Bureborn

On Dragon Stone

Daenerys Targaryen ( Emilia Clark ) is arguing with Varis ( Conlet Hill ) about changing loyalty to kings in the past. Varis declares that his loyalty belongs not to kings changing on the throne, but to ordinary people. Daenerys makes him swear an oath to tell her directly about her mistakes, and promises to kill him if he betrays her. Daenerys gives an audience to Melisandra ( Caris Van Houten ), who tells her about the new King of the North, John Snow , stating that Daenerys should meet with him. Tyrion Lannister ( Peter Dinklage ) vouchs for John and recommends Starks as allies. Daenerys orders Tyrion to call John to kneel and acknowledge her authority over him. Yara Greyjoy ( Jemma Whelan ) and Ellaria Sand ( Indira Varma ) express the idea of ​​a massive attack on the Royal Harbor, but Daenerys does not want to destroy the territory on which she plans to rule. She accepts Tyrion's plan: her Westeros allies will lay siege to the Royal Harbor, while the Immaculate and the Dothraki will take over Cluster Casterly. Olenna Tyrell ( Diana Rigg ) advises Daenerys to ignore advice from men.

Before leaving and leading the army, Gray Worm ( Jacob Anderson ) tells Missandeya ( Natalie Emmanuel ) that she is his weakness, because he had never been afraid of anything before, until he began to love her. Missandeya accepts him, despite his mutilation; they have oral sex .

In the Old Town

Having studied together with Samwell Tarley ( John Bradley ) the gray illness of Jorah Mormont ( Ian Glen ), Archimaster Ebroz ( Jim Broadbent ) believes that the disease has gone too far to treat it. Later, Samwell finds a method of treatment in books, but the archimaster claims that the method is dangerous and unreliable, and therefore has long been banned. Due to Samwell's affection for the former Lord of the Night Watch Jior Mormont , the father of Jorah, he decides to secretly help Jorah and begins to heal the gray fever.

At Winterfell

John Snow ( Keith Harington ) receives a message from Daenerys, which Tyrion diplomatically formulated as an invitation. Sansa Stark ( Sophie Turner ) and Davos Seaworth ( Liam Cunningham ) are against his campaign, but Davos notes the effectiveness of dragonfire against the dead. After receiving a message from Samwell about the dragon glass deposits on Dragon Stone, John decides to go there, despite the protests of Sansa, the Northern Lords and the Knights of the Valley. John appoints Sansa the Keeper of the North, which surprises her, and warns Littlefinger ( Aidan Gyllen ) to stay away from Sansa.

In Riverlands

Having lunch at the hotel, Arya Stark ( Macy Williams ) learns from Pie ( Ben Hawkey ) that John won Winterfell and decides not to go to King's Landing, but to return home. During a trip to the north, Aryu was surrounded by a pack of wolves, the leader of which was her lyutovolitsa Nimeria, which Arya sent several years ago . Arya begs Nymeria to go with her, but the lute-wolf, although she recognizes her, leaves with her pack.

At Royal Harbor

Queen Cersei Lannister ( Lena Headey ) calls the remaining standard bearers to the Red Castle and informs them of the impending attack Daenerys Targaryen. She tries to win their loyalty, recalling that Daenerys leads an army of savage Dothraki and soldier-slaves who will not spare them, nor their wives, nor their children. However, Cersei's words do not have the effect she was counting on. After receiving Jaime, Lannister ( Nikolai Coster-Waldau ) comes up to Randill Tarley ( James Faulkner ) and promises to make him Guardian of the South in exchange for his loyalty to the crown. Quibern ( Anton Lesser ) leads Cersei to prison under the throne room, where dragon skulls and other remains have been kept since the Targaryen rule. Quibern tells Cersei that, judging by the cases described in Mierin’s fighting pits , the dragons are still vulnerable and presents her with a ballista that can pierce the dragon’s skin and bone.

On the Narrow Sea

The Iron Fleet of Euron Greyjoy ( Pyla Asbek ) is attacked by the Yara fleet. Euron kills Obara ( Keisha Castle-Hughes ) and Nymeria Sand ( Jessica Henwick ); his men abduct Ellaria and Tiena Sand ( Rosabella Laurenti Sellers ), while he holds Yara hostage. Theon Greyjoy ( Alfie Allen ), frightened by violence, jumps overboard, leaving Yara and surviving the battle.

Script

The script for "The Bornborn" was written by Brian Cogman . Cogman has been a screenwriter for the series from its inception, having written up to 9 episodes before. The title of the episode, "Bureborn", is a reference to Daenerys Targaryen , who was born in the midst of a strong storm, which earned her this nickname. In the HBO Inside the Episode segment shortly after the episode was aired, the creators of the series and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss said: “We last saw Nymeria when Arya made her run away because she wanted to save the life of Nimeria — she knew that Cersei would kill her if she found, and when she finally finds Nimeria — or Nimeria finds her — she certainly wants Nimeria to return home with her and again become her faithful companion. But Nymeria found her own life. ”They continued, noting that the remark“ It's not you ”was a direct reference to what Arya told Ned Stark in the first season when he told her that she would become“ castle lady and marry some lord and will wear a beautiful ornate dress, ”to which Arya replied:“ It's not me. ”Weiss continued:“ Arya is not domesticated. For her, it is logical that the wolf cannot be domesticated either. As soon as the wolf leaves, she is first heartbroken, coming so close, but then she realizes that the she-wolf does exactly what she would do if she were that she-wolf. ” ^[1]

Casting

The episode highlights the return of Ben Hawkey in the role of Pie, which was last seen in episode 4 of the season, Mockingbird . Hawkeye spoke about his return to Entertainment Weekly , saying that he did not expect him to return someday. Before receiving the script and in order to avoid leakage of information about the return of the character, the Hawks gave a code name when communicating by email. He continued, saying that the scene was “very good” and was “the perfect little scene with Pie”. ^[2] Also in this episode, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Jessica Henwick last appeared, as Obara and Nimeria Sand were killed. The episode also introduced a new cast member, Tom Hopper , who replaced Freddie Stroma , who played Deacon Tarley in the sixth season. ^[3]

Filming

The director of "The Bornborn" was Mark Mylod , his first of two episodes of the season. He joined the series in season five, where " His Sparrow " was his first episode, followed by " Sons of the Harpy ." John Bradley talked about what happened in the scene of the gray ailment of Jorah Mormont with Ian Glen . Before filming, Ian sat in the dressing room for about five hours, while the make-up department “put this detailed and complex makeup with gray ailments, piece by piece.” He continued: “I basically ripped off the latex makeup from Ian's body itself. He was in a suit - it was the same as ripping off makeup. It was a very, very big technical job for the make-up department. There were about 5 or 6 guys on the court that day that you don’t see, but they are standing behind the camera, along with pumps and buckets of pus. ” ^[4]

Natalie Emmanuel discussed her character’s love scene with the Gray Worm, saying that their characters showed “interest in each other”, we saw how they “expressed it to each other, but did not talk about it - this moment is the climax and they begin to act” , as they face "the prospect of never seeing each other again." Emmanuel continued, praising the relationship that developed between the two characters, stating that it was "something sweet, clean and beautiful." ^[five]

Gemma Whelan said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the kiss scene of Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand was improvised before the battle scene at the end of the episode. She stated that "there wasn’t something that we should have kissed - it just seemed like what we had to do." ^[6] Sand Snake Scenes were originally supposed to be a longer “storyline,” but due to Jessica Henwick’s filming schedule in the new Netflix series Iron Fist , she had to go back and forth to star in both shows. Speaking about the battle scene, Henwick said: “Usually there is a lot of computer graphics and you watch it on the screen and see a grand epic battle, but when you shoot, it's all insignificant. For example, viewers cannot feel the warmth on their faces from explosions of pyrotechnics, feel the energy of a wave machine trying to knock us down, or sweat flowing down our faces. ” ^[7]

Mylod also discussed his directorial work in the battle scene, saying that "We agreed that violence should be brutal and felt unrehearsed, that it should not have structure." Stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam also said they were inspired by riots when they rehearsed them. Mylod decided to focus more on Theon, Yara and Euron Greyjoy, and not on the people around them. ^[eight]

Ratings

9.27 million viewers watched "Bornborn" during the original HBO episode, making it the highest rated cable TV show on release night. ^[9] In the UK, 2.770 million viewers watched the episode on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest rated episode of the week. ^[ten]

Critical Reaction

The episode received widespread praise from critics. He received a 96% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. ^[11] The website’s consensus reads: “While setting up events for the season at the same time, Burerozhdennaya includes an exciting strategic discussion and energetic consistency action to complete the episode with the explosion. ” ^[11]

Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph said: “It was a cautious start to the seventh season of Game of Thrones.” But, following on, patiently rearranging chess pieces, the second episode came out literally in the radiance of glory. ” ^[12] IGN Matt Fowler called the episode“ amazing ”, saying:“ Now that Daenerys in Westeros, war is inevitable and the worlds converged in a big episode this week. ”He rated the episode 9 out of 10. ^[13] Ben Philip of The New York Observer also spoke positively of the episode, saying,“ Bornborn proves that table setting always pays off in Game of Thrones. ” giving us a platter of everything that the show does best. ” ^[14]

Nina Shen Rastogi of New York Magazine likewise praised the episode, writing: “This whole prologue is what made the last scene difficult to achieve, and very good at the same time. The battle on the ships between Greyjoys was a very good FE, in my opinion: sharp, unexpected and genuine at the character level. ” ^[15] Sean T. Collins from Rolling Stone praised the battle scene at the end, writing:“ It ends with a naval battle as well grandiose, like any battle that we saw in the series. But the strong second chapter of the seventh season of “Game of Thrones” - “Bureozhennaya” - goes into even more insidious waters. ” ^[16]

• Burred on HBO.com
• " Bureborne ” on the Internet Movie Database
• "Born- born" on TV.com