Compared to some of the other entries this season, "The Broken Man" may seem like a bit of a low-key episode. There aren't a lot of huge shocks or momentous developments. Instead, there are some really good, quieter scenes and a lot thematic and character moments. The show is doing some skillful place setting prior to the final three episodes of the season. What didn't we see in this episode? No Dany or Meereen scenes. We also haven't checked in with Ramsey Bolton in a few weeks. Perhaps we are meant to let our imaginations work over the fate of poor Rikkon Stark. Lastly, we haven't been back to Dorne since the beginning of the season. Are we just done with that storyline?
We start-jarringly-with a rare pre-credits scene which gives us the long awaited return of Sandor "The Hound" Clegane last seen being left for dead by Arya Stark after his defeat at the hands of Brienne of Tarth in season four. It turns out that the Hound was found by a kindly septon, Brother Ray played by Ian McShane, and nursed back to health and has been living in a religious community ever since.
We get a lot of good scenes with Clegane and he does seem to have gone through somewhat of a change. He's always been a remarkably angry and bitter man but he seems to have let much of that go. "The gods have a plan for you," Ray tells him (or at least George R. R. Martin does). However, the Hound's idyllic life is disrupted when the Brotherhood Without Banners lays waste to his community while he is gone causing Clegane to take up arms again (well take up ax).
The Brotherhood is another returning element from early seasons. They were a group of bandits with a Robin Hood-esque mission to bring Clegane's brother The Mountain to justice and to protect the smallfolk during the War of the Five Kings. They were led by Beric Dondarrion, a knight, who like Jon Snow, was resurrected by a Red Priest, They briefly captured both Arya and the Hound. However, they seem to have taken a sinister turn since we last saw them.
There is an interesting parallel in the Hound and Arya's stories, Both have disappeared from the larger Westeros story to live in isolated religious communities. Both have been changed by those communities but ultimately find them to be a poor fit. Both leave those communities to take up arms.
Speaking of Arya, we find her happily strolling around Braavos and booking a ship back to Westeros. Of note, she has a new Ned Stark-ish haircut and a new and suspiciously bulky outfit. In the episode's most shocking moment, she is approached by an old woman who stabs her repeatedly in the stomach and pulls off her mask, revealing herself to be the Waif who was ordered to kill Arya in the last episode for botching her mission to murder the actress. Arya falls over a bridge and resurfaces in the water. We leave her clutching her stomach as various Braavosi look on coldly.
Despite this annoying cliffhanger, its pretty clear that Arya is not dead. If no other reason, we have seen shots of her in the trailer, so not only is she not dead, she is well enough to parkour. So what happened? Clearly, Arya is smart enough to know that the Faceless Men were after her. She wouldn't be gallivanting around without a plan. Beneath that suspiciously new and bulky tunic is not only protective mail but likely whatever the Braavos equivalent of blood packs are, possibly obtained at the theater. Her plan was probably to put on a big show to either make the Faceless Men believe that she is dead or to lure the waif to a predetermined location to settle things once and for all. I like this idea because it proves that Arya did actually learn some skills from her time in the House of Black and White. Despite the fact that she is a Faceless Men drop-out, this will serve as her comprehensive exam. Arya Begins.
Throughout the North, Jon, Sansa, and Davos engage in some tricky diplomacy and we learn that the name Stark does not necessarily guarantee assistance from their former subject houses. In these scenes, we see the value of Davos, who had some experience in matters of state serving Stannis while Sansa and Jon reveal themselves to be diplomatic novices. Fear of the Boltons and general war fatigue are working against them.
First, at the Bear Islands, they meet young Lyanna Mormont, who we have only known from her sassy letter to Stannis last season declaring that she only recognized the fallen King of the North, Robb Stark as her liege. Of course, we've met a couple of other notable Mormonts on the show. Her uncle was former Night's Watch Lord Commander Jeor Mormont for whom Jon Snow served as steward and protege. Lord Commander Mormont also was the one who bequeathed Jon his Valyrian steel sword, Long Claw which was originally the ancestral blade of House Mormont, a fact which goes strangely uncommented upon in this scene. Therefore Lyanna's cousin is Jorah Mormont, former Danaerys Targaryen advisor, eternal Friend Zone occupant, and current grayscale sufferer. Like her two relatives, young Lyanna is stubborn, direct, and doesn't suffer any fools. Despite her words of loyalty to Robb the Starks only are able to get sixty-two soldiers out of her.
Lyanna is a great new character and preserves a storyline from the books that has been excised from the show. In the novels, due to Jorah's exile and Jeor's having taken the black to atone for his son's crimes, the Mormont women are largely calling the shots on the Bear Islands. During the War of the Five Kings, we meet a couple of these Mormont She-Bears who fight for Robb Stark and are fierce and funny characters. While they were never featured on the show, Lyanna does refer to them in her scene and she is certainly a character in their mold.
Frustrated by the lack of progress in raising an army large enough to take Winterfell, Sansa writes a raven, presumably to Littlefinger who commands an army of Vale knights. This is a bit of annoying decision for Sansa, a character who has had a really solid season of growth and maturity. The fact that she sent Littlefinger and his army away was somewhat petulant and short-sighted. It is also annoying that she is keeping this information from Jon because presumably she feels he would not approve of working with him although we have no idea what Jon knows or thinks about Littlefinger because the show has been stingy about Jon scenes.
Speaking of the Committee to Retake Winterfell, Melisandre is conspicuously absent from this episode. While it makes sense that she would be distracting (to say the least) at the Wildling parlay and not necessarily an asset in meeting with any of the northern houses its been awhile since we've checked in with her. Its almost as through the show used her to bring Snow back and doesn't seem particularly interested in her now. This is too bad because not only is Melisandre an interesting character in her own right but I feel like the show is missing an important scene between Jon and Melisandre in order to see where they are both at, you know with the resurrection and Jon's possibly status as a messianic hero.
Also uncommented on is Jon's likely perceived status as a Night's Watch oathbreaker. Recall much of the first episode of Game of Thrones dealt with punishing a Nights Watch deserter. It's not something that is treated lightly, especially in the north. Most people aren't going to know that Jon has been brought back to life by magic and he will have the reputation as someone who abandoned his watch.
At Riverrun, Jamie and Bronn(!) arrive to oversee the ineffective Frey siege of the castle. Riverrun is the ancestral seat of House Tully, the original house of Catelyn Stark which backed Robb during the War of the Five kings and whose forces were decimated during the Red Wedding. Since we last visited the riverlands, the castle was taken over by the Freys who later lost it to Brynden "Blackfish" Tully, younger brother of the former lord of the riverlands, Hoster Tully (whose funeral we witnessed a few seasons ago). The Blackfish is now holed up with his forces in the castle which is mostly impregnable resulting in the standoff. The Freys, the realm's famously weaselly and ineffective family of ne'er-do-wells have taken to trotting out Edmure Tully, rightful heir to the castle, Red Wedding groom, and the Blackfish's nephew and making empty threats to hang him.
In Volantis, Yara, Theon, and their loyalists from the Iron Islands are enjoying a stop at a brothel on their way to Meereen. In between making out with prostitutes, Yara gives Theon a pep-talk urging him to overcome his trauma and become Theon Greyjoy again. This was a great scene and I'm glad we got it as they could just as easily skipped over this moment but it offers a lot of character and relationship development between Theon and Yara. She is rough but compassionate with him in way that feels true to character.
In Kings Landing, having previously met with the High Sparrow (and received some really disturbing and unsolicited sex advice), Margaery has learned that her grandmother Oleanna is now in his sights unless she "repents." When Margaery later meets with her grandmother under the watchful gaze of Septa Ulenna (hilariously referred to as "it" by Lady Tyrell) she urges her to leave Kings Landing and presses a scrap of paper into the old woman's hand although the sound effect is so ridiculously loud that for a moment it seems as though she breaking all of her grandmother's bones. Later, Oleanna looks at the paper to see that Margaery has sketched a rose, the symbol of her house and giving us our clearest indication that Margaery is, in fact, playing the High Sparrow. What concerns me is that she seems particularly confident of whatever she has planned which is not necessarily a good thing in Game of Thrones.
Later, Oleanna aka Lady Sassmouth gets a visit from Cercei requesting her assistance in going against the Faith. Tyrell rejects her offer and gives her an epic dressing down, essentially laying all of the problems of Kings Landing at Cercei's feet and reminding her that she has no friends or allies left and should probably leave Kings Landing. This is a pretty good summation of Cercei's situation. Not that she and Jamie were particularly effective together and now she doesn't even have her brother. Her allies are the Frankenmountain and Qyburn. Cercei is essentially backed into a corner and is likely to do something drastic.
Patrick Garone
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Also uncommented on is Jon's likely perceived status as a Night's Watch oathbreaker. Recall much of the first episode of Game of Thrones dealt with punishing a Nights Watch deserter. It's not something that is treated lightly, especially in the north. Most people aren't going to know that Jon has been brought back to life by magic and he will have the reputation as someone who abandoned his watch.
At Riverrun, Jamie and Bronn(!) arrive to oversee the ineffective Frey siege of the castle. Riverrun is the ancestral seat of House Tully, the original house of Catelyn Stark which backed Robb during the War of the Five kings and whose forces were decimated during the Red Wedding. Since we last visited the riverlands, the castle was taken over by the Freys who later lost it to Brynden "Blackfish" Tully, younger brother of the former lord of the riverlands, Hoster Tully (whose funeral we witnessed a few seasons ago). The Blackfish is now holed up with his forces in the castle which is mostly impregnable resulting in the standoff. The Freys, the realm's famously weaselly and ineffective family of ne'er-do-wells have taken to trotting out Edmure Tully, rightful heir to the castle, Red Wedding groom, and the Blackfish's nephew and making empty threats to hang him.
In Volantis, Yara, Theon, and their loyalists from the Iron Islands are enjoying a stop at a brothel on their way to Meereen. In between making out with prostitutes, Yara gives Theon a pep-talk urging him to overcome his trauma and become Theon Greyjoy again. This was a great scene and I'm glad we got it as they could just as easily skipped over this moment but it offers a lot of character and relationship development between Theon and Yara. She is rough but compassionate with him in way that feels true to character.
In Kings Landing, having previously met with the High Sparrow (and received some really disturbing and unsolicited sex advice), Margaery has learned that her grandmother Oleanna is now in his sights unless she "repents." When Margaery later meets with her grandmother under the watchful gaze of Septa Ulenna (hilariously referred to as "it" by Lady Tyrell) she urges her to leave Kings Landing and presses a scrap of paper into the old woman's hand although the sound effect is so ridiculously loud that for a moment it seems as though she breaking all of her grandmother's bones. Later, Oleanna looks at the paper to see that Margaery has sketched a rose, the symbol of her house and giving us our clearest indication that Margaery is, in fact, playing the High Sparrow. What concerns me is that she seems particularly confident of whatever she has planned which is not necessarily a good thing in Game of Thrones.
Later, Oleanna aka Lady Sassmouth gets a visit from Cercei requesting her assistance in going against the Faith. Tyrell rejects her offer and gives her an epic dressing down, essentially laying all of the problems of Kings Landing at Cercei's feet and reminding her that she has no friends or allies left and should probably leave Kings Landing. This is a pretty good summation of Cercei's situation. Not that she and Jamie were particularly effective together and now she doesn't even have her brother. Her allies are the Frankenmountain and Qyburn. Cercei is essentially backed into a corner and is likely to do something drastic.
Patrick Garone
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