(Season 6, Episode 6)
**spoilers**
Benjen, The Un-Undead
We begin with Bran. Fleeing from the walkers, a flurry of visions flood his mind… pause... we’ll get back to that in a minute…
With the dead descending upon them, a mystery man swoops in and rescues them on horseback. That person is non other than Benjen.
Damn, Benny, you don’t look so good. He tells the story of how he was attacked by a White Walker and was about to turn when he was rescued by those tree lovers from last week. They pierced his heart with a shard of dragon glass, which kept him from becoming a walker.
Interesting… so you can keep someone from fully turning. Sort of like an UN-UNDEAD person. Well, better than being Undead or Dead.
Back To Bran’s Visions
We saw the Mad King being, well… mad, yelling “Burn them all”. The way everything splashed across the screen I couldn't help but wonder if The Mad King was yelling about the White Walkers when he said BURN THEM ALL.
And we even got a shot of Jamie killing him.
Include in all these flashes, Bran gave us this. Looks like a female hand. Could this image be Ned’s sister?
Dinner At Sams
Sam is one of those characters you root for and generally expect to see him as a sort of side kick to another character, like Jon Snow. But this season he and his wildling girlfriend and baby are on a road trip to be with Sam’s family. This was starting to feel like a filler, but we now know there certainly was a purpose to this story line.
At dinner, Sam’s father, who is a lot like Tywin Lannister when it comes to hating one of his sons, boasts about his sword and how Sam would never get his hands on it.
“See that sword… it’s called Heartsbane. It’s been in our family for 500 years. It’s Valyrian steel. Only a handful of them left in the world. Supposed to go to my first born son after I die… to him. He will never wield that sword” - Sam’s Father
Wait, wut… Valyrian. Sam could sure could use that against those White Walkers.
Back to the dinner… Sam’s dear old dad learns that Gilly is a Wildling, which fuels his disgust for his son ever more. He throws his son out of the house. This leads to Sam taking the girl, baby and leaving… But not without grabbing that sword!
The Non-Separation of Church And State
That king sure is gullible and the High Sparrow took advantage of that. The Queen convinced the King of her sinful ways which she is *wink* trying to atone for *wink*. And the King fell for it so hard that he has become a pawn for the High Sparrow. He's following the laws of a God he probably knows nothing about... well, aside from what others tell him.
The naive King proclaimed that speaking against God is the same as speaking against the crown. Oops!
And since Jamie had the bad timing of fighting the High Sparrow, he has been banished from King’s Landing and sent to help with Riverrun.
What Happened To Riverrun?
Blackfish happened… Remember him? He left the Stark wedding to take a leak and fled the whole massacre. Walder Frey’s men haven’t been able to find him. But now, they know where he is. Blackfish took Riverrun and now Walder Frey wants it back.
And Walder Frey, like Ramsey from last week, has a chip to play…
Remember this guy. He was the groom at the wedding. Spent his wedding night in a dungeon. Blackfish’s nephew.
Arya Has Her Face Back
Arya was tasked with assassinating the lead actress of a stage play. So she watched the play and assessed how best to kill the woman. This was her last chance to get in good with the Faceless Peeps.
But when the moment came, she couldn’t do it. She had no problem killing people on her list, those who in her mind deserved it. But this woman didn’t deserve it from what she saw. And she figured out that the person who wanted her dead was a fellow actress who wanted her part.
Arya warned the actress that the other woman wanted her dead and then fled. She went back to herself, to who she was as seen when she picked up her sword “needle” which she had abandoned.
And now she waits and hides because she knows someone is coming to kill her.
Danny Brings A Dragon To A Horse Race
The Mother of Dragons and Daario lead a posse of Dothraki and they have this obvious on-the-nose dialogue.
“How many ships will I need to bring my Khalasar to Westeros?” - Mother Of DragonsNow lets rewind to last week:
“Dothraki and all their horses, the unsullied, the second sons… 1000 ships easily, probably more.” -Daario
“And who has that many?” - Mother Of Dragons
“Nobody.” - Daario
“Nobody yet.” _ Mother Of Dragons
“Across the sea there is a person who hates the great Lords of Westeros just as much as we do. Someone with a large army, three large dragons and no husband.” - Euron Greujoy to Yara & Theon
Hmm… Sounds like the Ironborn will eventually meet The Mother Of Dragons.
But then an unexpected visitor shows up…
She knows how to ride in style!
Looking Forward To:
With Jamie going to Riverrun will he run into Brienne?
