women in the workplace

Gilly Needs to Tell Sam to Shut Up

Gilly and Sam on Game of Thrones. Photo: Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

In the past few seasons, the story of Westeros has been one of women rising to meet the challenges that face them while men obfuscate, obstruct, and generally keep getting in the damn way.

Take Gilly. Gilly raised herself out of poverty, learned how to read, and last night, while helping Sam do homework for his unpaid internship, discovered what might be the most important revelation of the show thus far: That Prince “Ragger” — a.k.a. Rhaegar Targaryen — had his first marriage annulled, and then got remarried at a secret ceremony in Dorne. For those not poring over the show with a fine-tooth comb: We already know from Bran’s Tower of Joy flashback last season that Jon Snow is likely the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. But Gilly’s discovery means that Rhaegar likely married Lyanna before Jon was born, which makes Jon not a bastard, but a legitimate son — and the legitimate Targaryen heir to the Iron throne. (Dany: Time to bend that knee, girl.)

And what did Sam do? Sam plowed right through her and kept on talking, launching into a rant about his lack of job satisfaction “while the secret to defeating the Night King is probably sitting on some dusty shelf somewhere, completely ignored!” Or, you know … right in front of him.

As many people on Twitter pointed out, this is something that pretty much every woman who has ever sat through a meeting with male co-workers has experienced.

In fact, in being “manterrupted,” Gilly joins the ranks of many accomplished women, including, but not limited to: Hillary Clinton, Senator Kamala Harris, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Taylor Swift. Gilly, welcome.

Gilly Needs to Tell Sam to Shut Up