Let’s talk entropy. You know, that Second Law of Thermodynamics stuff. The law that says that chaos increases over time and not only can you not win, you can’t break even.
In fiction, entropy generally rules the first part of the story. It certainly does in Game of Thrones. When we open, we have our main characters neatly organized in family groups—Starks over here, Lannisters there, etc. But as the story proceeds … entropy. Chaos.
In Game of Thrones, characters are driven away from each other both physically and emotionally. By the time we open Season 6, it’s been three seasons since one Stark spoke to another. The Lannisters have fared a bit better, though Tyrion is on the far side of the world and a surprising number of people with yellow hair are … indisposed.
But here’s why I bring it up: How do we know when a story is working toward climax? When slowly, slowly, the threads start to pull together.
When entropy starts to reverse.
Winterfell
I think I’m supposed to be doing this in some kind of order. The order this week is … holy hell is Ramsay Bolton the bastard’s bastard or the bastard’s bastard’s bastard?
In our opening scene at Winterfell, we see poppa Roose upbraiding bastard (last time, I promise) son Ramsay for the escape of Sansa and Theon. Actually, just for the escape of Sansa, because at this point Theon is valued about as highly as snow at Winterfell. They debate the best way to handle the situation, with Ramsay offering his usual solution—kill everyone, let the flensing knife sort it out.
With them is the new Lord Karstark. For those who don’t remember, the Karstarks are a great and noble northern house (I feel like there should be an emoji that contains that entire phrase) that has long been loyal to the Starks. Until back in season … season … back awhile, when Rob Stark, king of the North, lopped the head off the current Lord Karstark for not following orders, trying to kill a prisoner, and general jackassery. Since no house in Westeros ever forgot a grudge, the new Lord Karstark is there as a Bolton ally, trying to bring all the other northern houses to heel.
In the midst of the strategic discussion, Roose is informed that his new wife, Walda née Frey, has just delivered a bouncing baby replacement for that basta … for Ramsay. Ramsay congratulates Roose, Roose ensures Ramsay that he’ll always be number one son, the two embrace, and …
And really, it’s just a question of who is going to stab whom. Ramsay does the stabbing, leaving Roose on the floor while Lord Karstark looks on.
Then Ramsay goes for the character kill of the week, as he invites Walda to climb out of the birthing bed and bring the new baby outside to meet with Lord Bolton. From that point, it’s just a countdown until the moment when Ramsay gets to say, “I am Lord Bolton.”
Then everyone gets to listen to dogs eating a young mother and her baby. Thank you, HBO.
Meanwhile, out in the woods, we get one of those moments where you can hear entropy reversing with a big slurp: Brienne tells Sansa that Arya is still alive. Does that seem like a little thing? It’s not.
Theon also announces that he’s quitting the North. Which makes Sansa sad. But it’s another sign that maybe there’s some Theon in Theon. In a good way.
Pyke
Holy Drowned God, how long has it been since we visited Pyke?
First thing to note: If you’re a book reader and you finally thought this season was going to bring you past the point where you no longer had to worry about saying anything that might give away a plot point to a show-only friend … surprise! Back to A Feast for Crows we go to see Balon Greyjoy make unreasonable demands of Yara (who we missed), and then get sent tumbling off a bridge by much younger brother Euron (who we just met). That’s two (2) lords assassinated in a single outing. Which could be a GoT record.
We get a bit of a funeral for Balon, attended by the half dozen people able to eke out a living on salt-crusted stone, and then we’re threatened by the horror of the Kingsmoot.
Note that by horror, I don’t mean anything particularly gory or violent, especially by Thrones standards. No, what I mean is that in the books this thing goes on and on and … I know what’s dead may never die, but did we have to raise this plot line from the dead?
Please, lords of TV, work upon this side plot the same magic by which ye rendered Brienne’s endless wanderings into something watchable.
The Very Special Tree
Back to the other side of the Wall to see Bran. Like Yara, it’s been awhile since we saw Bran. He got … what? Thirty-five seconds of last season? In any case, Bran has been practicing his out-of-body experiencing to the point where he can now add out-of-time. Which brings us the biggest surprise appearances of the week: Ned and Benjen! Hey, Ned! Nice to see you with head attached.
Bran visits a past version of Winterfell where not only are pre-teen Ned and baby Benjen engaged in the same sort of wooden swordplay where we found Bran and Rob back in the first episode, they’re also joined by a semi-mythical character. Sister Lyanna, evidently a few years older than either of the brothers, rides in to rib them and tease us with the solution to one of GoT’s Great Mysteries.
We know that Lyanna died at the Tower of Joy, built for her by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. In the approved version of history, Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and killed her, leaving Ned to find her in a bed soaked with blood. However, both readers and watchers have long suspected that Rhaegar and Lyanna were actually in love, and ran off together in defiance of a whole series of daughter of House X shall marry son of House Y agreements. It’s further been speculated that Lyanna died not from something evil done by Rhaegar, but in childbirth. And of course everyone thinks that the product of that union has the initials Jon Snow.
Of all the people who were there that day, only Howland Reed, father of Meera Reed (seen sulking outside Bran’s tree) is still alive to perhaps reveal the secret. However, we’ve never met Howland Reed and we assume he’s parked all the way down at the Neck, where it would be tough to ask him questions. But even more however, if Bran is going to continue to provide weekly flashbacks, perhaps we’ll get an answer to this question Real Soon Now without requiring a hike across half of Westeros. Which would save the sanity of about 65 percent of the Game of Thrones audience. So they probably won’t tell.
Also, there’s still a Child of the Forest (an elf—they won’t say it, so I will, it’s an elf) hanging around. Will this ever lead anywhere? We hope so.
And I almost forgot the most important part. We saw young Hodor. Only he wasn’t Hodor. His name is actually Wylis, and as a kid he was totally not Hodor-Hodor-Hodor. I swear, if I find out that Wylis becomes Hodor because of something teen Ned did to him, I’m going to reverse my loyalty and sign onto Team Cersei.
Meereen
Our trip across the Narrow Sea is completely Kahleesi-free this week. Instead, we watch Tyrion go down to the dragon dungeon. Dungeon of dragons? Dungeon and … Anyway, Tyrion goes downstairs to see the big fire lizards.
Since Dany left town, two of her fire-breathing children have become finicky eaters. Tyrion is well aware that they weren’t having the best luck in controlling the city even with Dany, and now that they’re down to a subset of her entourage, a little display of dragon power might be the only thing that keeps them from decorating one of those harpy statues. So Tyrion needs to make two large friends, and he needs to do it quick.
This is one of those moments that GoT does right. Tyrion has longed to see dragons all his life. We know this, because he’s said so. This isn’t a cheap “I’ve always wanted to see a dragon” tossed onto the scene, it’s the fulfillment of an obsession that Tyrion has had since childhood, which has been revealed to us in ways that make us understand his desire. He caught a glimpse of one in flight as he was being ferried to Meereen by Jorah, but now he has two dragons right there. Nose to scaly nose.
The littlest boy in Westeros can be taller than any knight when he’s seated on a dragon. Tyrion takes a big step this week toward getting a saddle as he manages the top requirement in dragon handling: not dying. He also takes off the dragons’ chains. Which is a friendly gesture… but possibly not smart.
And the dragons … have they grown? Looks like they’ve grown. Everyone said they were starving, and we had a thing about them maybe getting smaller. They don’t look smaller. Or maybe without Dany around they just look scarier.
King’s Landing
The resurrected Mountain demonstrates his effectiveness at public relations by smashing the heads of people who make fun of Cersei. However, the Queen Mother is kept away from the Sept because King Tommen is afraid that the High Septon will take her prisoner again.
I know the Lannisters are the bad guys of the piece. True, it was probably Littlefinger who sent someone to assassinate Bran and brought the kingdom to high boil, but if Jaime hadn’t pitched a kid from a tower to protect his can’t-you-keep-it-in-your-pants-while-visiting incest, Robert’s kingdom might not have unraveled quite so quickly. Plus Joffery. Plus Tywin. Plus just about every word Cersei has said for five seasons. There are a lot of reasons to hate the Lannisters.
That said, the pious cruelty of the High Septon is such that I really, really wanted Jaime to just go for it.
Game of Thrones, never killing people when I want them dead.
Maybe next week.
Jaime also gets the best exchange of the week. When the High Septon recoils at the idea that Jaime would spill blood “in a holy place,” Jaime has a sharp reply.
"The gods spill more blood than the rest of us combined." Apparently true in any world.
Braavos
Arya gets another two-minute scene this week. Tortured again by the Girl with the Haircut That’s Growing On Me, Arya responds with a violent outburst. Which is apparently just the cue that Jaqen H'ghar was waiting to see. He challenges Arya, offering to restore her sight if she will just claim her name. Arya gives the correct ritual answer, and is led back to Faceless Men HQ.
Anyone who really believe that, once her eyes are back and her sword is in hand, Arya doesn’t go stabby stabby while shouting “Stark! My name is Arya Stark!” has not been watching this girl.
Castle Black
And here we are at Castle Black. At the outset, Ser Davos and the handful of Jon Snow faithful are still gathered around the very, very, very pale body of the ex-Lord Commander, who is looking increasing wightish. Meanwhile, Thorne and the traitors of the Night’s Watch are at the door, literally about to come in shooting.
Suddenly, there’s a thumping at the gate. It’s … it’s … Wun Wun!
Wun Wun and the Wildlings (that’s your new band name, right there) come crashing through the gates to take the traitors captive. Wun Wun does not like it when people fire puny arrows at Wun Wun, which is a feeling that the Night’s Watch understands really quickly. Weapons are dropped. Thorne, Ollie, Brutus, and Cassius are all taken off to cells. Wun Wun. How cool is he?
The pre-wightiness of Jon Snow is pretty obvious, so most of the Watch busies itself gathering wood for a pyre. But before they can toss Snow in Fire and get about as close to the title of the whole book series as possible, Ser Davos makes a special appeal to Melisandre. The Red Woman has her game face back in place, but she looks pretty disheveled. She not only claims to lack the resurrection mojo, but to be lacking in faith entirely—a condition that puts her on par with Thoros of Myr, last seen raising people in the Riverlands over, and over, and over.
Melisandre gives Jon Snow’s body a sponge bath, revealing all the extra holes in his abdomen. Then there’s a good dose of mumbo, a dash of jumbo, and one by one the whole gang gives up and leaves the room.
At that point, in the most predictable moment of the episode since one of the Boltons went down, Jon Snow sits up and takes a breath.
This last part was actually a bit disappointing. After all this, it seems to come a little … eh, too easy. Plus, we didn’t get an official “and now his watch has ended” which would release Jon from any potential continuing commitment to the Night’s Watch, and we didn’t get Jon tossed into a fire to prove his Dany-like Targaryen heritage fireproofing.
Which means we’re still totally not set up for Jon Snow to cast off the Night’s Watch, claim the name of Jon Stark, raise up Longclaw as the new official sword of the King in the North, and just stand by until Dany and Tyrion show up with a spare dragon to roast Ramsay.
I’m sure they’ll take care of that next week. Or, you know, possibly fan theories that involve trying to plot out events years down the line in a serious that notorious for defying fan expectations could be Totally Wrong.
In the meantime, Sansa is heading toward Castle Black. We don’t know whether Jon is all back, slightly off, completely Robert Strong’ed, or simply tipped to full-on wight. Oh, and the Umbers. Someone mentioned the Umbers this week. Wasn’t that where Rickon was headed?
If we see Rickon, people, it’s a clear sign of the end times. But buck up. You know it has to end some day.
Question of the day
Who hates Ramsay Bolton more: 1) Sansa Stark, who was repeatedly raped and mentally tortured by the bast… by that guy, or 2) Walder Frey, whose granddaughter and great-grandson just got fed to the dogs? If you’ve ever wondered if there was someone for whom both sides might be willing to set aside that little dispute involving the Red Wedding long enough to conduct a little joint mission in torture-cide, Ramsay would be that inspirational figure.