Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. Spoiler alert, just in case!

“The Queen’s Justice”

Yeah, I’ll admit it: I was looking forward to Jon and Tyrion’s reunion more than anything else for this episode. The japes, the smiles, that handshake… These two were maybe only onscreen for a total of 15 minutes in season 1, but you’d think that they were lifelong friends. I also enjoyed their mutual brooding scene. Can we just get a full episode of these two catching up over drinks, please?

Seeing as we probably won’t, I’ll go ahead and move on to other aspects of “The Queen’s Justice” already. The main thing that this episode focuses on is Daenerys and Jon meeting for the first time. It’s understandably uncomfortable. Dany is stubborn, and Jon can’t articulate his position very well and therefore can’t persuade her anyway. They do manage to reach some form of agreement, yet only because Tyrion personally offers to help Jon and convinces Dany for him. Tyrion’s always been good at talking.

Meanwhile, one wandering Stark has made it to Winterfell, and that would be Bran. However, his reunion with Sansa gets super dark really fast as he demonstrates the power of the Three-Eyed Raven and somberly mentions Sansa’s wedding to Ramsay. This time it’s Arya who’s absent from this episode, though in the preview for the next episode, it looks like she’s not too far away.

As for Cersei, well, she’s the queen in question serving justice or, more accurately, she’s getting her revenge. She sets up an absolutely brutal way of putting Ellaria and Tyene out of the picture. I could devote another whole post about that scene alone. Jaime is truly becoming the head of the Lannister army as he leads them to and takes over Highgarden. At the same time, Olenna Tyrell easily gets the best pre-death speech in the show’s history, and she ends up winning even though she ultimately lost. May the Queen of Shade rest in peace, knowing that she had the greatest last laugh in recent memory.

Now let me get to a problem I have with “The Queen’s Justice” and this season so far. Tyrion’s one of my favorite characters in Game of Thrones. So why is he failing so badly as Hand of the Queen? We all know that he’s not the first guy to go to for military strategy, and we could simply write that off as the reason why this is happening. But he was a truly successful Hand of the King to Joffrey, even when it came to military matters (hello, the Battle of Blackwater Bay?).

Even if we claim ignorance there, consider this: he’s still pretty damn smart. The attack on Casterly Rock obviously presents the age-old Capture the Flag dilemma. Do you stay and protect your team’s flag, or do you go and retrieve the opposite team’s flag? No matter which you choose, you could potentially lose the game. Surely Tyrion is smart enough to have measured the risk much more carefully.

And by the way, he was Master of Coin at one point too. Shouldn’t he have seen that Casterly Rock’s wealth was running dry? He’s the one who discovered that the Crown was borrowing money from the Iron Bank in the first place. Did the show’s writers conveniently forget all of this to suddenly make Tyrion a bad adviser and undermine his position?

I get that Daenarys can’t take the Iron Throne that easily, but why does Tyrion have to be thrown under the bus? Anyway, regardless, the time for strategy is officially over. Daenerys is now overwhelmed, and she’s taking everything into her own hands for next week’s episode.