Spoilers Ahead.

KING’S LANDING
The episode opens with the Unsullied army waiting outside King’s Landing whilst Jaime and Bronn make preparations for the defence if needed. The Dothraki hoard joins them.

Meanwhile Tyrion, Jon, and the rest arrive at King’s Landing to meet with Cersei and show her the warrior of the dead they captured. Cersei tells the Mountain to kill Cersei, then Tyrion, and then Jon if anything goes wrong. Podrick, Bronn and Tyrion get to reunite, as do The Hound and Brienne after their brutal fight in season 4. Everyone arrives at the dragon pit for the meeting. The Hound and the zombie version of the Mountain square up, with The Hound promising that he is coming for his brother. They await Daenerys who didn’t travel with everyone else, and she arrives with her two remaining dragons. Cersei looks distinctly unimpressed.

Euron interrupts proceedings telling Theon submitting to him, but is eventually told to sit down. Tyrion and Jon tell Cersei about the army of the dead, as predicted she does not believe them, so The Hound brings in the crate with the undead soldier. The wight visibly shakes Cersei, whilst Euron tells them he’s going back to the Iron Islands as it’s the only thing that terrifies him. Cersei agrees to the truce until the dead are defeated, but the King in the North must remain in the North and not choose sides. But Jon tells her that he has already pledged his allegiance to Daenerys. Cersei replies that the dead will come for the North first, they will try to deal with that comes after, before leaving.

Daenerys tells him that she doesn’t want Viserion to have died in vain and that he should agree to the terms, whilst Tyrion believes he should learn to lie every now and then. Tyrion says that the only way to rectify it is that he must talk to his sister. Tyrion arrives for his meeting with Cersei. Cersei lays the deaths of Myrcella and Tommen at his door as no one would try and touch them if Tywin was alive. Tyrion tries to bait her into killing him, but she doesn’t. He tells her that he is more sorry about the deaths of her children than she could ever know. Cersei admits to him that she doesn’t care about making the world a better place; all she cares about is the people that she truly loves, her family, causing Tyrion to reason that she is pregnant.

In the pit Daenerys tells Jon that she respect his choice even if she disagrees with it. She tells him that the pit was the beginning of the end for her family, because they weren’t extraordinary without the dragons, but he says she is extrodinary. Tyrion returns with Cersei who tells them that her armies won’t stand down, instead they will join the fight in the North.

Later Jaime tells their generals about the plan to march north. Cersei tells him that they are not actually going to join the fight. Jaime argues that their child will never be born if the dead come south, and whoever wins will kill them all. Cersei tells him that they have the support of the Iron Bank, and that they have purchased the support of the Golden Company, who Euron has really gone to collect. Jaime is disgusted and intends to ride North, but Cersei tells him that would be treason. He asks if she is going to kill him, but doesn’t believe that she will, and leaves King’s Landing.

THE NORTH
Sansa and Littlefinger discuss Jon’s decision to bend the knee to Daenerys. Littlefinger reasons that Jon may want to marry her. Sansa wonders what Arya is after, but Littlefinger says that Sansa is the one who knows her better. He tells her to consider what the worst motivation for Arya being there could be, which Sansa reasons is to kill her, and become the lady of Winterfell.

Sansa has Arya brought to the great hall, where she surprises Littlefinger by accusing him of murder and treason. The charges are the murder of Lysa Arryn and conspiracy to murder Jon Arryn. They also accuse him of treason against Ned, where Bran tells them exactly what happened. Arya produces that knife that Littlefinger falsely told them was Tyrion’s. Littlefinger pleads for hi life, appealing to Sansa because he loved both Catelyn and her, but Sansa rebuts that he betrayed both of them. Arya cuts Littlefinger’s throat, ending his scheming. Sansa and Arya discuss them passing the sentence on Littlefinger, and the future, on the battlements, and agree they need to remain together.

Samwell Tarly arrives at Winterfell and meets Bran, where Bran reveals Jon’s true parentage. Bran says his true name is Sand, but Sam recalls the diary passage about Rhaegar and Lyanna’s marriage, which Bran sees, meaning that Jon is a legitimate Targaryen, that Lyanna named Aegon.

DRAGONSTONE
Daenerys, Jon, and the rest discuss their travel plans, with Jon suggesting that him and Daenerys sail together to send a message that they are allied to those at Winterfell. Afterwards Theon tells Jon that he always knew what was right. Theon says that he’s done many things that he regrets, but that he always wanted to do the right thing. Jon tells him that Ned will always be a part of him, that he forgives Theon, and that he is both a Greyjoy and a Stark. Theon tells Jon that Yara is the only one who tried to save him, and that she needs him now.

Theon goes to the Iron Islanders who are preparing to leave for the east. He tells them that they are going after Yara, but their leader starts a fight with Theon. He continues to beat Theon, who refuses to stay down. Theon eventually wins, and they prepare to find Yara.

As they begin to sail for the North Jon and Daenerys spend the night together, something that Tyrion sees when Jon goes to her chambers.

THE WALL
At Eastwatch Tormund and Beric see the army of the dead arrive at the wall, and the Night King arrives on his undead dragon. Tormund tells his men to run and the dragon begins to attack The Wall and collapse it, allowing the army of the dead to pass through.

Review
Well season 7 of Game of Thrones has come to an end, and boy was it a good ending. The Dragon and The Wolf wasn’t the most explosive season finally we’ve seen in the show’s history, but it may have been the most politically intriguing. The entire first half of the episode was taken up by the meeting at the dragon pit, and that was some of the best material in the history of Game of Thrones. The interplay between so many of the major characters was exactly what you would want out of it. We got so many old friends, and enemies, coming together. The Tyrion and Bronn talk was fantastic, as was the teasing of the surely upcoming Clegane bowl, GET HYPE. But the scene as a whole was tense, brilliantly written, and led forward by brilliant performances from Lena Headey and Peter Dinklage. Cersei’s ultimate decision to not actually send her armies to the North really makes sense as her only really option, even if it is rather a Hail Mary play from her. She’s clearly relying on Daenerys to suffer heavy enough losses that she can wipe her out with her mercenary army. If you remember she had resigned herself to losing to Daenerys a few episodes back in Eastwatch, but this has given her a tiny chance of victory.

The Winterfell storyline has also had a nice little bow put on it with the death of Littlefinger, and Sansa and Arya making peace. It doesn’t make up for what has been a really off feeling couple of episodes there, but at least we can move on now. I think the writers really need to figure out what to do with Arya quickly, because her storylines has definitely been the weakest point of the last 3 seasons now. It’s going to be such a shame to no longer have Aiden Gillen around in the series as Littlefinger. He has always been one of the most interesting figures in driving the story forward, although I do really miss his presence in the thick of the action. Gillen was magnificent in the episode, and his change in that final scene from cocky, to panic strikes trying to talk his way out of it, to genuine fear and distress, this was one of the best actors in the show getting to really show it off. And we got more of the characters learning about the true parentage, and legitimacy of Jon Snow… sorry Aegon Targaryen. It will be interesting to see how this affects his relationship with his Aunt, Daenerys, who he’s just had sex with. Firstly will they continue their relationship? Secondly how will Daenerys react to no longer being the rightful heir to the throne in her eyes? And thirdly could it push her towards becoming a mad queen, as it puts her more in touch with the old Targaryens? It’s hard to say, but I could certainly see Jon squaring off against Daenerys as the ultimate villain of the series, and have mentioned it several times this season, as groundwork has been laid to potentially go that route. Oh and The Dragon and The Wolf saved a little bit of spectacle for us as The a Night King demolished part of the wall at Eastwatch, and allowed the dead to pour through.

As a whole season 7 of Game of Thrones wasn’t their most consistent, which is particularly noticeable with a shorter season. There were a couple of episodes that just didn’t work as well, particularly the season opener and Beyond the Wall. But it has left us in a very interesting place going into the final season. I don’t think there is too much left to surprise us, apart from where the character of Daenerys is going to go. I will be back with my Game of Thrones recaps when we finally get Season 8, and in the meantime will continue to engage in rampant speculation and debate over on twitter (@shuggiesays) if you’re interested.

9/10