Game Of Thrones Director Gives Details On Finale's Steamiest Scene

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 7, "The Dragon and the Wolf."

There's no skirting around this: the season seven finale of Game of Thrones featured a sex scene many viewers long predicted would appear before the episode wrapped. The moment was intertwined with the reveal of Jon Snow's (Kit Harington) true identity as Aegon Targaryen, son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark and nephew of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), which made it wrought with complexity and a hefty dose of awkwardness. And yet, it was surprisingly simple, making it standout from other scenes of its kind that we've already seen.

Jeremy Podwesa, who directed the finale episode, spoke with Indiewire about the steamy scene, and what it means for both characters beyond the familial ties they have but aren't yet aware of. 

"With Jon and Dany's scene, the important thing for me was that it wouldn't be prurient in any way, that there's a very strong undercurrent in that scene. It was shot very, very simply," Podwesa stated. "It's basically just one steady push in shot to Jon and Dany and then that very important look between them at mid-level. And then a one-shot looking at Jon, then looking down at Dany. It wasn't about shooting a big lovemaking scene. Once they're making love, that's the story. There's no reason to kind of linger on that."

This explains why the scene was noticeably tame in comparison to past Thrones sex scenes. 

Podwesa continued, adding that the truth of the moment was what wasn't verbalized or shown on screen. "The real story within the story, was actually what was going on with their eyes and what's happening," he said. "There's an understanding between them that even though they know in some part of them that they shouldn't really be doing this, they cannot not do it. There's some element of destiny that's brought them together, and they can't fight it."

Intercutting Jon and Dany's intimate scene with shots of Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding and Lyanna telling a younger Ned Stark the secret of Jon's identity was also purposeful. "It was exactly as written in terms of the intercutting of those scenes... all those things were meant to be interwoven, to give a kind of prismatic view of the history that brought Jon to this point, and Jon and Dany together in this sweep of destiny, in this sweep of history. It was very much written that way," explained Podwesa. "My contribution to that was really making that cinematic and making this feel like a fluid movement through time as we're seeing this all unfold."

Ending a fast-paced and action-heavy season on such a momentous note makes waiting for the eighth and final season all the more difficult. Until we find out what happens to Jon, Dany, and the rest of the Thrones crew, take a look at the characters who are dead on television but still alive in the books.