They say good things come to those who wait. April 24th is here, bringing with it some of HBO's good-est things: Silicon Valley, Veep and of course, Game of Thrones. Silicon Valley and Veep are larynx-busting comedies that are great additions to HBO's already amazing lineup of shows. But while comedies offer some 20 minutes of happy respite from the tribulations of life, they are just that: respite. Game of Thrones, on the other hand, for most of us, is an integral part of that life itself.
I've just watched the first episode, 'The Red Woman' and I'm sitting with a satiated mind, oozing with my own comments on the first episode. It goes without saying that you should read on AFTER you've watched the episode. In other words:
--- SPOILER ALERT ---
The theme song still gives me goosebumps.
*... dum dum dumdum, dum dum dumdum, dum dum dumdum, DMMM.*
Castle Black
The first scene opens at Castle Black, where they left off, pretending like this one year hiatus didn't happen. I kinda believed it. The gist of the scene is Jon Snow is dead (like, actually). Believe it. His huge army of 4 friends, Davos and of course, Ghost, aren't gonna let Thorne and co. get away with it.
Melisandre: "I saw him in the flames, fighting at Winterfell."
Davos: "LOL noob, how many predictions you gonna get wrong? He ain't doing none of that."
Seriously though, Melisandre's making a lot of mistakes. Maybe she's getting old, *wink wink*.
We have a scene where Thorne effectively justifies the murder saying,
"Nobody's ever let in the Wildlings, and so we killed him. I know killing the Lord Commander is treason, but we did it anyway." A sound argument of course.
Jon's avengers intend to fight Thorne. Davos comes up with a problem AND the solution.
Davos - "We don't have the numbers."
...
Davos - "You're not the only ones who owe your lives to Jon Snow".
Of course, he's hinting at getting help from the Wildlings. Which means there's going to be another fight between the Night's Watch and the Wildlings. As we all know, when the realm is in danger, a civil war is the way to go.
The scene was a natural consequence of Jon's death, though. Nothing shocking here. One thing to note though is that Ghost gets mentioned and shown repeatedly. Clearly, they have something planned for him, even though Jon is dead. (Read my speculation at the end). Let's see how this one goes.
Winterfell
The scene begins with Ramsay at Myranda's deathbed. Somehow, she didn't have the same luck that Sansa and Theon had, falling from a 30 ft wall. Iwan Rheon manages to seem creepy and evil, even when mourning the death of his... "special friend". Brilliant actor.
Ramsay - "Your pain will be paid for a thousand times over. I wish you could be here to watch." After which he nonchalantly lets her body be used as meat for the hounds. True love.
Roose Bolton speaks of a possible war between them and the Lannisters. He wants Ramsay to find Sansa because they need her to keep hold of the North. Roose blackmails Ramsay with the possibility of him not becoming the heir.
Roose: "Get Reek and Sansa or else."
Ramsay: "Way ahead of you, fake daddy."
Out in the forests, we have Sansa and Theon running from Ramsay's minions. Luckily Theon's played this game with Ramsay before and knows some cheat codes, namely, wading through a subzero stream. Piece of cake for the Winterfell-raised kids, though. The situation gets dire when the cheat code fails, and Ramsay's men find them anyway. Sansa's hiding spot is truly pathetic, and the dogs find her with ease. But just as she's being taken away, riding in comes Brienne of Tarth and Lord of the Ladies, Podrick Payne.
We have a short fight scene on horseback, where we finally see the real-world application of practicing jousting. Brienne herself kills 3 men in all. Podrick surprisingly holds his own, and gets a kill too. It sure looks like Podrick knows how to use his sword. Near the end of the fight, though, he gets cornered, but Theon steps in, and stabs the soldier in the back. Reek who?
Finally, Brienne swears her allegiance and service (the same oath she swore to Catelyn) to Sansa, which is somehow very satisfying since she just missed her in that tower last season. Sansa, however, is just all-round useless and can't even remember her lines, and needs to be prompted by Podrick.
So we now an have an eclectic group of travelers. A useless damsel with a useful surname, a recovering brainwashed heir, a sexually adept scribe, and a skilled-as-hell female knight. Where are they going? I haven't the foggiest.
King's Landing
We finally get out of the land of monochrome (and some red) visuals, and into colourful King's Landing, where a boat carrying Jaime and dead Myrcella is coming to dock. Cersei runs out excitedly to see her daughter after she was sent away to Dorne in Season 2, in an alliance by Tyrion. Cersei's face transitions from delight to dismay, however, as she notices her twin's expression, and the shroud behind him. One of those moments when you really look past the evil queen, and feel bad for the devoted mother.
Cersei weeps to Jaime, as she vividly imagines Myrcella's corpse rotting in a crypt. She says that she ought to have expected this, since the witch from her childhood had prophesied it. Jaime responds with, "Fuck prophecy. Fuck fate. Fuck everyone who isn't us. We're the only ones who matter, the only ones in this world," a line that succinctly encapsulates their relationship.
At the Great Sept, Margaery Tyrell is still imprisoned as she refuses to confess her sin of perjury. The High Sparrow conveniently walks in to save her from Septa Unella's wrath and starts on his own sanctimonious rant. When Margaery is asked if she believed she was blameless and "wholly without sin", she says, "None of us are." High Sparrow approves. Could this be the first sign that Margaery will soon confess? We all know how badly she wants to resume being queen.
Dorne
A Dothraki Wedding without at least 3 deaths is considered a dull afair. Game of Thrones episodes are held to the same standards. This scene at Dorne satisfies the required quota, and introduces the first few surprises for the season.
We have Ellaria Sand, walking with Doran Martell, as they talk gaily of Oberyn Martell and his adventurous nature. A messenger then comes in giving Doran the news of Myrcella's death. Doran barely starts to frown when things suddenly jump into sixth gear, with Tyene Sand stabbing Areo Hotah, and Ellaria stabbing Doran Martell, making the extemporaneous murder of the Dornish prince seem a little too easy. Doran spews blood as Ellaria calls him and Trystane too weak to rule Dorne. I think that Ellaria will be a rash substitute to Doran, and will soon perish. Question is what damage she will cause to the Lannisters before that happens.
Elsewhere in the castle, Fine Arts student Trystane Martell is seen painting a pebble, when he is confronted by his killers. He tries to stand up boldly against two Oberyn-trained Sand Snakes, but of course, fails miserably. You can NOT hope to begin a fight with an air of bravery, when you were meticulously painting a pebble the moment before. He "chooses" to fight Nymeria but Obara stabs him from behind. Looks like the spear is mightier than the paintbrush.
Meereen
Yes! Tyrion time. The scene starts on beautiful sets depicting Meereen's "800 foot pyramid". Tyrion and Varys are camouflaged as merchants and are in the midst of a little parley about Tyrion's imperious gait.
Varys: "You walk as though the paving stones were your personal property. I used to steal from people like you when I was a boy."
Tyrion: "It's a good thing you're not a boy anymore. Because you have no cock."
Tyrion doesn't need dragons to burn people.
Tyrion tries to give alms to a poor mother, but his Valyrian fails him, and so he needs Varys' translation. I think this is just meant to be a quick character building/reminding moment that shows his kindness, and perhaps serve as some more comic relief.
They go on to show some rebellious graffiti against Mhysa, and a 'Fire Priest' preaching people to carry on despite Danaerys' abandonment. The people of Meereen are upset that Danaerys overthrew slavery, and stopped the objectification of humans (perspective, huh?). They are also upset that she took Drogon on a test drive and hasn't returned yet.
Tyrion speaks of the fear ingrained in the Meereenese people, and gives us one of the more famous dialogues from the trailers: "Whoever you are, wherever you go, someone in this city wants to murder you." They discuss Varys' 'little birds' getting info on the Sons of the Harpy. Suddenly though, there's a crowd of people running away from something. So, of course, the two unarmed, and physically unskilled men walk towards the danger. Turns out that the Sons of Harpy have burnt all the boats in Meereen's docks. So now, if things go awry in Meereen, Tyrion has no escape route.
According to David Benioff, a good portion of Tyrion's story will involve him trying to resolve the issues in the city, using his political and diplomatic skills. And if he succeeds, one can only imagine that Dany (whenever she returns) will say 'good job bro' and team up with him. An alliance to look forward to.
The Dothraki Sea
Archie and Reggie are working together, looking for Veronica, on the immense Dothraki grasslands (another gorgeous location). They discuss her fondly, while Jorah gives us a sneak-peek at his Greyscale-stricken arm (that's gotten worse). They then come upon that large field where Dany was captured last season.
Jorah displays some serious detective skills, linking the abraded soil contour to an army of Dothraki. Holmes then finds Dany's wedding ring in the grass (within a few seconds of looking) and deduces that Dany must have been abducted by these Dothraki who surrounded her. Watson doesn't follow, but is visibly upset.
Elsewhere, in the Dothraki Sea, we are in an arid desert reminiscent of Breaking Bad, with a hoard of ambling Dothraki, reminiscent of The Walking Dead. Daenerys is being taken captive to the current Dothraki Khal. A question that comes to mind is, if nobody recognizes her, why was she given that privileged treatment of 10,000 Dothrakis circling her last season? One man could just as well have done the job. Do all Dothraki captives get such a fancy reception? I wouldn't mind one myself.
The two Dothrakis in charge of Dany make fun of her white hair. They don't know how hard white hair is to maintain. They should see Melisandre now. A while later, they stop, and Dany is taken to see their leader, Khal Moro.
Khal Moro, portrayed by Joe Naufahu, is only a small step down from the regality we saw in Jason Momoa's Khal Drogo. His wives are jealous of Dany and want him to chop her head off because they think she's a witch. By this point in Game of Thrones, viewers don't even take threats like that seriously. It would elicit the same reaction if it was a Teletubby threatening to tickle Daenerys. Khal Moro, however, is entranced by Dany and asks what is better than seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time (Yes, his flirting game is on point). His two councilors/ friends list valid answers to the rhetorical question, making Moro amend his statement:
"Seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time is one of the five best things in life." You only rarely get to LOL when watching this show. I like Moro already.
Dany loves to show off and starts spouting her verbal diarrhea of names and titles. When Moro isn't impressed she tells him that she was Khal Drogo's Khaleesi, and she was with him till his death. Now Moro believes her immediately (why?) and cuts her free. However, she can't go home, says Moro. She's going to the Temple of Dosh Khaleen: an old-age retirement home for ex-khaleesis.
Joe Naufahu is apparently a big part of Season 6, which implies that we can't expect Dany to get back to the khal-less Meereen in the immediate future. Ugh. She was supposed to have taken over Westeros by now. Queen of detours. BUT: Drogon, who's without a leash, could literally fly in at any point in time, so don't rule out anything.
Braavos
The reason I was a little upset with the episode is that Arya's storyline last season was my favourite, and they showed so little of her here.
Arya is now an abandoned blind kid begging on the streets of Braavos. That she's not starved to death is an achievement in itself. Two men walk by her, speaking of Meryn Trant's death at the brothel, and another man gives her a single coin. Awww. Suddenly, the Waif from The House of Black and White shows up and taunts her blindness. Then she tosses Arya a stick and starts kicking her ass. Arya tries defending herself, but to no avail. Kudos, Waif. I'm sure that took some serious skill. Waif leaves Arya hurt, still blind, confused as hell, and with a promise to return tomorrow.
In an interview, Maisie Williams said that Arya would have a lot more fighting scenes this season. She's probably going to learn to fight, despite her blindness. In other words, we're going to see Game of Thrones' take on Marvel's Daredevil. I'm excited - Daredevil is a really good show.
Castle Black - 2
Back at Castle Black, Thorne tries to resolve things peacefully with Davos and Jon's friends. He offers the brothers amnesty, and Davos gets a sweet deal: freedom, a horse and mutton. Davos promises to get back to Thorne on his deal with the extreme courtesy of an answering machine:
Davos: "Thank you, Ser Alliser. We'll discuss amongst ourselves and come back to you with an answer."
The men in the room discuss consulting the Red Woman, in their strategy for fighting the "40 armed men" of The Night's Watch. 40 men is not a big number, people. It isn't the best idea to start battles when your bragging point is that you have more men than those inside a room. The Night's Watch is building a portfolio of bad decisions. But their worst one? That was killing Jon Snow, the best thing that ever happened to them. If this fight comes to pass, it won't end well.
The final scene is in Melisandre's chambers, and is the scene that raised many eyebrows, but forced shut even more eyes. Melisandre sulkily walks up to a brass mirror and disrobes to the (temporary) joy of many viewers. She broods, possibly about her erroneous predictions (Stannis, and then Jon), and removes her necklace. And thus, at the end of the hour, we come upon the big surprise of the episode: the priestess who was thought to be a young seductress is actually a prehistoric cougar. Yes, Melisandre is actually Rapunzel's mother from Disney's 'Tangled'.
This is less of a surprise to some than it is to others. There were actually a few hints in the show and the books that pointed to this fact. Hilariously, Carice van Houten even stated in 2012 that Melisandre was "way over a 100 years old". The point of this big reveal is, however, unknown. It doesn't really change much. Perhaps this is Game of Thrones' way of saying, 'You thought beautiful naked women was the one thing you could count on? Nope. You can't even trust us on that.'
Speculation on Jon Snow:
In the books, when a warg dies, his consciousness goes into his partner animal. Jon Snow is a warg (confirmed in the books and hinted at in the show). My guess is that Jon Snow is alive INSIDE of his direwolf, Ghost. It's the only rationale I can think of for the amount of screen time Ghost was given, when there was no real threat to anyone. They're building up to it. Fingers crossed.
Note:
I hope you liked this "humorous" episode review. I know it's long as hell, but I really enjoyed writing it. Plus it's segmented by location so you can easily find the parts you want. This is my first review of anything except maybe some book review in 3rd standard. I intend to do this every week, for each episode of Game of Thrones. Please give me your feedback (anywhere). I also really value your theories/ predictions and inputs on the episode. :)
I've just watched the first episode, 'The Red Woman' and I'm sitting with a satiated mind, oozing with my own comments on the first episode. It goes without saying that you should read on AFTER you've watched the episode. In other words:
--- SPOILER ALERT ---
The theme song still gives me goosebumps.
*... dum dum dumdum, dum dum dumdum, dum dum dumdum, DMMM.*
Castle Black
The first scene opens at Castle Black, where they left off, pretending like this one year hiatus didn't happen. I kinda believed it. The gist of the scene is Jon Snow is dead (like, actually). Believe it. His huge army of 4 friends, Davos and of course, Ghost, aren't gonna let Thorne and co. get away with it.
Melisandre: "I saw him in the flames, fighting at Winterfell."
Davos: "LOL noob, how many predictions you gonna get wrong? He ain't doing none of that."
Seriously though, Melisandre's making a lot of mistakes. Maybe she's getting old, *wink wink*.
We have a scene where Thorne effectively justifies the murder saying,
"Nobody's ever let in the Wildlings, and so we killed him. I know killing the Lord Commander is treason, but we did it anyway." A sound argument of course.
Jon's avengers intend to fight Thorne. Davos comes up with a problem AND the solution.
Davos - "We don't have the numbers."
...
Davos - "You're not the only ones who owe your lives to Jon Snow".
Of course, he's hinting at getting help from the Wildlings. Which means there's going to be another fight between the Night's Watch and the Wildlings. As we all know, when the realm is in danger, a civil war is the way to go.
The scene was a natural consequence of Jon's death, though. Nothing shocking here. One thing to note though is that Ghost gets mentioned and shown repeatedly. Clearly, they have something planned for him, even though Jon is dead. (Read my speculation at the end). Let's see how this one goes.
Winterfell
The scene begins with Ramsay at Myranda's deathbed. Somehow, she didn't have the same luck that Sansa and Theon had, falling from a 30 ft wall. Iwan Rheon manages to seem creepy and evil, even when mourning the death of his... "special friend". Brilliant actor.
Ramsay - "Your pain will be paid for a thousand times over. I wish you could be here to watch." After which he nonchalantly lets her body be used as meat for the hounds. True love.
Roose Bolton speaks of a possible war between them and the Lannisters. He wants Ramsay to find Sansa because they need her to keep hold of the North. Roose blackmails Ramsay with the possibility of him not becoming the heir.
Roose: "Get Reek and Sansa or else."
Ramsay: "Way ahead of you, fake daddy."
Out in the forests, we have Sansa and Theon running from Ramsay's minions. Luckily Theon's played this game with Ramsay before and knows some cheat codes, namely, wading through a subzero stream. Piece of cake for the Winterfell-raised kids, though. The situation gets dire when the cheat code fails, and Ramsay's men find them anyway. Sansa's hiding spot is truly pathetic, and the dogs find her with ease. But just as she's being taken away, riding in comes Brienne of Tarth and Lord of the Ladies, Podrick Payne.
We have a short fight scene on horseback, where we finally see the real-world application of practicing jousting. Brienne herself kills 3 men in all. Podrick surprisingly holds his own, and gets a kill too. It sure looks like Podrick knows how to use his sword. Near the end of the fight, though, he gets cornered, but Theon steps in, and stabs the soldier in the back. Reek who?
Finally, Brienne swears her allegiance and service (the same oath she swore to Catelyn) to Sansa, which is somehow very satisfying since she just missed her in that tower last season. Sansa, however, is just all-round useless and can't even remember her lines, and needs to be prompted by Podrick.
So we now an have an eclectic group of travelers. A useless damsel with a useful surname, a recovering brainwashed heir, a sexually adept scribe, and a skilled-as-hell female knight. Where are they going? I haven't the foggiest.
King's Landing
We finally get out of the land of monochrome (and some red) visuals, and into colourful King's Landing, where a boat carrying Jaime and dead Myrcella is coming to dock. Cersei runs out excitedly to see her daughter after she was sent away to Dorne in Season 2, in an alliance by Tyrion. Cersei's face transitions from delight to dismay, however, as she notices her twin's expression, and the shroud behind him. One of those moments when you really look past the evil queen, and feel bad for the devoted mother.
Cersei weeps to Jaime, as she vividly imagines Myrcella's corpse rotting in a crypt. She says that she ought to have expected this, since the witch from her childhood had prophesied it. Jaime responds with, "Fuck prophecy. Fuck fate. Fuck everyone who isn't us. We're the only ones who matter, the only ones in this world," a line that succinctly encapsulates their relationship.
At the Great Sept, Margaery Tyrell is still imprisoned as she refuses to confess her sin of perjury. The High Sparrow conveniently walks in to save her from Septa Unella's wrath and starts on his own sanctimonious rant. When Margaery is asked if she believed she was blameless and "wholly without sin", she says, "None of us are." High Sparrow approves. Could this be the first sign that Margaery will soon confess? We all know how badly she wants to resume being queen.
Dorne
A Dothraki Wedding without at least 3 deaths is considered a dull afair. Game of Thrones episodes are held to the same standards. This scene at Dorne satisfies the required quota, and introduces the first few surprises for the season.
We have Ellaria Sand, walking with Doran Martell, as they talk gaily of Oberyn Martell and his adventurous nature. A messenger then comes in giving Doran the news of Myrcella's death. Doran barely starts to frown when things suddenly jump into sixth gear, with Tyene Sand stabbing Areo Hotah, and Ellaria stabbing Doran Martell, making the extemporaneous murder of the Dornish prince seem a little too easy. Doran spews blood as Ellaria calls him and Trystane too weak to rule Dorne. I think that Ellaria will be a rash substitute to Doran, and will soon perish. Question is what damage she will cause to the Lannisters before that happens.
Elsewhere in the castle, Fine Arts student Trystane Martell is seen painting a pebble, when he is confronted by his killers. He tries to stand up boldly against two Oberyn-trained Sand Snakes, but of course, fails miserably. You can NOT hope to begin a fight with an air of bravery, when you were meticulously painting a pebble the moment before. He "chooses" to fight Nymeria but Obara stabs him from behind. Looks like the spear is mightier than the paintbrush.
Meereen
Yes! Tyrion time. The scene starts on beautiful sets depicting Meereen's "800 foot pyramid". Tyrion and Varys are camouflaged as merchants and are in the midst of a little parley about Tyrion's imperious gait.
Varys: "You walk as though the paving stones were your personal property. I used to steal from people like you when I was a boy."
Tyrion: "It's a good thing you're not a boy anymore. Because you have no cock."
Tyrion doesn't need dragons to burn people.
Tyrion tries to give alms to a poor mother, but his Valyrian fails him, and so he needs Varys' translation. I think this is just meant to be a quick character building/reminding moment that shows his kindness, and perhaps serve as some more comic relief.
They go on to show some rebellious graffiti against Mhysa, and a 'Fire Priest' preaching people to carry on despite Danaerys' abandonment. The people of Meereen are upset that Danaerys overthrew slavery, and stopped the objectification of humans (perspective, huh?). They are also upset that she took Drogon on a test drive and hasn't returned yet.
Tyrion speaks of the fear ingrained in the Meereenese people, and gives us one of the more famous dialogues from the trailers: "Whoever you are, wherever you go, someone in this city wants to murder you." They discuss Varys' 'little birds' getting info on the Sons of the Harpy. Suddenly though, there's a crowd of people running away from something. So, of course, the two unarmed, and physically unskilled men walk towards the danger. Turns out that the Sons of Harpy have burnt all the boats in Meereen's docks. So now, if things go awry in Meereen, Tyrion has no escape route.
According to David Benioff, a good portion of Tyrion's story will involve him trying to resolve the issues in the city, using his political and diplomatic skills. And if he succeeds, one can only imagine that Dany (whenever she returns) will say 'good job bro' and team up with him. An alliance to look forward to.
The Dothraki Sea
Archie and Reggie are working together, looking for Veronica, on the immense Dothraki grasslands (another gorgeous location). They discuss her fondly, while Jorah gives us a sneak-peek at his Greyscale-stricken arm (that's gotten worse). They then come upon that large field where Dany was captured last season.
Jorah displays some serious detective skills, linking the abraded soil contour to an army of Dothraki. Holmes then finds Dany's wedding ring in the grass (within a few seconds of looking) and deduces that Dany must have been abducted by these Dothraki who surrounded her. Watson doesn't follow, but is visibly upset.
Elsewhere, in the Dothraki Sea, we are in an arid desert reminiscent of Breaking Bad, with a hoard of ambling Dothraki, reminiscent of The Walking Dead. Daenerys is being taken captive to the current Dothraki Khal. A question that comes to mind is, if nobody recognizes her, why was she given that privileged treatment of 10,000 Dothrakis circling her last season? One man could just as well have done the job. Do all Dothraki captives get such a fancy reception? I wouldn't mind one myself.
The two Dothrakis in charge of Dany make fun of her white hair. They don't know how hard white hair is to maintain. They should see Melisandre now. A while later, they stop, and Dany is taken to see their leader, Khal Moro.
Khal Moro, portrayed by Joe Naufahu, is only a small step down from the regality we saw in Jason Momoa's Khal Drogo. His wives are jealous of Dany and want him to chop her head off because they think she's a witch. By this point in Game of Thrones, viewers don't even take threats like that seriously. It would elicit the same reaction if it was a Teletubby threatening to tickle Daenerys. Khal Moro, however, is entranced by Dany and asks what is better than seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time (Yes, his flirting game is on point). His two councilors/ friends list valid answers to the rhetorical question, making Moro amend his statement:
"Seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time is one of the five best things in life." You only rarely get to LOL when watching this show. I like Moro already.
Dany loves to show off and starts spouting her verbal diarrhea of names and titles. When Moro isn't impressed she tells him that she was Khal Drogo's Khaleesi, and she was with him till his death. Now Moro believes her immediately (why?) and cuts her free. However, she can't go home, says Moro. She's going to the Temple of Dosh Khaleen: an old-age retirement home for ex-khaleesis.
Joe Naufahu is apparently a big part of Season 6, which implies that we can't expect Dany to get back to the khal-less Meereen in the immediate future. Ugh. She was supposed to have taken over Westeros by now. Queen of detours. BUT: Drogon, who's without a leash, could literally fly in at any point in time, so don't rule out anything.
Braavos
The reason I was a little upset with the episode is that Arya's storyline last season was my favourite, and they showed so little of her here.
Arya is now an abandoned blind kid begging on the streets of Braavos. That she's not starved to death is an achievement in itself. Two men walk by her, speaking of Meryn Trant's death at the brothel, and another man gives her a single coin. Awww. Suddenly, the Waif from The House of Black and White shows up and taunts her blindness. Then she tosses Arya a stick and starts kicking her ass. Arya tries defending herself, but to no avail. Kudos, Waif. I'm sure that took some serious skill. Waif leaves Arya hurt, still blind, confused as hell, and with a promise to return tomorrow.
In an interview, Maisie Williams said that Arya would have a lot more fighting scenes this season. She's probably going to learn to fight, despite her blindness. In other words, we're going to see Game of Thrones' take on Marvel's Daredevil. I'm excited - Daredevil is a really good show.
Castle Black - 2
Back at Castle Black, Thorne tries to resolve things peacefully with Davos and Jon's friends. He offers the brothers amnesty, and Davos gets a sweet deal: freedom, a horse and mutton. Davos promises to get back to Thorne on his deal with the extreme courtesy of an answering machine:
Davos: "Thank you, Ser Alliser. We'll discuss amongst ourselves and come back to you with an answer."
The men in the room discuss consulting the Red Woman, in their strategy for fighting the "40 armed men" of The Night's Watch. 40 men is not a big number, people. It isn't the best idea to start battles when your bragging point is that you have more men than those inside a room. The Night's Watch is building a portfolio of bad decisions. But their worst one? That was killing Jon Snow, the best thing that ever happened to them. If this fight comes to pass, it won't end well.
The final scene is in Melisandre's chambers, and is the scene that raised many eyebrows, but forced shut even more eyes. Melisandre sulkily walks up to a brass mirror and disrobes to the (temporary) joy of many viewers. She broods, possibly about her erroneous predictions (Stannis, and then Jon), and removes her necklace. And thus, at the end of the hour, we come upon the big surprise of the episode: the priestess who was thought to be a young seductress is actually a prehistoric cougar. Yes, Melisandre is actually Rapunzel's mother from Disney's 'Tangled'.
This is less of a surprise to some than it is to others. There were actually a few hints in the show and the books that pointed to this fact. Hilariously, Carice van Houten even stated in 2012 that Melisandre was "way over a 100 years old". The point of this big reveal is, however, unknown. It doesn't really change much. Perhaps this is Game of Thrones' way of saying, 'You thought beautiful naked women was the one thing you could count on? Nope. You can't even trust us on that.'
Speculation on Jon Snow:
In the books, when a warg dies, his consciousness goes into his partner animal. Jon Snow is a warg (confirmed in the books and hinted at in the show). My guess is that Jon Snow is alive INSIDE of his direwolf, Ghost. It's the only rationale I can think of for the amount of screen time Ghost was given, when there was no real threat to anyone. They're building up to it. Fingers crossed.
Note:
I hope you liked this "humorous" episode review. I know it's long as hell, but I really enjoyed writing it. Plus it's segmented by location so you can easily find the parts you want. This is my first review of anything except maybe some book review in 3rd standard. I intend to do this every week, for each episode of Game of Thrones. Please give me your feedback (anywhere). I also really value your theories/ predictions and inputs on the episode. :)
