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| ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 6: A Dragon Queen on the Campaign Trail | ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 6: A Dragon Queen on the Campaign Trail |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The problem with emerging naked from a flaming temple is that it’s hard to top. | The problem with emerging naked from a flaming temple is that it’s hard to top. |
| It’s hard to top, that is, unless you happen to have a dragon with a flair for dramatic timing. So it went on Sunday, as Daenerys Targaryen wrapped up this week’s “Game of Thrones” with a stump speech for the ages. | It’s hard to top, that is, unless you happen to have a dragon with a flair for dramatic timing. So it went on Sunday, as Daenerys Targaryen wrapped up this week’s “Game of Thrones” with a stump speech for the ages. |
| Populist rhetoric? Check. I know most khals prefer a small inner circle of bloodriders, Dany told the assembled, but I want you all. Relatable local reference? Check. I remember like it was yesterday, Khal Drogo promising me the Seven Kingdoms at the Mother of Mountains, easily my favorite mountain in Essos. | Populist rhetoric? Check. I know most khals prefer a small inner circle of bloodriders, Dany told the assembled, but I want you all. Relatable local reference? Check. I remember like it was yesterday, Khal Drogo promising me the Seven Kingdoms at the Mother of Mountains, easily my favorite mountain in Essos. |
| Demonization of the elites? You better believe it. Look at them over there, with their iron suits and stone houses. They think they’re better than you but we’re going to show them different. Oh and by the way, did you happen to notice that I’m sitting on an actual dragon right now and let me hear you say it: Are you with me? Now and always? | Demonization of the elites? You better believe it. Look at them over there, with their iron suits and stone houses. They think they’re better than you but we’re going to show them different. Oh and by the way, did you happen to notice that I’m sitting on an actual dragon right now and let me hear you say it: Are you with me? Now and always? |
| They were. It’s hard to blame them — it was quite the performance. I was ready to air out some iron suits and tear down a stone house or two myself, and I don’t even have an arakh. | They were. It’s hard to blame them — it was quite the performance. I was ready to air out some iron suits and tear down a stone house or two myself, and I don’t even have an arakh. |
| We’ll dig into this more deeply later. But for now let’s take a quick look at what else happened on Sunday. | We’ll dig into this more deeply later. But for now let’s take a quick look at what else happened on Sunday. |
| • Uncle Benjen made a heroic return to the story, saving Bran and Meera from their Wight pursuers with some sort of flaming mace. (I guess the many other Wights got lost?) He’s been missing for awhile, we were reminded — turns out he was killed by White Walkers but saved by a strategic dragonglass stab by some forest children. (Read that sentence again; this show is so nutty sometimes.) Bran spent much of the escape trying to boot up like a Three-Eyed cable box, downloading seemingly the entire story, including some intriguing things we haven’t seen yet. Troubling thought: What if this whole show ends with Bran staring at a snow globe? | • Uncle Benjen made a heroic return to the story, saving Bran and Meera from their Wight pursuers with some sort of flaming mace. (I guess the many other Wights got lost?) He’s been missing for awhile, we were reminded — turns out he was killed by White Walkers but saved by a strategic dragonglass stab by some forest children. (Read that sentence again; this show is so nutty sometimes.) Bran spent much of the escape trying to boot up like a Three-Eyed cable box, downloading seemingly the entire story, including some intriguing things we haven’t seen yet. Troubling thought: What if this whole show ends with Bran staring at a snow globe? |
| • What just happened, Mace the lovable doofus asked his mother in King’s Landing. “He’s beaten us,” she replied. The “he” is the High Sparrow, who’s proving cagier than many of us probably expected. Of course, it’s easy to look smart when your opponent is an inbred boy-king a few swords shy of a throne. (If Joffrey’s penalty for Jaime and Cersei’s sins was psychopathy, Tommen’s would seem to be imbecility.) Not only did Tommen thwart the planned overthrow of the Faith Militant by embracing it, he shunted Jaime off to deal with the Blackfish situation at Riverrun. That’s fine with me: I like Jaime better on the road, especially if he takes Bronn with him. (The preview of next week’s episode seemed to suggest as much.) Cersei was good with it, too. “Stand at the head of our army where you belong,” she told him. “Show them what Lannisters are…” And then they both got so fired up with all the revenge talk they collapsed into one another’s arms. Don’t ever change, you crazy kids. | • What just happened, Mace the lovable doofus asked his mother in King’s Landing. “He’s beaten us,” she replied. The “he” is the High Sparrow, who’s proving cagier than many of us probably expected. Of course, it’s easy to look smart when your opponent is an inbred boy-king a few swords shy of a throne. (If Joffrey’s penalty for Jaime and Cersei’s sins was psychopathy, Tommen’s would seem to be imbecility.) Not only did Tommen thwart the planned overthrow of the Faith Militant by embracing it, he shunted Jaime off to deal with the Blackfish situation at Riverrun. That’s fine with me: I like Jaime better on the road, especially if he takes Bronn with him. (The preview of next week’s episode seemed to suggest as much.) Cersei was good with it, too. “Stand at the head of our army where you belong,” she told him. “Show them what Lannisters are…” And then they both got so fired up with all the revenge talk they collapsed into one another’s arms. Don’t ever change, you crazy kids. |
| • Over at Tarley Acres, Sam’s big reunion with his family combined the real twin pillars of “Game of Thrones”: Awful fathers and terrible dinner parties. Meeting the prospective in-laws is always tense, even if you don’t belong to a loathed people and your significant other isn’t hated by one of his parents. Which is to say: Gilly never really stood a chance of being accepted, but hey, at least they got a nice sword out of it. | |
| • It looks like our long faceless nightmare may almost be over: Arya has effectively cut her ties with the House of Black and White. We thought she seemed unlikely to kill the Meryl Streep of Braavos and she did not, which no doubt delighted the horrible Waif. (Jaqen’s “don’t let her suffer” absolutely went in one ear and out the other.) I’m happy for Arya to introduce the Waif to Needle and then move on, perhaps as a new understudy to replace the troupe’s resident Eve Harrington. I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of those guys, based on the warmth between Arya and the actress and the casting of Richard E. Grant as the temperamental playwright. | • It looks like our long faceless nightmare may almost be over: Arya has effectively cut her ties with the House of Black and White. We thought she seemed unlikely to kill the Meryl Streep of Braavos and she did not, which no doubt delighted the horrible Waif. (Jaqen’s “don’t let her suffer” absolutely went in one ear and out the other.) I’m happy for Arya to introduce the Waif to Needle and then move on, perhaps as a new understudy to replace the troupe’s resident Eve Harrington. I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of those guys, based on the warmth between Arya and the actress and the casting of Richard E. Grant as the temperamental playwright. |
| • Hodor. (Never forget.) | • Hodor. (Never forget.) |
| 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. |