2. Cersei’s Great Game
The endlessly enthralling character creation that is Cersei Lannister never seizes to amaze. She is built with so many layers that even at this late stage, we are still discovering secrets and ploys. After being firmly on the back foot for the majority of Season 6 – a captive to a cause she wrongfully welcomed into her Kingdom – the time has come for her to regain and reclaim.
The Queen Mother is about to stand trial for her sins. The High Sept is full of folk, including the Queen herself. Cersei and King Tommen are absent. The High Sparrow isn’t at all bothered by this and is willing to get proceedings underway.
Margaery’s brother Loras is tried for his crimes and commits his life to the Faith. Brother Lancel of the Faith Militant sets out to locate the no-show accused and is lured into the High Sept’s cellars by one of Maester Qyburn’s “little birds”; of which has just finished murdering Grand Maester Pycell with his fellow birdies.
Lancel finds himself on the receiving end of a knife attack, but not before he notices a cavalcade of lime green barrels and puddles. He drags his bleeding body towards two vast pools of wildfire which are soaking in the cobbles, both with a burning candle floating inside.
The Queen notices something is amiss and alerts the High Sparrow that both Cersei and Tommen’s absence is no accident. If they aren’t here, we shouldn’t be either. Margaery attempts to flee the scene, as does Loras, and she commands the free folk to do the same, but there is no time. Lancel cannot blow out the candles quick enough.
The cellars erupt with furious green flame which flows under and though the High Sept. King’s Landing explodes in an aggressive cloud of neon death.
Cersei watches on as so many die. The High Sparrow, Margaery, Loras, Mace, Lancel, Kevan Lannister: the lot. All perish in bright flame. Smirking as she sips her wine, her great game has been played masterfully. It is such a brutal, ruthless and spectacular sequence, rendered by some of the greatest music ever featured in Thrones.
