Aside from being one of the quietly funnier episodes of Game of Thrones, Sunday night’s show once again highlighted the female characters in all their mic-dropping glory.
After Olenna got everyone hyped with last week’s “be a dragon” speech, the women of Game of Thrones kept the commanding vibe going in episode 3. Revenge was at the center of the show’s tightening tangle of storylines in this case, with Cersei’s brutal act of vengeance and Olenna’s magnificent farewell bookending the action. In between, we saw several of our favorite ladies ruling the screen, literally and figuratively:
Missandei
She gets less screen time this episode than last week (when she and Grey Worm made all our shipping dreams come true with their love scene), but Missandei is presented almost from the start of the episode as Daenerys’ most trusted adviser, and as the representative of the queen to Dragonstone’s visitors. Even when Davos tries to strike up small talk with her as they approach the castle, it’s quickly apparent Missandei doesn’t have time for random old dudes chatting her up.
Once they reach the chamber where Daenerys is waiting, Missandei holds the room’s attention again in one of the funnier exchanges of the episode: her elaborate introduction of Daenerys’ many titles, followed by Davos’ meager “And this is Jon Snow.” Missandei’s role was admittedly less prominent than some of her female costars this week, but her kicking off the episode with an authoritative air is worth noting.
Daenerys
Last week she was instructed to embrace her inner dragon. This week, Daenerys heeds Olenna’s advice from the moment she appears on screen. She’s gracious, despite her skepticism, toward Jon Snow and Davos, but also doesn’t stand for what she takes as disrespect. Things turn heated between Dany and Jon, but like the badass queen she is, Dany used the friction as fuel for an arresting monologue.
After bluntly listing the atrocities she’s endured in her life, she makes clear that it’s not the gods that have carried her to where she is now, it’s her faith in herself. Olenna shared with Dany last week that she’s been able to survive and maintain power over the years by ignoring the “clever men” surrounding her. Dany’s message of independence and confidence in the face of adversity (and a lifetime of men trying to get in her way) is in a similar vein.
Cersei
Cersei went full-blown, well, Cersei, this episode. She didn’t blow up any septs filled with people, but she did use her experience as a woman and mother to really twist the psychological knife throughout that savage scene with Ellaria and Tyene Sand. Say what you will about Cersei: she’s no one to be trifled with and, as Sansa suggested earlier this season, there’s something admirable about her, even when she’s doing horrible, depraved things.
In the scene in which she kills Tyene with a poisoned kiss, Cersei also reminded viewers why they continue to (perhaps begrudgingly) root for her, even when she’s torturing and murdering people: she’s a multi-dimensional woman who loved her (now late) children fiercely. Tyene’s death and Ellaria’s impending torture (watching her daughter rot next to her) were all the more disturbing because Cersei infused the exchange with her own vulnerable memories of nursing and caring for Myrcella.
Sansa
In a delightful exchange when Jon and Tyrion are catching up on their trek to the Dragonstone castle gates, Tyrion tells Jon he always thought Sansa, his one-time wife, was “smarter than she was letting on.” “She’s starting to let on,” Jon replies. And she certainly is: since being handed the reins of Winterfell, she’s clearly taken to being in charge. In one brief walk-and-talk, we see her correcting a blacksmith, ordering grain for the ever-present winter, and, as is the plight of any woman in power, enduring the mansplaining of at least one man nearby (Littlefinger, in this case).
Next: Game of Thrones season 7: The fashion of “The Queen’s Justice”
Olenna
We all might as well just bow down to Lady Olenna. She only appears in one scene in this episode, but, whew, if she didn’t own those few minutes of screen time (and, let’s be honest, maybe overshadow much of the rest of the episode). Olenna’s demeanor in her exchange with Jaime (we slowly learn he’s there to kill her) is at once defeated, at peace, and gloriously defiant. It’s an unforgettable performance by actress Diana Rigg, but also an unforgettable send-off for a fan favorite character. As she told Dany last week, Olenna was able to achieve her position in life by ignoring the haters. And with that perfectly delivered final barb about Joffrey tossed at Jaime and Cersei, she proved you only die once (can we please make #YOLDO a thing?), and she certainly did it with style.