Well if anyone was wondering what Euron Greyjoy’s “priceless gift” was going to be, we didn’t have to wait long for an answer. The shorter season that Game of Thrones is now favoring means that the questions left unanswered don’t go unanswered for long. That is a stark contrast to season 5 where Brienne of Tarth somehow spent like 4 episodes just watching Winterfell. With Euron pretty much single handedly thwarting Daenerys’s plan (by the way how on earth did he know they were sailing from Dragonstone to Dorne? Was this just sheer luck? Probably a question that is going to be left unanswered) Daenerys is going to have to come up with a less obvious way to take the Iron Throne and still leave the kingdoms in some working fashion.

First of all, with Daenerys showing up virtually unopposed and then walking into her own abandoned yet impenetrable fortress, one would assume that some level of balance would need to be restored to make the rest of the season interesting. It was almost too good to be true as the fans got everything we wanted last season. Neutralizing Dorne and taking away Daenerys’ naval power was a good way to bring back a competitive balance to the major factions.

So the next question, what is Cersei going to do with the woman who killed her daughter? Keeping her alive keeps Dorne out of the game. But she has the Queen of Dorne and her last remaining daughter. She probably doesn’t need both to keep Dorne on the sideline which really isn’t good for Ellaria. On the flip side, she hasn’t been Queen of Dorne for very long and we have also forgotten that she lead a straight up coup just a season ago. Are the people of Dorne down with this? Do they even care? I think regardless the play here is that this is one less army King’s Landing needs to worry about.

As for the rest of Daenerys’s plan, it doesn’t appear that any sort of siege on King’s Landing is imminent despite the fact that she has the power to do it herself. They key to the siege as Tyrion mentioned is that it needs to be lead by Westerosi in order for the opposing houses to settle down and bend the knee. The fear of her father is still remembered. With Dorne out and Olenna Tyrell facing a potential mutiny of her own forces, the Queen of Dragons is now without Westerosi friends to help her. However the move against Casterly Rock is still open as the Lannisters haven’t moved from King’s Landing. The game here would be to take Casterly Rock and force the Lannisters to move the bulk of their army out of the capital to retake it. Daenerys could then battle the Lannisters (and whatever bannermen they can scrounge from other houses) on the turf of her choosing, without a siege at all. One would assume that whatever forces were left behind to defend the capital would be rather minimal, making a siege much easier. (Cersei isn’t surrendering so…lets toss that scenario out).

What makes this even more interesting is Jon Snow is walking into a situation where he has a lot more bargaining power than he previously had. Daenerys needs friends and she needs to know that no northern army will be marching on her as she has enough on her plate already. However it would appear that the North has absolutely no appetite left for another march south (a la Rob) as the last version of that didn’t end well (and the lords already stated very specifically they are not about that life). Even Jon Snow will have a difficult time promising any sort of force or military action on behalf of the Queen of Dragons. Such a campaign will remove whatever military strength is left to hold the White Walkers which appear to be Snow’s only focus. But for the sake of the plot, that may be exactly what happens. Jon Snow teams up with Daenerys Stormborn in exchange for dragonglass and air superiority, only to then allow a weakened wall to give way to the dead army’s onslaught. It’s very Game of Thronesy and while it would be stupid of Jon Snow, he has a propensity to do stupid things and he gets out of them with luck or magic from a really old lady.

In the last episode, we saw that Jon Snow still hasn’t really learned his lesson when it comes to letting his emotions run his decision making. He showed flashes of that anger and rage in the crypts with Petyr Baelish…who is the most dangerous person to the North as long as the White Walkers stay on the other side of the wall. This guy needs to go. For the past 6 seasons, the main driving force that has explained Baelish’s actions are his thirst for power and his love of Caitlyn (and therefore Sansa. Creepy AF). With Jon Snow shutting him down point blank and with Sansa continually throwing him shade, that love for Sansa might not hold back thirst-for-power Baelish much longer. And when that is his only motivation, left alone with Sansa and an army in Winterfell. That doesn’t bode well. That seems to be another massive tactical error on Jon Snow’s part. At least Sansa seems like she’s learned enough to know that Baelish is a total wild card unless he senses some chance she will come around.

Which brings  me to a new and interesting dynamic that has been introduced this season. As soon as Sansa and Jon Snow finally reunited, they seem to have drastic differences in the way they should rule the North. And they also seem to be trying to hash those differences out in public. This doesn’t seem to portray a position of strength to me, and I think Baelish still sees some sort of opportunity to rid Sansa of Jon Snow as they are not completely related. The point is, Baelish is bad news. He’s just bad news all around people. Watch him.

Also I do need to call out Cersei on one thing. Your dragonkiller device is the exact same giant crossbow that took out Smaug in The Hobbit. F for originality. F for execution (congrats you shot it through a stationary dragon skull) and if that is what you are going to roll out to calm down all of House Tyrell’s bannermen who don’t want to fight a dragon. Good luck with that. I would laugh reeeaalllly hard. Like so hard everyone knows it’s not authentic and then abruptly stop to walk the out. How long does that take to reload? It took all of the best blacksmiths in King’s Landing to build a massive crossbow? Gendry could’ve built a better one.

Now after being perhaps the most boring plot line of the entire season 6, Sam is trying to team up with the other most boring plot line to come up with a slightly more interesting plot line. And it has me intrigued. I’m not saying I’m convinced yet. If Sir Jorah survives we know he will be coming back at some point with a vengeance. Like at the last and most desperate hour to save Daenerys once again. Maybe with Sam in tow but maybe not? Jorah Mormont still has a part to play (aside from providing the grossest scene in Game of Thrones yet).

But speaking of Jorah Mormont, I have to call out Daenerys on a bit of a double standard when it comes to who she forgives and who she doesn’t. This episode we find that Viserys was guilty of sending the order to have Dany assassinated. Which is the same if not worse betrayal than what Jorah Mormont was guilty of. So why is Jorah out and Viserys in? Probably cause Viserys is more useful and Jorah got replaced by Tyrion.

The final thing before we look forward to the next episode. Theon Greyjoy is exactly who we thought he was. You could see his life as Reek flash before his eyes as he weighed in on whether to suicidally attack Euron. His move to save himself leaves what is one of the more interesting new storylines of the show for one of the more ethically ambiguous characters. We have now seen Theon start as pretty much a really well taken care of hostage, then transform into a villain. From villain he is mutilated, tortured, and transformed into a slave who we kind of sympathize with but still don’t like. He then starts to repent for his actions and slowly I think we as the audience came to at least tolerate Theon as a character and protagonist once again, only to toss our newfound belief overboard. Can you blame him for running? Not really. But the question now is where does Theon’s story go from here. As long as he is alive he is a threat to Euron whether he wants to be or not. Where else can he go now? Back to Dragonstone to tell the story of how he watched Euron take two of Dany’s best allies hostage? I don’t think that would be a wise move considering she will ask why he is alive and not one single other person who was on that ship is alive as well.

I’m interested to see how long before the show picks up with the action on The Wall. Bran finally made it back to civilization at the very beginning of episode one and we haven’t seen or heard from him since. Meanwhile the wildlings are off to man Eastwatch. Which honestly, how on earth is there still a wildling army left after the slaughter we witnessed in the Battle of the Bastards. I figure they would’ve tapped out after that carnage. But nonetheless it appears that the focus of the season will remain squarely in the south as the main characters seek to find their appropriate chairs for the oncoming White Walker invasion.