“Book of the Stranger” sees Daenerys get another epic moment that would make you root for the self-styled Targaryen queen.

Here, she proudly bared it all, and it was definitely not one of those gratuitous nude scenes the show has been criticized for. Rather, it was a show of her power. She is a proud Targaryen, the blood of the dragon.

Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys, echoed this perspective about the ending, and shared with Entertainment Weekly (EW): “It’s so exciting, very tingly-making. Every season I get at least one spine-chilling moment. I just stand up and I go, ‘I’m hearing what you’re all saying, but funny thing, I’m going to kill you all. I forgot that I have an ace in my back pocket and now I win.'”

In the scene, Daenerys is in Vaes Dothrak, where we last saw her with the crones of the Dosh Khaleen. Although Daario Naharis and Ser Jorah Mormont could just whisk her away, the Khaleesi and Mother of Dragons saw herself as no damsel in distress. Instead, she took matters into her own hands. She burned the temple down with the leading Dothraki Khals in it, but she emerged unburnt.

One-half of the showrunners, Dan Weiss, also weighed in on the scene: “You know from the first season that, as you say, it’s her ‘superpower,’ but this is not really that type of story. It’s almost like the revelation she had when Jorah and Daario come to the rescue. She’s like, ‘Wait, I can do something none of these people can do and now that these two people can help me, I can use that to my advantage.'”

While Daenerys herself was spared from the flames, her clothes were reduced to ashes. Emilia also quashed assumptions that she had a body double to appear nude.

“I’d like to remind people the last time I took my clothes off was season 3,” she told EW. “That was a while ago. It’s now season 6. But this is all me, all proud, all strong. I’m just feeling genuinely happy I said ‘Yes.’ That ain’t no body double!'”

It worked for her because her bit of the scene was shot separately in Belfast, Northern Island, while the parts with the Dothraki were shot in Spain. She said that she found this set-up more favorable than what they did for the season 1 finale when Daenerys’ clothes were burnt along with Khal Drogo in his funeral pyre.

“Taking off my clothes is not the easiest thing, but with the magic of the effects, I don’t have to do a season 1 and go on a cliff and do it. I’m in control of it,” she said.

When she had been taken out of context by a tabloid last year about her thoughts about doing sex scenes or nudity, Emilia previously set the record straight on Instagram: “In drama, if a nude scene forwards a story or is shot in a way that adds insight into characters, I’m perfectly fine with it. […] If it’s gratuitous for gratuitous sake, then I will discuss with a director on how to make it more subtle.”

She looked back on this statement after the episode, and added to EW: “How many times has [Daario Naharis actor] Michiel Huisman been asked about the fact he’s taken his clothes off a bunch? Is that even a discussion? No. So I’m doing it this year and people can talk about it and I’m ready to answer any questions about it, basically.”