This week on Game of Thrones, Bronn makes his season 6 return (yayyyyy!) and Ian McShane guest stars. My thoughts on the episode are after the jump.
Oh boy, something is about to snap. The show has been biding its time this season. Sure, we have had many shocks and interesting developments so far, this is Game of Thrones we are talking about here, but we have not had that moment yet. The moment that defines the entire season. I would argue that season 5's "moment" was episode 8's Hardhome sequence. That was an incredible episode that ranks among the greatest the show has ever given us and it came out of nowhere. The difference here in season 6 is that I feel like we are being set up meticulously with every single episode. We can see how characters are going to clash and we know that shit is going to hit the fan. Just from how tense everything is getting and how it feels like we are right on the edge of some huge revelation, I can sense a bloodbath coming and it is coming at any second. This episode was not that moment, but it feels like the final dominos are up and ready to fall. This is going to be brutal.
This episodes "big reveal" is this guy here:
The Hound is alive! How many of you were absolutely sure that he would be back? We did not see him actually die on screen, so many people were apprehensive about him being gone for sure. Turns out those feelings were correct because here he is! And it looks like he is now buddies with a shockingly not-aggressive Ian McShane. Well, I guess he was buddies with Ian McShane. This was his one and only episode because he was killed right away by the Brotherhood Without Banners (which is incredibly out of character). This bummed me out because every scene McShane had was riveting. He is without a doubt one of our best veteran actors so he offered the show a great amount of gravitas. In fact, his time on the show was so limited that I think this was a lost opportunity for the show to have some amazing character interactions involving McShane. Granted, there are already a ton of characters to keep track of, especially since many of them are being resurrected or brought back from some other terrible fate, so I guess the show would not have had time to include him without taking the focus away from characters who could use the screen time. We did not even see Dany or Bran this week! Regardless, I really enjoyed his time on the show and I am sad that we will not get any more.
By the way, as I pointed out earlier, what is up with Brotherhood? They struck me as the Robin Hood type; out to help others while serving the Lord of Light. Slaughtering a whole group of harmless pacifists seems very not brotherly. I have no idea why they would be targeting a group like this... unless they knew The Hound would be there to witness it. Maybe someone new is leading the Brotherhood that may have it out for this particular Clegane brother...? (cough cough popular book reader theories cough cough)
Side note: with the episode's title and the different conversations with Ian McShane's character and with the High Sparrow, I liked the emphasis on faith and spirituality this week. The show is showing us types of faith both humble and sensational and I find it incredibly fascinating. The show has always done a great job of showing conflicts from different sides and world views.
We got another character return this week in the form of Bronn! I wonder what he has been up to lately. He is apparently really loyal to Jaime though because he trekked with him all the way to the much contested Riverrun. They were not the only ones there either. Walder Frey's men were also there to try to reclaim the castle, but were embarrassingly unsuccessful, even with the Tully cousin at knife point. Jaime was not so successful either, with Blackfish just merely acknowledging him without being open to negotiations at all. This part of the episode was not as involving as the rest of the whole in my opinion. It was important for the reason of getting some of our characters in one location which I have previously predicted will start exploding in violence, but not much else. We will follow up on this next week, I am sure.
Back in a Jaime-less King's Landing, Lady Olenna and Cersei had one of my favorite interactions of the night. Olenna calling Cersei on her dim-witted garbage was so satisfying. Cersei seemed to be impressed even. Of course, Olenna was especially upset, not only because of their failure involving their High Sparrow siege, but because Queen Margaery seems to be completely converted to the spiritual mumbo jumbo like her decidedly foolish husband. At least, that is what it seems like. She was being watched by the "shame!" woman like a hawk with a mouse so she had to put on a show. Her passing the family sigil to her mother confirmed that there was something else going on behind the facade. I am not sure what Margaery is able to do here though. She does not seem to be engaging with King Tommen as well, so her true intentions are unclear to me. If any readers have ideas for what she could be up to, feel free to chime in the comments and let me know!
This was a packed episode. I did not even touch on Jon and Sansa yet, who were busy gathering Mormount men (well, some at least) and Wildlings this week. We also had Theon and Yara confirming that they intend to go join forces with Dany and Tyrion in Meereen, which is very exciting. The last thing I wanted to touch on though was the other "big moment" of the episode. Arya got freaking stabbed! Like, tons of times! Quite the Stark family tradition this is turning out to be! Do I think she is dead? Hell no. She is going to be just fine. How this will be accomplished; another mystery. Braavos is known for having incredibly talented citizens in different trades, but I doubt a regular doctor or healer could handle that many gut stabs. I love how the tables turned on Arya though. In an episode where we saw The Hound return, we last see Arya in a very similar predicament to what we last saw of him, but with a key difference. The Hound was left dying alone, but was saved by a good Samaritan who found him. Arya is bleeding from an obvious mortal wound, but she is surrounded by hundreds of people. Not a single person cares to help. It seems to me that Arya has become what she has despised from the very beginning. Even one of the worst people in Westeros was shown mercy and was given a better path. No one lifted a finger to save Arya as she stumbled through that crowded street. Maybe she succeeded in becoming "No One" after all.
All in all, this was a fascinating episode with plenty of exciting developments. I stand by my first statement. Blood is about to spill. I am guessing that this rumored "Battle of the Bastards" is going to be our traditional "giant episode 9" and we only have one more episode to focus on everything else before then. Next week is going to be a doozy.
Grade: B.
Game of Thrones airs every Sunday on HBO.
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