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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 Eyrie; Bran and Jon at Craster’s Keep; and most tragically, Arya and Robb and Catelyn at Chez Frey. For scarred “Thrones” fans, last week’s revelation that Jon Snow was moving on, as Sansa was making her way to Castle Black, promised 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 joy when the gates opened to reveal Sansa and Brienne. This story has sprawled so prodigiously, there is a visceral thrill that comes from seeing disparate pieces connect, especially pieces of the tortured family that represents whatever good is left in the world.
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. Indeed, for many us, Dany’s effortless Bar-B-Coup probably inspired the 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: It was more complicated than that, of course, and we’ll come back to Vaes Dothrak. But first let’s return northwestward, where the show packed quite a bit into a few poignant scenes.
• 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. It is a different Sansa who Jon Snow 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 corners 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.)
• 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. But Sophie Turner and Kit Harington infused the scenes with warmth and a sense of familial comfort — the siblings’ delight at being together again was palpable, though tinged with melancholy for obvious reasons. “We never should have left Winterfell,” Snow said. We were reminded that most of what has happened over the past six seasons, not just the Stark strife but the various wars, betrayals and other machinations that have convulsed the world of this story, were triggered when Robert Baratheon called Ned to King’s Landing.
• 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.) I’m sick of fighting, Jon told Sansa. It’s all I’ve been doing, and did I mention I got killed a few days ago? If you don’t come along, I’m doing it without you, she said. Then Ramsay the Terrible’s mocking letter arrived to put everyone on the same page.
• 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 Robin, 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 walking critique of the very concept of royalty by birth. But he still gives me the creeps. The missive signaled Ramsay’s overflowing arrogance (“come and see”) and why wouldn’t it? Since we met him in Season 3, we’ve seen him break down and enslave a young nobleman; win his legitimacy at Moat Cailin; trick the formidable Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish into letting him marry Sansa; defeat Stannis; and murder his own father to take control of House Bolton. His only misstep was allowing Sansa to escape but he quickly replaced her with her little brother.
A few commenters thought the crafty and capable Osha might spell doom for him, and 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 mini-series last year called “Residue.” I haven’t seen it but it’s on Netflix.)
The guy has good reasons to be arrogant, is the point. But the letter’s grandiosity felt like the moment Ramsay finally invited his own demise. Few things undo dramatic characters as effectively as preening hubris — just ask Joffrey, Oberyn, and any number of killed-off slaver and henchmen — and Ramsay doesn’t realize how many forces are aligning against him. Over in the Vale, Littlefinger (welcome back!) has manipulated the Suckling Robin into sending troops to help Sansa. Plus Ramsay’s never met Wun Wun, who might not appreciate Lord Bolton’s vile threats against Wildlings. (I realize I’m sort of obsessed with the improbable notion of Wun Wun being the one to kill Ramsay but come on, what would be better?)
Sansa’s steadfastness in the face of Jon’s reluctance offered the latest evidence that Sansa has assumed a leadership role within both her own family and her own story, in general. It was also one of several sibling dynamics that found the sisters taking command. Cersei Lannister bossing around Jaime is old news, of course, but on Sunday we also saw Margaery bucking up the disintegrating Loras and Theon volunteering for the committee to elect Yara leader of the Iron Born.
It’s become common this season to note that the female characters on “Game of Thrones” are stepping to the fore, but that was especially evident on Sunday. Women took purposeful steps to reshape their fortunes while, on the other side of the fence, our beloved Tyrion Lannsplained slavery to former slaves and the High Sparrow did his usual poverty-porn self-mythologizing for Margaery, who sees his empty brand-burnishing pieties for what they really are.
And then we have the woman who literally burned the patriarchy to the ground.
I admit that despite the visual flair of the sequence, I mostly sighed as Dany flambéed the khal council. For one thing, there was the easy efficiency of the takeover. (Seriously, was that thing made of kindling or what? Or are we supposed to think Jorah and Daario somehow sprayed it down with lighter fluid in advance?) Then there was the fact that, as I said earlier, it essentially returned her to where she was a few seasons ago: leading a bunch of Dothrakis, with an eye on conquering Westeros.
But the more I thought about it, the more the parallelism of her emergence highlighted how far she has come, even as much of her arc has been mired in the mostly cheerless stasis in Meereen. She has conquered cities. She has made mistakes. She has been underestimated and has learned the value of allowing herself to be underestimated. She has acquired the support of the Unsullied and of the oppressed of Slavers Bay, even if Tyrion threatens to undo much of that support. And not for nothing, but the baby dragons who emerged from that pyre are now, you know, actual giant fire-breathing dragons.
Then there was the symbolism of the thing. The khals collectively represent a distilled, pure-grade dose of the savage aggression that has torn this world apart — they promised an almost cartoonish level of rape and cruelty and ended up as ash, showing in the process the ultimate fecklessness of bluster, dumb strength and braggadocio in the face of true transcendent power. The kind Dany represented in the early days of this story but is only now beginning to embody.
Something tells me things are going to go better for her this time.
• 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 thing I’m sure of is 1. Cersei is destined to underestimate how her actions might come back to bite her, and 2. somewhere Mountainstein is sharpening his sword and/or splattering a loose-lipped drunk against a wall.
• Many people wondered if the Rickon’s arrival at Winterfell was actually a House Umber plot to undo Ramsay, but Osha’s thwarted gambit seemed to contradict that theory. Her actions seemed too impulsive and desperate. Or did you read that differently?
• After several seasons of flailing, Brienne’s really putting it all together. 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. (“Just because it’s in past doesn’t mean I forget or forgive,” she told her.) 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.
• That Shireen shoe is going to drop at some point and it’s not going to be pretty. Davos and Melisandre have been uneasy allies this season but that revelation will bring an end to all that, to the point that I’m not sure both will survive whatever comes afterward.
• Last week we put out an APB for Littlefinger — 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 Robin, 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 walking 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. • What did you think? Are we finally done with Ramsay? But who becomes the big baddie if he goes down? Where does Dany go from here? What sound did you make when Brienne and Sansa arrived at Castle Black? Please share your thoughts in the comments.