Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for all broadcast seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones, all published volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, references to interviews, set reports, informed by wild speculation, and both fire and greenseer visions.
I've got mixed feelings about this one. It was my hope after months of the cast and crew of Game of Thrones lying and stonewalling about the inevitable Jon Snow resurrection story that the show would do everyone a favor and make it Snow. But no. We are going to drag this charade out a bit longer.
The story picks up at the Wall and there is a lot of weird business with Jon Snow's body, Davos, Ghost, and a handful of Nights Watch loyalists. Melisandre pops in to comment on how she saw Jon Snow in the flames battling at Winterfell which goes to show you that she has been looking at the same covert set photos as everyone else. Previously, she had said that she saw herself walking the battlements at Winterfell with the Bolton banners lying in the dirt. I still believe this will come to pass by the end of the season.
Instead of doing the sensible thing and getting the hell away from the Wall, Davos and his new crow friends decide to hole up with Snow's body perhaps to do a whole Weekend at Bernies thing next week. Not only is hanging out with Snow's body awkward and weird it is also dangerous and dead bodies have a habit of turning into wights if they are not quickly burned. Ed goes off to rally the Wildlings...for some reason. It looks like Thorne and his Nights Watch mutineers will be breaking that door down next week so it will be interesting to see what ultimately stops them.
Sansa and Theon flee Winterfell. These two are great and I am buying Theon's redemption totally. He may have a lot to answer for but he clearly is willing to do anything to save Sansa. It is gratifying to have at least some semblance of a family member looking out for her. As the two are beset by Bolton men they are rescued by Brienne who then swears her sword to Sansa in an immensely satisfying scene that makes up for Brienne's taking her eye off the ball in the previous episode and missing the candle in the tower window. Sansa seems to be be taking the first step toward acquiring a power base with someone loyal and competent in her service. It seems team Sansa may be heading towards the Wall and Jon.
Jamie returns to Kings Landing with Myrcella's body. Lena Heady is powerful as she awaits them on the dock and he face goes from joy to sorrow before our eyes as she realizes what has happened. It was interesting to see how Cercei was going to be changed by both her imprisonment the loss of another child and so far her reaction is curiously understated.
In a surprising twist, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes stage a coup and murder Doran and Trystane. This eliminates a giant subplot from the books about a Dornish plot to restore the Targaryens and it will be interesting to see what happens and how it will find its way back to the books one those stories are told. While I'm usually happy to see some of the novels' meandering plot points streamlined it seems like a waste of both Alexander Siddig and his character. These events raise a lot of questions about Dornish succession. While Ellaria may be the head of the coup, she has no real claim on the Dornish throne being the consort of prince Oberyn. The good news is, at least things are happening on the Dornish front, if abruptly.
Ramsey and Roose Bolton discuss the importance of locating Sansa to their tenuous hold on the North. Once again the prospect of Walda's baby replacing Ramsey is floated so it seems like she and baby Bolton are unlikely to survive the season. The Boltons surmise that Sansa is likely to make for Jon Snow and Ramsey concocts a plan to invade the Wall, where it seems lots of characters will be converging this season.
Dany is captured by the Dothraki who seem to think that they have come across a random blond woman. Dany isbrought before the new Khal and makes her identify known as Khal Drogo's former Khaleessi. While it affords her more respect and avoids the implied sexual violence that she would have experienced, she is now to be taken to Vaes Dothrak, the only permanent Dorthaki city where the widows of Khals are kept. We had previously visited this location in season one but did not see much of it beyond a tent. Jorah and Daario having found the horse tracks and Dany's ring have deduced that she was taken by the Dothraki.
Back at the Wall, Davos and co have barricaded themselves in a cell with Jon Snow's body and Ghost. Davos considers asking Melisandre for her help but after her failure with Stannis, the Red Woman is in an existential funk. In her chambers, once again she disrobes and I was thinking "Here we go again with the boobs" but in a surprising scene she removed her magic choker and revealed herself to be a withered old crone. It is a very haunting and cool scene which subverts the show's use of nudity in an unexpected way. Interestingly, one of the Seven gods of Westeros is the Crone and I've often wondered if different characters represent different Westerosi god archetypes. Old Melisandre slowly gets into bed, one would be led to think for the last time. Perhaps something will happen in the next couple of episodes to restore her faith.
Female empowerment seems to be a strong theme of this episode with a lot of our female characters seeming to discover a path out of their troubles. While this may seem a knee jerk reaction to the criticism the show has received on issues of sexual violence and wildly uneven use of nudity, I think the show has always been fundamentally about its female characters struggling to overcome an oppressive patriarchal system that treats them as a commodity. We are simply at the point in the multi-season story where we are coming up from last season which was a nadir for a lot of our characters to a point where we are going to see our them overcome some of these challenges. Sansa, Brienne, Danaerys and even Cercei all seem poised to change their circumstances in big ways.
So, if you were hoping to get Jon Snow back this episode you were disappointed by the lack of movement in that front but the good news is that the standoff at the Wall can't go on much longer than a couple of more episodes so Snow's body will be dealt with one way or the other soon. I'm impatient but I do appreciate that the show is taking its time to work out some of these character arcs. Otherwise it was a solid episode with a lot of pieces being put into place for the rest of what promises to be a consequential season. With Season Six, we are moving into the climax of the story.
