Warning: This article contains spoilers from “Game of Thrones” Season 6, Episode 6.
Emboldened by her fiery display of bravado in the face of the Khaleesi last week, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) gathers her new army and marches through the desert toward Meereen in Sunday’s “Blood of My Blood” episode of “Game of Thrones.” She asks her right-hand man, Daario (Michiel Huisman), how long it will take to get there and how many ships to transport her castle to Westeros.
“A thousand ships,” he says. “Who has that many?” she asks. “No one,” Daario replies. But Daenerys is thinking big all the time now. “Not yet,” she says confidently. Daenerys means to ascend the Iron Throne now, even though Daario tells her she’s a conqueror, not one to sit in chairs.
The army pauses when a sound reaches them from the distance. Volunteering to ride on, Daenerys disappears for a few minutes and the army grows restless. Then a shadow passes over the assembled men. They cannot believe their eyes. It’s Dany’s dragon and it lands squarely on the desert floor — the resulting awe 10 times better than that 15-alarm fire she started last week. The men cheer her, and Dany savors her regal moment in the sun as she beseeches the army to bring her the Seven Kingdoms.
War is imminent. They are ready. This is a major victory for Daenerys.
At the House of Lannister, there is a major defeat, as the Tyrell army and Jaime Lannister (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau) cannot sway High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) to hand over Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), though he does spare her the Walk of Atonement (and all that gratuitous nudity). The High Sparrow’s piety act has worked wonders on King Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) and when he presents Tommen to the multitudes as a convert, Jaime can’t quite believe his eyes. High Sparrow proclaims “a new age of harmony” and a “union between crown and faith.” An overheated Oleana Tyrell (Diana Rigg) smirks in disgust. “We’ve been beaten,” she says to the Tyrell commander.
Jaime’s bad luck continues. Sitting on the Iron Throne, Tommen tells Jaime he’s no longer the commander of the army. No job. No severance. No unemployment benefits. A banished Jaime confides in Cersei (Lena Headey) and he vows revenge, but, turned on by his rage, she urges caution and makes out with him. She can’t quit him. He can’t quit her. And so it seems it will go on.
It doesn’t look good for the Lannisters this season, especially with top-billed Peter Dinklage not even in the credits this episode.
In other news, Samwell (John Bradley) has a bad homecoming. His father, Randyll (James Faulkner), thinks he is fat, doesn’t like his Wilding wife and banishes him. Gilly (Hannah Murray) defends her man, but Samwell says they must leave together, with their son.