Euron's Gift Revealed in Epic Game of Thrones Battle

Two down, five to go in this seventh season of Game of Thrones. "Stormborn's" final scene is a talker, but plenty went down before that. A spoiler-laden guide:

• If you're looking for a recap, turn to NPR, which presents a lively play-by-play. (One of the characters merits this description: "like a Rose who's lost her Jack.") But Glen Weldon's overall take is that this is the episode for anyone frustrated by past episodes in which characters kept information close to the vest. "That's how you can tell we're in the homestretch: People tell each other things they need to know! They address things that happened in the past!"
• At the Washington Post, David Malitz agrees things are starting to truly come to a head, and dubs the episode "satisfyingly overstuffed with everything you could want—scheming, fighting, threatening, killing, graphic sex, even graphic surgery."

• The episode tackled one of the show's "biggest fan theories," per Esquire, regarding Melisandre and her prediction about the "Prince that was promised." More on why the translation of a single word matters here.
• It also contained a sex scene that Mashable describes as the first "sweet, consensual" one (though that's maybe not completely accurate). And "while some viewers might balk at the idea of taking time away from vital plot" for this, Aliza Weinberger explains why the scene was "arguably vital." Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) describes filming it to EW.
• If you woke up to any nagging questions, Vanity Fair may have answered them. It tackles 10 "burning questions" here, including one related to the aforementioned sex scene and Grey Worm's anatomy.
• As for the final epic naval battle, Vanity Fair digs deep into the Dorne problem, and explains why two of the deaths—of the Sand Snakes—represent "the Thrones writing staff making the best of a bad hand they dealt themselves." It also notes that the episode put to rest any illusions that Euron is a "clownish Jack Sparrow type." What we got instead is what is presented in the book: "a nightmare."
• But MarketWatch sticks mostly with that descriptor, calling him a "maniacal Captain Jack Sparrow" and declaring his "gift" for would-be bride Cersei—an ostensibly still-alive Ellaria Sand—a "doozy." It also saw Daenerys emerging more as "tyrant" than "savior" in this episode.
• On the flip side, the episode also gave us more from the show's "greatest hero," per the Verge.
• While this week saw a big reunion, there's a bigger one coming next week.

(More Game of Thrones stories.)