Can you believe that we are at the halfway point of Season 6? This season is moving at a mostly satisfying fast pace and offering up big revelations and important plot info as we leave the books behind. One of the things the HBO adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire has done so well is streamline and edit down George R. R. Martin's sprawling and sometimes meandering story and now that we are largely "off book" we have picked things up at a brisk pace. I feel like Dany's Dothraki story, for example, is something that will likely take half a book to get through and we are wrapping it up in episode five.
At the Wall, Sansa gets a raven from Littlefinger to meet him in Mole Town. My question with these scenes at the Night's Watch is, when did the Wall become a B & B? There are a lot of "guests" who have been hanging around for a long time who seem to have no urgency to go anywhere.
Sansa with Brienne in tow, meets a contrite Littlefinger in a really terrific scene. Once again, Sophie Turner is the episode's MVP. She is cool and strong as she forces him to acknowledge what has happened to her because of what is either his miscalculation or double crossing. Despite the fact that he has a much-needed army at his back Sansa sends him off. I can't help but wonder what his role will be from now on. My money is on him essentially playing Brienne's part from last season and watching from afar in order to sweep in when he can make a difference although presumably Ramsey will become aware of the large Vale army marching through the North and force Littlefinger to take a side.
Bran continues his vision quest with Obi Wan Treenobi and we see moment in the very distant past of Westeros, during a time when the Children of the Forest were at war with the First Men. Prior to the arrival of the first human settlers from Essos, Westeros was sparsely populated by the Children, giants, and a few other creatures. As they made their way north, as a kind of Westerosi Manifest Destiny, there were many wars and conflicts during which the Children were displaced farther and farther north. We see in this vision a moment where the Children had captured a human and inserted some sort of magic blade in his chest apparently creating the first White Walker, perhaps even the Night's King.
The fact that the Walkers had been created by the Children had not been previously stated in the books so this quite a major plot reveal for the show. What does it mean practically? Who knows? But it's pretty awesome.
In Meereen, a fragile peace seems to be holding and Tyrion-in full Karl Rove mode-is now concerned about shoring up Dany's political support. In order to do so, he enlists a Kinvara, a high-ranking fire priestess from Volantis. As we have seen in the show, it seems that Dany is widely considered a messianic figure for followers of R'hollor in Essos, Kinvara refers to her as the one "who was promised" similar language to how Melisandre described Jon Snow earlier in the season. Much like GOT fandom, the Red Priests seem to have a schism as to which one of these characters is the chosen one.
Kinvara agrees to throw her support behind Dany, although the priests already seem to be doing this so I'm not sure what the expectation is. This plotline has some uncomfortable parallels to Cercei's alliance with the Sparrows which didn't work out too well for her. Varys is clearly skeptical and you may remember he was castrated as a child by some sort of fire warlock which he described in a previous season as well as the otherworldly voice he heard coming from the flames as his genitals burned. Apparently, Kinvara is aware of this story as well and recounts it to them in the creepiest way possible.
We meet up with Arya who is continuing to train with the Waif with whom she is stick-fighting unsuccessfully. Apparently, she is still not quite No One. Jaquen H'ghar gives her a new mission to scope out a theater troupe and get intel on an actress whom someone has contracted the Faceless Men to kill. Arya sits through a play based on the War of the Five Kings, which is apparently a popular theatrical subject in this world. Arya is enjoying it through the Lannister/Baratheon portion but turns all theater critic when she seems Ned Stark portrayed as a power hungry buffoon. If she were really No One she wouldn't have been giving the stink eye so hard.
Although this represents ANOTHER yo-yo back to her retaining her Arya identity, I am hoping it is happening at a time when she is about to get the hell out of Braavos and go home. The Waif actually refers to her still being able to leave, an opportunity which I hope she takes because Enough With The Faceless Men. This organization is nonsensical. Also, in Braavos anyone can just hire them to kill anyone just because they feel like it? Why couldn't Arya just have found herself a Syrio Forel substitute and have spent all this time learning how to swordfight?
In the Iron Islands we have the long-awaited Kingsmoot (or Queensmoot!) in which Yara makes her case to rule the Iron Islands, although with less swagger than in the books. Theon, having cleaned up, is there to support her and actually refers to himself as Theon Greyjoy, seemingly having left the Reek persona behind. However, Yara is literally cockblocked by Euron Greyjoy who we previously met on a dark bridge pushing his brother Balon to his death. When accused of murdering his brother, Euron freely admits it, and his kin-and-kingslaying gets a surprisingly warm reception which make me think that Yara has badly overestimated the decency of the electorate in the Iron Islands. If there had been a focus group held afterwards I think the consensus would be something like, "'E speaks 'is mind. I like 'im!" which, along with his penis-bragging, makes Euron Greyjoy the Donald Trump of Westeros. We also learn that he has a plan to sail to Meereen to wed Danaerys Targaryen, which people seemed really positive about. However, while Euron is being coronated and baptized, Yara, Theon and Yara's loyalists steal most of the Iron Fleet. Which leaves the new king of the Iron Islands with nothing but his janky driftwood crown. He is in the hilariously impotent position of having to wait until a new fleet is built to be able to do anything. Not the most auspicious beginning of his reign.
Back at the Wall, the Committee to Retake Winterfell meets in a conference room over a lower budget version of the RISK battle maps we have seen throughout the show. They come up with a plan to expand their forces by petitioning different northern houses not currently alligned with the Boltons. Once again, it is stated that the Boltons are primarily supported by the Karstarks (who's scion calmly watched on as Ramsey killed his father) the Umbers (who's leader delivered Rikkon to the Boltons) and the Manderlys who have not yet appeared save for a brief appearance during the Red Wedding. In the books, the Manderlys are secret Stark supporters but we don't know if the show will be adapting this particular plot line or if another northern house will be subbed in for them.
Sansa relays the info she obtained from Littlefinger that the Tully's are occupying their castle at River Run and have reassembled their forces under Caitlyn's brother and Sansa's Great Uncle, the Blackfish, last seen having ducked out of the Twins right before the Red Wedding. Sansa dispatches Brienne to treat with him hoping enlist his forces. Again, this is based on Littlefinger's info so we don't actually know what the real situation is. In the books, the castle is and and has been under siege by Lannister and Frey armies.
In the cave of the Three Eyed Raven, Bran is up late at night and is, understandably, bored. He wargs into the weirwood network and finds himself at the same circle of stones we saw in the previous Children of the Forest vision but now it is faced with an army of wights and walkers. Soon Bran is spotted by the Night's King who somehow GRABS HIS ARM. From here we go into full horror movie mode.
Back in the cave, the Three Eyed Raven tells Bran he must leave and that he as been marked by the Nights King nullifying the protections of the cave. Soon, the forces of the dead invade the cave and the Children and Bran's direwolf Summer and the Three Eyed Raven are killed in the assault. Bran and Meera narrowly escape as Hodor sacrifices himself to "hold the door." And we learn the very sad origin of Hodor as Bran is stuck warging into the past and someone wargs into young Hodor whose brain is scrambled as he experiences both the past and present.
This was a great episode with a harrowing, mind-bending finale. Interestingly, it was directed by Jack Bender who directed a lot of notable time-travel episodes of Lost. There is certainly an element of that in here as Bran seems to trigger some sort of causality loop. The important distinction is that, while he affects the past, he doesn't actually change it and he may not be able to.
So things look dire for Bran and Mira (no pun intended). Presumably they are going to make for Jon and the Wall but they won't get far without Hodor to carry Bran. Is it possible we will finally meet Coldhands, the undead being who, in the books, escorted Bran and company to the Three Eyed Raven's weirwood tree. Or perhaps Benjen Stark, the Night's Watch ranger who vanished beyond the wall in season 1?
As awsome as all this was, it means we won't get another Tower of Joy flashback until Bran finds another weirwood tree, possibly not until he gets to the one just beyond the Wall. Grrr.
Patrick Garone
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