Beyond the Wall
The episode picks up where last week left off, with Meera Reed and Bran on the run from the undead White Walkers. Hodor’s sacrifice brought them some time, but Meera can only pull Bran on his sled so far in a blizzard. Bran is still unconscious as streams from images throughout history flash throughout his mind. It’s hard to make coherent sense of the images, though we see images of the “Mad King” Aerys Targaryen, young Ned, and the infamous red wedding. Bran comes to consciousness just in time as the zombies are upon them. They’re suddenly faced with a hooded stranger on a horse who makes quick work of the zombies pursuing them and whisks Meera and Bran away from danger.
It is when the stranger removes his scarf that fans get a major reveal: Benjen Stark, Ned’s brother who went missing back in season one in his pursuit of missing Night’s Watch members and had been unheard from. But now everyone know that he is alive and well… or at least he’s alive. Benjen reveals that he ran into White Walkers and was fatally stabbed by an ice sword and on the verge of becoming one of them.
However, the Children of the Forest saved him by injecting dragonglass into his heart to completely halt his White Walker transformation. His appearance looks deathly cold and ill, but he is very much on their side. Benjen states that it is only a matter of time before the White Walkers invade the world of man, and that Bran must now learn to harness his powers and make sense of history as the new Three-Eyed Raven.
It was certainly refreshing to see Benjen return to the action yet again. A figure who has been missing in the show, his return is yet another major reveal that has yet to occur in the books. Benjen stated that the Three-Eyed Raven sent for him to save Bran, though what exactly he’s been doing or why he didn’t return to the Watch remains to be seen. He certainly appears well acquainted with the Children and the previous Three-Eyed Raven, and revealing him now means his role will be important in the next phase of preparing Bran for… whatever it is he’s supposed to do.
In King’s Landing
Returning to the capital after a week-long absence, the High Sparrow and the Faith Militant are as righteous as ever. Preparing for Margaery’s inevitable “Walk of Atonement,” Tommen is reunited with his Queen for the first time prior to her imprisonment. She tells him about how she has been swayed by the Faith and how it’s given her time to reflect on her actions.
Meanwhile, Jamie Lannister rides in with the Tyrell army, including Mace Tyrell and even Grandma Olenna Tyrell riding in. The High Sparrow states that his Faith are ready and willing to die for the Gods. But just as it seems the battle might ensue, the High Sparrow surprisingly steps aside and states that no Walk will take place. Instead, he has stated that Margaery has atoned by bringing forth a new convert of the Faith: Tommen himself, who steps down with his Kingsguard declaring that the Faith and the Crown are officially as one and allied with one another in the eyes of the many people to witness this.
Following this stunning turn of events, Tommen’s first order of business as a Faith convert is to demote Jamie from his role as head of the Kingsguard. He is then sent on assignment to the Riverlands, where he is to assist Walder Frey in taking back the region from Blackfish Tully. As much as Jamie wants to take the fight to the Faith Militant and stay to witness Cersei’s trial by combat, he will be better served amassing the Lannister armies. Plus, with The Mountain on her side, Cersei assures her twin brother she has nothing to worry about. The twin sibling love still knows no bounds, as Jamie sets out to rally Lannister forces and leaves Cersei to continue dealing with the Faith and her impending trial by combat.
At Horn Hill
It’s been a long three weeks, but Sam, Gilly, and Little Sam have officially arrived at Horn Hill, Sam’s home and the seat of House Tarly. Before they meet his parents, Sam makes sure to remind Gilly not to mention her status as a Wildling to his dad, and for Gilly to act under the pretense of his wife and Little Sam as his son.
On their arrival, he is greeted rather warmly by his mother and sister as he arrives, but dinner was another matter entirely, when we meet Randyll Tarly for the first time. The best way to describe Lord Tarly’s personality is that of a combination of Stannis Baratheon and Tywin Lannister, though even he makes them both look like Father of the Year. A cold, hard, calculating man with little interest in literary ventures like Sam, Randyll (played brilliantly by James Faulkner) is none too pleased to see the son he disowned back at the table with a woman he believes is a prostitute. This leads to more unpleasantries about his son’s lack of skill, his cowardice, and his audacity at bringing a Wildling to his dinner table.
But Gilly, in defending Sam and his bravery at the Wall, lets slip that they met up North beyond the Wall, accidentally revealing herself as a Wildling to Randyll, who is none too pleased to host her at his table. Randyll declares Gilly to serve in the kitchens and to have Little Sam raised at Horn Hill, and Sam is to leave immediately the following morning. But Sam, unwilling to be separated from Gilly and Little Sam knowing the kinds of methods his father could take, takes them away with him in the dead of night, stealing his family’s Valyrian steel sword Heartsbane for good measure.
With Tywin Lannister and Stannis Baratheon disposed of, the show had to find another bad dad to take their place, and it would appear that Randyll Tarly is indeed the father.
At the Twins…
We return to perhaps the most hated character outside of the late Joffrey and the currently most hated Ramsay Bolton: Walder Frey, who orchestrated the Red Wedding. We find that Frey is none too happy that Riverrun was lost to Brynden Tully, who they refer to as Blackfish. He speaks to Lothar Frey and Walder Rivers who played their parts in the Red Wedding to take it back, but urge Walder that their lack of manpower is nowhere near what it needs to be to be to pull off such a feat. But Walder has a trick under his sleeves, and sends his men to bring forth their trump card: Edmure Tully, the heir to House Tully, who has apparently been held hostage since the Red Wedding.
It is no doubt unfortunate to see Walder Frey return to the mix, especially given that his actions resulted in the Boltons taking Winterfell and the current instability of the North. Now, he looks to reclaim Riverrun from the Tullys, who have close ties to the Starks thanks to Catelyn Tully. The Riverlands should be busy over the season’s final stretch as Jamie rides to meet with Brynden and Jon and Sansa aim to have them as potential allies in their fight against Ramsay.
Across the Narrow Sea:
In Braavos
We rejoin Arya in Braavos at the set of the play yet again, where the stage actors reenact the deaths of Joffrey and Tywin Lannister, albeit with more comedic results. Set to assassinate the actress Lady Crane, Arya slips the poison into her drink as she observed from before. However, she has a conversation with Crane herself, in which she comments on the means of facelessness and having to portray so many parts as an actor. Realizing that she does not have it in her to kill people blindly that she doesn’t know, Arya quickly smacks the poisoned glass out of her hand just before Crane takes her fatal sip. She quickly departs the scene, but not before the Waif catches wind of her actions.
Knowing that she can never become No One, Arya quickly retrieves her sword Needle from its hiding place near the House of Black and White before going underground herself. Meanwhile, the Waif retrieves the orders from Jaqen to kill Arya. It appears time for a Stark face to become added to the Hall of Faces.
It was only a matter of time before Arya blew this chance. Now, with no reason to stay in Braavos, Arya has become a target of the House of Black and White, and is now on the run once again. But where will she head next? There aren’t really anymore places that she could go to bound for Essos. Best guess is the next ship bound for Westeros.
Somewhere between Meereen & Vaes Dothrak
We don’t get much of Daenerys this week, but it’s enough to get the point across. With Daario telling her that Meereen is about a week away, Daenerys appears to sense something and demands to ride ahead alone. After a few minutes of awkward milling around, Daario is set to see what is taking her, but she returns riding as the Mother of Dragons should: mounted atop Drogon, who makes his first appearance of the season.
From the back of Drogon, Daenerys delivers forth a rousing speech to her newly acquired Dothraki soldiers, taking them back to oath that Khal Drogo proclaimed to her back in season one to take back what belongs to her, and that the time has come to officially carry out that oath: the invasion of Westeros and reclaiming the Iron Throne. It appears that the sight of their Khalessi on dragonback has got them riled enough to fight for her cause. For those few Dothraki soliders who might have doubted her after she walked naked out of a burning building without any burns, there certainly shouldn’t be any doubts about her now.
What We Know…..
While the episode was among the lowest this season in terms of shock value, it was a time for a couple of long lost characters to return to the fold.
The return of Benjen Stark was arguably the biggest reveal this week, and now he looks set to accompany Bran and Meera on wherever their paths take them as his nephew deals with the responsibilities set upon his shoulders.
The High Sparrow’s power and influence continues to rise in King’s Landing, swaying the naive and gullible Tommen to his side while outmaneuvering Jamie and the Tyrells in the process. Even Olenna Tyrell can’t help but state how this religious fanatic beat them yet again. With Tommen and Margaery as converts, the Faith’s influence and power will only spread further while those of the noble houses continue to diminish. For now, this alliance appears to be a strategy that, long-term, could still lead towards inevitable bloodshed from both sides.But for now, this week the winning hand goes to the High Sparrow, who can now claim the legitimate backing of the crown.
The big question should be Margaery’s aims in all of this. Could she have swayed Tommen to commit to this alliance? In previous episodes, she is clearly not wowed or converted by the Faith’s method of declaring sinners and remains committed to getting her brother Loras free. Clearly, both sides are manipulating Tommen with all they have, and it’s only a matter of time before something gives way and bloodshed becomes unavoidable. We got another reminder of Cersei’s impending trial by combat that is coming soon, people should be clamoring to see The Mountain in action yet again, though just who the Faith select as their combatant remains to be seen. May the showrunners choose to bring back a certain brother to fill that void?
Sam’s family reunion went about as well as one should expect from a father who disowned and threatened to kill his own son if he didn’t join the Night’s Watch. His decision to take Gilly and Little Sam away in the dead of night was probably smart move, especially given his father’s method for “potential accidents.” Stealing the Tully’s sword Heartsbane was a pretty bold move, one that will certainly have dear old Randyll enraged to no end. With what we’ve seen that Valyrian steel can do, knowing who possesses these swords is invaluable information given the ever looming threat of the White Walkers.
The re-introduction of Walder Frey brings an extra layer into the Riverlands plotline. His plans to retake the castle Riverrun involves leveraging Edmure Tully, who has been kept hostage by Frey since the Red Wedding. With Jamie riding for the Riverlands next week, a reunion with Brynden Tully is in the works, and it appears as though he is not looking to step aside anytime soon. How this encounter works out could also affect Jon and Sansa, who will be looking to House Tully for aid to bolster their own forces. Both were absent this week, though no doubt we will hear plenty from them in the home stretch as they rally Northern forces to retake Winterfell. Ramsay was also absent this week (no complaints there).
Admittedly, we didn’t get too much time with the Mother of Dragons this week, but it was certainly enough to reaffirm what many already knew: she is ready to invade Westeros to take back the Iron Throne. That alone makes the show shift more towards one of the biggest endgames of the series.
Unfortunately, we had no Tyrion and Varys banter this week either. With Dany on her way back with a massive army behind her, the stage is getting set for preparations for the long-awaited Westeros invasion. Though, besides the Sons of the Harpy, the biggest problem is their lack of ships to contain her forces. If only a certain someone would be kind enough to bring Dany a large offering of ships in the near future…
And Now Their Watch Has Ended:
Several wights, House of Black & White Victim (a surprisingly clean episode this week)
