Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 2 Review/Recap: Stormborn

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Last week's season premiere for Game of Thrones really helped to shape what is to come in the seventh season.

With only seven episodes this season, we knew that the pace would have to be faster and you can definitely see that in episode two, which is titled "Stormborn."

While the premiere barely featured Daenerys, Tyrion, and company, that is exactly who we start off with as Daenerys starts to question Varys' loyalty due to his tendency in the past to jump between supporting various rulers when he sees a better one.

Tyrion is able to vouch for him enough, but Daenerys makes sure to threaten that if he ever betrays her, she will burn him alive.

Just as this is wrapping up, they receive a surprise visitor, Melisandre.

When we last saw the Red Woman, she was banished from the North by Jon Snow and told to never return after it was revealed she led to Stannis' daughter being burned alive.

She mentions the prophecy of the "Prince That Was Promised." However, Missandei corrects Daenerys' translation of this from High Valyrian by saying that there was no gender pronoun in the language, so it very well could be "Princess That Was Promised" as well.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this came when Melisandre mentioned meeting a very interesting man in the North named Jon Snow, who is now the King of the North.

Tyrion mentions that he knew Jon and he was a very good man, so Daenerys says she will send a raven to him to come to Dragonstone and bend the knee in support.

This cuts directly to Winterfell where Jon has received the letter from Tyrion as he discusses it with Sansa. Sansa doesn't believe that he should go see Daenerys, as she feels it is likely a trap.

Jon decides it isn't for the best to go.

However, Jon gets another raven from Sam at the Citadel explaining that lots of dragonglass can be found at Dragonstone, which definitely changes Jon's mind in wake of the White Walker threat.

Jon meets with the lords in the Great Hall and it does not go well for him. As he explains he needs to go, pretty much everyone is against it, even the still amazing Lyanna Mormort.

Like last week, Sansa is also very vocal against this decision, saying it's going to be a trap, with the devious Littlefinger loving every bit of it.

She says that they need a Stark in charge in Winterfell with all that is going on, which is when Jon says he's leaving it in her hands.

Before leaving, Jon goes down to the crypt and has a very interesting interaction with Littlefinger. Littlefinger tries to explain how he isn't Jon's enemy, but then really sets Jon off by saying he loves Sansa as he loved her mother.

This sends Jon into a fit of rage where he grabs Littlefinger by the throat, making us all wish he would just finish him off.

However, he leaves the crypt and exits Winterfell with Sir Davos after waving bye to Sansa.

The Citadel is the next stop this episode, as we see Sam and the Archmaester talking and looking over Jorah Mormont, who has contracted greyscale.

We got a tease last week that Sam might be the one to save him, but the Archmaester tells him that the procedure he mentions is forbidden since the guy that supposedly cured two cases contracted it himself and died.

Sam does not listen though and goes to help Jorah in one of the grossest scenes in series history.

It doesn't help the transition goes from him doing the procedure to a soldier eating, but we do come across a character we haven't seen in a good while, Hot Pie. Arya reunites with her old friend here and has a nice conversation while chowing done on some food made by Hot Pie. The most important part of this segment however was the revelation to Arya that the Boltons had been killed and Jon Snow had taken over Winterfell and as King of the North.

This shocking news forces her to decide whether to keep going towards King's Landing to kill Cersei or return home to her family, of which she chooses the latter.

If only Jon hadn't just left, but at least she can meet up with Sansa.

Is it possible we could eventually see Arya, Sansa, Jon, and Bran all reunite? This is Game of Thrones, so probably not, but there's more hope than ever for that.

Arya has one more scene in the episode where she is sitting by a fire trying to stay warm, but then she is attacked by a pack of direwolves. While it was not looking good for Arya, all of a sudden her direwolf that she set free in the very first season, Nymeria, comes out. Arya tries to talk to her and get her to come along with her, but she just turns around and all the direwolves go on.

As Nymeria turns away, Arya says "That's not you." Some may interpret this to mean this wasn't Nymeria, but that is not the case.

The showrunners confirmed that it was Nymeria, but it's a play on Arya's line in season one when she told Ned Stark "That's not me." This reflects that like herself, Nymeria isn't the same wolf she was.

Regardless, I still wouldn't be surprised to see Nymeria show back up and save Arya at some point, with this just planting the seeds of her still being around.

Like last week, we don't see too much of King's Landing in episode 2. What we do see is Cersei having summoned her lords that suppor the crown and she wants to have ready to fight against Daenerys in the near future.

Randyll Tarly, Sam's father, is present here and questions the idea of this, especially since they had sworn an oath to the Tyrell's, of which Cersei murdered two of.

Cersei persuades everyone to join her due to the fact that Daenerys Targaryen is not a fit ruler and would just do like the Mad King did before her, while also throwing in the fact she brought in Unsullied and the save Dothraki as reasoning to back this.

One argument given is that they have no way to fight Daenerys' three dragons, but that might not be quite the case.

Right after, Cersei is taken to a secret area where a device is shown to her that can kill a dragon by piercing their eye and going right into their brain.

Just one episode ago it was looking like Cersei was underpowered and overmatched, but things are starting to swing in her favor again, especially with something that happens later in the episode.

Returning back to Dragonstone, Daenersys meets to come up with strategies for moving forward. Not only do we have Yara and Theon Greyjoy that joined her cause last season, but also Ellaria Sand of Dorne and Olena Tyrell. Some want to go right at King's Landing and take on Cersei head on, but Daenerys and Tyrion have other plans.

Rather than use the Unsullied and Dothraki to invade King's Landing, which would just give more fire to Cersei's claim earlier, they want to use the other soldiers from their armies to surround King's Landing, while using the Unsullied and Dothraki to take over Casterly Rock, the home of the Lannisters.

Before leaving, Olenna meets alone with Daenerys and tells her that she must have the people fear her to be a strong ruler, rather than the type of queen that everyone loves like they do Margaery Tyrell.

The final section is an emotional scene between Grey Worm and Missandei who finally get together while in a very vulnerable state for both.

Our final moments of the episode start off all jovial, as Yara and Ellaria are flirting with each other as Theon just watches. The Sand Snakes are also there as well. Very quickly though, things turn bad for them as Euron Greyjoy attacks their fleet on the way back to Dorne to get more soldiers and utterly destroys them.

In this segment, we see two of the three Sand Snakes get killed, Obara and Nymeria, with the other, Tyene, either captured or dead. We now know just who Euron's "present" he promised Cersei last week was as he takes Ellaria alive.

He also has Yara and rather than try to save her, Theon jumps ship and we are left with him floating in the water.

There was really nothing he could do to save Yara without getting himself killed, and we don't know if Yara is dead or captured as well.

Building on the great premiere, "Stormborn" was even better as we saw the plot move forward across Westeros in many different ways. The final battle on the ship is unlike anything we've ever seen in Game of Thrones and it was just crazy to watch.

It is definitely no Battle of the Bastards, but it is a sight to behold nonetheless. The preview for next week appears to show Jon arriving at Dragonstone, so I absolutely cannot wait to see what happens moving forward.

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