S7┬ÀE2 ÔÇö Stormborn

The hour retold

DanyÔÇÖs Dragonstone war council splits her invasion three ways at once ÔÇö Dorne and Highgarden to squeeze KingÔÇÖs LandingÔÇÖs supply lines, Grey WormÔÇÖs Unsullied to take Casterly Rock ÔÇö and Olenna Tyrell, characteristically, tells her the plan is too clever by half: be a dragon, not a sheep. It is advice the season will spend the rest of its run proving painfully correct. In a locked cell at the Citadel, Samwell Tarly risks his own imprisonment to cut greyscale from Jorah MormontÔÇÖs arm with a blade and sheer nerve, a small act of mercy that will matter more, later, than either man can know yet.

Arya, riding toward KingÔÇÖs Landing and her list, turns north instead at a crossroads ÔÇö toward Winterfell, toward the family she has spent six seasons assuming was gone ÔÇö and meets Nymeria, her own direwolf, grown huge and wild in the years since she drove her off to save her life. ThatÔÇÖs not you anymore, Arya tells her, and lets her go, choosing home over vengeance in the same breath, and the scene plays as a small mercy toward herself as much as toward the wolf. At sea, EuronÔÇÖs fleet ambushes Yara and TheonÔÇÖs in the dark: two of the Sand Snakes are killed outright, Ellaria and Yara are taken captive, and Theon ÔÇö frozen by the same paralysis that has haunted him since the Dreadfort ÔÇö jumps overboard rather than fight, a failure the show is careful not to excuse even as it understands exactly where it comes from.

What happens

• Dany's war council divides the war: Dorne and Highgarden strangle King's Landing; the Unsullied take Casterly Rock.
• Sam risks his chains to cut the greyscale from Ser Jorah in a locked cell.
• Arya turns north at the crossroads ÔÇö Winterfell, not King's Landing ÔÇö and meets Nymeria's pack in the wood.
• Euron's fleet ambushes Yara's in the night: two Sand Snakes die, Ellaria and Yara are taken, Theon jumps.

The people of the episode

The fallen ÔÇö spoilers

• Obara & Nymeria Sand ÔÇö Killed with their own weapons on the deck of their burning fleet.