I will be reviewing the whole of Game Of Thrones (GOT) season 6.
Be warned though, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
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Riverlands :
A structure is being built, possibly a temple, by some devout community members who have taken up camp at a scenic place. And we meet Ian McShane’s Ray, a priest of the faith of the Seven who gives us Sandor Clegane back. Turns out, Clegane hadn’t died after all. His hate, presumably for his brother Gregor, kept him going. As is the norm this season, we return to them at the end of the episode.
King’s Landing :
After checkmating the Tyrells and Lannisters last week, the High Sparrow has added another feather to his burgeoning (but as yet invisible) cap – he’s a sex therapist now. As Margaery tries to show off her transformation, the Sparrow asks her to do her duty towards the king and country too. Gullible and horny king Tommen had complained to his good teacher the High Sparrow about her not, er, resuming the activities. One could have been mistaken to think the Sparrow was trying to hit on her (he puts his hand on her lap) but then he asks her to persuade Lady Olenna to change her sinner ways.
So, faithful convert Marge goes to Olenna, accompanied by Septa Unella. This, and Marge’s newfound faith exasperates Olenna. She asks Olenna to leave for Highgarden immediately. We are led to genuinely believe that Marge has turned until she stealthily hands Olenna a paper having a sketch of a rose. What was that? Never mind, well-acted, Marge (and Natalie Dormer)!
Cersei comes to Olenna to join hands in the larger good. But Olenna is her usual lyrically-dissing self, blasting her for bringing the Faith into the city leading to this fatal predicament. Rather than teaming-up with Cersei (which I think would have provided us with some awesome back-and-forth dialogues) she hits another birdie, telling Cersei how beleaguered she is, and how that’s “the only joy I can find in all this misery.”
The North :
Sansa, Jon and Davos are on their army-gathering mission. While the wildlings are rallied rather easily, thanks to Tormund and Wun-Wun, House Mormont is tougher. As Sansa and Jon try to use flattery, little Lady Lyanna (named after you-know-who) backhands both of them. She then keeps on hitting ace after ace till Davos breaks her serve and holds his own to love, telling her how the real threat is from the White Walkers (“and make no mistake my Lady, the dead are coming!”). I love Davos’ accent! So the Lady keeps faith with House Stark and gives them all of 62 fighters. Anticlimactic, yeah! 😀
House Glover, which also pledged allegiance to the Starks once, refuses to support them now. Robb’s war took away Lord Glover’s brother, wife and kids and he’s understandably unwilling to sacrifice more. So finally Jon and co. have 2000 wildlings, 200 Hornwoods, 143 Mazins and 62 Mormonts. Total? 2405 fighters. Jon wants to attack immediately but Sansa wants more men. The problem is, where will they get the men? The Blackfish has his own problems. Still, Sansa Stark writes a letter to be Raven-delivered.
Riverrun :
Jaime and Bronn have marched with 8000 soldiers to find a pathetic siege, courtesy of the Freys. Jaime wants Bronn at the head of the army. Bronn whines about the castle and the highborn wife he never received. Jaime starts to tell him how Lannisters always pay their debts but he breaks in, “Don’t f–ing say it.” The scene is hilarious.
The Blackfish is back too, determined to keep his castle and unafraid to call the Freys’ bluff when they threaten to kill Edmure. Jaime bullies the Walder Frey’s son, who’s also named Walder, and takes charge of the siege. He wants to have a parley with the Blackfish. Bronn cuts him to size, showing that hehasnt lost one ounce of his condescending humour despite his long absence from the show.
The Blackfish refutes Jaime’s claim that the War of the Five Kings is long over. He is prepared to see out the siege, with his fortified walls and provisions for 2 years. Seeing as Jaime is the more central character, I don’t think the Blackfish is going to live long although I do support him. Hopefully Jaime will have a change of heart in the next episode, courtesy of Brienne.
Somewhere in Essos :
The Ironborn are enjoying their last night on land in a pub with lots of escorts. Yara is in on the fun too, enjoying some woman-with-woman action. She teases Theon about it all but then, in a very Ironborn way of therapy, asks him to drink the beer and bring out the real Theon so they could make a deal with the Dragon queen and take back the Iron Islands. Her therapy works as we see this Broken Man (yes, that’s a reference to the episode title) gather himself together. Theon Greyjoy is back, no more Reek-ing now.
Braavos :
Arya books her passage back to Westeros in a ship and is enjoying the CGI view of the city’s gates when the Waif comes disguised as an old woman and stabs her repeatedly. Arya somehow manages to get her off and jumps into the river, getting out later in a busy street where no one is ready to help A Girl. Since she is going to be in the next episode, it’d be interesting to see how she saved herself.
Back to the Riverlands :
Ray is telling his own backstory to the gathering and how it’s never too late for anyone to come back from their thieving and murdering ways (we know that here he’s saying these things to Sandor). Sandor is listening intently and seems like he wants to leave his old life, the life of the Broken Man, behind when three riders from the Brotherhood Without Banners, who follow the Lord of the Light, come asking for protection money. Ray politely refuses and they go back, but not before threatening him.
Sandor wants Ray to fight when need be but he’s done with it. Later, as Sandor is drinking some Beer and cutting wood in the forest, he hears screams and comes to the camp to find all the members killed, including Ray who has been hanged from the structure the group was making. Sandor knows there is no peace for him in this life and picks up an axe to take revenge. Next episode, he will take his revenge and by the penultimate episode, expect him to be back in King’s Landing for the CleganeBowl.
This episode, while not delivering any shocks, did give us a big character back and advanced the storyline for the big battle in the North and the confrontation in King’s Landing. The chat between Marge and the Sparrow was, for a change, not what we’ve come to dread, and that’s relieving. Riverrun is the most hazardous place in all of Westeros right now so good luck to all who are there. I’m most concerned for Arya. She finally got out of that death cult only to be stabbed like Jon and Robb. No, no, no, a girl can’t die this uselessly. Kick some Waif butt in the next episode, my Lady!
What do you think of the episode? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments section. Thanks for reading.
Images Credit : HBO.
Musingsite 
I didn’t care for this episode at all. And one of my favorite characters (the Hound) is back so I should’ve loved it! But unfortunately Show-Hound is definitely not Book-Hound, so I was disappointed.
The whole thing felt very odd and lackluster. Also because the emphasis for the Hound now seems to only be vengeance, and this just feels very one-dimensional. He had a chance to heal his spiritual wounds with the Septon, to truly become a changed man and put down the sword, and then he just picks it up in vengeance. Almost as if he’s on a suicide-vengeance mission.
The only part I did like were the parts where Jon and Sansa went to the various houses and spoke to the leaders. I liked Sansa’s stand, but I’m getting irritated that Jon isn’t also making these types of statements. I’m all for strong women, but I also like strong men. And Jon just seems to be letting Sansa takeover and do all the work. And uggh, I bet Sansa wrote Littlefinger. I just hope she didn’t do something stupid like promise marriage to Sweetrobin or to Littlefinger himself. She seemed very saddened to write that letter, like she was making a deal she didn’t want to make to get Winterfell.
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Some very interesting points you’ve raised there. As Benioff and Weiss said in the Inside the episode video, they have envisioned Hound’s story as some kind of a revenge-flick of a person who wants to be good, leaving his past behind, but it drags him back. Hopefully, he’ll get his chance for redempton after coming in contact with the High Sparrow, who is going to die like Ray did yesterday.
I concur with you that Jon is looking pretty weak with his arguments here. He used to be majestic when he dealt with the wildlings and the Night’s Watch in earlier seasons but it seems death has changed him for the worse. Also, I think he’s quite bogged down whenever someone reminds him that he’s a Snow, not a Stark. All the more reason for the show to clear the fog surrounding his parenthood.
Now that you mentioned it, I do think she wrote to Littlefinger. As horrible as that sounds, Sansa is more guilty of not trusting Jon a 100% than anything else.
I’m waiting to see how things transpire at Riverrun next week. I don’t want the Blackfish to die. Say, you have any idea what that sketch marge gave to Olenna meant?
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The sketch was a rose, which is the sigil for House Tyrell. It proves that Marge is doing whatever she can to keep her house (and her) in leadership position. She is still loyal to her house, her family. She’s just playing the sparrow. I don’t think the show did a good job of making that part clear. My husband didn’t know what it meant either. I don’t recall any mention of the “Tyrell rose” recently, other than perhaps a zoomed in look at the Queen of Thorns headgear, which has a rose with thorns on it.
Riverrun should be interesting. We’ve got 3 episodes left, and I think that plotline will end on a cliffhanger, perhaps some character deaths.
I think that with Jon they might be setting the scene to have him break with Sansa (amicably) and to have him go his own way to either claim the throne (although he doesn’t seem to want to rule) or to go on his own parentage quest.
I think we’re getting the battle for Winterfell though this season, so perhaps after the battle is won by House Stark, then Sansa will rule Winterfell and the North and Jon will go south towards King’s Landing. Although, it might be a bit too early for a Stark to rule Winterfell. Seems like that’s the kind of plotline they’d drag out until the very last episode or two.
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Of course, that’s the House Tyrell sigil. I should have noted that.
I think you’re right in that the Riverrun plotline would end on a cliffhanger, just like I think most plotlines would this season, like the one in King’s Landing. I think after the CleganeBowl, which should be won by the Hound, we’ll see Cersei in dire straits.
I think you’re right about the Jon-Sansa breaking up bit too although I don’t think he’ll go south. His battles are right where he is now. After Ramsey, he should be getting ready for the Night King and co. But in the meantime, as you said, he might go south to team up with Dany and Tyrion as well as solve the parentage problem.
Bryan Cogman said after the last episode that the show is especially about the Stark family that was torn by the events that followed the murder of Jon Arryn. So yes, Sansa/a Stark ruling Winterfell would be something they’d like to delay as long as possible. But after the Battle of the Bastards in episode 9, who will rule Winterfell? It has to be Lady Sansa, isn’t it? I think we’ll get Bran’s reunion with his siblings shortly too, and maybe, just maybe, Arya too (too optimistic for my own good I think 😀 ).
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I think we’re far away from an entire Stark family reunion, although it would be lovely to see. I don’t think we’ll get that until closer to the end. Or, they’ll reunite them all just to kill off one of them (gasp, please no!!).
I think Sansa will rule Winterfell, but that sneaky Littlefinger will most likely still be around, and who knows what he’ll be up to.
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Please don’t say that! 😀 We’ve already had too many Starks dead. Littlefinger should be thrown from the moon door of the Vale.
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Great review!
Check this out!
https://baitkinblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/game-of-thrones-season-six-episode-seven-review/
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I guess, I should start watching this 🙂
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Of course you should! Don’t delay the inevitable addiction. 😀
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You write very well..
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Ah, thank you! 🙂
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Ask any ASOIAF book lover and I’m sure you’ll get the same answer – This episode is the worst episode in the history of GOT TV series! I mean, common, stop wasting away episodes in just bringing back characters from the dead. Till Benjen Stark, it was killer, but now, it’s kinda irritating. [And yes, as one of the above commenter said, Hound is not even close to the HOUND in the book!]
And about Riverrun, well, we already read the entire Blackfish-escapes-through-the-water bit in 3rd book (or the 4th one.) As for Jon and Sansa – Sansa is again coming out as the arrogant little snob she is and Jon has lost all his charisma (following around Sansa like a pup.) Where is our stud Jon Snow (and where the hell is Ghost!? Someone please get him back in the show…)
Sorry for ranting, but I wish these guys would have waited for GRRM to have published the 6th book first (Winds Of Winter) because, honestly, they are not able to do a great job with direction without the book’s detailed storyline (and NOW it’s starting to show in every episode!) They’re seriously wasting Arya and Jon’s characters. 😦
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Sorry for the late reply, first up!
Wow! That’s quite a bag of list of complaints for the GOT showrunners to handle. 😀
I didn’t like the episode too much myself but it was inevitable that the Hound was going to come back with all the unfinished business he had. Plus, the episode’s director said in an interview to EW that he loved doing this episode (went so far as to call it his favourite! Can you believe that?).
Anyway, I think after today’s episode, you’ll probably not be having grudges anymore about that Arya storyline. I think they’ve redeemed themselves by finally letting her do what she was always destined to do, and not keep rotting in the House of Black and White.
The Riverrun saga too has an outcome which I think was at least a bit different from the books in that Blackfish didn’t escape, although I’d have loved to have him fighting alongside Jon and Co. next week. Speaking of which, I think I wrote somewhere, and this is what I feel, that Jon is struggling with his identity post-resurrection which isn’t that odd but still pretty bad. We want him to lead from the front and assert himself and beginning next week, I have strong belief we’ll see just that. I also think he’ll be behaving the same way in The Winds of Winter as well before finding his way. The show and its masterminds have GRRM’s blessings so they can’t be too far off the mark here. Plus, as always, they have only 10 hours in which to compress and make sense of tomes that run past a 1000 pages. So I think they do deserve to be cut some slack. I can’t speak for everyone but I think all these resurrections and flashbacks are finally doing some fan service after years of shocks and heartbreaks. I also think that this season has been much more brighter than the last one (Stark reunions! Wow!).
Thanks for reading and commenting. God bless. 🙂
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