‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 7 Spoilers: What To Expect From Episode 3 ‘The Queen’s Justice’

Given Season 7’s truncated length of only 7 episodes, things are ramping up far more quickly than your typical Season. In the past, Game of Thrones utilized a slow build, putting pieces in the right place before springing the great reversals of fortune typical to the show. But by Season 7 episode 2, we already saw a plan created and foiled by Euron’s fancy new fleet.

In fact, even Euron’s ships seem to have been constructed instantly… but unlike George and his Myraneese knot, it’s not like the show ever paid much attention to the issues of time and distance. Either way, the benefit of all this is that the typical Season flow that we have ingrained in our heads is meaningless now. The pace of the show accelerates and now anything could happen.

Here’s what I think we can expect from Season 7 Episode 3, “The Queen’s Justice.”

Let’s start with the title. Given HBO’s penchant for titles that provide a double whammy, we can expect that both our Westerosi Queens, Cersei and Daenerys, will be doling out justice.

The official HBO summary reads:

“Daenerys holds court. Tyrion backchannels. Cersei returns a gift. Jaime learns from his mistakes.”

Dragonstone

The trailer shows us that the long awaited meeting between Jon and Daenerys will occur. Most fans expect the series will culminate in their marriage given both their Targaryen blood and since the entire series title offers strong hints towards them: The Song of Ice (Jon) and Fire (Dany). However, I expect their first meeting will be far more adversarial. Dany is most clearly modeling herself off her ancestor Aegon the Conqueror, who invaded Westeros from Dragonstone and forced the independent Kings to bend the knee. She will no more tolerate an independent North than Cersei would. She will most likely demand that Jon bend the knee then and there.

While I don’t think Jon is personally that into being King, he also knows that if he bends the knee, he may very well lose the support of the Northern Houses, thus greatly weakening his ability to fight the White Walkers, his ultimate goal. I think we can expect him to refuse with some Jon Snow excuse that Dany will not think much of. It will be on Tyrion to smooth things over and save Jon, hence the ‘Tyrion backchannels’ in the description.

King’s Landing

But the real Queen’s Justice will be in King’s Landing. Euron will deliver his promised gift. While he captured both Ellaria and Yara, I think he is too vindictive to give his niece over to someone else’s justice. He’ll keep Yara for himself and deliver Ellaria to the Queen. I think it is safe to say Ellaria’s death is all but assured. I don’t think she has played enough of a role or is enough of a fan favorite to expect any sort of rescue for her. It also continues to feel like the show is trying to get rid of any representative of house Dorne as quickly as possible given that it was one of the most openly disliked storylines of the show.

Ellaria’s execution will reveal how unhinged Cersei has become, which will cause Jaime to ‘learn from his mistakes.’ Or perhaps he’ll try to save Ellaria and fail. Cersei returning the gift will presumably be Ellaria’s head, express mailed to Dragonstone.

Euron’s Fleet

Spoilers for Winds of Winter to follow.

While I don’t think much of this will happen in the next episode, we can start to guess at Yara’s fate from the Winds of Winter chapters that have been released. In those chapters, Euron has taken Damphair hostage. Damphair is a drowned priest, a character who was briefly in the show but remains important in the books. It is during his captivity that we learn Euron’s plans are for more destructive and widespread than simply serving Cersei. I imagine that Yara will take Damphair’s place, as the Euron prisoner that will start to see his plans come to fruition. There is a chance, though, that the show won’t go this route especially since it involves further captivity and abuse towards a female character, something the show has received a lot of criticism for. The other reason this may play out vastly differently in the show is that the current theory for what Euron is up to is so cataclysmic and bonkers that the show might simply not want to crack open the world so much when they seem to be narrowing towards a finale.

In closing, I think in this episode will see two Queens presented with the choice of whether to take a life. Cersei will gleefully do so, while Dany will heed her counselor and choose mercy. Only a few hours to go until we see how wrong I am!