due to prohibitions at the time on performing autopsies on human cadavers (leading to several misunderstandings). In contrast, when Pycelle complains in the books that Qyburn's presence on the Small Council is abhorrent, he states that the order of maesters has long opened up the bodies of dead men to try to learn the secrets of life - but Qyburn dissected living men, in agony, to try to learn the secrets of death and necromancy. Thus it seems that they have no prohibitions against autopsies. George R.R. Martin has stated that medical knowledge in Westeros is explicitly better than it was during the real Middle Ages - because he didn't want to have a setting in which characters regularly die from bacterial infections before they're fifty years old, etc. The lack of prohibitions on autopsies may have been a factor in this, or at least, is a way to demonstrate that they have more extensive medical knowledge than the real Middle Ages.
 * When Ebrose asks Samwell to weigh one of the organs from the corpse, he responds that it weighs "147" - without stating any context for what units they're using. We actually don't know much about the units of measurement used in Westeros. Martin never uses modern metric measurements, to reflect their medieval society, in which measurement systems grew haphazardly out of local custom. They use yards, feet, and miles, not metric meters and kilometers. Other systems haven't been encountered as often: they assuredly don't use kilograms to measure weight. The novels have mentioned the "stone" weight unit, but one stone equals about 14 pounds, so there's no way the "147" organ weight refers to those. In Season 4's "First of His Name", Cersei listed off "pounds, tons, and ounces" but this might have just been the TV writers making an educated guess at what sounds like plausible pre-modern units of measurement they might use.
 * Screencaptures of the books that Sam and Gilly are reading make note that the High Valyrian term for Dragonglass (obsidian) is "zīrtys perzys" - and notes that this literally translates as "frozen fire". This translation is mentioned in the novels, but Martin didn't come up with a High Valyrian word corresponding to it. Linguist David J. Peterson actually came up with the term as early as May 2014.
 * 701 sam book 4.png Samwell is looking at the open book with the right-hand page showing a map of Dragonstone island, the left hand page opposite it seems to state that the cure for Greyscale is actually to ingest Dragonglass ground up into a fine powder - though the maester who wrote the book scoffs that it would actually work.
 * Within the books Sam is researching for information on how to kill White Walkers is a sketch of Littlefinger's Valyrian steel dagger from Season 1, which was carried by the catspaw assassin, and later was used by Littlefinger to falsely frame Tyrion. It isn't unusual that there would be an individual sketch of this dagger: since the Doom of Valyria four centuries ago, no new Valyrian steel weapons were made, and in the entire continent of Westeros there are only a little over two hundred surviving blades - mostly swords, but also a few axes and daggers. There are so few that isn't implausible that over the centuries some maesters made a codex with sketches of each individual surviving weapon.
 * Another book Sam reads has legible text referring to Lomas Longstrider and his famous book, Wonders Made by Man. Loosely comparable to Marco Polo, Lomas was a man from Westeros who traveled all over the world, even to Yi Ti and back (their China analogue).
 * 701 Legends of the Long night 1.png visible text of the book Gilly is reading, Legends of the Long Night, is actually a full block-text quote from [[The World of Ice and Fire]] chapter on the Long Night.
 * Sam recalls that Stannis told him there was dragonglass in Dragonstone, in Season 5's "Kill the Boy": Sam did not think it was important at that time, but now he intends to inform Jon about that. In the parallel book chapter, both Stannis and Sam consider that information as highly important, and Stannis sends orders to the castellan of Dragonstone to mine the material. Jon is not present at their conversation both in the show and the book, but it seems doubtful that Sam wouldn't have told him such important detail.
 * Samwell says he's sending a letter "to Jon", but in such a vague context it is unclear if he found out everything that happened to Jon after he left the Wall - i.e. if he thinks he's still Lord Commander or if he heard vague reports that Jon left somehow and became the new King in the North.

At Dragonstone

 * "Dragonstone" is the name of both the large island and the eponymous castle which is its ruling seat.
 * Dragonstone is the ancestral homeland of House Targaryen, settled centuries ago as the westernmost outpost of the Valyrian Freehold. Due to its isolation, when the Doom of Valyria destroyed their vast empire in a single day, the Targaryens survived on Dragonstone with the world's only remaining dragons. One of the reasons they settled the isle is because it has an active volcano, a preferred nesting ground of dragons.
 * Dragonstone is one of the strongest fortresses in all of Westeros, because it was built by the ancient Valyrians themselves using advanced construction techniques which were lost after their empire collapsed. The Valyrians were fond of building vast mega-structures by having dragons literally melt down stone with their flames, then teasing out the black liquid stone into various fantastic shapes. The island is also decorated with numerous dragon-themed statues and gargoyles. Its architectural designs seem very strange and foreign to people from mainland Westeros.
 * The Targaryens spent a hundred years after the Doom building up their strength, then invaded Westeros in the Targaryen Conquest. Afterwards, Dragonstone remained their private domain and final redoubt. Traditionally, the heir to the Iron Throne would rule the island directly as "Prince of Dragonstone" (comparable to how the real-life heir to the British monarchy is known as the "Prince of Wales").
 * During their exile, Daenerys was the nominal heir of her brother Viserys Targaryen - who made the empty claim to be "King Viserys the Third" in exile. Thus, Daenerys nominally held the title "Princess of Dragonstone". Given that Viserys dies by the sixth episode of Season 1, this comes up more frequently in the first novel, i.e. when Illyrio Mopatis introduces Daenerys to Drogo for the first time, in the book version he lists off her formal title as "Princess of Dragonstone", but this was omitted from the TV version. The title was entirely academic of course, given that they were living in exile and upon Viserys's death she inherited his full title as the Targaryen claimant to the throne itself.
 * Daenerys Targaryen was actually born on Dragonstone, at the end of Robert's Rebellion. Right before the rebel army sacked King's Landing her father the Mad King sent his pregnant wife away to safety on Dragonstone, where she died in childbirth. Her brother Viserys fled with her into exile in the Free Cities a few weeks later, so she has no memory of it, but technically it is still her true home. Daenerys has spent her life living on the sufferance of others or as a foreign invader in Slaver's Bay, but on Viserys's death, Dragonstone became hers by right.
 * Of course, much like the Iron Throne, given that Jon Snow is actually the secret son of her eldest brother, Rhaegar, Jon might have more claim to it than her, but even then, Daenerys is his closest Targaryen relative, so Dragonstone would still be hers as next in line to the throne.
 * Earlier episodes kept this point that Daenerys was technically born in Westeros, on Dragonstone. In Season 2, when the Spice King in Qarth directly asks her if she's ever even set foot in Westeros, she responds that she fled when she was just a baby. In Season 6, Tyrion also remarks to Jorah that Daenerys has never spent "one day of her adult life" in Westeros.
 * Because Dragonstone is a volcanic island (surrounded by the salty sea), and Daenerys was born there, she matches the prophecies about Azor Ahai and The Prince That Was Promised being "born amidst salt and smoke". Melisandre thought that Stannis fit this as ruler of Dragonstone, although he was born at Storm's End, interpreting it as a figurative "rebirth" when he claimed his position as the Lord's Chosen. Maester Aemon also explains in the novels that in the original High Valyrian the prophecy was made in, "Prince" is actually a gender-neutral term, like "ruler", so the female Daenerys still fits it.
 * Daenerys also matches other aspect of the prophecies, that the Prince would "wake dragons from stone" - she hatched dragon eggs, which seem petrified as stone.
 * Targaryen shouder capes.jpg new costume style that Daenerys shifts to starting in this episode is actually not entirely new to the series - she has switched to the "old Targaryen style" that her brother Viserys was seen wearing back in Season 1 (as sort of a sign that she has embraced her inner Targaryen nature as a conqueror). Costume designer Michele Clapton explained at the time that because Viserys was older than Daenerys when the Targaryens were deposed (he was a child), he still remembers what the fashions at the old Targaryen royal court looked like and dresses in them - thus even though his one costume didn't appear very often, it was meant to be a window into what the old Targaryen style looked like: asymmetric cut, peaked shoulder cuffs that are separate from the undercoat, long form-fitting sleeves, high collar, and a short cape asymmetrically pinned to one shoulder (as Viserys was seen wearing at her wedding to Drogo in the first episode). Finally, of course, she has also dramatically shifted from her prior blue or white color palettes to finally dressing in Targaryen red and black, the colors of their heraldry. For more information, see "Costumes: King's Landing - Under the Targaryens"
 * As for the new Costumes of many characters in Season 7 shifting to darker colors, the reason behind this is simple: the costuming department felt that because "winter" has officially descended across Westeros, characters should now be wearing dark colors i.e. the time for wearing brighter colors would have been Renly's camp in Season 2 when they were "the knights of summer".
 * Dragonstone island was last held by Stannis Baratheon as his main seat during the war. In the books, when Stannis took his main force north to save the Night's Watch at the Battle of Castle Black, he left a small skeleton defense force behind to hold the castle. Given how strong the fortress is even this small garrison was enough to deter a direct attack by the Lannisters: as a result much of the remaining Lannister/Tyrell fleet was pinned down encircling and besieging Dragonstone, trying to wait them out through starvation over time. This prevented the Lannisters or Tyrells from dealing with the rise of Euron Greyjoy on the west coast. Loras Tyrell has come up with the idea to force a quick end to the siege by storming the castle, stating that he can conquer the castle within two weeks; Cersei agrees, in hopes he will die in the fighting. Loras takes the castle, but with heavy and unnecessary losses due to his rash nature, and after fighting through many defenders despite taking numerous wounds, he was doused with boiling oil and left barely clinging to life. Cersei then needlessly gloated to Margaery about Loras, breaking down the already fragile Lannister-Tyrell alliance. The TV series omitted all of this and just had Loras burn to death in the Destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor (in either version, he apparently burns to death - though there is some slim chance he might in fact survive in the books). As a result, as of the most current novel Dragonstone is weakly held by a remaining Lannister force after the siege.
 * In the episode, Jaime states that "Stannis left the castle unoccupied." When Daenerys arrives with her army, Dragonstone is abandoned and she faces no resistance.
 * Dragonstone was Stannis's base of operations seen in Seasons 2 through 4, but several major locations on it weren't actually shown on screen at the time, probably due to budget constraints. Most interior scenes focused on the war planning room around the Painted Table - a large table painted as a large map of Westeros which Aegon I Targaryen himself used when he was planning his conquest of Westeros. Exterior shots focused on a generic beach with a large dragon statue in the background as a digital insert. Season 7 depicts all of Dragonstone's exteriors, and several new major internal locations, including a fully realized throne room, hewn from the volcanic rock. Stannis sat on this throne in several scenes from the books that were shifted to the council room. Historically, many prior Targaryens from Aegon I to Rhaenyra sat on the throne of Dragonstone.
 * Dragonstone was a major location in the Dance of the Dragons, the great Targaryen civil war fought 170 years ago. It was the initial headquarters of Rhaenyra Targaryen and her faction, while her half-brother Aegon II held King's Landing itself. Several prequel projects to follow the main series are being discussed, and it is possible that these Dragonstone sets were introduced with an eye towards being re-used for a prequel series.
 * As when Stannis held it, Dragonstone isn't worth much in and of itself to Daenerys, as a comparatively small island - but it has an excellent strategic location controlling the mouth of Blackwater Bay, and thus threatening all sea travel going to or from King's Landing. Additionally, of course, it is a strong symbolic move for Daenerys to go from being a foreign exile to directing her invasion of Westeros from the ancestral seat of the Targaryens themselves.

In the books
[This section will be updated with comparisons when the sixth novel is released.]

The episode is adapted from the following chapter of A Dance with Dragons:
 * Chapter 35: Jon VII: Jon intends to garrison the abandoned castles on The Wall with Free Folk.

Memorable quotes
Arya Stark: (disguised as Walder Frey) "Leave one wolf alive...and the sheep are never safe."

Arya Stark: "Tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey."

Sansa Stark: "You have to be smarter than father. You need to be smarter than Robb. I loved them, I miss them, but they made stupid mistakes and they both lost their heads for it."

Sandor Clegane: "It's my fucking luck to end up with a band of fire worshippers"

Cersei Lannister: "Should we spend all our days mourning the dead? Mother, father, and all our children? I loved them, I did. But they’re ashes now, and we’re still flesh and blood. We’re the last Lannisters, the last ones who count.”

Archmaester Ebrose: "Everyone in the Citadel doubts everything, that's their job."

Archmaester Ebrose: "We are the world's memory...without us men would be little better than dogs, don't remember any meal but the last, can't see forward to any but the next."

Daenerys Targaryen: "Shall we begin?"