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| ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 4: An Hour of Ice and Fire | ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 4: An Hour of Ice and Fire |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| “Game of Thrones” lived up to its billing as a song of ice and fire on Sunday, as there was plenty of action in both of the signature halves of the story. | “Game of Thrones” lived up to its billing as a song of ice and fire on Sunday, as there was plenty of action in both of the signature halves of the story. |
| In the North we witnessed perhaps the rarest event in the Known World: An actual Stark reunion. The show has gone to gymnastic lengths to scuttle all previous brushes with the same — Arya and Sansa at the Vale; Bran and Jon at Craster’s Keep; and most tragically, Arya and Robb and Catelyn at Chez Frey. Last week’s revelation that Jon Snow was moving on, as Sansa was making her way to Castle Black, seemed to be the latest example of this. | In the North we witnessed perhaps the rarest event in the Known World: An actual Stark reunion. The show has gone to gymnastic lengths to scuttle all previous brushes with the same — Arya and Sansa at the Vale; Bran and Jon at Craster’s Keep; and most tragically, Arya and Robb and Catelyn at Chez Frey. Last week’s revelation that Jon Snow was moving on, as Sansa was making her way to Castle Black, seemed to be the latest example of this. |
| But there Sansa was on Sunday, showing up just in time to share a hug with her (theoretical) half brother and have a look at Ramsay’s charming Dear Jon letter. I may have yelped with delight when the gates opened to reveal Sansa and Brienne — the show’s story has gotten so big, there is a visceral thrill that comes from seeing disparate pieces connect. | But there Sansa was on Sunday, showing up just in time to share a hug with her (theoretical) half brother and have a look at Ramsay’s charming Dear Jon letter. I may have yelped with delight when the gates opened to reveal Sansa and Brienne — the show’s story has gotten so big, there is a visceral thrill that comes from seeing disparate pieces connect. |
| It is a different Sansa who Jon met on Sunday — one full of righteous rage and a plan to retake their ancestral home by force. As for Jon, well he’s still the same sullen dude who sulked in the shadows of said home, give or take a zombie fight and a resurrection or two. (I did enjoy the self-referential joke about Jon as a moody youth in Winterfell.) | It is a different Sansa who Jon met on Sunday — one full of righteous rage and a plan to retake their ancestral home by force. As for Jon, well he’s still the same sullen dude who sulked in the shadows of said home, give or take a zombie fight and a resurrection or two. (I did enjoy the self-referential joke about Jon as a moody youth in Winterfell.) |
| As for the fire portion of the program, well, you saw it. The Dothraki hut went up like a haystack soaked in kerosene, taking the potty-mouthed khals with it and allowing the unburnt dragon mother to emerge from the flames. As Dothraki-cowing parlor tricks go, it’s a good one, which we already know because we saw her do roughly the same thing with Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre in Season 1. | As for the fire portion of the program, well, you saw it. The Dothraki hut went up like a haystack soaked in kerosene, taking the potty-mouthed khals with it and allowing the unburnt dragon mother to emerge from the flames. As Dothraki-cowing parlor tricks go, it’s a good one, which we already know because we saw her do roughly the same thing with Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre in Season 1. |
| Indeed, for the rest of us, Dany’s effortless Bar-B-Coup mostly inspired the numbing suspicion that the net result of the Slaver’s Bay excursions and Meereen misadventures were to get Daenerys Targaryen back to where she was over four seasons ago: leading a Dothraki force with designs on taking them on wooden horses across the Black Salt Sea. | |
| There’s plenty to unpack and we’ll have more on all of this later. But first a quick look at what else happened on Sunday: | There’s plenty to unpack and we’ll have more on all of this later. But first a quick look at what else happened on Sunday: |
| • The plot thickens in King’s Landing, where it now seems Cersei and Jaime plan to bring in a Tyrell army to overthrow the High Sparrow, perhaps as Margaery is queuing up for her own walk of shame. I have to admit I’m a little confused by all of this — last week it seemed like we were headed toward a trial by combat. Maybe we still are. Or maybe Cersei’s playing the Tyrells as part of a broader plot to regain power in the capital. The only certainty is that somewhere Mountainstein is sharpening his sword and/or splattering a loose-lipped drunk against a wall. | • The plot thickens in King’s Landing, where it now seems Cersei and Jaime plan to bring in a Tyrell army to overthrow the High Sparrow, perhaps as Margaery is queuing up for her own walk of shame. I have to admit I’m a little confused by all of this — last week it seemed like we were headed toward a trial by combat. Maybe we still are. Or maybe Cersei’s playing the Tyrells as part of a broader plot to regain power in the capital. The only certainty is that somewhere Mountainstein is sharpening his sword and/or splattering a loose-lipped drunk against a wall. |
| • Brienne’s really putting it all together this season. First she saved Sansa and now she’s reunited her with a family member. She also cleared up any remaining mystery about whether Stannis somehow survived the Season 5 finale (he didn’t) and served notice to the Red Woman over her role in Renly’s smoky assassination. Now it seems romance might be in the frigid air of Castle Black. Tormund reacted to her arrival with the Wildling equivalent of a Looney Tunes wolf whistle. | • Brienne’s really putting it all together this season. First she saved Sansa and now she’s reunited her with a family member. She also cleared up any remaining mystery about whether Stannis somehow survived the Season 5 finale (he didn’t) and served notice to the Red Woman over her role in Renly’s smoky assassination. Now it seems romance might be in the frigid air of Castle Black. Tormund reacted to her arrival with the Wildling equivalent of a Looney Tunes wolf whistle. |
| • A few commenters thought the crafty and capable Osha could spell doom for Ramsay the Terrible. She apparently had the same idea. But nope. Soon she had a hole in her neck and the kennel master’s hounds had a new special on the menu. (Fun fact: Natalia Tena and Iwan Rheon played a couple in a dystopian sci-fi miniseries last year called “Residue.” I haven’t seen it but it’s on Netflix.) | • A few commenters thought the crafty and capable Osha could spell doom for Ramsay the Terrible. She apparently had the same idea. But nope. Soon she had a hole in her neck and the kennel master’s hounds had a new special on the menu. (Fun fact: Natalia Tena and Iwan Rheon played a couple in a dystopian sci-fi miniseries last year called “Residue.” I haven’t seen it but it’s on Netflix.) |
| • Last week we put out an APB for Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish — on Sunday we were rewarded by the master plotter’s first appearance this season. The thrill was undercut somewhat by the contemporaneous return of the squirrely Suckling Robyn, who has made exactly zero positive strides since we last saw him. He still can’t hit a target and he still lives to throw people out of the dreaded moon door. I enjoy him as a goof on the colorful history of actual half-wit nobles and monarchs — and thus as a dead-eyed critique of the very concept of royalty by birth. But he still gives me the creeps. | • Last week we put out an APB for Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish — on Sunday we were rewarded by the master plotter’s first appearance this season. The thrill was undercut somewhat by the contemporaneous return of the squirrely Suckling Robyn, who has made exactly zero positive strides since we last saw him. He still can’t hit a target and he still lives to throw people out of the dreaded moon door. I enjoy him as a goof on the colorful history of actual half-wit nobles and monarchs — and thus as a dead-eyed critique of the very concept of royalty by birth. But he still gives me the creeps. |
| • Bronn, however, is still missing in action. Perhaps Cersei and Jaime’s coup will have a place for him. | • Bronn, however, is still missing in action. Perhaps Cersei and Jaime’s coup will have a place for him. |
| Please check back later for a more in-depth version of this recap. | Please check back later for a more in-depth version of this recap. |