“Home”
After a season premiere that did nothing but tread water for the better part of an hour, Game of Thrones seems to have leaped back into action with the second episode of the show’s sixth season. While last night’s episode brought out its share of shocking twists, it also had with it a sudden, out-of-place sentimentality littered throughout. It’d be easy to ascribe such an addition as some kind of atonement for the show’s self-satisfyingly vile fifth season, if this episode didn’t include multiple instances of graphic violence, two of which came close to resembling slapstick, while another will rank as one of the biggest think-piece spawning moments, and certainly one of the most upsetting.
“My father never talks about her.”
While Bran Stark sat out the entirety of last season, he’s back, and deep amidst his training with the Three-Eyed Raven, which includes trips back to Winterfell’s past. He watches his father, Eddard, as a young boy training with his brother, Benjen, while their sister, Bran’s long-dead aunt Lyanna, comes galloping in. Bran more than states the obvious when he notes how happy everyone inside the castle appears, Winterfell’s past in glorious, rose-colored visions. With Bran and the Raven standing where Eddard and Catelyn stood in the show’s first episode, watching their children train, it was more than a little heavy-handed — a deliberate reminder of the show’s perhaps only carefree moment when we first meet House Stark.
It also sets the stage for more flashbacks to come, including the long-awaited reveal at the Tower of Joy, which may finally shed some light on the lineage of Jon Snow (more on The North’s favorite know-nothing bastard coming below).
“I’m not much of a fighter. Apologies for what you’re about to see.”
Ser Davos and a handful of the Night’s Watch still guard Jon Snow’s body, and as Alisair Thorne begins to break his way inside while we’re spoonfed a reminder that his offer of amnesty last week was completely false. What looks to be an absolute certain last stand is interrupted just in the nick of time when Edd shows up with a huge pack of Wildlings, including a certain giant we were all hoping would show up.
The Night’s Watch, already on the last of its last legs, is quick to surrender, but not before one ambitious bowman lets an arrow loose, giving us our first obnoxiously slapstick death of the night (reminder: there is one more coming). Now with Alisair and Olly put into chains, it looks as though the Wildlings may be in line to take over Castle Black, because that undead army led by The Night’s King is still on their way.
“Everyone of us is poor and powerless, but together we can overthrow an empire.”
I have to admit, after I felt a little short-changed by the entire sequence at King’s Landing this week, I started this really low-grade self-evaluation of what I expect from a show like this. On one hand, we have Cersei displaying considerable restraint, cautious over the prophecy – and of the nature of what it means to wield power as a Lannister, despite having a seemingly unstoppable FrankenMountain by her side. Rather than set him loose against Tommen’s guard, however, she sends him through the streets to silence any random heckler regaling drunks with stories of her walk of shame. (This is also the second death bordering on slapstick).
Then, back in the temple, as Tommen and Jamie mourn over the body of Myrcella, in strolls the High Sparrow, gleefully boasting his power while hiding it behind a false piousness. It’s here we see the first glimpses of a truly arrogant Jamie Lannister, one we haven’t seen since he lost his hand to Locke back in season three. It doesn’t last long, as members of The Faith Militant start creeping out of the shadows quite conveniently. I mean, seriously, were they just waiting there the whole time?
This leaves us with a Jamie not only outnumbered, but out boasted as well, and he sheaths his sword, and does frustratingly little to help advance this entire religious takeover subplot.
“The next time I have an idea like that, punch me in the face.”
Even as recently as last week I was praising the idea of Tyrion and Varys again united as a pair of smug, quibbling rulers foppishly trying to reign in control of Mereen in the absence of Daenerys, whose entire storyline was benched this episode. Suddenly, I find myself confused at the brash and poorly worded dialogue between them, starting with Tyrion’s remark about not having a dick to Varys’ dry and surprisingly rudimentary reply about his lack of dwarf jokes.
This continues down beneath the pyramid, when Tyrion ends up showing off his inner dragon-whisperer and unchains the two remaining dragons and lives to tell the tale. Granted, Tyrion spent a great deal of time readying King’s Landing from Stannis Baratheon’s attack near the end of season two, so he’s bound to have gained some knowledge about the behavior of dragons.
Still, that doesn’t excuse it from being the hokiest cornball moment, coupled with a story of an emotionally sensitive young Tyrion and his heartless father, Tywin. It’s not even the biggest insult that we haven’t been told why, exactly, unchaining the dragons is a good idea, it’s this blunt, prosaic line Tyrion gives to Varys at the end. Go ahead, look at the bold sub-head above this section. Say it out loud. This is what passes for sparkling dialogue between two of Game of Thrones’ wittiest characters.
“A girl is not a beggar anymore.”
Arya, after getting the shit beaten out of her again, gets brought back into The House of Black and White by Jaqen. Glad we’ve spent so much time on this.
“Thank you for saying that. It means a great deal to me.”
I have to admit, this is a moment I did not see coming. As Ramsay keeps talking about storming Castle Black and killing Jon Snow. His father, Roose, the man who stabbed Robb Stark in the heart, scoffs at his plans while patronizing his approach to problem solving, especially as his bride, Sansa, is still missing. Just then, news that his wife, Walda Bolton, has given birth, is delivered by the Maester.
After congratulating his father, Roose assures Ramsay that he’ll always be his first born, a presumed moment of levity after tensions between the two continued to escalate. Then Ramsay stabs his father, killing him in a clearly calculated move based on the non-reaction from Lord Karstark, a house that the Starks lost during the War of the Five Kings, which was a nice reminder that Robb Stark was not a terribly good decision maker.
What comes next is an early contender for the most-talked about moment of season six, and has already started a series of conversations on the necessity of the scene versus the discretion over what was shown (by Game of Thrones standards, anyway). It also seems to reveal that the show may be running out of ways to truly shock viewers, after all, we’re a long way from Eddard Stark’s sudden execution in season one’s penultimate episode. Granted, the show hasn’t shied away from infanticide in the past — hell, the season two premiere had an entire sequence dedicated to it — nor has it hesitated to show Ramsay’s true psychosis revealed with his dogs. So, now we’re here, and we get both of those things crammed together in one godawful moment, topped off with one of Ramsay’s supervillain-like quips, in case anyone out there forgot that he was the worst.
“I don’t want to be forgiven.”
Back to the running theme of out-of-place sentimentality, this camp side scene between Sansa, Brienne, and Theon (and Pod but he didn’t contribute anything worthwhile here) managed to showcase a pleasant moment where Sansa hears about her long-since missing sister, Arya. It would almost give some sense of hope that the fractured remains of House Stark will slowly come back together if every single viewer didn’t already know better.
Case in point, Theon, having seemingly de-Reeked himself, gives a tearful goodbye to Sansa, informing her of his intentions to return back home to the Iron Islands (because that worked out so well for him the last time).
“Where is your kingdom?”
Speaking of Theon’s home, their storyline comes back up, as Balon seems delusional about his ability to acquire and maintain a military presence on the mainland, while his daughter, Asha, openly criticizes the state of his House under his rule. Now that we’ve established that, Balon meets his brother Euron, draped in a cloak and shouting over a rainstorm about he is the storm and the Drowned God, before he (wait for it) throws Balon over the edge.
Also, there’s some back-and-forth about Asha wanting the throne but the priest being decidedly unenthusiastic about her chances of winning it via Ironborn law.
“Does he have to be?”
Okay, so, big surprise that literally everyone saw coming. Jon Snow is resurrected after Davos makes a plea to Melisandre, who’s still caught in her cycle of depression by way of her lost faith. Now, it’s not how this all went down that’s surprising to me. It’s the why — or rather, the lack thereof.
Sure, Davos paid lip-service to men “owing their lives to Jon Snow,” but this idea of resurrecting him seems as sentimental and out of place as anything. A monologue about Davos about why it was important would’ve seemed more convincing other than him spewing nonsense about his lack of faith, which is coupled with a request to resurrect someone.
Finally, the most boggling thing is the relative ease that she goes about this with. Apparently all you need is a quick trim and to even out your beard a little bit, mumble a couple phrases on old Valyrian, let it sit for five minutes, then, presto. Back to life.
Of course, we don’t know what manner of resurrection is at play here. Coming back to life was very different for Khal Drogo than it was (is?) for Beric Dondarrion. It also leaves a lot up in the air in regards to his oath to the Night’s Watch which is already on shaky ground for reasons mentioned earlier, to say nothing that both Sansa’s party and Ramsay have Castle Black in their sites in the coming weeks. Despite its misguided attempts to continue to shock and bewilder, as the series grows closer to completion, it’s working toward setting the stage for a potentially satisfying story over the next eight weeks.
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