Winter came for House Frey in the seventh season of GAME OF THRONES as Arya Stark proved that she’s not to be underestimated. It’s not enough that the young Stark killed Walder Frey in retaliation for the Red Wedding — Arya also disguised herself as Walder, called all of his kinsmen to a feast and then treated them to poisonous wine. After all, Walder wasn’t smart enough to kill all of the Starks so he was entitled to some revenge. Later Arya comes across a group of Lannister soldiers as she heads to King’s Landing to kill Cersei.
Meanwhile, there’s a storm rolling in in the North as the White Walkers ride for Westeros. At the wall, Bran Stark and Meera meet with the men of the Night’s Watch and Bran warns them that the White Walkers are coming.
At Winterfell, Jon is telling his gathered assembly that they need to start mining dragonglass and training to fight the Army of the Dead. There’s some tension between Jon and Sansa as they publicly disagree about how to deal with the treasonous families who sided with the Boltons. But Jon is the leader here and Sansa loses the debate because the “living north” needs to band together to survive. Later, Sansa warns Jon that he’ll need to be smarter than both Ned and Robb. Soon after a messenger brings a note from King’s Landing — Cersei is demanding House Stark’s fealty and Sansa warns Jon that she knows Cersei better than he does and he needs to address this situation. Littlefinger, meanwhile, is still stalking around at Winterfell and Sansa knows how important it is that they keep the Vale’s men, but she’s also eager to avoid Littlefinger’s advances.
We see the first conversation between Jaime and Cersei since the latter was crowned Queen and she warns him that Daenerys is sailing for Westeros along with Tyrion. Jaime is convinced she’ll head to Dragonstone (a former Targaryen stronghold), which means that Cersei is surrounded by her enemies: to the east (Dany), to the south (the Sands), to the west (the Tyrells) and to the north (the Starks). And to win this war they’ll need allies — that’s where the Greyjoys and their ships come in. Specifically Euron Greyjoy, who has come to King’s Landing for a queen. He’s also eager to take out his niece and nephew who sided with Dany. Surprisingly Cersei denies Euron’s marriage and alliance proposals, so he vows to return to King’s Landing with a priceless gift for her.
Sam may have travelled eager to Oldtown, but he’s finding his life there to be awful. Rather than studying to become a maester he finds himself acting as janitor and maid. But he’s also been reading some old books and he learns that there’s a mountain of dragonglass beneath Dragonstone (likely setting Jon and Dany on a collision course). Later he finds Jorah locked in a sick cell in Oldtown, although he doesn’t know who the man — who is asking if the Dragon Queen has arrived yet — is.
And at the end of the premiere we see Daenerys eagerly approaching Dragonstone in a boat. As she finally reaches Westeros she bends down to touch the sand. And then she enters the once mighty castle and comes across an enormous model of Westeros. “Shall we begin?” she asks Tyrion.
GAME OF THRONES airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.