HOLD THE DOOR! - This week's episode of Game of Thrones did not fail to deliver in every possible way, a new King rose, we have some more theories confirmed, and we got to see the origin of a species we have been fixated on since the very first scene of this show.
As always I am issuing a SPOILER WARNING for this post, so if you haven't had the chance to watch this episode yet, then please go watch it and come back here when you're done.
Castle Black
While Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) is sewing in her quarters at Castle Black, a Brother of the Night's Watch enters and hands her a letter while bears a familiar crest. She goes to meet Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) in the brothel in Mole's Town, which was completely destroyed at the hands of Ygritte (Rose Leslie) in the show's fourth season. But Sansa hasn't gone to see him completely alone, she is smarter than that, she has brought Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) along to protect her.
Littlefinger is apparently here to save her, he has the Knights of the Vale camped just outside of Moat Cailin waiting for his go ahead to strike at the Boltons. Sansa doesn't want to talk about soldiers, she is finally becoming a player in the great game, she knows that Littlefinger knew all about Ramsay. If he didn't know he would be an idiot, and Sansa knows all too well that Littlefinger is no idiot. Sansa then asks him what he thinks Ramsay did to her, and is insistent that he answer her question.
Littlefinger guesses that Ramsay beat her, and also that he cut her. So by his own poor wording he has shown that he knew all about her Husband's wicked ways. Littlefinger tries to plead with her saying that he made a mistake, Sansa says that she can still feel what he did inside of her (possible pregnancy speculation), and that Littlefinger saved her from one set of monsters who killed her parents while handing her to the other set of parent killing monsters.
Sansa then threatens Littlefinger's life, I think she genuinely wants him to die here, but Sansa is becoming smarter and more calculated. She tells him that she doesn't need him or trust him, and that she and her Brother will take back the North on their own. Littlefinger is defeated but he does give Sansa a parting gift, knowledge of her great Uncle the Blackfish (Clive Russell) and his army at Riverrun.
I really do have no idea what Littlefinger is doing, did he know that Sansa would be cold with him? I honestly think that he is about twenty moves ahead of us all. I do not trust him with Sansa, I don't think he does actually love her, I am questioning his love for Cat at this point, because if he did truly love her he wouldn't have started the game that got her killed in the first place. I also think he is trying to come between Sansa and Jon, especially as he reminded her that it wasn't her army.
Jon Snow (Kit Harington) is getting frustrated while discussing military tactics in the Lord Commander's quarters with Dolorous Edd (Ben Crompton), Sansa, Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham), Melisandre (Carice van Houten), Brienne, and Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju). Jon seems to be frustrated about the number of men the Bolton's have, and Davos talks about the Umber's and the Karstarks who have already declared for the enemy.
Sansa thinks the Umber's should hang, but tries to make the point that the Karstarks didn't think they had any other choice. It would make sense however if Davos did not point out the fact that her brother Robb killed Lord Karstark and made a huge enemy that day. Sansa tries to counter Davos by telling him that he doesn't know the North, the men there are different, but he again reminds her that none of these loyal Northerners stood up when the Starks were being murdered.
Jon has an idea, the smaller houses of the North when added together have an equal number to that of the bigger houses, they will start small. Sansa tells the them that the North Remembers, Davos points out that Jon does not have the Stark name to unite the North behind him, but she reminds him that she is the daughter of Eddard Stark and a Stark by name.
This does hurt Jon in the moment, she does try to stick up for Jon's claim so I think it may have not stung too much. Sansa then shares the information she'd gotten earlier from Littlefinger, her plan to unite forces with Brynden "Blackfish" Tully in Riverrun. Davos seemed very excited by this prospect calling the Blackfish a legend, and happy that this could mean equal numbers in the battle to come. Sansa lies about how she came across this information, saying it came to Winterfell before her escape.
Outside Brienne is in a bad mood with Sansa, she doesn't want to go away to Riverrun leaving Sansa in the care of all those imbeciles. Brienne trusts Jon even if he is a bit broody, but she doesn't trust Davos and Melisandre as they flip flop their allegiances at a moment's notice. She especially doesn't trust that Wildling fellow, oh Brienne you're so transparent, but Sansa reminds her that Jon is not any of them, he's her Brother and Sansa trusts him.
Brienne then brings up the fact that Sansa lied to Jon about the information she got from Littlefinger, if Sansa trusts him as much as she says then she wouldn't be lying to him. Sansa is now outside waiting to leave, she has made herself a new dress with a direwolf embroidered in it, she also made Jon a cloak which looks similar to the one their Father wore. Sansa is really smart, Jon looks like a Stark, put him in a Ned like cloak, and the people of the North will instantly get behind him.
Jon puts his new Stark cloak on, and says a heartfelt goodbye to his Brothers and Dolorous Edd. As they are leaving Tormund and Brienne have another great scene in which he is smiling at her like she's the biggest piece of chocolate he's ever seen. Edd then has a moment where he realises that he is The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, I suppose if a Lord Commander comes back from the dead and names you Lord Commander then there is no fighting with it.
They leave without Ghost, I purposefully looked, unless Ghost was scouting ahead the group for a bunch of tasty enemies, I better see that Direwolf next to Jon in the next episode or I may start to get worried. I am looking forward to see some romance blooming, and I really hope that Tormund goes along with Brienne on her trip to Riverrun.
Book speculation - Do all you book readers think that Brienne will take on her book story while she makes her way to Riverrun? I doubt there will be an appearance by a certain character but it would be great to see it happen on the show. She could potentially land in Riverrun in the next episode with the speed that the show is currently going, but I think they will need to at least show part of her journey.
Braavos
Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) is stick fighting with the Waif (Faye Marsay) again, Arya gets struck down again, but she gets up. The Waif then throws her stick away and starts fighting against Arya without it. Arya is truly beaten and even has her own stick taken off of her. Jaqen H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) is watching from the exchange from the shadows as the Waif calls her Arya Stark, and states that she will never be one of them.
Jaqen agrees with the Waif, and he takes Arya with him to the Hall of Faces. He tells her the story about the history of the Faceless men, he states that the where slaves who all prayed to different gods, the slaves realized that all these different Gods that they prayed too where all the same and the Many Faced God was born. They fled from their slaver's to the island, and Braavos was born. This is slightly different to the explanation given in the book because it wasn't just the Faceless Men but I'll give it a pass.
Jaqen shows her the faces of the First Faceless Men, he has given a girl a second chance, but if she was not to go off her assignment again she would not be given a third. Arya goes to the theatre to watch what I could only describe as the first season of the show. The actors play Cersei, King Robert, Joffrey, Tyrion, and Ned. Arya has to watch her father's beheading being mock and laughed at by the surrounding crowd as and I can do nothing but feel horrible for her in this moment.
After the play we are treated to the closest shot of something I do not wish to describe so please don't let me, anyway the actor playing Joffrey shows off his warts. Arya is watching the actors backstage, to find out how they interact with each other. She is watching closely and finds out some key information about these actors.
Arya then takes this information back to Jaqen, the Lady playing Cersei would be easy to poison as she only drinks rum. She has figured out that the actress playing Sansa is jealous of actress Cersei as she is a much better actress and gets all the good lines. She keeps asking questions which seems to infuriate Jaqen as he keeps reminding her that a girl doesn't ask questions, she does the will of the Many Faced God.
I just can't seem to trust the Faceless Men, I understand that they have took her in, and offered her safety but I just get a League of Assassins vibe from this lot. I can't seem to trust that they won't turn Arya into this mindless drone who they will use to kill anyone their God wants. Maybe I've just been watching too much Arrow recently, but I just can't seem to help thinking that they are up to something.
Kingsmoot
The Captain's are summoned and are ready to crown a new King (or Queen) of the Iron Islands. Now you may not think that this is important but the Iron Islands have been having a pretty hard time of it, they have lost a lot of men and resources during this war, and if not taking in the right direction the Ironborn could lose everything.
The Damphair (Michael Feast) asks the group if anyone would like to make a claim for the Seastone Chair. Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) steps forward and makes her claim to rule the Iron Islands. While she is making her speech she is met with cries that no woman has ever or will ever sit in the Seastone Chair. She counters it making the point that they have never done a lot before, they are constantly getting swatted down by the Lords of Westeros, and she is sick of it.
A Captain comes forward to tell her to stop as she could never hold a claim while Balon's male heir Theon (Alfie Allen) is here. Everyone looks towards Theon, for a moment it may seem that he will go against his sister by making his own claim, but instead Theon throws his support behind his sister. Theon backs his sister as she has been on the Iron Islands, she is Ironborn, and she will be their Queen.
For a brief moment it seems like they may actually do it, that is until Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) swaggers in and just ruins everything. Euron mocks Theon saying the reason he's backing his sister to become Queen is because he doesn't have a cock. He actually admits to throwing his own brother off the rope bridge to his death, because apparently no one likes Balon, and he even apologises for not doing it sooner.
Theon continues to stick up for Yara, Euron asks Yara what she would do, and when she answers that she would build ships he actually steals her argument from her and reveals his own plan. He wants to take Daenerys Targaryen some ships and offer her an alliance with the Ironborn for her hand in marriage. They will come back, and take over Westeros alongside her Dragons. The crowd choose and chant for Euron.
While Euron is being drowned in his crowning ceremony, Theon and Yara gather up men and head straight for some ships. Euron has been successfully drowned, is dragged onto shore, and is left face up to complete his ceremony. They wait for him to cough the water from his lungs, after a long pause he manages to bring himself back with no cpr. Euron is crowned, but instantly looks for his niece and nephew. He searches for them but finds that instead of staying they have fled with his best ships.
This was a tad disappointing for me, the book had an added pezaz, so my expectations were pretty high when it came to this storyline. I missed the horn, and think it would had added some mystery to this scene. I understand that the story needs to be streamlined and that would add a whole new layer to the story. But I do like the actor playing Euron, even if that let's go murder them line was a bit too on the nose, I still enjoy the Theon and Yara dynamic, so I'm not too disappointed.
Vaes Dothrak
Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), Daario (Michiel Huisman), and Ser Jorah (Iain Glen) are discussing what Dany should so with Jorah for being banished twice and still coming back. Dany states that he saved her, so she can't banish him, and she can't ask him to stay at her side. Jorah suggests that he be banished and shows Dany the Gray Scale which has spread on his arm.
Jorah tells Dany that Tyrion was right, he does love her, he will always love her, and he walks away from her. She calls after him with tears in her eyes, she tells him that he was not dismissed from his Queen and to come back at once. Jorah obeys at once, Dany tells him that she is ordering him to find the cure, to search far and wide, and then to come back to her.
Jorah looks as though he will obey, even if I think he may give up with his search pretty quickly, Dany wants him by his side while she conquers Westeros so hopefully he doesn't give up too soon. Then Jorah gets on his horse, and leaves his Queen, let's hope it's not for good this time.
Meereen
In a small council meeting Varys (Conleth Hill) asks Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) about the death count in the past two weeks since they made peace with the Maesters. No freedmen have been killed, and only two Masters have died but this was on the day the peace was made. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) thinks that the people must know about the peace that the Queen has brought them.
Tyrion wants to find someone who will tell the small folk of this deed, someone that they will trust at their word, who can't be bought, and who isn't some foreigner to the people of Meereen. Varys thinks that this plan sounds great but can't think of any man who could fit this criteria. But Tyrion wasn't thinking of a man.
In the Throne Room, a Red Priest is introducing a Red Priestess who we have yet to meet to Tyrion and Varys. She is Kinvara (Ania Bukstein), the High Priestess of the Red Temple of Volantis, so I think this means that she is one of the top people in this religion as her title also includes First Servant of the Lord of Light.
As Tyrion talks to Kinvara she just stares at him, I don't know if this is because she has taken an interest in him, which could mean anything when it comes to a Red Priestess, or if it means that she is just trying to read him, but it was pretty creepy. Kinvara then cuts in to tell Tyrion that she will follow Dany, as she believes that Daenerys is the Prince that was Promised.
Varys is however sceptical about her loyalty, she mentions the Red Priestess Melisandre who thought that Stannis was this Promised Prince, she believed it even when he was beaten in King's Landing by Tyrion himself, and continued to believe that he was up until he was killed in battle by the Boltons. Varys wants to know why he can trust her when one of her own made such a grave mistake.
Kinvara then starts to speak about destiny, how it was his destiny to become powerful since that night he became a eunuch. She speaks about the voice that Varys heard from the sorcerer's fire that night, and how he still remembers the words the Lord spoke to him. Varys looks genuinely terrified when she speaks of this but we don't find out what the voice said. She instead tells Varys that a true servant of the Queen has nothing to fear from her.
Although the time in Meereen was short this week I really did enjoy it, and I really want to know what Varys heard in that fire. But I guess that will have to wait for another time. I would also really like to see if those Dragons are actually flying around outside or are still in the base of the pyramid, but I suppose it costs a lot for those scenes to be shot.
Under the Weirwood
Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and the Three Eyed Raven (Max von Sydow) have travelled back to a time where the Children of the Forest where at war with Men. The location looks beautiful, there is a huge Weirwood tree with stones placed in a weird spiral shape which we have definitely seen before (dead wildlings from the first episode of the series).
The Children of the Forest are their, they follow them towards the centre of the tree, and Bran watches as they talk to each other in a huddle. Leaf (Kae Alexander) takes a Dragonglass dagger and plunges it into the heart of one of the first men (who is played by the same actor as the Night's King). The man's eyes instantly turning blue meaning that those pesky Children of the Forest created this ticking time bomb.
This was a huge development, but when Bran comes back to present day Leaf explains that the Children of the Forest where dying and they felt like they had no other option. They grew out of control, and have been amassing an army for potentially thousands of years. Could they not have warned the humans about this and prepared them for the war to come?
Later Bran wakes up underneath the Weirwood tree, his curiosity gets the better of him and he reaches out to touch the roots of the tree. Bran is back in the same place where the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers. However instead of the land being rich with color, it is instead covered in blankets of snow.
The Army of Wights is behind him looking at the tree, they don't seem to notice Bran as he makes his way through them, the army is huge and it takes him a while to make it through them all. He sees the Night's King (Richard Brake), and his henchmen who are all seated on dead horses. The Night's King notices that they have a guest.
Bran turns to get away but all the Wight's are staring at him, before he can do anything The Night's King is off his horse, and he touches Bran on the arm leaving a mark. Bran wakes up to tell the Three Eyed Raven what he saw, but he already knows that he touched Bran, and that now means that he can get through their protection. At first Bran doesn't believe it but when he checks the mark is still their.
The Three Eyed Raven must now transfer all he has seen over to Bran because the Night's King is coming for him and they don't have much time. He also tells him that he has no choice but to do this as Bran is not ready to take his place.
There is so much speculation going around this action, some people now see Bran as the Harry Potter of the Game of Thrones universe, marked by an enemy. Others believe that due to his marking that if Bran where to cross the wall that it meant the Night's King could also cross. I don't know how I feel about both these theories as of yet, but as always I think Bran survival could be key in the episodes to come.
The Three Eyed Raven is still downloading his knowledge into Bran, they are both watching a young Ned Stark (Sebastian Croft) who is about to leave his home to be fostered at the Eyrie. In the present Meera Reed (Ellie Kendrick) is happily packing to leave that boring place, and she is talking to Hodor (Kristian Nairn) about going home and eating something more substantial that moss. The Hodor that is given when she mentions blood sausage is one of my favorites so far.
Meera breathes out and freezes as she notices the sudden chill that has filled the air. She quickly comes to her senses and runs to the cave entrance where she is greeted by the army of the undead. The Night's King stares at her as he walks forward, places his hand on the ground, and breaks the protective spell that the Children of the Forest had cast.
Leaf, tells Meera to get Bran and run while she and the other Children of the Forest takes out some wights out with explosives. Meera tries to wake Bran up but she can't seem to pull him back to the present. She also tries to lift Bran but she can't seem to drag him onto the sled. Hodor is terrified shaking back and forth in the corner and he can't help her with Bran.
The Children of the Forest light a ring of fire to stop the wight's from infiltrating their cave, but the Night's King and his Lieutenants aren't phased by a little bit of fire (which might be a bad sign later), and they easily walk through it. The fire does keep the Wight's at bay, and it forces them to climb the sides of the cave, as Meera gets Bran, who is still in the past on his sled.
In Winterfell Lord Rickard Stark (Wayne Foskett) makes his first onscreen appearance as he says goodbye to Ned. The speech he gives him is not that much of an honorable one, he basically telling Ned not to fight but if he has to fight then win, maybe the Starks might not be as honorable as they are all made out to be.
In the present Meera is trying to wake Bran up telling him that they need Hodor as wights are breaking into the cave. Leaf and Meera manage to protect him by fighting some of them off, but Hodor is still scared in the corner. Bran hears her in his vision, the Three Eyed Raven tells him to do as she asks and he wargs into future Hodor as young Willas (Sam Coleman) is mending the stables in the past.
A White Walker appears in their section of the cave but Meera fights him off with a Dragonglass spear, which she then leaves as she runs with Bran, Hodor, and Leaf from the cave. Meera shouts on Summer to come with her but she doesn't listen and they killed yet another Direwolf on this show. They all better be resurrected by the end of this season or so help me I may revolt. Leave the pups alone.
The Three Eyed Raven has been left defenceless in the present, and The Night's King stares at him in his tree. In the past he tells Bran that it is now time, that he must leave him, and he evaporates into a thousands pieces in front of his eyes. In the present Leaf sacrifices herself by letting the Wight's attack her while she takes a huge group of them out with an explosion.
They get to the door but there are too many Wight's following them, and Meera keeps shouting at Hodor to hold the door and Hodor continues to do so even when he is being ripped apart by wights. In the past Willas looks straight at Bran, he wargs and then collapses into a fit. Willas keeps shouting, "Hold the Door," over and over, seeing his own death, until he can only mutter the phrase Hodor.
Thoughts and Predictions
Well that episode bummed me out to no end. It was almost perfectly executed but it still stings six whole days after I watched it. I loved Hodor, so I was pretty happily that he has at least gone out being a hero. I noticed on my second viewing that Bran never warged into present Hodor, so it may have just been because Bran was in his vicinity at the wrong time. I always thought that he had warged into a horse, stayed too long, or the horse died while he had warged into him but I was completely wrong.
I think Bran and Meera are in need of a protector in the next episode, I would hope that we get an appearance from Coldhands, or Benjen, or both? I don't like the thought of them both being completely helpless as the next episodes trailer shows that they are still being chased by an army of the undead. Look's like we will be getting a pretend walk of shame next episode, why is Margaery's hair not shaved?
What do you think will happen next episode? Please comment with some of your theories below, I do love reading a good Game of Thrones theory, the tinfoiled the better.
Pictures courtesy of HBO
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