It leaked.
Maybe you watched it. Maybe you didn’t.
Either way, it was tense, fast-paced, violent and dotted with just the right dose of dry humor, sexual tension and suspense — “The Spoils of War” is the type of episode that made the world fall in love with Game of Thrones.
There are only nine episodes left until HBO’s smash hit ends, and there’s no time left for anything that doesn’t move the plot forward. “The Spoils of War” is a case in point — in it, Arya returns to Winterfell, reunites with Bran and Sansa and spars with Brienne; Jon convinces Daenerys of the White Walkers’ existence and threatens Theon; and Daenerys takes her first victory.
Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) reaches to Winterfell at long last, finally returning home after a brief verbal joust with a guard who doesn’t do “you shall not pass” half as well as Gandalf. She embraces her sister, Sansa (Sophie Turner), who is dubious about her “list” of names until see-it-all tree god man Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) mentions that Cersei is on the list.
Bran gives Arya the Valyrian steel dagger that Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) had given him earlier in the episode. Littlefinger tried to be his usual smarmy, sweet-talking self to Bran, not realizing that Bran knows literally everything. Bran mic-drops Littlefinger by saying, “Chaos is a ladder,” which Littlefinger said to Varys back in Season 3. Littlefinger had better hope Bran doesn’t say anything to either of his sisters, or he’ll be dead faster than you can say “the North remembers.”
Podrick (Daniel Portman) might have been replaced, because Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) has found an equal in Arya. Brienne and Arya are two of the most skilled fighters in Thrones — and unquestionably the two best swordswomen in a universe where most of the fighting is done by men — and their sparring session showed that.
Everyone will remember “The Spoils of War” for a scene that we’ve been waiting for since Season 1 — Daenerys and her dragons (well, just Drogon) unleashed and burning her enemies.
Even though Bronn (Jerome Flynn) wounds Drogon with a ballista, Daenerys, Drogon and the Dothraki rout the Lannister forces. Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is saved from incineration at the last minute by Bronn, only to fall into a lake. If they survive, they’ll be Dany’s prisoners (remember, Jaime killed Dany’s father, Aerys, the Mad King), and we could see a Bronn-Tyrion reunion — though it might not be pleasant.
In the lore of the Thrones universe, Daenerys’ ancestor Aegon the Conqueror only unleashed all three of his dragons simultaneously a single time, and the resulting destruction led to that battle being dubbed “the Field of Fire.”
That leaves one questions hanging: If that’s the kind of destruction Daenerys can do with one dragon, how much can she do with all three?
Hopefully we’ll get to see soon, perhaps against the White Walkers — if Jon bends the knee.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
