“Pose” star Billy Porter, clad in a gilded outfit by The Blonds, was literally carried onto the pink carpet on the shoulders of six shirtless men. But the show didn’t stop there: After climbing down from his throne, the star flaunted his impressive wingspan for the crowd of photographers before heading inside.
Meghan Markle will likely head back to work sooner than we think after giving birth to her first child.
The former American actress and Britain’s Prince Harry welcomed a baby boy early Monday morning. A rep from Buckingham Palace said it is up to the couple when will the public learn of the newborn’s name or see his first photo.
WHO WILL BE GODPARENTS TO MEGHAN MARKLE'S ROYAL BABY?
"We are pleased to announce that Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their firstborn child in the early morning on May 6th, 2019. Their Royal Highnesses’ son weighs 7lbs. 3oz.," the couple announced via Instagram.
"The Duchess and baby are both healthy and well, and the couple thank members of the public for their shared excitement and support during this very special time in their lives. More details will be shared in the forthcoming days," the statement said.
But one other birthday Markle won’t miss is that of Queen Elizabeth II. The reigning monarch, 93, celebrates two birthdays each year — her actual birthday on April 21 and her official birthday, which is usually observed the second Saturday in June.
While Elizabeth usually spends her actual birthday privately, she is joined by other members of the royal family on her official birthday for the high-profiled Trooping the Colour parade, as well as a public appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
WHAT WILL MEGHAN MARKLE, PRINCE HARRY NAME THEIR SON?
“She will be back in time for Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, which is only weeks away,” royal filmmaker Nick Bullen told Fox News. “It was also announced she is going to be taking a very short maternity leave because she wants to get back to her charity work as quickly as possible. She’s aware of the media attention she possesses and she’s not afraid to use it.”
Bullen is an executive producer who has been making programs about the British royal family for nearly 20 years and has worked closely with Harry and William’s father, Prince Charles, for eight. Bullen has recently released two new films on True Royalty TV titled "Meghan Markle: Inside the Wardrobe of a Princess" and "Meghan Markle: Inside the Home of a Princess," documenting how the former "Suits" star has made her mark since officially becoming a member of the British royal family.
Bullen said that unlike her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana of Wales, Markle isn’t overwhelmed by the growing media spectacle surrounding her life. In fact, she’s embracing it as part of her new role.
“My understanding from people who know her well and work with her, she’s handling it very well,” Bullen shared. “She knew what she was marrying into. This is not a girl who was unaware of the power of the press. I think unlike a 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer from all those years ago, who was overwhelmed with the attention, Meghan knew what she was getting into. I think it was possibly bigger than what she realized, but my understanding from people who knew her years ago and people who are working with her now, she’s handling it very well. In fact, she’s enjoying it. This is what she thrives on.”
Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex watch the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, as members of the Royal Family attend events to mark the centenary of the RAF on July 10, 2018 in London. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
MEGHAN MARKLE WELCOMES FIRST CHILD: IT'S A BOY!
Bullen said Markle has become so welcoming of the press because it allows her to promote her charities on a global scale. Since becoming an official member of the British royal family, the former “Suits” star has become a patron of four royal organizations, with of her roles taking over from Elizabeth.
In January of this year, Kensington Palace announced Markle will serve as the patron for the National Theatre, as well as the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Mayhew (animal welfare) and Smart Works, which empowers women and helps them find work.
“I’m told she and Harry have got some big key messages that they want to get out there,” said Bullen. “And the only way to get them out there is using the world’s press to their attention. As much as Harry is pretty anti-press, I think Meghan is enjoying it and ready to harness it. She wants to use it to promote brand Sussex.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are reportedly keeping the birth of Baby Sussex private. (Getty)
Bullen shared that the one challenge Markle may face is for her husband to embrace the media as much as she has.
MEGHAN MARKLE'S FATHER SPEAKS OUT AFTER BIRTH OF ROYAL BABY
“Harry’s real beef is with the British press,” he explained. “He felt they treated his mother badly. He also believes the British press treated him badly while he was growing up as a teenager in the public eye. I think Harry will not particularly want to work with the British press, but he will work with the foreign press and in particular, the American press. It’s no surprise that his next big TV project is with Oprah Winfrey and Apple. I think you will see him more on the global stage, not so much the domestic stage.”
“I think Harry has to become more welcoming of the press,” Bullen continued. “Because you know what? It ain’t going away. He needs to work with it. I think Meghan will hopefully encourage him in that direction… I think they will start working much more with the international press. They will definitely use social media in a much bigger way.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in Fiji in October 2018 (Getty)
Still, Bullen pointed out Markle and Harry will use the power they have over the press on their own terms. The couple recently left Kensington Palace for Frogmore Cottage on Elizabeth’s estate. The move will separate the duo from Harry’s older brother Prince William and his wife, Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. And the move, he insisted, is not a surprising one.
“Harry and Meghan will want to use their home as a really private sanctuary,” he explained. “Meghan’s mind frame is, ‘Let’s get out. Let’s do what we can for Sussex, for Britain and for the causes that we believe in. But when we go home, we are absolutely private.’ That’s why Frogmore, their new home, is perfect for them…. Nobody can get near it. It is surrounded by a big wall. Kensington Palace is pretty open and accessible to people. But Frogmore is private. And I think that’s what Meghan loves. She loves the idea of retreating and hiding away from the world when she can.”
Harry and Markle's royal bundle of joy, born at 5:26 a.m., is seventh in line for the British throne and is Queen Elizabeth II's eighth great-grandchild. Harry is the younger son of Prince Charles, the next in line to the throne.
Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle (Getty)
A beaming Harry told reporters at Windsor Castle on Monday that both mom and baby are doing well.
"I'm very excited to announce that Meghan and myself had a baby boy early this morning, a very healthy boy," the new dad shared. "Mother and baby are doing incredibly well. It's been the most amazing experience I could ever possibly imagine. How any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension but we're both absolutely thrilled and so grateful to all the lovely support."
Fox News' Sasha Savitsky contributed to this report.
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LONDON — The Duke and Duchess of Sussex — better known as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — on Monday welcomed their first child, a boy, the first interracial baby in the British monarchy’s recent history.
The newborn is seventh in line to the British throne, behind Prince Harry, whose marriage last year to Meghan brought historic change to the royal family. It is not clear whether the child will receive a royal title, like those bestowed on the three children of Prince William, Harry’s older brother, and William’s wife, Catherine.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that Meghan gave birth at 5:26 a.m. — hours before the palace announced that she was in labor — and that her mother, Doria Ragland, was with the new parents. The newborn boy weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces, the royal couple wrote on Instagram; a name had not been chosen yet.
The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer have been informed and are delighted with the news.
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 6, 2019
The baby is sure to be the object of uncommon fascination, adored and criticized as a symbol of the modernization of Britain’s royal family.
“This little thing is absolutely to die for, so I’m just over the moon,” a beaming Prince Harry told reporters outside Frogmore Cottage, the couple’s residence near Windsor Castle. “Mother and baby are doing incredibly well. It’s been the most amazing experience I can ever possibly imagine. How any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension, and we’re both absolutely thrilled.”
Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, have shaken up the royal family in a number of ways: The duchess is an American and a former actress, and their wedding last May featured a gospel choir, a freestyling African-American bishop and a gaggle of Hollywood celebrities.
They continued to set aside convention after the wedding, opening their own Instagram account and offering little access to the royal-obsessed British news media. In April, they announced they were canceling the traditional photo opportunity outside the Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital in the heart of London, curtailing the ritual hullabaloo that usually surrounds royal births.
For many, the new baby’s importance will be indelibly linked with race.
Britain is 87 percent white, but interracial children make up its fastest-growing ethnic category, and will soon be the country’s largest minority group. The entry of Meghan Markle, the descendant of plantation slaves, into the royal family resonated deeply with many people of African descent, who almost immediately began to anticipate the birth of the couple’s first child.
“It’s hopeful for people of my kids’ generation to see a princess of mixed race,” said Lise Ragbir, who is black and has written of her own experience raising a lighter-skinned child.
Repeatedly, beginning when her daughter was 6 months old, she said, strangers have approached her to ask, “Is that your baby?”
“It will be such a recognizable baby that it could shift people’s awareness,” said Ms. Ragbir, 45, a gallery director in Austin, Tex. “When one of the most famous families in the world does not have the same skin tone, people might pause before asking a stranger, ‘Is that your baby?’”
Historians have noted that the duchess herself cannot be definitively described as the first interracial royal. Some scholars have argued that Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III, had African ancestry through the Portuguese royal family. If true, it would have been passed on to her own descendant, Queen Victoria.
Prince Harry, in particular, has been alert for racism in the discussion of his young family.
In 2016, he took the unusual step of condemning British tabloids and social media commentators for the “racial undertones” and sexism of their coverage of Ms. Markle. Last year, the right-wing U.K. Independence Party ousted its leader after it was reported that his girlfriend had used racist language to deride the future duchess.
The duchess, the daughter of a white man and a black woman, has sidestepped discussions of race in the months before and after her wedding.
But as a young actress, she discussed it passionately. She described growing up in an overwhelmingly white neighborhood, where her mother was often mistaken for the nanny. As a seventh grader, she hesitated when she was asked to fill out a census form that identified her as either white or black.
“There I was (my curly hair, my freckled face, my pale skin, my mixed race) looking down at these boxes, not wanting to mess up, but not knowing what to do,” she wrote in an essay for Elle Magazine published in 2015.
When her teacher told her to check “Caucasian” because that was “how she looked,” she refused.
“I left my identity blank — a question mark, an absolute incomplete — much like how I felt,” she wrote. Her father advised her, “If that happens again, you draw your own box.”
As the duchess’s due date approached, some Britons voiced concerns about the conversation around the child’s race.
“Colorism is definitely a huge thing, and I think that links into it, because if the child does come out darker skinned, then you know that’s going to make the news — and not for a good reason,” Tanya Compas, a youth worker, told the BBC’s “Woman’s Hour” program when the pregnancy was announced.
Kehinde Andrews, a professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, said most Britons would carefully sidestep the topic.
“It’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable, it brings up conversations about race and about slavery; and everyone wants to avoid it,” he said. “British media, and British people generally, just don’t like talking about race.”
This, he said, is in contrast to the United States, where slavery was an immediate physical reality. Britons, he said, whose own ancestors benefited from plantations in the Caribbean, “see slavery as something distant, both time-wise and, more importantly, geographically distant.”
Journalists have bridled at charges that their coverage of the royal family has been tainted by racism, pointing out that British news outlets have always been free to criticize the royals, whose luxurious lifestyle is supported by public funds.
Among the sore points this year was the baby shower hosted by celebrity friends of the duchess in New York, a privately financed event that was said to cost 330,000 pounds, or more than $430,000.
“The clash comes when a free-spending American TV celebrity, the independent Ms. Markle, becomes the British queen’s granddaughter-in-law and joins soberer ornaments on the cracked marble mantelpiece of ancient royalty,” the journalist Libby Purves wrote in February in a column for The Times of London.
The Sussexes, in short, have become another front in the British culture wars, like the vegan sausage roll, or Brexit. The tabloids have pounced: Prince Harry is making a television series on mental health with (gasp) Oprah Winfrey! The duchess keeps hugging members of the public! They may choose an American nanny! Baby Sussex may not attend Eton!
Last fall, the couple announced they would move out of Kensington Palace, in central London, and take up residence about 25 miles west of the British capital in newly refurbished quarters: Frogmore Cottage, near Windsor Castle. There have been rumors that the couple could be dispatched in the next few years on an extended tour of Africa, where 19 nations, mostly former colonies, are members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Those moves appeared to hint of a rift between Harry and his brother, William, observers said, but no concrete evidence has surfaced.
In April, the couple rolled out their own Instagram account, @sussexroyal, which has since been examined minutely for clues to the baby’s arrival.
The duchess hinted of her hopes for her child when speaking on a panel for International Women’s Day in March, saying she expects it to be a feminist.
Citing a phrase she had seen in a documentary about “the embryonic kicking of feminism” during pregnancy, she said, “I loved that, so boy or girl, whatever it is, we hope that that’s the case with our little bump.”
Media playback is unsupported on your device
The Duchess of Sussex has given birth to a boy, the Duke of Sussex has announced.
Prince Harry said they were "absolutely thrilled" and thanked the public for their support during the pregnancy.
He said Meghan and the baby were doing "incredibly well", adding that they were still thinking about names for the infant, who was delivered at 05:26 BST.
Buckingham Palace said the baby weighed 7lbs 3oz, and that the duke was present for the birth.
It added: "The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer have been informed and are delighted with the news.
"The duchess's mother, Doria Ragland, who is overjoyed by the arrival of her first grandchild, is with their Royal Highnesses at Frogmore Cottage."
The baby boy is seventh in line to the throne, behind the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and his children - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - and Prince Harry.
He is the Queen's eighth great-grandchild.
8 November 2016 - Kensington Palace releases a statement that confirms Prince Harry has been dating Meghan Markle "for a few months" and asks the press to respect their privacy
28 November 2017 - Harry and Meghan announce they are engaged to be married
15 December 2017 - Kensington Palace confirms the couple have chosen to wed in Windsor on 19 May the following year
19 May 2018 - Harry and Meghan are married in front of 600 guests at St George's Chapel and become the Duke and Duchess of Sussex
15 October 2018 - Kensington Palace announces the duchess is pregnant, and is due to give birth in Spring 2019
6 May 2019 - Meghan gives birth to a boy, who becomes seventh in line to the throne
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"Your mouth is moving, but I still haven't heard anything about MY ELEPHANTS."
HBOThe battle of Winterfell is over, the Night King has said his last good night and everyone is ready to get back to normal life in Westeros. What's that? There's still a lot of messy stuff that still needs to go down? Sounds like Game of Thrones is ready to deliver in episode 4!
This week we're recovering from last week's bloodbath and things are still kind of hectic (so hectic, in fact, that someone left a very modern, very Starbucks-looking coffee cup in the middle of Winterfell's dining hall. C'mon guys, who's running the joint here?)
But if you thought the action was over, you're wrong. It's time for a very pressing threat: negotiating the byzantine machinations of patrilineal monarchy in a region where everyone wants to just kill the crap out of each other!
If the start of season 8 got off to a slow start for you, then episode 3 delivered on the carnage. (If you still haven't watched that ep, then now's the time to stop reading and go and catch up on the action). We lost old favorites -- you were a good man, Theon -- and it all culminated in the most explosive ending since the Red Wedding. Arya taking her dagger (the very dagger that was dispatched to kill Bran all those years ago -- TWIST!) and stabbing Ol' Man Winter right in his frosty zone. Ice, Ice Bye-Bye.
So, what's next? Like, we've literally been building to this moment for years and now the dead are buried -- how do we build the stakes from here?
All that's left to do is cue up the episode, switch your TV to moody dark mode and get ready for a good old-fashioned game of "Who gets the knife chair?!" It's episode four, and it's on.
🚨🚨🚨Sound the spoiler klaxon -- and abandon all hope, ye who enter here🚨🚨🚨
With the battle of Winterfell behind us, it's time to bury the dead. Some poor sod has been up all night chopping wood for the funeral pyres so we can farewell our fallen heroes, like Theon, Ser Jorah and Beric (though I'm putting money on Beric getting torched and waking up like he was taking a cheeky nap. Fire is like a warm bath for him).
But once those bodies start burning, the general consensus seems to be "Hey guys, are we hungry?" Thankfully someone had the forethought to cook up a load of bacon and eggs (hopefully on a different fire) so everyone retires to have a much needed brekky.
In the halls of Winterfell, everyone is trading stories and returning to the general busywork of trying to hook up with each other. Except for Jon and Dany, who have gotten over the inconvenient disruption of wight-slaying to get back on their bullshit. Who should rule the Seven Kingdoms? Are we, like, related related? Their silent staring at each other says it all.
Having finished her breakfast (she loves eggs cooked over a fire), Dany decides to play her next hand, anointing Gendry as Lord Gendry of Storm's End -- ensuring she will forever have the allegiance of the folks at Storm's End and giving Gendry a good excuse to get new business cards.
Meanwhile, Jon is getting some solid backslaps for his dragon-riding skills. "What kind of man climbs on a fucking dragon? A mad man, or a king!" cries Tormund. Dany, just like every woman who's watched a male colleague get credit for their projects in the team all-hands meeting, rolls her eyes. But not for long, because let's not lie, she also wants to tap that.
Gendry has big hopes for a future with Arya, but Arya's got things to do.
Helen Sloan/HBOGendry has a sweet new last name and he wants to share it with the woman he loves. He bails up Arya, who's steered clear of all the drinking in her honor and is off working through her PTSD with a bow and arrow. After one night of prebattle passion, Gendry declares his undying love for Arya and proposes marriage (we've all definitely been on that Tinder date). But Arya is super-chill now, and pulls the classic Danny Zuko Grease move on Gendry and is all "sorry that hookup didn't mean we'd be together forever." Classic Arya.
"Any lady will be lucky to have you," she says. "But I'm not a lady, I never have been. That's not me."
Gendry is left to cry it out, quietly sobbing, "What happened to the Arya Stark I met at the beach?"
But tonight isn't just about relationships ending!
After admitting her armor still very much has its V-plates intact, Brienne leaves the party in the hall of Winterfell. But not before Jaime follows her out, ready to put on some of those sweet moves he's learned down south. (How someone can have so much game when they've only made out with their sister, I'll never know.) In Brienne's quarters, Jaime is ready to try his fake hand at wooing someone he didn't share a womb with. Crazy.
"I hate the North," he says, by way of a confused pickup line (see: picked up my last date at Family Games Night).
"It grows on you," Brienne replies, proving once and for all that the North is a grower, not a shower.
Speaking of... let's leave those two for now.
Daenerys has come by Jon's room for a booty call (booty raven?) and while they try to make out, Jon can't get that aunty taste out of his mouth. Dany isn't feeling it either ("I try to forget," she says, speaking the words that all of us Jon-and-Dany shippers constantly say to ourselves as we watch this show). Also, she's sad because power gets her motor running and no one in the North is bowing down to her like she wants. Except Jon, but... y'know. She tells Jon they can be together, but only if he swears to keep their Family Ties a secret.
"I owe them the truth," Jon says of his sisters.
"Even if it destroys us?" Dany replies.
As far as Daenerys sees it, Jon needs to bring his family in line behind Dany as the one true queen. Meanwhile Jon is no doubt yearning for the days when loving someone meant being shackled to them in a Wildling camp before having sex in a cave spa. Simpler times.
"You were a Targaryen all this time and you didn't tell us? You. BASTARD."
Helen Sloan/HBOIt's time for a reccy in the war room for actual postbattle talk, and Grey Worm doesn't have good news. The big battlefield mahjong table before us, we learn that half their armies are dead (let's remove those tiles from the game board) and Cersei's armies have been bolstered by mercenaries.
Jon pledges the Northern armies to Daenerys, and they will join the Dothraki and the bulk of the Unsullied to march on King's Landing (let's move those tiles on the game board, just so we all follow along and to give some visuals to this very talky scene). The rest of the crew will sail to Dragonstone (because the VFX team have already made the CGI renders of that castle and it would be a pity to waste them).
"We have won the great war," Daenerys says. "Now we will win the last war."
Despite this Churchillian call to arms, Arya and Sansa are still powerfully suss on Jon's new girlfriend. It's time for an intervention in the godswood.
Out by the weirwood tree, Jon reveals to his sisters that he has a big family secret. And in classic gutless fashion, he makes Bran tell it. But then we cut away and don't actually get to hear stone-faced Bran drop this mad gossip?! I was living for that!
Remember when Cersei gave Bronn of the Blackwater a crossbow and a price on her brothers' heads and Bronn was all, "That's convenient because I like money and killing people"? Well, it's payday!
Jaime and Tyrion are having a brotherly chat about conquests (Tyrion is so freaking thankful that he can finally do that without hearing about his naked sister) and Ser Bronn busts in. He's been paid to kill the brothers, but savvy Tyrion offers to double the offer, promising High Garden to Ser Bronn if he lets them live.
Having dodged that arrow, Tyrion meets Sansa on the battlements (fresh from her debrief on Jon's family tree). Tyrion tries to convince Sansa that Daenerys is the horse/dragon to back in this race and that she, Jon and the rest of the Starkgaryens should pledge to her.
"What if there's someone else? Someone better," she asks. Thanks, Sansa, you kept that secret for, like 12 minutes.
But don't worry, Tyrion already knew.
While Jon goes on his extended farewell tour of old friends in the courtyard of Winterfell ("See ya, Tormund! Take my beloved direwolf with you and I won't even PAT HIM GOODBYE!"), Tyrion and Varys plot.
They both know Jon's secret (so that's eight people all up who know), and as Varys puts it, "It's not a secret anymore. It's information."
There are a few options on the table and, like the puppetmasters they are, these two are going to nut it out. Varys reminds us that Jon has a better claim, and people are drawn to him as a war hero. Tyrion suggests they could marry Jon and Dany and have them rule together. "She's his AUNT!" as Varys rightly points out ("I try to forget"). And then there's the fact that Daenerys is not exactly good at sharing. But before we even get up to all that, we still need to take King's Landing. Speaking of...
Darnerys' dragons are truly her children, as we see again in episode 4 when tragedy strikes.
HBODaenerys' small fleet is sailing on Dragonstone when Euron Greyjoy emerges from behind some rocks (you're riding a dragon and you didn't see that, Dany?) -- with one quick strike, Euron dispatches his dragon-killing mega crossbow and shoots Rhaegal out of the sky.
That's it, folks! We're down to one dragon! (Considering it was the dragon Jon rode, the symbolism is powerful). And worse news, Euron is about to ignore the instructions on his Dragon Crossbow warranty and use it to smash some ships. Daenerys' fleet is obliterated, Missandei goes missing in the hubbub and the rest of the crew are washed up on the shores of Dragonstone, defeated.
What's this? Euron's back in Kings Landing? (Gone are the slow-travelin' days of season 3, folks!) Cersei is preparing to fight, and in classic supervillain form, she's filling her castle walls with innocent citizens of King's Landing to act as a human shield.
"When the war is won, the Lion shall rule the land, the Kraken shall rule the sea and our child shall one day rule them all," she tells Theon. Take your pink and blue helium balloons, chumps. THAT is the most badass birth reveal of the year.
Watch this: Game of Thrones Battle of Winterfell: We're still shaking
6:04
Back in Dragonstone, Varys already knows about Cersei's human shield plans, but that's not stopping Daenerys. She wants to win this game of Musical Knife Chairs and she doesn't care who she has to kill on the way. She's talked into a peace offering, but her wild eyes say she wants the throne more. Somebody get a copy of Cosmo, because if Dany did the "Which Game of Thrones character are you?" quiz, she's starting to look more and more like a Cersei.
With Dany out wandering the halls of Dragonstone somewhere, Varys and Tyrion have more time to play "Would you rather" over kings and queens.
Varys is pro Jon, because we all know Westeros is dude soup when it comes to choosing a rightful heir.
"I don't think a cock is a true qualification," says Tyrion.
"And he's the heir to the throne because he's a man, cocks are important I'm afraid," replies Varys with enough self-loathing to keep psychoanalysis undergrads watching this show for at least another two years. (Theon, meanwhile, sheds a tear in the afterlife.)
So that's it then. Dany won't share and Jon is rightful heir. So what happens to the mother of dragons? Varys' face tells us it won't end well for her. But Tyrion is still faithful to his badass boss. "Please. Don't," he says.
One of those tiny figures on the castle ramparts is Missandei.
HBOWe've well and truly cracked the hour mark now so I hope you didn't have a load of washing in the machine.
In Winterfell, Jaime is ruminating by the fire while Brienne sleeps in the background (Hollywood code for "They've set up shop in Bone Town"). But nek minnit, Brienne is awake and Jaime has bounced. Out in the yard, the pure and beautiful Brienne is about to get her heart broken and she is too sweet and kind and how could you?!
"You think I'm a good man," says Jaime, using Brienne as a surrogate for the entire Game of Thrones audience. "I pushed a boy out a window and crippled him for life, for Cersei. I strangled my cousin with my own hands just to get back to Cersei. I would have murdered every man woman and child in Riverrun for Cersei. She's hateful and so am I."
Don't worry Brienne, I'll bring some wine over when this ep is done.
And with that, we're off to see Her Hatefulness. Above the gates of King's Landing, Cersei has Missandei in shackles and a dozen of those dragon crossbows trained on Dany, Tyrion, Grey Worm and the rest of the slim-pickins Unsullied below (guys, the crossbow instructions very clearly state they are designed for dragons only).
Tyrion goes in to negotiate Cersei's surrender with Qyburn, Cersei's mad scientist. Neither one will budge, and so we all realize we're about to lose our last pure hope in this world as Missandei is given one last chance at final words.
With that, she growls the word "Dracarys" (which is High Valerian for "make dragon go now") before being beheaded by The Mountain.
If you thought The Mountain was Qyburn's monster, you'd be wrong. The real monster is the one wearing the crown.
