The Queen's Justice

"The Queen's Justice" is the third episode of the seventh season of HBO's medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 63rd overall.

At Casterly Rock, the Unsullied infiltrate and capture the castle, but Euron's Iron Fleet arrives, and destroy their ships, leaving them stranded.

It was also Diana Rigg's pick to support her nomination at the 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actress.

Sam admits that he administered the forbidden treatment; Ebrose praises his skill, but punishes his disobedience with an assignment to copy a large number of old documents.

Jaime, Randyll, and their armies swiftly take Highgarden, having abandoned Casterly Rock to trick Daenerys into committing the Unsullied to a strategically useless position.

Jaime grants Olenna the mercy of a quick and painless death by poison, over Cersei's original plans to execute her publicly and painfully.

"The Queen's Justice" was written by the series' co-creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Mark Mylod, his second of two episodes for this season.

The title of the episode refers to the revenge against Cersei's enemies, specifically Ellaria Sand and Olenna Tyrell, who, besides opposing her in war, murdered her children Myrcella and Joffrey, respectively.

"The Queen's Justice" was the final episode for actress Indira Varma, who had played Ellaria Sand since the fourth season.

"The Queen's Justice" was also the last episode for recurring cast members Diana Rigg and Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, as Olenna Tyrell and Tyene Sand were killed.

[3] Kit Harington spoke about the scene he shot with Peter Dinklage in Spain, saying "It was a beautiful location with 50 mph winds and I was wearing a cape next to a cliff—There was a danger of me being blown off!

[3] Varma had hoped for her character to die on screen, but found the fate Weiss and Benioff crafted for Ellaria to be "really clever" and beyond "every parent's worst nightmare.

[7] In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 3.272 million viewers on Sky Atlantic during its Simulcast, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week.

[10] The website's consensus for the episode stated "'The Queens Justice' saw the much-anticipated meeting between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen -- but had much larger surprises in store before its shocking end.

With a devilishly good script and some pointed action (along with a few twists and turns), this episode contained a ton of long scenes, but no fat.

I've always contended that the show does best when it pushes the drama and the narrative ahead by means of two-person scenes, and the examples in 'The Queen's Justice' were phenomenal".

"[13] Bennett Madison of Vanity Fair wrote, "Game of Thrones has spent so much time building up tension and drawing out plots that many of its ongoing story lines have literally been brewing for years ... With this episode, 'The Queen's Justice', we're finally starting to see some real payoff.

"[14][dubious – discuss] Andy Hartup of GamesRadar similarly gave praise to the episode for granting victories to antagonists like Cersei and Euron, while criticizing the character dynamics in scenes taking place at Winterfell and Dragonstone.