With all of these pivotal moments taking place, it’s easy to take for granted things like Gendry Baratheon (the last survivor of Robert Baratheon’s natural sons, and a bastard) showing up again and Davos making a joke about him “still rowing” (a long-time Game of Thrones inside joke). It all led to a fantastically bizarre scene at Eastwatch that included Davos, Gendry, Jon, Jorah, Tormund, and the Brotherhood without Banners (Beric, the Hound, and Thoros of Myr). It was a dizzying mix of plots coming together, with tensions flaring between some of the men as they recalled various death plots they had all been involved in (and there was more besides that too, like when Davos mentioned to Tyrion that he had not forgotten how he burned up his son with wildfire. But it’s Westeros so, evidently you forgive and forget and move on to the next crisis).
While this group seems like they might be fairly successful in their quest, the cracks of other reunions are starting to show. Arya and Sansa’s relationship at Winterfell is a frosty one, and Littlefinger is back to his old ways by leading Arya down a false path to finding a letter supposedly written by Sansa (though I guarantee it wasn’t) in order to start to split them up. Littlefinger’s desire to ally with Sansa is strong, but she hasn’t needed him since her family has come back together. By sowing the seeds of discord, though, he might be able to exert his influence over her again and work towards his ultimate goal — whatever that may be.
Season 7 has set up some incredibly high expectations about what makes a great episode of Game of Thrones, and while I’m tempted to say “Eastwatch” was just ok, it’s worth remembering what we would have given to have seen Gendry three seasons ago. And, now that all of these characters are coming together in ways that I think many of us thought would be saved for the final season, it makes one wonder: what in the Seven is coming next?
