Daenerys Stormborn receives guests at Dragonstone. Cersei receives gifts at Kings Landing. Sansa tries to prepare Winterfell as best she can for the coming Winter. But of these three ‘Queens’, whose justice will be meted out, and upon whom?

After the chilling end to last week’s episode, Game of Thrones is back and straight into the good stuff as arguably two of its most iconic and well-loved characters finally come face to face. Sixty three episodes in, Daenerys and Jon finally get to be in the same room. It’s a meeting loaded with expectation and it absolutely delivers, easily the equal of any other exchange in the series, including the exchange between Varys and Dany last time out. There’s touches of comedy, but mostly there’s excellent drama as the two verbally spar. There are flashes of concession and compromise on either side, but there’s also fierce pride stopping either one quite acceding to the other. It’s everything that it should be, and it’s spellbinding to watch.

Elsewhere, Cersei is going about business being exactly the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms one might expect her to be. Brilliant, cruel, endlessly inventive in the suffering inflicted upon her enemies, she is back to her top form. It’s tempting to see her as invincible, given the protection of her brother/lover Jaimie, the devotion of Euron, the unliving menace of the Mountain and the unqualified genius of Qyburn. But I’m also reminded of the fact that it was her pride which previously allowed Cersei to become arrogant, and which ultimately led to her downfall. Just as Dany has been occasionally reminded through the course of the show that having three dragons on your side and no requirement for flame-proof undies is no guarantee you’ll always win, I wonder if Cersei’s rampant cruelty and devil-may-care attitude now that she has total control over Kings Landing might not prove a little hollower than she might like later on.

Indeed, this instalment shows us that a little too much cocksureness in one’s plans is never a good thing. It’s a theme that gently threads through the whole episode, with various events proving that just because someone is confident in what they are doing, and can sound confident saying it, doesn’t mean that they aren’t prone to misstep.

Over at the citadel, Sam’s illicit treatment of Jorah’s greyscale doesn’t go unnoticed by the Arch Maester. Could this be the end of young Master Tarley’s dreams of becoming a Maester, or the start of a fairytale success story? One thing’s for sure, whenever Sam is involved, it’ll never quite be the result you may have hoped for.

And at Winterfell, Sansa is leaning into the role of authority Jon left her with as though she were born to it. In a few short moments, the show demonstrates to us just how natural she finds the task of leadership. We could not be further from the spoiled little girl who left Winterfell all those years ago in Season 1, but there is still a chink of vulnerability in this steely armour, which events reveal. Sansa is tough and clever, but she still carries something of the wounded little girl she was never properly allowed to be under the twin tyrannies of Cersei and Joffrey, and it’s clear that at least one other around her has noticed this.

As is becoming the pattern in this season so far, most of the action is saved for the final act, but it isn’t without its own twists. One of the more dramatic confrontations in the episode plays out with no violence at all, but is no less powerful for it. There are ways to hurt a man without laying a finger on him, after all.

And if there’s a second theme to this episode, that’s definitely it. Whatever violence and torture one can visit upon the flesh, the cuts that wound the deepest strike at the soul without leaving a visible mark. Many characters are forced to confront this truth throughout this episode, as others suffer in more mundane ways.

Verdict: It’s great to see so much tension continue to be woven throughout the show with simple exchanges of well-written dialogue rather than gratuitous blood, gore and nudity. And as that tension continues to ramp up, it’s impossible not to feel that we are due a boiling over of it as we get to the end. Not the battles we are seeing in-between the drama now, but a real proper war to end all wars. This is compulsive stuff, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us next. 9/10

Greg D. Smith