Game of Thrones: Missandei and Rhaegal Die, Jaime and Brienne Have Sex

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.]

The hits just keep on coming in Game of Thrones‘ final season. Though we just lost a whole slew of characters in the Battle of Winterfell last week, this week’s episode, “The Last of the Starks,” gave us even more heartbreaking deaths.

You would think the show would give Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) a break, considering she was still reeling from losing Ser Jorah (Iain Glen), but Episode 4 took even more away from her. First to die was Dany’s second dragon, Rhaegal. Upon returning to Dragonstone, Dany’s ships found themselves under attack from the Euron’s (Pilou Asbæk) fleet armed with dozens of spear catapults. Three spears took the already injured Rhaegal down in mid-flight. That marks two dragon deaths this season (if you count Viserion’s second re-animated death), leaving the Mother of Dragons with only one child left. Drogon is no doubt Dany’s favorite, but if dragons keep dropping like flies, then it’s possible not even he will walk away from this season.

The pain didn’t stop there though. The other major death of this episode was Dany’s close friend and confidant, Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel). She was taken hostage in Euron’s attack, and delivered to Cersei (Lena Headey) in the capital. Though Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) tried to sue for peace, Cersei eventually executed Missandei on top of the battlements, right in front of Dany and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson). Her death no doubt hits the hardest considering Missandei might be the only character on the show who has consistently proved herself to be a good, loyal, and innocent person. Plus, watching Grey Worm flinch away from the execution in agony and the light just seep out of Dany’s eyes upon seeing her friend murdered was a special kind of torture for fans.

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Any hope of peace (or leaving King’s Landing in one piece) is now gone, since Dany will no doubt burn the city to the ground in revenge. That won’t exactly endear her to the people though, and it’s looking less and less like Daenerys will wind up on the Iron Throne at the end of all this. Her advisors are already beginning to look at Jon (Kit Harington) as a better candidate, and now that so many people know the secret, it’s going to be harder to ignore Jon’s birthright.

Things weren’t all doom and gloom and death though. In what may be the most anticipated sex scene to ever grace Game of Thrones’ fans screens, Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) finally gave in to their undeniable chemistry and banged. Sadly, Jaime ended up leaving Brienne to ride south, hoping to either spare Cersei’s life or die with her in the Red Keep.

In the meantime, let’s just hope Arya (Maisie Williams) succeeds in her mission to kill Cersei now that she’s on her way down to King’s Landing. We could all really use an assassin at this point if we don’t want to watch Dany destroy the capital.

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Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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Photo: HBO/Helen Sloan