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scifi_rewatchA whole lot happened this episode, including a few walks through proverbial graveyards as the title suggests, being reborn into something new. But hands down, there’s no scene that moves me more than the family reunion at the beginning. Still got me a little feklempt during the re-watch.
This is also very much an episode about sisters—three sisters who act as the psychological support for their flailing brothers. Elsewhere, Cersei finally wins a victory and Dany …oh Dany. It’s a final scene that some fans might first find empowering, then disappointing. My own thoughts remain quite muddled. I respect what the showrunners were trying to do, but sometimes it’s a lot easier to consider the human moments, not the cosmic moments.
Which brings me back to that first scene…I thought for sure after the last episode, they were setting us up for yet another “just missed the reunion” scenario. But this wasn’t an episode for tiptoeing around story development—it was time to light things on fire. :P
Spoilers
Winterfell
Just a quick stop at chez psycho to confirm that despite Osha’s attempt at subterfuge, Ramsay was on to her and she paid with her life. :/
The Wall
Despite my fears from the last episode, Jon and Sansa are finally reunited and make their amends. Melissandre confirms to Davos that she now considers Jon to be the Prince Who Was Promised, while she steps around the Shireen issue; an unforgiving Brienne steps up to confirm that she killed Stannis. Later, Ramsay in letter form demands the return of Sansa for Rickon’s life; with this new intel, Sansa entices Jon to fight for their brother and their home.
The Vale
Robin, still under the tutelage of Lord Royce, remains subpar at manly pursuits. Littlefinger arrives and sidesteps Royce’s accusation that he married Sansa to Ramsay by using Robin as a puppet. In that same vein, he encourages Robin to move the Knights of the Vale north to help Sansa against the Boltons.
Meereen
Despite Grey Worm and Missandei’s misgivings, Tyrion entices the slavers from Astapor and Yunkai to use a seven year plan to give up the practice. He also relies on Missandei and Grey Worm to back him against the frustrated former slaves. Alone, and tired of Tyrion’s outsider take on the slave practice, they warn him that the masters only play games, not succumb to them.
King’s Landing
The High Sparrow tells Margaery his “call to God” story and then allows her to see Loras; though Margaery implores her brother to stay strong for the family, it’s obvious that he’s been quite broken by the abuse. Elsewhere, Tommen is back to wanting to use caution against the dangerous High Sparrow, but he does let slip to Cersei that Margaery will have to do a walk of atonement. Cersei brings this information to Oleanna and suggests that the Tyrell army come in to stop this, cementing an uneasy alliance.
Pyke
Theon returns home, but Yara is unimpressed given how broken he’s been. She’s also a little suspicious, given that the Kingsmoot is about to start. Theon pledges his loyalty to Yara as the future of their house and the rightful ruler over the Iron Islands.
Vaes Dothrak
Daenerys makes friends with another captive, “outsider” widow who was in an abusive marriage. Jorah and Daario cause a bit of a stir when they murder someone with a weapon in the holy city; Daario also gets an accidental look at Jorah’s grayscale. Daenerys uses her men to hatch a plan where she literally burns down the patriarchy; when she escapes the fire unscathed, all of the Dothraki bow down to her.
Possible Book Reveals
Winterfell—I’m assuming that Osha could die in the books, but at the moment there’s no indication that she’ll be captured by Ramsay.
The Wall—Ramsay’s “pink letter” arrives at the Wall before Jon’s death (and might be the cause of it); we don’t know for sure how he would have responded. He certainly believed that Jeyne was really Arya, so that would compel him to march on Winterfell. There’s theories abounding from the books that Ramsay didn’t write the letter at all, and instead it was someone else, hoping to compel Jon to action. But on the show, it’s straightforward Ramsay. Alas, more pieces would have to move for any of the reunions at the Wall to be possible. :(
The Vale—Littlefinger has promised Sansa that he intends for the Knights of the Vale to march north to fight for her claim. He also has some paternal control over Robert, aka Robin, but he’s younger and weaker in the books, so no one actually looks at him as a leader. Littlefinger is also more subtle in the novels, so he probably wouldn’t threaten Royce so openly.
Meereen—In the books, Tyrion’s counterpart negotiates that the slave cities can return to slavery, but he doesn’t impose a time limit. There’s unrest, if I remember correctly, but neither Grey Worm nor Missandei are so prominent in their own rights.
King’s Landing—At this point in the novels, Kevan is dead, Jaime is distant and Cersei is much more paranoid, so she’ll probably rely more exclusively on Ser Robert Strong, aka Gregor, to get her way. Tommen and Margaery are both far less of players in their own right. Also, in the books, the Tyrell army is the largest army, not the second largest.
Pyke—Theon is not present for the kingsmoot in the novels; he and Asha aka Yara are ultimately reunited, but as Stannis’s prisoners. Asha’s fate at home had already been decided by then.
Vaes Dothrak—Linda from westeros.org believes that Daenerys will use Drogon to command the Dothraki; in the novels, she doesn’t have power to withstand flame. It was a one-time thing with the birth of the dragons. But either way, it seems likely that she won’t go quietly with the plans of any Dothraki khals—she’ll keep on conquering. Neither Jorah nor Daario are free men to go after Dany at this point in the novels, and Jorah doesn’t have grayscale.
Thoughts
There’s really no other place for me to start other than at the explosive…beginning. :P I know, I know, the end has its thrills, but my heart was in the North.
They totally tricked us at the end of last episode where Jon promised to leave with Sansa still on the way…one of those iconic near misses, like with the Stark sisters at the Vale in season four. But nope! Apparently the showrunners thought that they had prolonged THE REUNION THAT WAS PROMISED for too long as it was, and Jon and Sansa did their slow motion dance into each other’s arms. Look, I’m just really emotional about this development, ok? My friend actually spoiled this for me via text before I had a chance to watch the episode for the first time, and I still squealed like a banshee. Someone made a long gif of the sibling reunion, and I watched it several times in a row. I wasn’t even sure if I had the emotional fortitude to go on with the rest of the season after this. :P
So we skip past all the backstory (“by the way, I was married twice, had to flee a lot of abuse, oh, and Bran and Rickon are still alive” and “I united the wildlings and came back from the dead”—kinda hoping he didn’t tell her that last part, actually. That’s not just something you’d let slide. :P) Sansa apologized for being “an ass”—I struggle with this but I know I have to accept that she was a flawed, bratty character in the past. At least she’s grown. And at least the showrruners allow her to cuss now. :P Sansa also starts the trend of sisters encouraging their brothers to stand up for the family name—in one way or another. What’s really fascinating for Jon and Sansa is that they’re both railing against their pasts. Jon quite literally tells Sansa that he’s tired of fighting. I mean hell, why wouldn’t it be preferable to go off and live in obscurity after all that he’s seen? But Sansa doesn’t have that luxury—Ramsay won’t just let her go. Also, this fits in with what Littlefinger told her last season. You can sit on the sidelines, like she had for several seasons, and bad things will still happen…or you can choose to be a player. This character conflict really works for me (plus, I enjoy all of the small talk about their childhood memories and *sniffle* OK, I really need to move on now! :P)
Elsewhere on the Wall, Melissandre’s got her groove back and is positioning herself behind Jon, which isn’t so surprising given that her experiment worked. Davos, meanwhile, is now ready to address the past—so we know that the Shireen issue won’t stay hidden for long. :/ But their biggest antagonist of the episode is surely Brienne. There’s no forgiveness in her scene with the people who aided in Renly’s death—far from it. So she delivers them a stunning blow—SHE killed their beloved king! She’s a much more vengeful character than she is in the books, imho. But the Wall offers us another surprise—an attraction between Tormund and Brienne! :P I gotta give major props to the actors for their silent expressions, and also the cinematographers. Unsurprisingly, that ship blew up before the episode was even over.
In Winterfell Ramsay kills Osha, I assume in a move to get rid of extraneous characters. :/ Part of me appreciates the reminder that no one is safe, but Ramsay’s psychotic behavior can be quite grating, too. Much of the audience got over-saturated, I believe. Ahywho, this is set up to delivering “the pink letter,” which of course Sansa can use to her advantage in turning Jon to her side. Ramsay refers to Rickon as “wild…” that’s more a callback to the books because unfortunately, on the show, Art Parkinson hasn’t been allowed to do much. Alas.
Similar to Sansa, her teacher in the Vale is also moving people to do what he wants. First, Littlefinger makes up a fake story to explain Sansa’s marriage to Ramsay, and then he uses the ever impressionable (and bratty) Robin to keep Lord Royce in line. It’s much more obvious maneuvering than it is in the books, but you also gotta appreciate the limitations of TV, I believe. We need to see how Littlefinger moves the chess pieces. And, of course, this all leads to the endgame of bringing the army of the Vale to the north.
Certainly the clunkiest storybuilding happens in Meereen. I don’t doubt that Tyrion, Missandei and Grey Worm have these differing opinions on war and the slavers, but the exposition was rather on the nose. It’s like the showrunners were telling us THESE ARE THE THEMES YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT. One thing I do appreciate is that Missandei didn’t give Tyrion a pass for his sob story about being in bondage for like five minutes. :P Not to negate Tyrion’s trauma, but after two lifetimes, she and Grey Worm have the more invaluable knowledge of what it’s like to live in slavery and deal with these people. In contemporary terms, we might call this “own voices,” but the truth remains that they’ve actually thoroughly experienced all of this; Lord Lannister is the outsider. Tyrion is the rock star but their counsel, and their relationships with the other former slaves, are invaluable.
In contrast, the strongest writing of the episode came by way of the High Sparrow’s story to Margaery. Jonathan Pyrce acted it deftly, and it gave such insight into how HS sees the world. Rather than just be some sort of sadist, he’s reacting to past experiences, as well as fundamental belief. Of course Natalie Dormer also did her part by playing Margaery’s piety until she gets into the cell with Loras and shows her true cards. She refuses to be broken by these people…but Loras is already broken. Like Sansa, she implores her brother to stand up for the family, but the results are much different. What will Margaery do now, we wonder?
Apparently, she will do a walk of atonement! :0 This news is finally the key that Cersei needs to bring the Tyrells over to her side. Resistance plans are now in development… In other news, Tommen seems to have been affected by his talk with the High Sparrow. He no longer wants to tear the sept to the ground; he’s acting more cautious again. But Cersei still has enough sway over him to pull out his secret.
The final “sister entices brother” moment is a little more directed. If Theon is going to reclaim his Greyjoy identity, then he has to back Yara in this kingsmoot subplot that’s about to go down. In terms of sibling reunions, this one lacked the emotional gravitas of Jon and Sansa, perhaps especially because Yara disdains all emotion. :P Look, I know I’m supposed to be worshipping “badasses,” but I’m tired of cultures where empathy and vulnerability are seen as bad things. The acting on both ends was great, but the Iron Islands suck. :P
And finally…that final scene. Much like with the end of season three, that final image of a bunch of darker skinned people bowing down to a white girl stirs some colonialist misgivings. I think it also doesn’t help just how over the top Dany’s story happens to be. Maybe Jon’s ascent to power is a little bit convenient, but he doesn’t rely on magic to bring people to his side, he relies on communicating common bonds. Dany’s relationship with any of her subjects is inherently unequal—because they either need to be saved or they view her as a threat. Then add in the part that she’s pretty ostensibly a god who can withstand your puny fire.
At the same time…isn’t she kind of the grandiose superhero that feminists can get behind? She LITERALLY gets to burn down the patriarchy. When “powerful” men want to use her, she laughs in their faces with cocky dismissals. And, on a little bit more of a human level, she feels empathy for those who remind her of herself during her former, powerless days—in this case, a captive who was married against her will, beaten and raped. In part, she wants to lend her strength to this woman.
At the end of the day, Dany is a little too mythically powerful to not be a polarizing figure in fandom. I can see, at least, how she’s moving the big set pieces of the story, so that’s gotta be something. And also…this is just speculation, but I think she will ultimately pay for her victories with her life. Fire can’t kill her…but something else might.
This is also very much an episode about sisters—three sisters who act as the psychological support for their flailing brothers. Elsewhere, Cersei finally wins a victory and Dany …oh Dany. It’s a final scene that some fans might first find empowering, then disappointing. My own thoughts remain quite muddled. I respect what the showrunners were trying to do, but sometimes it’s a lot easier to consider the human moments, not the cosmic moments.
Which brings me back to that first scene…I thought for sure after the last episode, they were setting us up for yet another “just missed the reunion” scenario. But this wasn’t an episode for tiptoeing around story development—it was time to light things on fire. :P
Spoilers
Winterfell
Just a quick stop at chez psycho to confirm that despite Osha’s attempt at subterfuge, Ramsay was on to her and she paid with her life. :/
The Wall
Despite my fears from the last episode, Jon and Sansa are finally reunited and make their amends. Melissandre confirms to Davos that she now considers Jon to be the Prince Who Was Promised, while she steps around the Shireen issue; an unforgiving Brienne steps up to confirm that she killed Stannis. Later, Ramsay in letter form demands the return of Sansa for Rickon’s life; with this new intel, Sansa entices Jon to fight for their brother and their home.
The Vale
Robin, still under the tutelage of Lord Royce, remains subpar at manly pursuits. Littlefinger arrives and sidesteps Royce’s accusation that he married Sansa to Ramsay by using Robin as a puppet. In that same vein, he encourages Robin to move the Knights of the Vale north to help Sansa against the Boltons.
Meereen
Despite Grey Worm and Missandei’s misgivings, Tyrion entices the slavers from Astapor and Yunkai to use a seven year plan to give up the practice. He also relies on Missandei and Grey Worm to back him against the frustrated former slaves. Alone, and tired of Tyrion’s outsider take on the slave practice, they warn him that the masters only play games, not succumb to them.
King’s Landing
The High Sparrow tells Margaery his “call to God” story and then allows her to see Loras; though Margaery implores her brother to stay strong for the family, it’s obvious that he’s been quite broken by the abuse. Elsewhere, Tommen is back to wanting to use caution against the dangerous High Sparrow, but he does let slip to Cersei that Margaery will have to do a walk of atonement. Cersei brings this information to Oleanna and suggests that the Tyrell army come in to stop this, cementing an uneasy alliance.
Pyke
Theon returns home, but Yara is unimpressed given how broken he’s been. She’s also a little suspicious, given that the Kingsmoot is about to start. Theon pledges his loyalty to Yara as the future of their house and the rightful ruler over the Iron Islands.
Vaes Dothrak
Daenerys makes friends with another captive, “outsider” widow who was in an abusive marriage. Jorah and Daario cause a bit of a stir when they murder someone with a weapon in the holy city; Daario also gets an accidental look at Jorah’s grayscale. Daenerys uses her men to hatch a plan where she literally burns down the patriarchy; when she escapes the fire unscathed, all of the Dothraki bow down to her.
Possible Book Reveals
Winterfell—I’m assuming that Osha could die in the books, but at the moment there’s no indication that she’ll be captured by Ramsay.
The Wall—Ramsay’s “pink letter” arrives at the Wall before Jon’s death (and might be the cause of it); we don’t know for sure how he would have responded. He certainly believed that Jeyne was really Arya, so that would compel him to march on Winterfell. There’s theories abounding from the books that Ramsay didn’t write the letter at all, and instead it was someone else, hoping to compel Jon to action. But on the show, it’s straightforward Ramsay. Alas, more pieces would have to move for any of the reunions at the Wall to be possible. :(
The Vale—Littlefinger has promised Sansa that he intends for the Knights of the Vale to march north to fight for her claim. He also has some paternal control over Robert, aka Robin, but he’s younger and weaker in the books, so no one actually looks at him as a leader. Littlefinger is also more subtle in the novels, so he probably wouldn’t threaten Royce so openly.
Meereen—In the books, Tyrion’s counterpart negotiates that the slave cities can return to slavery, but he doesn’t impose a time limit. There’s unrest, if I remember correctly, but neither Grey Worm nor Missandei are so prominent in their own rights.
King’s Landing—At this point in the novels, Kevan is dead, Jaime is distant and Cersei is much more paranoid, so she’ll probably rely more exclusively on Ser Robert Strong, aka Gregor, to get her way. Tommen and Margaery are both far less of players in their own right. Also, in the books, the Tyrell army is the largest army, not the second largest.
Pyke—Theon is not present for the kingsmoot in the novels; he and Asha aka Yara are ultimately reunited, but as Stannis’s prisoners. Asha’s fate at home had already been decided by then.
Vaes Dothrak—Linda from westeros.org believes that Daenerys will use Drogon to command the Dothraki; in the novels, she doesn’t have power to withstand flame. It was a one-time thing with the birth of the dragons. But either way, it seems likely that she won’t go quietly with the plans of any Dothraki khals—she’ll keep on conquering. Neither Jorah nor Daario are free men to go after Dany at this point in the novels, and Jorah doesn’t have grayscale.
Thoughts
There’s really no other place for me to start other than at the explosive…beginning. :P I know, I know, the end has its thrills, but my heart was in the North.
They totally tricked us at the end of last episode where Jon promised to leave with Sansa still on the way…one of those iconic near misses, like with the Stark sisters at the Vale in season four. But nope! Apparently the showrunners thought that they had prolonged THE REUNION THAT WAS PROMISED for too long as it was, and Jon and Sansa did their slow motion dance into each other’s arms. Look, I’m just really emotional about this development, ok? My friend actually spoiled this for me via text before I had a chance to watch the episode for the first time, and I still squealed like a banshee. Someone made a long gif of the sibling reunion, and I watched it several times in a row. I wasn’t even sure if I had the emotional fortitude to go on with the rest of the season after this. :P
So we skip past all the backstory (“by the way, I was married twice, had to flee a lot of abuse, oh, and Bran and Rickon are still alive” and “I united the wildlings and came back from the dead”—kinda hoping he didn’t tell her that last part, actually. That’s not just something you’d let slide. :P) Sansa apologized for being “an ass”—I struggle with this but I know I have to accept that she was a flawed, bratty character in the past. At least she’s grown. And at least the showrruners allow her to cuss now. :P Sansa also starts the trend of sisters encouraging their brothers to stand up for the family name—in one way or another. What’s really fascinating for Jon and Sansa is that they’re both railing against their pasts. Jon quite literally tells Sansa that he’s tired of fighting. I mean hell, why wouldn’t it be preferable to go off and live in obscurity after all that he’s seen? But Sansa doesn’t have that luxury—Ramsay won’t just let her go. Also, this fits in with what Littlefinger told her last season. You can sit on the sidelines, like she had for several seasons, and bad things will still happen…or you can choose to be a player. This character conflict really works for me (plus, I enjoy all of the small talk about their childhood memories and *sniffle* OK, I really need to move on now! :P)
Elsewhere on the Wall, Melissandre’s got her groove back and is positioning herself behind Jon, which isn’t so surprising given that her experiment worked. Davos, meanwhile, is now ready to address the past—so we know that the Shireen issue won’t stay hidden for long. :/ But their biggest antagonist of the episode is surely Brienne. There’s no forgiveness in her scene with the people who aided in Renly’s death—far from it. So she delivers them a stunning blow—SHE killed their beloved king! She’s a much more vengeful character than she is in the books, imho. But the Wall offers us another surprise—an attraction between Tormund and Brienne! :P I gotta give major props to the actors for their silent expressions, and also the cinematographers. Unsurprisingly, that ship blew up before the episode was even over.
In Winterfell Ramsay kills Osha, I assume in a move to get rid of extraneous characters. :/ Part of me appreciates the reminder that no one is safe, but Ramsay’s psychotic behavior can be quite grating, too. Much of the audience got over-saturated, I believe. Ahywho, this is set up to delivering “the pink letter,” which of course Sansa can use to her advantage in turning Jon to her side. Ramsay refers to Rickon as “wild…” that’s more a callback to the books because unfortunately, on the show, Art Parkinson hasn’t been allowed to do much. Alas.
Similar to Sansa, her teacher in the Vale is also moving people to do what he wants. First, Littlefinger makes up a fake story to explain Sansa’s marriage to Ramsay, and then he uses the ever impressionable (and bratty) Robin to keep Lord Royce in line. It’s much more obvious maneuvering than it is in the books, but you also gotta appreciate the limitations of TV, I believe. We need to see how Littlefinger moves the chess pieces. And, of course, this all leads to the endgame of bringing the army of the Vale to the north.
Certainly the clunkiest storybuilding happens in Meereen. I don’t doubt that Tyrion, Missandei and Grey Worm have these differing opinions on war and the slavers, but the exposition was rather on the nose. It’s like the showrunners were telling us THESE ARE THE THEMES YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT. One thing I do appreciate is that Missandei didn’t give Tyrion a pass for his sob story about being in bondage for like five minutes. :P Not to negate Tyrion’s trauma, but after two lifetimes, she and Grey Worm have the more invaluable knowledge of what it’s like to live in slavery and deal with these people. In contemporary terms, we might call this “own voices,” but the truth remains that they’ve actually thoroughly experienced all of this; Lord Lannister is the outsider. Tyrion is the rock star but their counsel, and their relationships with the other former slaves, are invaluable.
In contrast, the strongest writing of the episode came by way of the High Sparrow’s story to Margaery. Jonathan Pyrce acted it deftly, and it gave such insight into how HS sees the world. Rather than just be some sort of sadist, he’s reacting to past experiences, as well as fundamental belief. Of course Natalie Dormer also did her part by playing Margaery’s piety until she gets into the cell with Loras and shows her true cards. She refuses to be broken by these people…but Loras is already broken. Like Sansa, she implores her brother to stand up for the family, but the results are much different. What will Margaery do now, we wonder?
Apparently, she will do a walk of atonement! :0 This news is finally the key that Cersei needs to bring the Tyrells over to her side. Resistance plans are now in development… In other news, Tommen seems to have been affected by his talk with the High Sparrow. He no longer wants to tear the sept to the ground; he’s acting more cautious again. But Cersei still has enough sway over him to pull out his secret.
The final “sister entices brother” moment is a little more directed. If Theon is going to reclaim his Greyjoy identity, then he has to back Yara in this kingsmoot subplot that’s about to go down. In terms of sibling reunions, this one lacked the emotional gravitas of Jon and Sansa, perhaps especially because Yara disdains all emotion. :P Look, I know I’m supposed to be worshipping “badasses,” but I’m tired of cultures where empathy and vulnerability are seen as bad things. The acting on both ends was great, but the Iron Islands suck. :P
And finally…that final scene. Much like with the end of season three, that final image of a bunch of darker skinned people bowing down to a white girl stirs some colonialist misgivings. I think it also doesn’t help just how over the top Dany’s story happens to be. Maybe Jon’s ascent to power is a little bit convenient, but he doesn’t rely on magic to bring people to his side, he relies on communicating common bonds. Dany’s relationship with any of her subjects is inherently unequal—because they either need to be saved or they view her as a threat. Then add in the part that she’s pretty ostensibly a god who can withstand your puny fire.
At the same time…isn’t she kind of the grandiose superhero that feminists can get behind? She LITERALLY gets to burn down the patriarchy. When “powerful” men want to use her, she laughs in their faces with cocky dismissals. And, on a little bit more of a human level, she feels empathy for those who remind her of herself during her former, powerless days—in this case, a captive who was married against her will, beaten and raped. In part, she wants to lend her strength to this woman.
At the end of the day, Dany is a little too mythically powerful to not be a polarizing figure in fandom. I can see, at least, how she’s moving the big set pieces of the story, so that’s gotta be something. And also…this is just speculation, but I think she will ultimately pay for her victories with her life. Fire can’t kill her…but something else might.
