The Dragon and the Wolf

"The Dragon and the Wolf" is the seventh and final episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixty-seventh episode of the series overall. It premiered on August 27, 2017. It was written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Jeremy Podeswa.

Plot
Season finale of the epic series.

In the Narrow Sea
In the Chamber of the Painted Table, Daenerys and her court discuss logistics. It will take the Dothraki a fortnight to reach Winterfell, and the plan is to have Jon and the Unsullied cross the sea by ship and meet them at White Harbor. Jorah Mormont points out that the North is not really safer for her than anywhere else, as someone with a memory of Robert's Rebellion and an idea of becoming a hero could easily take her out with a single crossbow bolt. He suggests she fly to Winterfell. Jon however suggests that Daenerys ride with them so that the North can see her as a liberator and ally. After a moment's consideration, Dany decides to go with him on the road. Jorah, suspecting a different reason for her decision throws her a look, which she notices but avoids.

Some time after setting sail, Jon knocks on the door of Daenerys's cabin. She answers and meets his gaze without words. After a moment, he enters, and, with their eyes still locked, shuts the door. Unaware of the revelations about Jon's past, they finally give into the burgeoning passion between them.

Unknown to both of them, Tyrion had been watching Jon enter the cabin. Silently devastated that his queen has made another mistake, Tyrion walks away.

At the Wall
Tormund and Beric Dondarrion review the defenses atop the Wall at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Tormund remarks that the crows say he'll get used to the height, but he admits it'll probably be a while. Suddenly, the pair see movement at the edge of the Haunted Forest. A white walker emerges atop an undead horse, followed shortly by a horde of wights. More and more white walkers emerge as the Night Watch's horns sound their alarm.

Suddenly, the undead Viserion swoops down, the Night King astride his back. With a burst of sinister blue flame, Viserion demolishes the scouting platforms atop the Wall... and them turns his flames against the Wall itself. The Night's Watch and the Wildlings desperately try to evacuate as ice melts and rock crumbles. Tormund and Beric manage to make it farther west along the Wall itself before the entire eastern extremity of the Wall collapses... leaving plenty of space between the Wall and the sea for the Army of the Dead to cross. A road now open to them, the White Walkers direct the wights into the North.

The Great War has begun.

Appereances

 * Main: The Dragon and the Wolf/Appearances

First

 * Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (in vision)
 * High Septon (Robert's Rebellion) (in vision)

Deaths

 * Lord Petyr Baelish
 * Eastwatch garrison

Cast
Starring
 * 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
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Prince Bran Stark
 * Conleth Hill as Varys
 * Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Guest Starring
 * Pilou Asbæk as King Euron Greyjoy
 * Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion
 * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm
 * Staz Nair as Qhono
 * Anton Lesser as Qyburn
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Rupert Vansittart as Yohn Royce
 * Aisling Franciosi as Lyanna Stark
 * Brendan Cowell as Harrag
 * Robert Aramayo as Young Ned Stark
 * Richard Rycroft as Maester Wolkan
 * Wilf Scolding as Prince Rhaegar Targaryen
 * Tom Chadbon as High Septon (Robert's Rebellion)
 * Guy Oliver-Watts as
 * Neil Fingleton as giant wight
 * Ian Whyte as giant wight
 * Adam Slynn as
 * William & James Wilson as Little Sam

Uncredited
 * Vladimír Furdík as the Night King
 * Brent Hinds as Wight

General

 * The episode title is a reference to the sigils of House Targaryen (a three-headed dragon) and House Stark (a direwolf). Previous episodes have followed a similar theme in nomenclature: "The Wolf and the Lion" in Season 1, referencing the sigils of Houses Stark and Lannister, and "The Lion and the Rose" in Season 4, referencing the sigils of Houses Lannister and Tyrell.
 * Cersei and Jaime refer to bringing sellswords from Essos, making this only the seventh episode to refer to the eastern continent by name in seven TV seasons (it is so large, comparable to Eurasia, that most characters just refer to the overall region of it they are heading to: "the Free Cities", "Slaver's Bay", etc.). In this case, it isn't entirely necessary, as the Golden Company is based largely in the Free Cities region - although Euron could have to pick them up from somewhere further east.
 * With a runtime of 79 minutes, 43 seconds, this episode is the longest episode of the television series thus far.

In King's Landing

 * The Dragonpit appears for the first time in this episode. Although explicitly stated to one have been the home of the Targaryen dragons, the structure is clearly too small to hold full-size dragons, in chambers that ringed the inside of the arena. In the books, it is enormous, easily large enough to have held forty dragons (although there were never more than 20 alive at any time during the reign of the Targaryens). This is the result of impracticalities in filming: the crew had the opportunity to film in an actual Roman colosseum for the scene, and went with the realism of a real ruin rather than try and CG something that would have been the right size, but might have looked fake. Notice that Drogon - who isn't even as large as some of the centuries-old dragons like Balerion - can barely fit inside the arena with his wings fully extended.  Nor can he possibly fit in any of the entrances - in the books, the main entrance is big enough for thirty knights to ride through abreast on their horses.
 * In contrast, when the TV series depicted Daznak's Pit in Season 5, the massive gladiatorial arena in Meereen, it did film in a real Roman ruin - but then used CGI extensions to make it appear bigger than it actually was in real life. Compare the size of the Dragonpit depicted on-screen here with the size of Meereen's arena, which could plausibly have contained an adult dragon (Drogon was a juvenile at the time).
 * It might be waved aside that in the TV continuity, the chambers for the dragons are all on the outside of the structure, and they would just fly in through an open roof for public events, and the arena is some sort of top section above the rest - but this would be fan theorization. The TV writers have made no attempt to explain the discrepancy.
 * It is also mentioned in dialogue that the dragons that grew up in the pit never reached the full size of the others, but were increasingly stunted and sickly - but that still doesn't explain how Tyrion says that Balerion could reside inside of it.
 * Daenerys laments that keeping the dragons restrained in the Dragonpit made them grow stunted and sickly. Other characters have previously mentioned that the Targaryen dragons grew smaller over the generations like this, until the last one left a skull not much bigger than a dog's.  Many characters do think this in the novels, but it has never been confirmed as the exact reason the dragons dwindled.  Daenerys has a conversation with Jorah and Barristan Selmy about this in the novels debating this:  Barristan points out that by the same logic, men who live in small huts should give rise to a race of dwarfs, while men who live in castles should give rise to a race of giants.  The far more pragmatic answer is probably that, much like their Targaryen masters, generations of heavy incest severely damaged the health of later generations:  all Targaryen dragons descended from only three original ones they brought to Westeros (siblings mated with each other, aunts with nephews, etc.).  Some suspect another theory, that the Maesters secretly started poisoning hatchlings whenever they could, because they champion science and abhor the magic that dragons represent.
 * As the showrunners point out in the Inside the Episode video, the parley at the Dragonpit is the first time that most of the starring cast members have interacted with each other in the same scene after seven TV seasons: so many major characters appear in it, and they had to plan out reaction shots for each of them (instead of just having some them stand in the background), that it took 10 full days to film the entire sequence. The entire sequence has 17 named recurring characters in it:  Cersei, Jaime, Gregor, Qyburn, Euron, Jon Snow, Tyrion, Daenerys, Varys, Davos, Theon, Jorah, Missandei, Sandor, Brienne, as well as (briefly) Bronn and Podrick.
 * Starting in at least Season 5, the TV series defined the core of its starring cast by pay grade as specifically five actors, called "Tier A": Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and the three Lannister siblings (Tyrion, Cersei, Jaime).  The younger Stark siblings might not have been included because they were under-aged.  Nonetheless this generally matches which characters get the most POV chapters in the books (Jon, Daenerys, Tyrion, etc.).  Thus this scene is the absolute first time in the entire series that all five "Tier A" cast members have been in the same scene together.
 * Some of the characters besides Daenerys had a few brief scenes together in the Season 1 premiere, "Winter is Coming": Jon and Theon were in the courtyard when King Robert's royal party - including Tyrion, Cersei, and Jaime - arrived at Winterfell, but they were just in the background and didn't share any lines (Jon then didn't appear at the feast with Cersei due to his bastard status).  Similarly, Tyrion had separate scenes with Jon and then Theon before departing Winterfell. Jon also had a very brief scene with Jaime at Winterfell, which the producers explained in the TV commentary that they put in because they realized these two core characters wouldn't meet again for many seasons.
 * The special effects for the undead Wights are greatly improved for the one displayed at the Dragonpit. The novels make this more clear, but every part of a wight will continue to move, even after it has been severed from its main body - i.e. a severed hand will continue to slowly crawl around to try to claw someone to death. Understandably, this would have been difficult to emphasize in large scale fight scenes, with dozens of severed wight limbs still crawling at the Night's Watch.  The display of the wight in the Dragonpit puts extra focus on getting this detail across:  the wight's severed hands keeps moving, after it has been cut in half through the waist, the upper half of the wight continues crawling around, and if you pay close attention, even the severed legs of the wight continue to thrash around.
 * In pop culture terms, wights do not follow "zombie" rules like from The Walking Dead, but deadite rules from The Evil Dead. Destroying the brain does nothing - wights were shown at Hardhome being shot through the head with arrows, or outright decapitated, to no effect.  The only way to fully stop one with a sword is total body dismemberment of every joint.  Fire is more effective - not just because it destroys their entire body, but because wights are extremely flammable, as if their flesh was made of pitch (even a few sparks will set them totally ablaze and then burn away to nothing).
 * Daenerys repeats her famous line, "Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor", providing a direct translation for Jon: "A dragon is not a slave". She previously said this in Season 3's "And Now His Watch Is Ended" when she declared to the slave-masters of Astapor that she wouldn't sell Drogon, right before burning them all to death. "Buzdari" is actually the Astapori Low Valyrian word for "slave"; the High Valyrian is "dohaeriros". Daenerys was likely defaulting to the term she was most used to using, rather than trying to say something profound. Given she had to translate for Jon, the point is moot anyway.
 * Jon asks if Daenerys has confirmed her infertility with someone other than the witch who cursed her in the first place. He asks half-seriously and half-humorously, since it is indeed precisely the sort of thing someone would get a second opinion on. In the books, Daenerys believes she is infertile, but in her final chapter at the end of the fifth novel, while stranded in the Dothraki Sea again (corresponding to the Season 5 finale), she starts passing blood again - which she interprets as being sick, but which might mean that she has started Flowering again and her reproductive organs have recovered.
 * Multiple lines in this episode contradict information previously established in dialogue by the TV series (which originally matched the books):
 * Jon asks Tyrion how many people live in King's Landing, and he responds "a million" (which Jon repeats later). In Season 3's "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", Jaime Lannister stated that the population is half a million ("five hundred thousand"), which is what it is in the novels.  It's possible that Tyrion was including a rough guess at how many refugees have flooded into the city during the course of the war (which is a factor), but it seems more likely that the TV writers just wanted a round number.
 * Cersei states that the Golden Company has "20,000 men". When they were first mentioned in Season 4, however, Davos and Stannis stated that they have 10,000 men - which is accurate to the novels.  It might be waved aside that Cersei is simply in error, but this would also be fan theorization that the TV writers themselves didn't address.
 * It is confusing why, at the beginning of the episode, Bronn remarks on how pleasant it is when soldiers call him "my lord" now - as if this is a new development. He is still just a landless knight, but was knighted at the beginning of Season 3 (knights are sometimes generically addressed as "my lord").  Later with Tyrion, Bronn remarks on how he actually hasn't gotten the full reward he wanted, of a castle and a marriage to a noblewoman so he can join the ranks of the nobility.  In the novels by this point, Bronn has actually already married Lollys Stokeworth - who was introduced in Season 5, only for the Lannisters to call off the betrothal because they still needed Bronn's help.  It's unclear if there was supposed to be some sort of deleted scene in Season 7 explaining that he recently has been allowed to marry Lollys, which was then cut for time, or if this is purely meant to refer to his status as a knight.  Bryan Cogman did mention in passing that there were more Bronn scenes intended for previous episodes this season that were cut for time, which seems to support this somewhat.
 * Cersei states that the Golden Company has men, horses, and Elephants - the first time that their use of war elephants has been mentioned in the TV continuity. Elephants are in quite regularly used in Volantis and not an uncommon sight in the southern Free Cities, imported as beasts of war.
 * Tyrion says that nothing can erase the past "50 years" of bad blood between their families. Apparently he is referring to when the Mad King's reign began (rounding to a broad figure).  Actually, the first two decades of the Mad King's reign were a time of peace and prosperity in the Seven Kingdoms - because his capable Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister, was the one really holding the realm together.  While the Timeline is somewhat in flux at this point, in Season 4 the chronology was more certain, and at that point Littlefinger said that Robert's Rebellion was "20 years ago" (which is more or less accurate, as it was "17 years ago" in Season 1, and other statements give that about 3 years passed between Season 1 and Season 4).
 * Sandor Clegane hasn't seen his brother Gregor Clegane (or what's left of him) since he stopped him during his rampage at the Tourney of the Hand in Season 1's "The Wolf and the Lion". When Sandor eyes his brother's bizarre appearance and wonders "What have they done to you?", this introduces a meta-narrative joke the writers probably didn't intend - given that the last time Sandor saw Gregor in Season 1, he was played by a different actor (the role was recast twice since then).
 * Euron's insult to Tyrion that dwarfs are killed at birth in the Iron Islands because of their physical infirmity hasn't been mentioned in the novels - though it is stated that this is done among the Dothraki, the wildlings, and in the pirate dens of the Three Sisters off the north coast of the Vale. Given that hard way of life on the Iron Islands, it's reasonable to assume they follow the same practice.  As Tyrion recounted in Season 1's "The Kingsroad", most commoners throughout the Seven Kingdoms will leave a dwarf baby out in the woods to die (because they can't work enough to sustain themselves and are just another mouth to feed), but he was spared this because he was born into a wealthy noble family.
 * Tyrion says that Cersei tried to kill him "twice" already: the first time was when she put him on trial for killing Joffrey, but it's unclear what the second time he's referring to was.  When Mandon Moore tried to kill him at the Battle of the Blackwater, he thought Cersei might have ordered him to do it for a time, but then settled on thinking it must have been Joffrey (though the books also imply it may have been Littlefinger).  Maybe the second time was after he escaped to the Free Cities and she put a price out on his head (resulting in the severed heads of several innocent dwarfs being delivered to her).
 * When Jaime is discussing troop movements with the Lannister generals, he says: "The remaining forces in the Westerlands will take the River Road east.  We'll meet at Lord Harroway's Town".  The River Road is indeed the main east-west highway leading out of the Westerlands that an army heading east to link up with other armies from King's Landing would use.  It intersects the Kingsroad near the appropriately named Inn at the Crossroads.  After passing east from the crossroads into the mountains of the Vale, the nature of the path is so different that it becomes the Eastern Road.  The Eastern Road has been mentioned by name in dialogue before, though the River Road has not (albeit it has been plainly visible on maps).  Lord Harroway's Town is a large market town just upriver from the Inn at the Crossroads, making it a logical meeting point for armies converging from the west and east to head north.
 * Jaime's final scenes leaving Cersei and King's Landing are loosely transferred from how he left her in the books - which happened much earlier, at the end of the fourth novel. Chronologically, this would have corresponded to the end of Season 5.  In the books, Jaime was out in the field commanding the Second Siege of Riverrun (which was pushed back to Season 6) when Cersei was arrested by the Faith Militant.  She was allowed to write a letter to him desperately begging that he come back to help her, but at the same time Jaime also received news that Cersei had conspired to have the Faith arrest Margaery Tyrell right before that, and also to send Loras Tyrell on a suicide mission to retake Dragonstone, which left him burned alive and clinging to life.  Horrified at how Cersei needlessly antagonized their badly-needed Tyrell allies, and as the culmination of his ongoing story-arc recovering his sense of honor, he finally chose to free himself from her toxic influence:  instead, he sent no reply and quietly burned her letter.  As he burns it, half-stunned at how his relationship with Cersei has broken and how the Lannisters' grip on power is falling apart, he looks up and sees that the first light dusting of snow is falling across the Riverlands - winter has truly come (and the fourth novel ends on this cliffhanger image).  The TV series moved around or delayed much of this, so that Jaime went to Dorne in Season 5 (which doesn't happen in the novels), then went to Riverrun in Season 6, and then even stayed with Cersei after she killed all the Tyrells at the Destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor.  Loosely paralleling the book events, however, the reason he finally turns against her in the TV series is because she intends to betray badly needed allies instead of seeing the bigger picture they need to survive, and she also isn't including him in her plans anymore (in the TV show, for intending to go back on her word to Jon and Daenerys, in the books, for betraying the Tyrells without consulting him, because he wouldn't have agreed to it).

At Winterfell

 * This episode apparently establishes that at least some of Arya's bizarre behavior towards Sansa was indeed a ruse to fool Littlefinger. During the actual trial, Arya joins in the accusations by pointing out that Littlefinger lied to their mother Catelyn that the Valyrian steel dagger belonged to Tyrion Lannister, in order to stir up conflict between the Starks and Lannisters.  She had no way of knowing this beforehand, so apparently either Bran or Sansa told her off-screen.  It remains unclear at what point earlier in the season that Arya started play-acting that she was turning against Sansa, if at all - or if the TV writers ever consciously decided when.
 * What little answer may be gleaned comes from the Inside the Episode video, in which showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss explain how excited they were to build up tension for the audience that Arya and Sansa might actually want to kill each other - apparently with no thought to how plausible this was.
 * A mistake reviewers sometimes make is assuming that the final version of the episode is exactly what was intended, when behind the scenes information has revealed that prior episodes have often gone through multiple rewrites, disagreements between writers and directors, etc. sometimes resulting in incongruous scenes. Judging from the showrunners comments, it appears that the original intention was to depict Arya and Sansa play-acting that they were turning on each other, in order to fool Littlefinger's spies around Winterfell - but then Benioff and Weiss became so excited building up tension for the audience that they removed any parts making it clear what the Stark sisters were planning.  A speculative example:  if Arya's speech in "Eastwatch" threatening to cut off Sansa's face, then incongruously handing Sansa the dagger, had originally been meant to end with Arya winking at Sansa/flicking her eyes in the direction of a servant in the hallway who could overhear them, etc., this was cut out of the final version in order to make the final reveal more shocking.
 * While the editing of these scenes may be somewhat confusing, the revelation in this episode that Arya was working together with Sansa on this ploy to fool Littlefinger (though starting exactly when is unclear) will be taken as proof by Game of Thrones Wiki that within the "TV-continuity" (as a persistent fictional universe that exists outside of the camera frame), Arya never seriously meant her threats to actually kill Sansa, but this was just an act.
 * Sansa didn't do anything to "outmaneuver" Littlefinger, even though the TV writers seem to be presenting it that way. The evidence Sansa presents against Littlefinger is heavily dependent on her brother Bran's literally magical powers, which no one else can confirm or deny.  Sansa did already know that Littlefinger killed Lysa Arryn and Jon Arryn, but no reason is established for why she feels confident enough to reveal this information now - earlier in the season she decided not to move against Littlefinger, because she felt she was dependent on his Vale army.
 * The one thing Sansa did do was pretend to be falling for Littlefinger's manipulations - the showrunners state in the Inside the Episode video that Littlefinger is a sociopath who, on a certain level, honestly thinks he loves Sansa and that she must love him, and would never turn on him. This does not address, however, how Sansa could adequately sway the Northern and Vale lords to turn against Littlefinger based only on her word and that of her brother's alleged magical powers.
 * In the novels, Littlefinger is arguably the main antagonist of the entire War of the Five Kings: Tywin Lannister, Walder Frey, even Roose Bolton are seemingly only pawns in wider plans he has set.  It does not appear that he will die this simply in the future novels, or that he will become as peripheral of a character as he did from Seasons 5 to 7:
 * Starting in Season 5, Littlefinger's storyline was drastically truncated and diverged from the books, confusingly setting up a marriage between Sansa and Ramsay Bolton (a serial rapist who publicly displays the flayed skins of his enemies) who no clearly discernable gain other than to "undermine the Boltons from within". At the time this was presented as Sansa "going from pawn to player" in the political game, but in this episode Sansa criticizes it as "selling me to the Boltons".
 * In the books, Littlefinger and Sansa stayed in the Vale and spent time consolidating their hold over the lords there (through bribery and various other political maneuverings). A major part of Littlefinger's ongoing plans is for Sansa to marry Harrold Hardyng, cousin and heir of the sickly Sweetrobin Arryn, so she can one day claim rule over the Vale and lead its armies to retake the North (none of which required marrying into the Boltons).
 * Book-Littlefinger has incorporated many other political players into his plans, to the point that he has anticipated and apparently doesn't fear either the Lannisters, Boltons, or Tyrells. There are even hints that he may have already incorporated Daenerys Targaryen's upcoming invasion into his plans, judging by his cryptic comments to Sansa that what little order the War of the Five Kings left in Westeros will not long survive the "three queens".
 * In contrast, TV-Littlefinger didn't really have a long-term plan for the North after taking it from the Boltons: he had no way of knowing that Arya or Bran were still alive, or that Jon Snow would be a factor (he'd been planning to use the Vale to invade the weakened North since he started the entire war) - though what exactly his long-term plans are in the books have yet to be revealed.  Instead, multiple major reviewers criticized that Littlefinger largely just hung around in the shadows in Season 7 shooting ominous looks at Sansa from the shadows, with his plan consisting of turning the Stark children against each other with no other leverage.
 * Ultimately, the Sansa/Vale/Littlefinger storyline was truncated much as the Tyrell/Reach and Martell/Dorne storylines were heavily condensed then abruptly wrapped up.
 * The question arises if Yohn Royce was ever even willing to work with Littlefinger, as he was seen meeting with him in the previous episode along with Lord Glover (out of fear that Jon was ignoring the North); yet he always mistrusted Littlefinger since he was introduced in Season 4's "The Mountain and the Viper", and Littlefinger outright threatened him with an accusation of treason in Season 6's "The Door".
 * Although Sansa passes sentence on Littlefinger, she does not carry it out. This violates one of her father's key tenets of good leadership, that the man who passes the sentence must also swing the sword. Both Robb and Jon have taken this lesson to heart (i.e., Rickard Karstark and Janos Slynt). Sansa does allude to this in her conversation with Arya; the sisters seem to acknowledge, based on another of Ned's stories, that as long as the Starks act as one (a pack), Sansa need not swing the blade so long as Arya is the one wielding it. Alternatively, this might symbolize that Sansa has become more like a southern-style political strategist, but Arya remains very much her father's daughter.
 * Littlefinger says he only knows of the Faceless Men of Braavos "by reputation". In the novels, King Robert's Small Council actually debated what to do about Daenerys allying with the Dothraki, and one suggestion was to hire a Faceless Man to assassinate her. This was dismissed because of the exorbitant price: the Faceless Men charge based on the relative importance of the target, and the price for the last known Targaryen was more than the cost of hiring an entire army.

In the Narrow Sea

 * The issue of armies and characters moving implausibly fast across Westeros came up in the preceding episode, and a few issues are raised in this one - though not nearly on the same scale. Back at Dragonstone, Jon says that the Dothraki should reach Winterfell in a fortnight (two weeks) by riding up the Kingsroad.  In the books, the rough figure is that it would take riders about eight weeks to travel from King's Landing to Winterfell, without a baggage train (which the Dothraki don't have, being very mobile).  Mitigating factors, however, are that we never actually see when the Dothraki left King's Landing - they apparently left when Daenerys did, but some time has passed during which she traveled back to Dragonstone, made other preparations, etc., so there is some leeway in that respect (Jon never says where the Dothraki currently are, for all we know they've already reached the Neck).  Dothraki are also light cavalry and move faster than standard Westerosi heavy cavalry.
 * In contrast, Jaime Lannisters' generals say that it will take them a fortnight just to gather together a baggage train for their army to head north. Mitigating this is that the Lannister army wasn't expecting to travel north but Daenerys was expecting her Dothraki to go to Winterfell, and the Lannister army is primarily infantry - the Dothraki infamously don't need a baggage train but just carry everything with them on horse to make lightning strikes.
 * No one particularly brings up how slow their armies might move in the heavy snows of the North - despite this being a major plot point resulting in Stannis's defeat in Season 5, three years ago in the internal timeline, before the beginning of winter was officially announced.
 * Jon says that they will sail with the Unsullied to White Harbor to catch up with the Dothraki, meeting them on the Kingsroad before they reach Winterfell. It's quite possible that White Harbor will appear on-screen for the first time at the beginning of Season 8. White Harbor has been mentioned in passing since Season 1, and several times in Season 7 itself:  it is the only true "city" in the North, though the smallest of the five cities in Westeros, with a population perhaps around ten to twenty thousand (depending on what figures you use).  Nonetheless it is the only major port the North has, and the closest thing to an urban center - if modest compared to King's Landing.  In the books, Davos made an extended stay in the city to try to rally support for Stannis against the Boltons.  The rulers of the city, House Manderly, briefly appeared in Season 6 at Winterfell - they are actually a family from the Reach that was exiled and fled to the North, where they became loyal bannermen of the Starks.  White Harbor is somewhat of an odd exclave of southern Andal culture in the North as a result:  the Manderlys follow the Faith of the Seven (so the city is the only part of the North with a sizable minority devoted to that religion), and the architecture looks like an odd mix of North and Reach castle styles (sort of like a cross between Scottish and French architecture).
 * Theon Greyjoy and Jon Snow do parallel each other in many ways, as noted in their exchange: both were outsiders at Winterfell and treated as adoptive Starks but never full members of the family, Jon a bastard and Theon a ward (political hostage).  Jon managed to rise above bitterness and resentment at his position but Theon did not - Theon always struggled with choosing between his two identities while Jon made peace with his.
 * The irony of course is that Jon's speech to Theon will soon be applicable to himself, when he learns that he's actually half a legitimate Stark, and half Targaryen, just as Theon had to choose between Stark or Greyjoy.
 * Apparently, when the slaver fleet was being refurbished, Daenerys's followers had the time to add Targaryen heraldry to the ships' interiors in addition to painting the sails. Of course, at least some months have apparently passed since her forces departed for Westeros.
 * Tyrion is noticeably concerned that Jon and Daenerys have become intimate - though precisely why is unclear, given that a marriage-alliance with Jon would secure the North and the Vale and fully unite the anti-Cersei forces in Westeros. It's possible he's concerned given that Jon's refusal to lie nearly cost them the truce he wanted to broker.

Rhaegar/Lyanna, Jon/Daenerys

 * The episode explicitly confirms that Lyanna ran off with Rhaegar and their relationship was consensual. Although implied by previous revelations, it is finally confirmed here, both through Bran's narration and the fact that Lyanna clearly looks happy at her very private wedding ceremony.
 * As Isaac Hempstead-Wright points out in a tie-in interview, this means that all the events of the last twenty-four years are essentially based on a lie: the elopement of Rhaegar and Lyanna would have been problematic only for House Martell, and for Robert Baratheon personally. The Starks would have been uncomfortable about the bruised honor of Lyanna seemingly stealing another woman's husband, but no actual harm or dishonor had come to their kinswoman.
 * Of course, the true start of Robert's Rebellion was Aerys II Targaryen's brutal murder of Rickard and Brandon Stark, and his subsequent demand that Ned and Robert Baratheon be turned over to the Crown – a request Jon Arryn responded to by raising his banners in revolt. Since Rhaegar had no control over his father, those events were largely unavoidable. On the other hand, Aerys allegedly took such drastic action based on a verbal threat Brandon had made agains Rhaegar upon arriving at the Red Keep, a threat that might never have been made if the truth were known.
 * Within the context of the books, it makes little sense for Jon Snow's real name to be Aegon, as Rhaegar already had a son, with Elia Martell, by that name. Even though families in Westeros, as in the real world, reuse names across generations all the time, it is still too confusing for brothers to have the same name.
 * Rhaegar in the books seems to feel the need to have three children named for the three Conquest-era Targaryens. Having already had a Rhaenys and an Aegon, he was missing someone named for Visenya Targaryen.
 * The naming choice in the series may indicate a merging into Jon Snow of book-only characters, which cannot be related here because they are massive spoilers for the plot of the novels.
 * Rhaegar's physical appearance is very similar to his younger brother Viserys Targaryen, and even his clothing style is similar - this isn't a coincidence, as costume designer Michele Clapton specifically said that Viserys was old enough when the Targaryens were overthrown to remember what the old Targaryen fashions at the royal court looked like, so it stands to reason that Viserys was actually imitating the way that Rhaegar used to dress (see "Costumes: The Seven Kingdoms"). As for his physical appearance being similar, this was a point from the books as well:  when Daenerys sees Rhaegar during a vision of the past at the House of the Undying in Qarth, she initially mistook him for Viserys, before realizing he was someone else:  "The man had her brother's hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac."
 * Bran's participation at the trial, and Sam and Bran's conversation later, clarifies some of the mechanics of his powers: Bran can use Greensight to view past events at his leisure, but must have some idea of what he is trying access. That is, he is not presented with relevant information and immediately assailed by the appropriate visions, but must sift through visions to find what he is looking for. Once he knew to look for a vision of Lyanna's wedding he could find it easily, but without some hint to search, he had no idea it happened. Similarly, he didn't know about Petyr Baelish's betrayal until he viewed the event himself.
 * Some reviewers criticized that it was a plot contrivance that Bran didn't instantly know about Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding already, but Bran repeatedly stressed in prior episodes that he has gained more "memories" of past events than one human mind can easily process, to the point that he is overwhelmed - he is not omniscient, he has to know what to look for first. His situation is comparable to a modern person going through a predecessor's computer files with no idea of their filing system, but knowing that everything they need is there.
 * It is implied that Bran no longer needs to be in close proximity to a weirwood tree to see through time using Greensight. It is not clear if this is an intentional growth of his powers, or simply a method of expedited storytelling.
 * In the novels, the three-eyed raven does say that Bran's powers will start with being able to see historical events that happened near Weirwood Heart trees, but over time will expand to be able to see much beyond them. Also this helps explain how it was relatively easy for him to quickly sift through his new magical memories of the past and find Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding:  it was conducted in front of a heart tree.  The Children of the Forest taught the First Men (from whom the Starks descend) that those who follow the Old Gods of the Forest should conduct all important events in front of heart trees to be witnessed by the gods (marriages, political pacts, etc.) - not realizing that these events were literally being witnessed, because events performed in front of heart trees are easier for Greenseers to observe through the weirwood network.
 * Although he dismissed Gilly's revelation at the time, Samwell now remembers the High Septon's diary entry she read about Prince Rhaegar's annulment.
 * Bran explicitly clarifies that bastards are supposed to bear the surnames of the region in which they are born: Jon Snow should have been Jon Sand, in spite of one parent being from the North and the other from the Crownlands. Jon's situation was quite unusual, however, in that Eddard Stark refused to even specify where he had been born as part of his cover story, just saying he fathered him with some woman in the south during the war - if he had given a specific name (like "Sand" or "Waters") that would have slightly narrowed down the search if anyone tried to find out who Jon's mother actually was.  Thus he just ended up using the surname "Snow" by default.
 * This episode explicitly confirms that Daenerys Targaryen is actually Jon Snow's long-lost aunt - as he is having sex with her. "Avunculate relationships" (uncle-niece or aunt-nephew) are officially considered Incest in Westeros.  First cousin marriage, however, is not considered incest, even though it was in the real-life Middle Ages (the Lannisters, Tyrells, and Starks all had first cousin marriages in the last generation or two - Ned Stark's own parents were first cousins once removed).  For example, given that Sansa Stark actually isn't Jon's real half-sister, but his first cousin, a marriage between the two of them would not be considered incest.
 * House Targaryen, of course, doesn't take issue with aunt-nephew incest: they preferred to marry brother to sister to "keep the bloodline pure", in the custom of their Valyrian ancestors, but when none were available in the current generation set, they would wed aunt to nephew or uncle to niece, or beyond that as close a cousin as possible.  Rhaenyra Targaryen was married to her own uncle Daemon Targaryen - both of them direct ancestors of all subsequent Targaryen kings.  In the novels, Daenerys even ponders at one point that had Elia and Rhaegar's son Aegon lived (but his sister Rhaenys died), she would probably have been expected to marry her nephew as heir to the throne (had all of them lived, she would have been married to her brother Viserys).
 * Despite Daenerys and Jon Snow being fictional characters, actress Emilia Clarke (Daenerys) was utterly disgusted at having to film an incestuous sex scene. Multiple professional reviews (such as New York Magazine) described her enthusiasm as wooden in the scene - a conclusion in line with her reaction in the behind the scenes videos.  She described dry-heaving and mock-wretching at several points due to her disgust at the scene, and expressed open contempt for George R.R. Marting writing a story that required her to have an incest sex scene in it.

Jon Snow's real name

 * Jon Snow's real name might not necessarily be "Aegon Targaryen" in the novels:
 * Rhaegar Targaryen already had a son named "Aegon Targaryen" (Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar)) - had he lived, Rhaegar's firstborn son with Elia Martell] would have ascended the Iron Throne as "King Aegon VI Targaryen". Because he died as a baby and was never crowned, any future king named Aegon will become "Aegon VI" (there were numerous Targaryen princes named "Aegon" who never ruled as kings).  Elia's son Aegon has been mentioned by name before in the TV continuity.  Thus it wouldn't make much sense for Rhaegar to give two sons the same name.
 * The chronology is that Rhaegar was killed at the Battle of the Trident, then a few weeks later his father the Mad King and Elia's baby son Aegon were killed during the Sack of King's Landing, then a few weeks after that Eddard Stark reached the Tower of Joy where he found Lyanna dying from childbirth. Jon was thus born a few weeks after Elia's son Aegon died.
 * Fan theories have suggested several alternate names that Rhaegar might give his son with Lyanna in the books:
 * "Jaehaerys" after Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Aegon I's grandson, considered by many to be the greatest king in the history of the Targaryen dynasty. Aegon I was a conqueror and builder of empire, but Jaehaerys I was a great diplomat, scholar, and law-maker - closer to the kind of man that Rhaegar would admire.  Rhaegar was always of a more scholarly bent, and only took up the sword relatively late after he read something in a book (possibly a prophecy).  This would keep Jon's "J" initial.
 * "Aemon" after Maester Aemon. Rhaegar had a great friendship with his great-uncle:  despite Aemon living at the Wall, they exchanged written correspondence very frequently.
 * The TV series conspicuously made it a point to remove "Jaehaerys II" from the TV continuity - father of the Mad King and son of Aegon V, back in Season 1, but avoided giving a clear explanation why (though this might have just been to simplify the relationship between Aemon and Daenerys). Alternatively, it's possible that this was meant to shorten the reference in later seasons, to say "Jon was named after the greatest Targaryen king, Jaehaerys", without having to explain that there were actually two prior kings named "Jaehaerys".
 * Given that the TV series didn't spend as much time introducing information about earlier Targaryen kings (Jaehaerys has been mentioned exactly once) it's possible that the TV continuity changed his name to "Aegon", when it's actually "Jaehaerys" in the books.
 * The possibility that his real name actually is "Aegon" in the books, however, cannot be dismissed either:
 * In their video review of this episode, Westeros.org weighed in on the issue- the semi-official book fansite run by Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, co-authors of the World of Ice and Fire sourcebook with George R.R. Martin. They actually had a nuanced reaction:  initially they both doubted Jon's real name is "Aegon", but on reflection Elio realized that it might be - Linda still doubted it but increasingly felt it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand:
 * The simple answer, as Elio observed, is that even in the books, it's possible that Lyanna named her son, not Rhaegar. Lyanna only gave birth to her son a few weeks after the Sack of King's Landing, after Rhaegar's first son died, and even such a remote location as the Tower of Joy would have received messenger-ravens giving news of what happened.  Thus it's possible that the dying Lyanna chose to name her son after Rhaegar's older son who had already died.
 * It's quite possible that Rhaegar didn't give Jon Snow his original name, because he assumed he would be female, and intended to give him a female name. Following the prophecy that "the dragon has three heads", it appears that Rhaegar wanted to essentially re-create the original trinity of Targaryens from the Conquest generation:  Aegon the Conqueror, and his two sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya.  Rhaegar's first child was a daughter he named "Rhaenys", and his second child with Elia he named "Aegon".  It's possible that Rhaegar hoped his child with Lyanna would be a daughter to finish the set, and he thought he'd name her "Visenya" - so he didn't come up with a male name for Lyanna's baby before he was killed.
 * Even if the books give Jon a different name, this scenario is at least internally consistent for the TV continuity (Rhaegar wouldn't give his two living sons the same name, but Lyanna could plausibly have named her son after his dead half-brother).
 * On a meta-narrative level, both "Aegon" and "Jaehaerys" have thematic resonance. The number seven is important in Westeros - Seven Kingdoms, the Faith of the Seven, etc. - while the Targaryens tend to do things in threes ("the dragon has three heads").  Thus if Jon's name is "Jaehaerys" he would rule as "Jaehaerys the Third".  If Jon's real name is "Aegon", however, he would not be "Aegon the Seventh" - Rhaegar's first son was never crowned so he wouldn't be counted as "Aegon the Sixth".  Thus Jon is "Aegon the Sixth" - missing the thematic significance of naming him "Aegon the Seventh".
 * Of course, it's possible that "Aegon the Seventh" might be a potential future son of Jon and Daenerys.
 * Ultimately this is left an open question, awaiting the next book. It cannot be taken as absolute proof that Jon's real name is also "Aegon" in the books, but the scenario - while a little unusual - is plausible enough that it cannot be automatically dismissed as an invention of the TV series.
 * How Game of Thrones Wiki will respond to this revelation about Jon Snow's real name: The wiki won't re-name the Jon Snow article to "Aegon Targaryen", at least not at present.  The simple answer is that "Jon" doesn't call himself that (yet), few people even know that's his original name (yet), and the HBO Viewer's Guide itself still lists him as "Jon Snow".  From a more pragmatic, out of universe perspective, most viewers across the past 7 years refer to him as "Jon Snow" so it's a much more recognizable search term. If the situation changes in Season 8, if "Jon Snow" starts calling himself "Aegon Targaryen" and even official HBO materials start renaming the character, the issue will be revisited, but not before.  Wiki editors should refer to him as "Jon" in summaries set prior to this point, not "Aegon" - i.e. a summary of the Battle of Castle Black in Season 4 should not say "Aegon held the dying Ygritte in his arms" because no one called him "Aegon" at that point in time (just as the "Darth Vader" article doesn't refer to him as "Anakin Skywalker" during the Battle of Hoth).

At the Wall

 * It is unknown if the Wall will actually be breached like this in future books. In the Inside the Episode videos, showrunners Benioff and Weiss make stray remarks about the Wight Hunt i.e. "we thought it was a good idea", in such a way that it seems to be admitting that this is their invention, not part of George R.R. Martin's outline for future novels.  Similarly, in the Inside the Episode video for this one, they remark on how they thought that it would be "logical" to have a dragon breach a hole in the Wall - again, implying this isn't what really happens in future novels.
 * We have no idea if the Night King even exists in the novels, or is an invention of the TV series to provide a main antagonist as a focal point for the narrative. Game of Thrones Wiki directly asked George R.R. Martin about this, but his response was deliberately ambiguous.
 * Given that the Wight Hunt is apparently an invention of the TV series, it's possible that Viserion isn't going to be killed and resurrected as a wight-dragon at all. Instead, it is heavily implied that Euron Greyjoy will use a magical "dragonbinder" horn her obtained from the smoking ruins of Old Valyria to mind-control one of Daenerys's dragons and bind it to his will - possibly as part of a magical ceremony he intends to perform at The Hightower in Oldtown, which he is preparing to attack in the next novel (like the Wall, the Hightower is built on ancient, magical ruins, and may be another leyline of the world).
 * If Viserion is not killed and turned into a wight, that raises the question of how the Wall could be breached in a future novel. Several magical horns are introduced in the novels which characters believe how the power to make the entire Wall crash down, from coast to coast.  Mance Rayder claimed to have one, though he later admitted this was a bluff.  In both the books and the TV series, Samwell Tarly finds a mysterious old warhorn at the Fist of the First Men - and there is some speculation that this is the true horn capable of destroying the Wall.  Curiously, the horn was introduced in Season 2, and emphasis was put on it, only to then never be mentioned again.  The TV writers later explained that they copied many details from the books in the first few seasons without realizing what they would build to, until Martin finally revealed his full future outline to them after Season 3 was written - thus it's possible that after that meeting, they revised their own outline of how the TV series would progress, and chose to abandon the warhorn.  Ultimately, of course, only the release of the next novel will confirm any of this.
 * The debate about Viserion's current nature seems settled: he still breathes fire, not ice, and his abilities are unhindered by damage done to his corpse.
 * In real life, a blue color usually indicates a much hotter fire than a red-yellow fire. It's not clear if Viserion is now somehow breathing hotter flames than when he was alive, or if the color is simply the result of the Night King's magic (the most likely explanation), or even some chemical change in Viserion's reanimated firebreathing organs.
 * Viserion is not, literally, an "ice dragon" now. Ice dragons are a specific mythological creature rumored to exist in the northern polar regions in sailors' tales, but they are literally made out of living ice, and breathe freezing blasts of cold instead of fire.
 * The destruction of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea means that there are only two manned castles left along the Wall, Castle Black and the Shadow Tower. Both are sitting ducks, given their relative lack of defenses and low manpower - as seen in Season 4's "The Watchers on the Wall", the castles along the Wall intentionally don't have strong defenses on their southern side, so they can't be used against the realms of men.

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

Memorable quotes
Jon Snow: "There is only one war that matters and it is here."

Jon Snow: "When enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. There's no answers, only better and better lies."

Jon Snow: "You're a Greyjoy and a Stark."

Jon Snow: "This isn't about living in harmony. It's just about living."

Sansa Stark: "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."

Sansa Stark: “You stand accused of murder, you stand accused of treason, how do you answer these charges… Lord Baelish?”

Sansa Stark: "I'm a slow learner, it's true. But I learn."

Sansa Stark: "You're the strongest person I know."

Sandor Clegane: "You're even uglier than me now. What did they do to you?"

Sandor Clegane: “You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known."

Podrick Payne: “I’m glad you’re alive."

Daenerys Targaryen: “Your capital will be safe until the northern threat is dealt with. You have my word."

Daenerys Targaryen: "If it's all for nothing, then he died for nothing."

Bran Stark: “You held a knife to his throat. ‘You said, I did warn you not to trust me.’”

Bran Stark: "Jon is Aegon Targaryen. The rightful heir of the Iron Throne."