For all that this season has been delivering revelations left and right (or at least pointing in the right narrative direction), this is the first episode that truly hits home hard with events that couldn’t have been predicted.  There are some powerful character turns and a major sequence that ends with the death of a beloved character and the truth about his nature.  No doubt the memes have already been encountered, but that’s far from the only thing to have happened in this important chapter of the saga.

 

 

Castle Black: We were all waiting for Sansa’s reunion with Petyr Baelish, and now we’ve gotten it.  And it was glorious.  As hard as it was to listen to Sansa describe what she endured at Ramsey’s hands, it was necessary to see how little regard she retained for Littlefinger.  She’s got no intention of backing away from charting her own course, and she’s made that very clear.  Despite how she let Petyr influence her one last time, she is still the one driving the return of Stark glory to the North.

 

While Jon hasn’t quite taken on the Stark name again (perhaps so he can claim that Targaryen name before the season is done!), he has begun wearing the sigil of his adoptive house.  Jon and Sansa would do well to continue their alliance as long as possible to rally the most cohesive pro-Stark forces in the North.  I’m sure there will be tensions, but perhaps that is something other relatives can help resolve.  In the meantime, there is one hell of a battle for control of the North about to unfold.

 

 

The Girl Who Might Have a Name After All: Did Arya learn anything?  It seemed like she was well on her way, but now the writers are once again pointing out that it’s almost unheard of for nobility to end up in the House of Black and White among the Faceless Ones.  And that makes a lot of sense; it’s easy to give up an identity when you essentially don’t have one from the start.

 

Yet I’m wondering, based on this latest test, if the assignment to kill Lady Crane was as much about testing Arya as revealing to Arya that she can never truly give up who she is.  So is it that she will become one of the Faceless Ones, or simply be someone who understands and walks within their world, able to call on them when needed?  It would seem to me that there might be some value to having Arya as one of the brood, even if she retains her identity within House Stark.  Especially if one is like Jaqen, and can see which way the winds are blowing.  Part of me thinks this training is designed towards that purpose.

 

 

Daenerys: It was sweet for Dany to forgive Jorah and send him on the quest to find that cure.  I still don’t see any way that he will get what he wants, but I also don’t think he would have searched for a cure otherwise.  But it’s actually nice to see him openly state his love for her, and not end up in an unfair state of exile.  This is entirely fair, as quite frankly, in the process of finding that cure, he’s likely to find something vital to her future.  And wouldn’t he make a great member of her Small Council?

 

Meereen: Meanwhile, back in Slaver’s Bay, things are getting awfully creepy.  Enter Kinvara, a Red Priestess, who Tyrion intends to use to get the word out regarding Dany’s greatness.  Something tells me this is going to be a problem.  Either that, or we’re going to hear Kinvara talk about Dany the same way Melisandre talks about Jon, and the endgame of them ruling together in the end will be foreshadowed even more.

 

 

The Greyjoys: One of the major plots involving the Greyjoys and the contest for control of the House was the departure of one of them to Slaver’s Bay.  There were plenty of other details along the way, of course, but it seems like the same function is more or less about to be fulfilled.  Theon and Yara have a fleet on its way to Meereen to beat Euron to the punch, and well, Dany’s fleet was destroyed.  Rather convenient, that!

 

But what it amounts to, possibly, is the means by which the threat of the Iron Islands will be resolved.  Theon and Yara get to Dany first, perhaps right after Dany finishes up with her re-invasion with the Dothraki horde.  Theon and Yara cut a deal with Dany, and then the combined forces wipe out Euron.  Either way, the Greyjoys aren’t going to be around to cause problems for the North during the battle to come there.

 

 

Bran and Hodor: Before getting to the soul-crushing final moments, there were a lot of revelations in this plot thread.  So the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers as an army to fight some other enemy, very likely the Andals aka the Men of the North aka the Starks.  That makes a certain amount of sense, though it’s a terrible plan in the long run.  On the other hand, it does suggest that Bran might be able to see back to a time that provides a solution to the whole White Walker problem.  Why else would the Night King be so intent on finding and killing the Children and the seers?

 

But the highlight of the episode was, by far, the revelation that Hodor gained his particular name and phrase as a result of Bran warging into him both in the present and during a vision of the past.  And the Three-Eyed Raven seemed to know it was necessary for that to happen to Hodor, and what it would mean in the “present”.  It was heart-breaking, to say the least, but possibly the best way for Hodor to go out.  It also provides one hell of a payoff for all that foreshadowing that Bran’s decision to warg Hodor in the first place would have consequences!

 

 

What it establishes rather well is that Bran should be able to “greensee” without being in the tree, and that means we should still get plenty of important exposition regarding Jon’s true parentage and the nature of the threats aligned against everyone.  And I’m still not convinced that Bran wouldn’t be able to communicate in the present via the godswoods, which would be a convenient trick to help his family and their allies communicate in a way their enemies cannot.  But that’s a theory that has yet to be tested.