is such a straightforward adventure, always focused on characters and plot, that its keener moments of self-awareness slip by without calling attention to themselves.
The seventh-season premiere, “Dragonstone,” is filled with them; they confirm that Thrones is as dedicated to self-reflection as its wisest characters.One of the show’s most cynical regulars, the profane, disfigured knight Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann), travels further down his personal road to redemption. We see him bury the corpses of a father and daughter that he robbed while fleeing with Arya Stark (Maisie Williams); the father killed the daughter and then himself rather than let both die of starvation. “I’m sorry you’re dead,” Sandor says, shovel in hand. “You deserved better, both of you.” The cranky atheist and flame-phobic knight also heeds a Lord of Light–worshiper’s plea to stare into a fireplace and describe what he sees: a vision of the White Walkers’ army waging war on the living. It was jarring, yet inspiring to see one of the least sentimental characters from the show’s early years express hard-earned regret and be properly horrified by a vision of civilization’s end. It was just as arresting, in a different way, to see Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) trying to talk sense into his sister, Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who is so consumed by the desire to outlast her enemies and preserve her power that she refuses to see that her House has no decent allies left — and no heirs, either.
Most intriguing of all is the episode’s opening scene, which initially plays like a flashback: We see the cackling, sadistic, rape-happy Walder Frey (David Bradley), architect of the Red Wedding, leading a banquet hall in a toast to the impending destruction of his enemies. Then, puzzlingly, Frey seems to chastise his guests for failing to wipe out the entire Stark clan: “Leave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe.” It turns out the wine was poisoned; every imbiber keels over and “Walder” removes his false face to reveal Arya, who revenge-murdered Frey last season. Right before the toast, Arya warns Frey’s oblivious child-bride not to drink her wine because it’s good stuff that shouldn’t be wasted on women. This feels like a shift from the misogyny of the show’s first three seasons: That Arya’s line is ultimately revealed as a secret reprieve for another female in the hall sums up the storytelling jiujitsu that has deepened the final seasons of Thrones.Once an engrossing but problematic show that alternately decried brutality and wallowed in it, that simultaneously valorized and exploited its women, Game of Thrones has become more empathetic, complex, and progressive in its final leg (though its racial politics remain iffy). Indeed, there are times when Thrones seems to be subtly apologizing for what it used to be; wondering, like many of its characters, about the point of it all, and waving away simplistic answers. This…
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