Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 4 is out – let’s have a look.
At the Wall, Jon tells Edd he’s gonna go south and “get warm”, which seems pretty
fair after the shit Jon’s been through.
He’s been attacked by zombies, torn up by an eagle, shot by his lover, strangled by
a Thenn, stabbed by Karl Tanner, beat up by walkers, and finally fuckin murdered by his
own men – so if anyone deserves a holiday, it’s Jon.
But the vacation is delayed when Brienne, Pod and Sansa arrive at Castle Black.
Jon and Sansa haven’t seen each other since Season 1, in fact we’ve never even seen
them talk to each other in the show or books til now, cause they were never really close
– Sansa was always the lady, off doing ladylike things, while Jon was ever the bastard, an
outsider, moping in the shadows.
But now, after all that their family has been through, their relationship means so much,
so it’s beautiful to see the two unite.
Anyway Sansa wants to retake Winterfell and wreck Ramsay’s shit up, though Jon is reluctant
– for now.
But by the way – does Sansa know that Jon died and was resurrected?
Is he not gonna bring that up?
Sansa has so far been separated from the supernatural in this series, so it’ll be interesting
to see how she reacts when she finds out her brother is a zombie.
Anyway.
Davos, Melisandre and Brienne meet and quickly establish they’ve all got beef with each
another – Melisandre used blood magic to kill Renly Baratheon, who Brienne loved.
Brienne killed Stannis Baratheon, who Davos and Mel were loyal to.
And though Davos doesn’t yet know it, Mel burned Shireen, who Davos loved like a daughter.
So basically all these guys have reasons to hate each other, which could possibly lead
to conflict in the future.
Down in the Vale, we see Robin Arryn, son of Lysa Arryn, who Littlefinger murdered a
couple seasons ago, and of Jon Arryn, who Littlefinger convinced Lysa to murder before
that.
Robin has spent a season in the care of Yohn Royce, but that doesn’t seem to have made
him a better warrior – he shoulda done a training montage like Arya.
Yohn Royce is actually kind of a cool character.
In the books, he’s called “Bronze Yohn”, for the ancient bronze armour he wears, “engraved
with magic runes” . His son Robar joins Renly Baratheon’s Kingsguard, and ends up
killed by Loras in a rage after Renly’s death, and Yohn’s third son is Waymar, the
Watchman from Episode 1 who’s killed by a white walker.
Anyway Royce is Littlefinger’s biggest political opponent in the Vale . So when Littlefinger
turns up, Yohn’s all like I think you gave Sansa to the Boltons, so Littlefinger’s
all like I think you gave Sansa to the Boltons.
Of course, Yohn is right, but Lord Robin sides with Littlefinger – cause Petyr keeps buttering
him up with these gifts.
So long as Robin’s under Littlefinger’s thumb, there isn’t much the Lords of the
Vale can do against him – the falcon is the sigil of House Arryn, so this caged falcon
could symbolise Littlefinger’s control of the Vale.
Also Littlefinger says he’s gonna use the knights of the Vale against the Boltons to
get back Sansa – so these guys could be instrumental in the upcoming battle for Winterfell.
In the latest instalment of one girl, two eunuchs and a dwarf, Tyrion negotiates a peace
with the cities of Slaver’s Bay, by allowing them to slowly phase out slavery instead of
straight-up banning it as Dany wanted.
Of course, this upsets the ex-slaves, including Grey Worm, Missandei, and the freedmen of
Meereen.
But Tyrion argues that they have to make some kind of deal or the whole situation will fall
apart – which is a great illustration how politics works, right?
It’s easy to say let’s bring peace and justice for all, but sometimes that’s not
possible.
Sometimes, you gotta compromise, you gotta choose between two evils.
It’s like how Jon decided to bring wildlings south of the Wall – that did threaten the
Watch, and broke their traditions and values, but it was necessary to stop the white walkers
growing stronger.
All that said, as clever as Tyrion may be, he doesn’t really know he’s talking about
here.
Like Grey Worm says, Tyrion doesn’t know the cultures of Slaver’s Bay, nor does he
know true horror of being a slave, so even if he’s right that they’ve gotta compromise,
he may be overconfident here.
This uneasy peace may not last.
Meanwhile, the Super Daario Brothers track Daenerys to Vaes Dothrak.
Daario sees Jorah’s greyscale, and Jorah is like, nah don’t worry about this highly
contagious incurable fatal disease that turns you into a zombie, it’ll be fine.
No doubt Daario will be looking for an opportunity to put Jorah down, cause, really, that stuff
could spread – and a grey plague is the last thing anyone needs right now…
Anyway, Jorah and Daario go on a super sneaky mission to rescue Dany in Vaes Dothrak, and
it doesn’t go very well.
Jorah seems a bit rusty in combat, maybe the spreading stone is slowing him, and Daario
splatters a body with a rock, cause, stealth!
Dany sits through a lecture from the dosh khaleen, then makes a friend, heads out, meets
Jorah and Daario, and devises a plan.
In King’s Landing, Margaery is still with the sparrows – and she’s looking real
fine for someone who’s been pooping in a bucket for weeks.
She meets with the High Sparrow, who tries to win her over with a speech about – the
moral emptiness of Westerosi materialism?
He seems to be speaking from the heart, but it doesn’t convince Marge.
Marge gets to meet with her brother Loras, and Loras is a wreck, desperate to get out
of his dungeon, though he’s still probably better off than where he’s at in the books
– in Dance, Cersei sends Loras to retake Dragonstone, where he gets deep-fried by a
pot of boiling oil – at least we’re told that’s what happened – some fans believe
that’s a lie, and he’s secretly fine – but anyway.
Tommen meets his mother and seems a bit torn between Cersei and the High Sparrow, who he
had that lovely chat with last episode.
Tommen then tells Cersei a secret that the High Sparrow told him, and the secret seems
to be that the Sparrow’s planning a walk of shame for Marge, cause that’s what Cersei
then tells Olenna and Kevan.
She convinces them use a Tyrell army to take out the High Sparrow.
Olenna agrees, cause she wants to free her grandchildren Marge and Loras, and Kevan agrees
in the hope of getting back his son Lancel, the dopey kid with the funny hat from Season
1 who was wounded at the Blackwater and ended up joining the sparrows.
By the way – Jamie doesn’t seem to know that Cersei had an affair with Lancel – maybe
he’ll find out and break up with Cersei.
Anyway all agree to take out the Sparrow with force, and by the looks of these shots from
the trailer – it looks like the Tyrells will have no trouble overwhelming the sparrows
– or could there be more going on here?
We know the Sparrow’s good at manipulating Tommen.
Maybe he told Tommen his plans for Margaery knowing that Tommen would tell Cersei, and
knowing that Cersei would respond with force.
Maybe this all part of the Sparrow’s plan and he’s got something special up his sleeve
to deal with these soldiers.
We’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, Theon Greyjoy returns to the Iron Islands.
Last time he came, he was a swaggering overproud douchebag, now he’s a broken man.
The tragedy of Theon is that all he ever really wanted was a family.
He was born a Greyjoy of Pyke, but after the Greyjoy rebellion, he was taken as a sort
of a hostage by the Starks.
Eddard treated him kindly, but he never felt truly accepted , which led him to betray the
Starks for the Greyjoys, but he soon found he wasn’t accepted by them either.
Theon has done terrible things, but only to be loved.
And of course, no one deserves the torture that he suffered at Ramsay’s hands.
So all this just makes it sadder that his sister’s so mad with him, for his terrible
choices, and for wasting her men in that failed rescue attempt in Season 4.
At first she thinks Theon now wants to claim the Seastone Chair, but Theon says he wants
to support Yara in her claim to the throne of the Iron Islands.
It’s not clear how Theon could help – cause the ironmen respect strength, and Theon isn’t
strong right now, so we’ll see how that goes.
Either way, we’ve got a kingsmoot coming, an election of the new ruler of the ironborn.
Asha and Euron both have awesome speeches in this chapter of the book, hopefully some
of that will make it into the show.
At Winterfell, Ramsay tries to be intimidating, but Osha brings the sass – pointing out
that while he may flay people, at least he doesn’t eat them, like the Thenns do, beyond
the Wall.
Osha tries to seduce Ramsay – a tactic she’s used before – and for a moment it looks
like she might kill him, but Ramsay’s playing her, he knows she helped Rickon escape Winterfell
before, so he kills her, then keeps on peeling his apple.
The death of Osha is further evidence that the Umbers giving Ramsay Rickon probably isn’t
part of any northern conspiracy, and if it is, the plan’s already going badly.
Back at the Wall, Edd, Jon, Tormund, Pod, Brienne, and Sansa have brunch.
Tormund takes a fancy to Brienne, which is adorable, then a Bolton man arrives with a
letter from Ramsay, demanding Sansa, and threatening all manner of violence and rape and awfulness.
In the books, this letter is known as the “pink letter”.
It arrives before Jon’s death, and there’s lots of mystery surrounding it, like some
readers believe it was actually written by Mance Rayder, who’s still alive in the books.
But in the show it seems more straightforward, it’s pretty clear that the letter was written
by Ramsay, and delivered by a Bolton man.
So Sansa urges Jon to ride south with the wildlings to save Rickon and Winterfell.
The numbers aren’t good – Ramsay apparently has 5,000 men, while there are only 2,000
fighting wildlings, but Sansa suggests they ask the loyal northern houses for help – so
maybe Davos will be sent to White Harbour like in the books – and also we know that
those knights of the Vale are on their way.
So this is all laying the groundwork for a truly massive battle, that some fans are calling
“Bastardbowl”.
Back at Vaes Dothrak, Dany stands before the Dothraki khals, the leaders of all the thousands
and thousands of Dothraki in the city.
Dany gives a speech about how awesome she is, which is just kinda what she does, and
the Dothraki threaten rape, which is kinda what they do.
So Dany burns down the temple with the khals and herself trapped inside, then dramatically
emerges from the flames unharmed and all the Dothraki bow down at her feet –a lot like
the end of Season 1, when Dany rises from a pyre with her dragons.
This scene seems to confirm that, in the show, Daenerys is immune to fire.
In the books, she’s not – Dany gets burned in Dance , and the author George Martin has
said that the Season 1 thing was a one-off magic miracle type thing, but either way,
what’s interesting about this scene is what it means for Dany as a character.
This is a fulfilment of Quaithe’s words, that “To go forward [Daenerys] must go back”
. Dany has gone back to the Dothraki, back to her birth as the Unburnt, back to violence
and fire and blood.
She’s spent so long compromising, chaining her dragons, trying to peacefully rule foreign
cities – this is a return to her roots, back to being a dragon-queen.
Which raises the question – what was the point of the last few seasons then, if she’s
just going back to where she started?
What's the point of a character arc that loops back to where it began, there needs to be
change, right?
Maybe Daenerys will change by going even further in the direction of violence than she ever
has before, maybe she'll burn down the cities of Slaver's Bay, cut a bloody path across
Essos, and arrive at Westeros not as a saviour but as an invader with a horde of Dothraki
barbarians and foreign sellswords, a mad tyrant like her father the Mad King.
Either way, we’ve now had both Jon and Dany reborn this season – Jon from ice and Dany
from fire.
They both have followers thinking they’re some kind of god, they both have red priests
saying they’re Azor Ahai or the prince that was promised, the saviour of the world – however
this story ends, Dany and Jon will be at its centre.
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