Game of Thrones season six started off with four incredible episodes that advanced multiple plot lines to set up the rest of the season. However, episode five blew them all away and immediately became one of the best episodes in series history.
Warning: spoilers from the books, theories, and show may be afoot. Since we’re all caught up, it shouldn’t be a big deal, but just in case, don’t complain.
The majority of this recap will go in order according to the scenes in the episode, except for all the parts involving Bran. We’ll save those for the end.
The North…
The episode starts with a long-awaited reunion, but not one that was as long as last week’s between Sansa and Jon. Instead this week, the story begins with Sansa receiving a letter from Littlefinger asking her to meet him in Mole’s Town.
Sansa obliges and heads there to speak with Littlefinger. This was possibly peak badass for Sansa as she grilled Littlefinger on how much he did or didn’t know about how awful of a human being Ramsay Bolton is. During this exchange, this is maybe the first time we’ve seen Littlefinger worried for his own life.
The most important part of this exchange comes when Littlefinger tells Sansa her uncle Brynden the Blackfish is alive and amassing an army at Riverrun. The last time we saw the Blackfish was way back in season three, when he left The Twins shortly before The Red Wedding. Curiously, Sansa seemed barely interested in the idea of using The Knights of the Vale in her army, but I’m sure that will change.
In Braavos…
There were many major new revelations in this episode and the origin of the Faceless Men could be the most underrated. During her boring internship, Arya learns how the Faceless Men came to be and why and how they built Braavos.
This leads Arya to her second chance and to a traveling play that acted out the death of her father. This also plays out in the books and was a very interesting scene for Arya to have to witness. At times, it still seems like she is very much Arya Stark and not in fact “no one.”
Finally, Arya finds her next target and begins to plan her assassination.
At The Iron Islands…
If you haven’t read the books or haven’t at least read the book summaries, now you know who killed Balon Greyjoy: his brother Euron. This entire scene was incredibly well done, in my opinion, from a visual and writing perspective.
Yara tragically didn’t win the Kingsmoot and instead lost to her uncle. What this Kingsmoot did set up, however, is the potential for Daenerys Targaryen to land her new fleet of ships to sail to Westeros.
With Yara, Theon, and crew taking the fastest ships, you have to wonder if maybe they are sailing across the Narrow Sea to win over Dany’s love, instead of Euron doing it on his own. One would have to guess if Yara and Theon came back with the help of Daenerys, the Iron Born would quickly make Yara their first Queen.
In Meereen…
For the sake of geography and storylines, we’ll include Dany in this part of the recap.
Jorah finally reveals his greyscale to Dany and surprisingly enough, she still wants him to serve her. She commands Jorah to go out and find the cure for his greyscale and he leaves her side. I have a sad feeling this means we won’t be seeing Jorah for a long time, but who knows.
Dany eventually leaves the Dothraki Sea with her new Khalasar and is most likely leading them to Mereen where…
Tyrion struck a deal and the former slaves aren’t happy. But as he points out, the killings by the Sons of the Harpy have stopped and there is peace in the city one again. While Grey Worm and Missandei don’t agree with how Tyrion made peace, they have to admit he did make peace nonetheless.
After another brilliant exchange involving Tyrion and Dany’s small council, Tyrion and Varys speak with the High Priestess of Volantis. She had some interesting things to say about Dany and company, and also had some good ideas for how to make Dany’s enemies believe in her rule. Well, they were good ideas if you like burning people.
Once again, Tyrion showed off his political skills by making a point that Dany’s followers “follow many different religions.” This couldn’t be more true and if the dragons torched all the non-fire god believers like the High Priestess suggests, Dany may lose multiple followers and even advisors. For all we know, Tyrion doesn’t necessarily believe in The Lord of Light.
At Castle Black…
Just like many people predicted from the trailers, it looks like Davos Seaworth is becoming a highly trusted advisor of Sansa and Jon. This entire conversation was incredibly well scripted and acted out by all parties.
Davos does make some good points about “knowing men,” but Sansa and Jon made even better points about “knowing the North,” as backed up by the show. Through the first now five-and-a-half seasons, we’ve seen that the families of the North are very different than the families down South. Whether that’s about backing certain houses, family loyalty, or even how to treat their enemies, the North is very different than the South.
What this scene, and the discussion between Sansa and Brienne of Tarth, set up is the construction of another great Northern army led by Sansa and Jon. Let’s just hope this army does its job and puts Ramsay’s head on a spike. Yes, Iwan Rheon is a great actor, but Ramsay is just a trash human being. Sorry for the opinion there.
North of The Wall…
Oh boy… OH BOY… OHHHHHH BOOOYYYYYYYY… Okay, I’m done.
WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED.
Quick recap: Children of the Forest created the White Walkers, Bran and Meera made Hodor into “Hodor,” the Three-Eyed Raven is dead, Bran can speak to people in the past, Hodor is dead, the Children of the Forest are dead, and Summer is dead. Seriously. Can they stop killing direwolves already?
Now for the actual recap of this part of the episode. We’ll split it up into two parts based on the two parts of the episode it encompassed:
Part 1:
The land North of The Wall before The Wall’s construction was absolutely gorgeous. Then the Children of the Forest had to go destroy it all without even realizing it.
Out of all the twists, turns, and revelations in Game of Thrones since the series began, the fact that the Children created the White Walkers is easily the biggest. This flashback witnessed by Bran is fascinating because of how the showrunners break it down in this week’s “Inside the Episode.” The White Walkers were created by the Children to destroy mankind and eventually wanted to destroy the Children too.
Additionally, it looked as if the dagger the Children used to make the first White Walker, which is possibly the Night’s King, was dragonglass/obsidian. If this is the case, that means the one weapon which can kill them also created them.
This revelation could have major implications going forward, now that it can be assumed that what’s left of the Children are gone and the White Walkers have forced Bran out of…
Part 2:
Well, the Three-Eyed Raven and his cave that Bran sought out for so long are gone. That Bran slipped back into the Weirwood Tree in order to see more of the past isn’t surprising at all. What is surprising, however, is that when he did, he transported himself right outside of the cave and was seen by the Night’s King.
In doing so, Bran let the White Walkers and their army in, which got many of his friends and his mentor killed. Not only that, but here is what resulted from Bran accessing the Weirwood Tree on his own: We learned he can teleport to other parts of the world in real time and communicate with people, he can speak to people into the past and drive them mad (more on that later), and this led to the invasion of the cave and deaths of the Children, the Three-Eyed Raven, his wolf Summer and, sadly, Hodor.
When the White Walker touched Bran, he put his mark on him that will allow he and his army to track Bran as he travels South. This could be a major plot point going forward as Bran runs away from the army of the dead. Once he makes it past the wall, assuming he does before he’s caught, this could lead to The Wall maybe even coming down, and that would really get things going.
There isn’t really much else to say other than wow. Bran did something he shouldn’t have and it led to multiple tragic deaths and incredible revelations. This one scene set up so much for the rest of the season, while also bringing up an infinite amount of questions.
Finally, the death of Hodor is maybe one of the most tragic of the entire series. Yes, the Red Wedding was brutal. So was Ned Stark’s beheading and the death of Oberyn Martell. But the way in which Hodor was killed was just awful. In the same moment he truly becomes Hodor in the past, he dies in the future. Sadly, Bran has lost his one friend from Winterfell and now must try and outrace the army of the dead with Meera.
It Is Known…
Bran’s mistake set up multiple plotlines and questions for the rest of the season and series as a whole. Some of the questions brought up won’t be covered here. Instead, they will be covered in a column I will be writing later this week on popular fan theories that could be answered later this season based on the first five episodes. However, here are some things we might be able to expect based on this episode:
The Return of Brynden the Blackfish: This would be a major comeback for a character that had a big role to play early on, but has been absent since the Red Wedding. If Sansa and Jon can bring him into the fold, it would be interesting to see how many Northern houses would follow and back the Starks, even if they had already backed the Boltons.
Arya’s Training: Last season, Arya failed her first chance to become a faceless man because someone brought her back to her past life. Now, her second chance involves multiple people that could bring her back to her past life once again. It’ll be interesting to see how she handles that.
The Meereen Plot: Dany is on her way back to Meereen with a massive army behind her. When she gets back to the city, it won’t be in nearly the same state as she left it. Time will tell if she likes what Tyrion has done or if she’ll just simply use her new army to truly slaughter all her rivals.
The Race of the Ironborn: After Euron’s speech, and Theon and Yara’s subsequent departure, one has to wonder if the Greyjoy siblings are on their way to Dany. If they reach her first and help lead her to Westeros, it could mean the end of Euron’s rule in the Iron Islands, but that’s all spectulation.
Their Watch Has Ended…
Some wights, children of the forest, a white walker, Summer, the Three-Eyed Raven, and Hodor.
