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After watching the trailer preview of this episode last week, I will admit I was not as excited as I had been for last week's episode. It seems as if the events of the first three episodes have come in with such force and reckoning and have made the impact they intended to, and this week's episodes seemed as if the producers wanted to give us a minute to catch our breath.
Don't get me wrong, episode four was good, but it was not great, and even the ending scene, although very epic and powerful in its execution, was not enough for me to be able to say this episode was "great" or anything more than a 6.5/10.
This will all make sense as I explain the episode in detail, so without further ado, let us begin.
**If you don't want to read the entire recap (trust me I'm not offended), skip to the end for a very brief summary of this week's events**
As always, be warned, this post is DARK and full of SPOILERS!
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Our opening scene this week brings us to Castle Black, where Jon is preparing his things for his journey away from Castle Black. He is speaking with Edd about his plans for his future, and even admits that he isn't really sure where he is going or what he is going to do. Edd tries pleading with Jon to stay by talking about Hardhome and "what is out there", but Jon has already made up his mind. Jon states "they killed me Edd, my own brothers. You want me to stay here after that?"
Then suddenly, the conversation is interrupted by the sound of a horn, and we hear a yell of "open the gate!" Surprise! Who shows up but none other than Brienne, Pod, and Sansa. Jon stands from the balcony and sees his sister arrive, and runs down to greet her in what is a truly heartwarming and touching embrace. Fun fact: this scene is actually the first time that these two characters have been together on screen during the entire GoT series.
The siblings sit down and speak about their past relationship when they were children. Sansa apologizes to Jon for always being mean and nasty to him, and Jon states "It's better than sulking in the corner". Sansa questions Jon about where he will go next, and Jon replies "If I don't watch over you, father's ghost will come back to haunt me".
Finally, Jon and Sansa are reunited and will travel together from now on. Sansa pleads with Jon to return to Winterfell to "take back our home" but Jon is very reluctant to fight again given how exhausted he is after all that has happened.
We then travel very far south to the Vale of Arryn, where Lord Robin is trying very hard to hone his archery skills, but to little avail. The look on the face of Yohn Royce is pretty funny, one of definite growing agitation by trying to turn Robin into a warrior. A wagon pulls into the area, and Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) appears bearing a pet falcon gift for the young lord.
Royce now begins questioning Littlefinger about his whereabouts and Sansa, and it seems that he knows exactly what happened with the whole thing, despite Littlefinger's story he makes up. Littlefinger then tells him that he is only concerned with the judgment of Robin, and appears prepared to have Royce arrested until he makes him pledge his absolute loyalty to the Vale and to Robin.
Littlefinger then tells them that he has heard Sansa has escaped Winterfell, and begins doing exactly what he does best. Robin states "she's my cousin, we should help her", and Littlefinger agrees by answering with perhaps the most epic monologue he has had in the entire series; "gather the Knights of the Vale, the time has come to join the fray." Well it looks like the Stark cause suddenly has some serious backup, as the Vale has pretty much not done shit at any point in the series, so I am excited to finally see them help out in some way.
Travel now to Meereen where Tyrion, Missandei, Varys, and Grey Worm are meeting with the slave masters of Astapor. Tyrion is leading negotiations with the masters on behalf of the slave trade in the cities, while also trying to have them agree to cut off their support of the Sons of the Harpy movement in Meereen. Tyrion tells the masters that he will propose to them a plan to have them abolish slavery completely within a seven-year time frame, and Missandei and Grey Worm are extremely offended by this (as both are former slaves and do not want to hear that the act can be allowed to continue).
Back in the Pyramid, a group of very angry former slaves are meeting to express their deep disagreement with allowing the slave masters in the city. After biting their pride, Grey Worm and Missandei both tell the group that they trust Tyrion as the adviser to Daenerys. Afterward, Grey Worm and Missandei have some words for Tyrion about how his judgment of the masters might be misplaced.
Next, we are brought to the outskirts of Vaes Dothrak where Jorah and Daario are continuing their search for Dany. They survey the city and remove their weapons to not draw any attention to themselves, and Daario gets his glimpse of the Grey Scale on Jorah's arm.
They enter the city and try to stay hidden in side alleys. They run into a pair of Dothraki men and ask them for directions, claiming they are merchants from the market. The two do not believe them, and as the one runs off to alert the others, Daario follows him and Jorah is left to fend for himself. He pretty much gets his ass kicked left and right and just as the Dothraki man is about to finish him, we see Daario's knife enter him from behind. Guess he didn't leave it behind after all.
We enter the Temple of the Dosh Kaleen where Dany is meeting with the other widows. She asks to leave to use the bathroom and is escorted by a young woman from the temple. The two begin chatting but their conversation is cut short when Daario grabs the woman and puts a knife to their throat. Dany tells him not to hurt her and tells the woman that she must trust her and the men she is with, and claims that she has a red hot plan (zing) for them to escape the city.
Now we travel to Kings Landing and are brought to Margery's cell in prison, where she is visited by the Septa and is brought to the center chamber to meet with the High Sparrow. He begins regaling her of the time in his life when he was very free-spirited and a successful cobbler. One day he woke up after a heavy night of drinking and partying and felt disgusted by the smell and the sight of the drunk sleeping men and woman, which was the image of wealth and grandeur in his eyes. He hated the life he had created for himself and realized that he wanted to live a simpler life, so he left everything behind, even his shoes (which makes sense why he never wears them).
The two also converse about how this story is very similar to one that is held in the holy text The Seven Pointed Star, in the Book of the Stranger, which is one of the aspects of the Seven. The High Sparrow then offers his hand to Margery and they walk to Loras's cell to visit with him. Loras looks terrible and begins weeping when he sees his sister, but she instructs him that he must remain strong and not let the faith break his spirit.
Remaining in King's Landing, we enter Tommen's chambers where he is conversing with Grand Maester Pycelle. Cersei enters and tells him to leave immediately, which he does but only after Tommen tells him to because he's savage AF. Cersei tells Tommen that he needs to speak with him regarding the High Sparrow, and Tommen expresses his concerns for Margery and how he thinks they should be careful when dealing with the High Sparrow. After trying the "poor me" tactic on her son, Tommen comes to the conclusion that Cersei really doesn't like Margery very much (it only took him a few years to get it).
Cersei then meets with Jaime, Lady Olenna and her Uncle Kevan (hah, Kevan) to propose a plan for eliminating the Faith Militant and their leader. She speaks about the schemes of the High Sparrow and how he played his game very well in trying to get the group of council members to bicker and fight among themselves. The group comes to a very solid conclusion; they cannot allow Margery to complete a walk of atonement, as that will severely weaken the trust that the citizens of King's Landing have in her as a queen.
Margery has been a very just and honest queen and has shown very high regard for the citizens of the city and their well-being - much more than any of the Lannisters ever have (except for Tyrion maybe). It is paramount that she does not lose their trust as the city will erupt into even more chaos if they find out their queen is a criminal. The council agrees to a plan to bring in Tyrell armies to destroy the Faith Militant, which will return Margey to Tommen and her grandmother, and also will bring Lancel (remember him lol) back to his father (Kevan). Seems like it will pan out for a pretty awesome riot/crowd control scene in the coming episodes.
Now we move to the ocean where Theon is sailing back to Pike. He is greeted by a very angry Yara who is upset with him for the events that happened at Moat Cailin a few seasons ago. Quick refresher if you've forgotten - Yara brought a group of soldiers to the castle where Ramsay was holding Theon in an attempt to rescue him, but once she found her brother, he would not go with her and kept resisting her efforts to force him, exclaiming "Not Theon, Reek! I've always been Reek!". Yara says she lost "good men" when they stormed the castle to rescue Theon, and she is mad that he would not go with her at the time.
Yara seems to think that Theon is only returning home because he intends to seize the Kingsmoot and rule the Iron Islands, but Theon tries explaining to her that this is not the case (If you haven't read the books, a Kingsmoot is the traditional ceremony which is held when a King of the Iron Islands dies and a new ruler must be crowned. The most worthy contenders arrive to express their claims and the group votes for who they want their ruler to be. Victarion and Euron - brothers of the dead king Balon - and Yara are the Kingsmoot contenders in the books). After some bickering, crying, and shirt-grabbing, Theon explains to Yara that he wants to help her in her quest to win the Kingsmoot and rule in her father's place, which she seems overjoyed at. The reason why this is such a big deal for Yara is that there has never been a woman to rule, so she is already at a disadvantage to the other contenders and will need all the support she can get.
We arrive now at Winterfell where Osha is brought in to meet with Ramsay. She tells him about how she served the Starks against her will and how she was accompanying Rickon to sell him for a high price, which we know isn't true. Ramsay asks her "what use do I have for you?" and Osha comes over to sit on his lap. While she is kissing him, she notices a knife on the table and tries to grab it. Ramsay explains "Theon Greyjoy told me all about the Stark boys, and who helped them escape, and how she did it."
Osha then makes the move for the knife but Ramsay beats her to it, and he kills her. I was pretty bummed by this, not gonna lie, because Osha was a really sweet character and it was really cool to see her growing love for the Stark children she was with. I really hope her death doesn't mean bad things to come for Rickon, but unfortunately we know that the producers Dan and Dave have shown that they are not above killing children on the show, so I guess we will have to wait and see how things play out for him.
We are back at Castle Black, where the group of Jon, Edd, Sansa, Pod, Brienne, and Tormund are sitting down to a meal. It is worth noting that Tormund is staring at Brienne like she is the most beautiful thing since he fooled around with a Grizzly Bear, and if we know one thing about Tormund, it's that he loves himself a badass woman. A man appears to offer Jon a letter and calls him Lord Commander, but Jon replies "I'm not Lord Commander anymore." He takes the letter anyway, and notices it bears the wax seal of the flayed man. Finally, the Pink Letter has arrived!
Without getting into too much detail, the Pink Letter is basically a letter sent to Jon from Ramsay at Winterfell. It is changed a bit from the books, but basically says that Ramsay wants Sansa returned to him, and if that does not happen, he plans to march on Castle Black and do terrible things to Jon, his men, and Sansa too. It is rather graphic in detail so definitely watch at your own risk. Long story short, this letter is crucial to the story because it gives Jon the drive and cause he needs to realize that he must march on Winterfell to liberate the North from Bolton control. He plans to march with what Wildlings he can gather and will also try to gather supporters in the North for what I'm certain will be the most insane battle scene we have ever seen on GoT.
Last scene of the week brings us back to the Temple of the Dosh Kaleen, where the best group of the Dothraki warriors are meeting. In Dothraki culture, when a new widow is brought to join the Dosh Kaleen (the group of women who serve in the holy temple, all of whom are former brides of Khals) the best of the warriors gather to deem the woman worthy or not of joining the Dosh Kaleen.
Dany is brought in and the men begin discussion about her worthiness. After some conversation, Dany tells the men that she doesn't think any of them are worthy of leading the Dothraki. She tells them that she believes she is the only one in the room who could handle such a task, and all the men laugh at her. Moro tells her "do you really think we would serve you?" along with some other choice words, and the smirk on Dany's face tells you that she loves to feed this man's rage.
Dany then tells the men "you're not going to serve, you're going to die", and all hell breaks loose, literally. Dany knocks over the braziers that are inside the room and the floor begins to catch fire, which spreads quickly since the structure is wooden and the ground is made from mats and plants woven together. The men scream and run in panic, but Dany is acting like nothing is happening. She knocks over more braziers and the men run for the door, which we see has been barred from the other side (presumably by Daario and Jorah).
We cut to an outside shot of the temple which has turned into an inferno. Dothraki men and women run to the building in sheer horror, and we see a figure emerge from the doorway. It's Dany, in all her naked glory, and she looks like something straight out of a Greek God scene. The people are awestruck by the sight, and one by one they bow to her glory. Now that's why they call her "the Unburnt".
Summary:
It can be assumed now that Dany will lead the Dothraki, which means this could be an excellent time for her to gather ships and sail to Westeros to claim her throne. I'm not sure the likeliness of this happening within season 6, but who knows. I am still really banking on the show introducing a pretty crucial storyline from the books related to Dany (if you've read the books, you'll know, but hey I might as well just spoil something else for you too, right?)
So here it is: in the books there is a character by the name of Young Griff, but his real identity is one of myth. Remember back to the sack of Kings Landing, and the reason why Oberyn Martell hated the Mountain so much? Well it was because when Tywin's army entered the city, Tywin ordered the Mountain to find and kill the baby Targaryen children to then their line of sucession. These were the children of Elia Martell, who was Oberyn's sister. You may recall Oberyn claiming to the Mountain during his trial of combat "You raped her! You murdered her! You killed her children!" Well turns out, thanks to Lord Varys, one of the children survived and was sneaked out of the city. This is Young Griff, who is really Aegon Targaryen VI, the son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and nephew of Dany. In the books, Aegon is heading to Westeros with an army to claim his throne, and many think he will somehow link up with Dany to do so.
However, the show has not introduced him and has not made any notice that they plan to do so, so for now Young Griff remains a thing of myth.
Major deaths this week:
Osha - wildling who traveled with Rickon - killed by Ramsay Bolton
Many Dothraki men (including Khal Moro) - killed by Dany
Top power plays of the week:
Dany will now lead the Dothraki
Jon and Sansa will rally an army against Winterfell
Littlefinger will lead the Vale army to accompany Sansa
Until next time.
Night gathers, and now my Watch begins.
-Tyler
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