HOLLYWOOD—Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones” slowed down enough to let fans catch a breath, and that’s okay!

Last week’s death of our beloved Hodor caused weeping across the globe and the producers even apologized… not for killing the character but for all those in the future who mutter hold the door whilst holding the door death of Bran’s direwolf, Summer, made me most sad. He was a favorite since saving the boy’s life in season 1.

This week started with Meera dragging Bran from the White Walkers and we knew she couldn’t make it without help. Bran is having a vision, an intermingling of Bran’s life with that of the Mad King.

Flashes of the past: his crippling fall, father’s beheading and a baby being handed over to the White Walkers. All mixed with scenes of the Mad King screaming “burn them all,” while the bright blue liquid we know as WILDFIRE is shown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52IlcZyHuw

After losing her brother and living in hell to protect Bran, Meera covers him with her body, apologizing because she knows it’s the end. She can’t pull him, there’s no escape. Of course someone does come, as we knew was crucial. Who was it?

A carriage is pulling Sam and Gilly to his family home.

Gilly is nervous and Sam is too, discussing how green everything is compared to beyond the wall where life is dull and cold. Sam tries to get her to rehearse the story, but it’s not only because he’s trying to pass off the baby (the result of an incestual father-daughter relationship) as his own. We learn the relationship between Sam and his father, Randyll Tarly, is so strained that Sam was forced to denounce his title. Guess what else we learn?

SAM’S FATHER HATES WILDINGS. Gilly and her baby are wildings.

For the moment it’s secret and Sam’s mother and sister are happy to have Sam home. They embrace Gilly and refer to the baby as her grandchild. Off they go to get dressed for dinner.

Tommen speaks to the High Sparrow!

It appeared that Tommen finally had enough when the religious leader tarnished the memory of the good in his Queen. The King sees Margaery and she confesses to not being good, merely good at seeming good.

Returning to Sam we see Gilly clean, more beautiful than ever.

At the dinner table things are tense. Soon it’s clear that Sam’s father does not like him. Lord Tarly shames him and calls him fat when he’s offered a second bit of food. Then his beady eyes focus on Gilly, discovering Sam has disgraced the family table by bringing a “half breed.”

Sam looks scared and ashamed as Gilly informs them that he’s killed a White Walker. The patriarch announces that she may stay and work in the kitchen and the baby too, but Sam must leave in the morning and will never inherit the Valyrian sword that is rightfully his: Heartsbane.

Arya’s in Braavos enjoying the play that reenacts Joffrey’s death.

Although a girl has been given a second chance to prove herself to Jaqen H’ghar, a girl finds herself smitten by Lady Crane’s charm. She smacks the poisoned drink from the actresses hand and tells her the younger actress wants her dead. Little did she know but the mean girl, Waif, was there and runs home for permission to dish out whatever punishment Jaqen H’ghar had apparently promised.

But this time that cruel strong Waif may NOT be the victor as Arya runs to retrieve her sword, Needle. The High Sparrow again, this time with Jaime Lannister.

Jaime Lannister goes to ensure no shame comes upon the Queen. He demands her, and her brother Loras,  but is told the King’s authority is not recognized. Will she make the same naked Walk of Atonement as Cersei?

The one-armed Kingslayer rides his horse up the stairs where he is informed that fighting isn’t necessary anyway: the Queen has already atoned, by bringing someone else into the “True Light of the Seven.”

God has a plan for her AND her King, a HOLY ALLIANCE between the crown and the faith.

King Tommen Baratheon appears, under the religious leaders’ hold. The Queen’s father, Mace Tyrell, has shown up with his army and his mother, but they look defeated as the matriarch declares, “he’s beaten us.”

Before the royal storyline is over we see that Jaime is released from his position as Lord Commander and sent away to Riverrun, the same destination as Brienne.

Walder Frey orders his sons to take back Riverrun and commands his sons to show Blackfish “the knife you used to kill Robb Stark’s child in his whore mother’s belly” and “the knife you used to open his nieces throat.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E272huhKrWo

Frey is still angry that the Stark’s didn’t uphold Frey-Stark marriages, the reason he took part in the Red Wedding and how he acquired Riverrun, destined to host an upcoming battle.

He calls for prisoner Edmure Tully (Catelyn Stark’s brother) and reminds there was a wedding that day, forming a bond between Tully and Frey. We now see 2 minutes of Jaime and Cersei romantically kissing and talking. Bran again, and we learn the stranger is Uncle Benjen.

He’s servant to the 3-eyed raven and BRAN is now its human embodiment. Also, Benjen is half White Walker, spared by the Children of the Forest stabbing him in the heart with Dragon Glass! He foretells that when the Knight King comes to the wall of men: Bran will be ready.

FINALLY! Daenerys with her Dothraki and Unsullied armies.

As they come upon an area that’s perfect for an ambush, she eyes the dull landscape before disappearing alone around the corner and returns riding her dragon!

If witnessing her survive Khal Drogo’s funeral and emerging from the flames that killed the Khals didn’t do it, her motivating speech from atop the dragon surely was…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQcqYOErQYI

Internet chatters are growing tired of her seeming entitlement, but I’m not. It’s been a long time coming.

Her father was the Mad King, killed by Jaime Lannister and forcing Daenerys and her brother to flee. Her brother Viserys, if you remember, presented her to Khal Drogo in a skimpy dress and told her, “I would let his whole tribe f*** you. All 40,000 men and their horses too, if that’s what it took.”

Sure, we saw revenge for the unsaid atrocities she must’ve endured growing up with only him. Click here to see him die after screaming “You can’t touch me! I am a dragon! I want my crown!” Maybe instead of entitlement, she wants the crown as a symbol of what she endured: used by her brother as a tool to regain the throne.

I cannot wait for the battle!

Watch NEXT WEEK’S PREVIEW BELOW!