Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 2 "Home"

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. 


So, if last week's Game of Thrones episode seemed like a little like moving chess pieces around, "Home" might seem a little more, shall we say, consequential. In addition to the gigantic Jon Snow reveal at the end, there was a ton of important stuff that happened. Let's dig in!

We start with a scene of Bran training with the Three-Eyed Raven. As you may be aware, this plot line took a year off so this is our first time with these characters in quite a while and hardly anyone is recognizable between natural growth spurts, recasting and weird make-overs. Most notably, Max Von Sydow replaces the original Raven actor, and instead of a creepy tree wizard he now looks like Obi-Wan Treenobi. Has Max Von Sydow ever been young? Wasn't he the old priest in The Exorcist like 45 years ago?

Bran and the Raven have mystically projected themselves into the past and visit Winterfell when Ned Stark and his siblings were children and, in addition to some younger versions of familiar characters, we see FREAKING LYANNA STARK which is the first of many OMG moment in the episode. Aside from creepy crypt statues, this is our first time seeing Lyanna although she has been frequently mentioned, most recently last season when Littlefinger doesn't bother correcting Sansa's account of her aunt's story. Even if she is not the mother of a certain know-nothing bastard, Lyanna Stark is an incredibly important figure who's alleged abduction essentially kickstarted Robert's Rebellion and ended the Targaryen dynasty. Judging by her very highlighted appearance in this flashback, we will likely see her again as soon as next week in the much-anticipated Tower of Joy flashback.

At the Wall, time has run out for the Friends of Jon Snow Society and as Thorne's men begin to break down the door, FREAKING WUN WUN breaks through the main gate at Castle Black with Tormund,the Wildlings, and Ed in tow. After a brief skirmish, Thorn and Ollie are locked up rather than take on the Liam Neesonish giant.

Back in Kings Landing, Ser Robert Strong seems to spend his downtime cruising the alleys in search of people bad-mouthing Cercei and delivering rough justice. It's good to know he is still into crushing people's heads. Meanwhile, Jamie has a tense encounter with the High Sparrow and seemed to call him out on his misogyny which is weird because it was on, like, the exact same spot where he had some rapey sex with his sister. Anyway it was a great scene and I am excited to see how this plays out as these two are on an inevitable collision course.

Arya has a rerun of her beggar vingette from last week although this time Jaqen H'ghar seems to give another chance to be "No One." Frankly, I'm pretty bored with this storyline. I don't want Arya to become "No One," I like Arya. And the Faceless Men continue to be as needlessly opaque as they are in the books. I mean, everyone wants her to learn sword fighting and go back to Westeros. I didn't sign up for deep Existentialism.

In Meereen, Tyrion confers with Varys, Grey Worm and Missende and they get to talking about the two dragons chained up in the catacombs. In the books, Tyrion is a big dragon nerd and we finally get some of that here. He surmises that the dragons of old shrank and went extinct due to their captivity and decided to let Dany's remaining two free. Which is symbolically awesome but practically problematic. We are then treated to a great scene in which Tyrion creeps down to where they are kept and unchains them, complete with a Dr. Grant /Triceratops moment. I love the way the dragons are animated to behave in this scene you really get a sense of their intelligence.

In the North, Sansa and Brienne discuss Arya although she neglects to mention that Arya was accompanied by the Hound. Sansa now has a good idea that all of her younger siblings are alive. Theon parts company and makes way for the Iron Islands where we learn that Balon Grayjoy is still kicking and has plans to reinvade the North. We also learn that he considers Yara his heir, which is good because he's dead five minutes later at the hands of his brother, Euron, who is apparently nuts.

Yara's ascension is cockblocked by a kingsmoot which will be used to determine the next king. This is actually leftover material from earlier books which had yet to be adapted which makes it unique in a season that has mostly pushed beyond the books. As with everything, it seems like it will happen a little differently on the show as it appears Theon will make it home for the selection of a new king and is technically the heir to the Iron Islands.

At Winterfell, we learn that the Boltons are in league with several Northern houses such as the Karstarks who's patriarch was executed by Robb Stark for killing Lannister prisoners. Also mentioned are the Umbers to which Osha and Rikkon Stark were heading when we last saw them and the Manderlys a house barely seen on the show but plays an important role as secret Stark loyalists in the books.

Once we learn that Walda has given birth to a boy, Ramsey promptly kills his father, snuffing out one of the shows great villains. Ramsey then does some predictably Ramsey stuff with his stepmom and half brother. If Ramsey doesn't die by the end of this season, I may be done with this show. I don't mind that Ramsey is an evil psychopath so much as that he is growing predictable. There have been some good opportunities to explore unexpected facets to his character. Instead of killing Baby Bolton, it would have been nice to surprise us with a nurturing sice. Maybe Ramsey could have adopted the baby as his son to raise in his image,which really would have been more perverse and horrible in the end and more interesting. But instead we get more dog business.

Back at the Wall, Davos approaches Melisandre about using her powers to resurrect Jon Snow, which I found to be weird and surprising. Why is Davos so into Jon Snow? Why would this even occur to him? Hasn't he seen Pet Semetary? More perplexingly, he doesn't even use the best argument to convince her: She has already foreseen Jon Snow fighting at Winterfell.

Melisandre is not really hearing it but decides to go ahead with it like, "Oh, well. It's worth a shot, I guess." She does her thing and it doesn't seem to be working. Once everyone leaves the room, in a gratifying but wholy unsurprising moment, Jon Snow comes back to life! And there was much rejoicing, mostly on behalf of Kit Harington and the cast and crew of Game of Thrones who can stop awkwardly lying about whether or not Jon Snow is alive.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Children of the Forest seem to have been given a makeover and now look like they are from some kind of Fantasy Forest Realness Challenge from RuPaul's Drag Race.

I love Varys' and Tyrion's relationship. They really are like a married couple down to the judgy looks Varys gives Tyrion when he drinks too much.

A lot of really good acting in this episode, especially from the younger actors. Isaac Hempstead Wright has improved a lot in his time off.

Tyrion's dragon encounter certainly seems to lend some credence to the theory that he is a Secret Targaryen. The dragons were strangely docile around him.

If you've ever wondered what pee hitting armor sounds like, you are in luck! Thanks Game of Thrones!


Patrick Garone
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