GoT Ep 605 “The Door”

What the Hodor! Such an amazing episode and an emotional roller coaster. It moved some storylines along, hopefully getting Arya out of this House of Black and White funk, getting Jon and Sansa closer to marching towards Winterfell, getting Dany back to Mereen and (more importantly) closer to Westeros and showing us how Hodor got his new name.

WILL A GIRL EVER BE READY?

Arya and the Waif are still on this stick fighing/bojitsu marathon. I thought we were past this already. A fan needs a girl to start doing something else. Arya shows her toughness by getting the snot knocked out of her, getting back up and then getting sucker-punched. I could see Chris Tucker standing over her saying, “You got knocked the fuck out!” The Waif says she will never be one of them, calling her Lady Stark. Jaqen gives Arya a history lesson on how the Faceless Men got started. We see how a lot of different things got started in the Game of Thrones world in this episode. The Faceless Men started as slaves and then founded the city of Braavos. Now, they are glorified assassins and I’m not really sure what their purpose is. You whisper a name to them and they kill the person. They don’t ask why or judge they just assassinate. Jaqen has decided to give Arya a second chance to kill naming an actress in a local mummer’s troupe. Arya goes to check them out and they must be very behind the times in Braavos. They are performing a play about Ned Stark (and painting him in a very bad light I must say.) The actress playing Cersei is Arya’s mark and the play is about how the evil Ned Stark tried to steal power away from poor Prince Joffrey. I really have a hard time believing that the troupe was still performing this play. We know news moves quickly throughout this world and there have been way more current stories going on that the troupe could’ve been performing. Like, say, a certain queen walking naked through the streets of Kings Landing… But, I guess that wouldn’t have cut Arya as deep so I’ll go with the city of Braavos still being interested in something that happened years ago (it’s literally been years ago even on the show.) She even checks out the actress backstage AND they have a dwarf playing Tyrion that the actress flirts with backstage. The actor playing Joffrey has warts on his penis (didn’t really need that piece of information.) Arya tells Jaqen the actress has a taste for rum and that is how she will poison her. She wants to know who asked for the woman to be killed. She thinks the younger actress portraying Sansa must be the one, but Jaqen will not tell her.

WHAT THE HECK IS A KINGSMOOT?

A Kingsmoot is an old customary gathering on the Iron Islands after a king has died. At the Kingsmoot, anyone who wants can put his (or her, though it has always been a male) name forth to be chosen as king. Chances are, if you’re not chosen you better hightail it outta there because whoever is chosen will most likely want to kill you. Yara thinks she has this Kingsmoot in the bag and puts her name forward. At first, the men, being men, ask why they should choose a woman when Theon has returned. Theon, freshly shaven and cleaned with a nice haircut, tells them Yara is their leader and she can bring them all of the things they so greatly desire. Then, out of nowhere someone else steps forward. It’s their long lost uncle Euron, back for the crown. Yara immediately accuses him of kingslaying and surprisingly Euron admits he killed Balon. Balon failed in two uprisings against the Iron Throne, so obviously the Iron Islands need a real man to make them more powerful. And he has this crazy scheme cooked up. He is going to sweep Daenerys Targaryen off of her feet (with his big cock, because that’s all women want) and use her and her dragons to take over Westeros. I don’t mind telling him this is never going to happen. Dany may like gruff confident men like Daario, but she definitely has no love for tyrants. Euron must be baptized under the Drowned God, a very literal ceremony. They drown him and then lay him on the beach and wait for him to cough up the water. If he coughs it up, the Drowned God wants him to live and rule. Yara and Theon use this time to get the hell out of dodge and it’s a good thing they do, because he wants to kill them so there will be no other contenders for the throne. They also take all of the best ships so, Euron tells the men to get to work chopping down trees so they can build 1,000 ships to sail for his bride. Honestly, I’m not even sure they have enough trees on the Iron Islands for 100 ships let along 1,000. The islands are mostly grass and rock. Now you know why the book readers were okay with not seeing the Greyjoy’s last season. Where will Theon and Yara go?

IS THERE PEACE IF DANY WASN’T THERE TO CREATE IT?

Varys says there is a very fragile peace in Mereen for the moment. They haven’t had dead bodies in the streets since Tyrion made his deal with the masters. The problem is that Dany isn’t there to take credit for making the peace. They need a female hero to sing Dany’s praises. So, they call on this red priestess. She will spread the word that Dany is the savior that was promised who will bring peace and prosperity. Her dragons are a gift from the Lord of Light. She will tell how Dany has arrived to tame the darkness to come. Varys isn’t a fan of these red priest/priestess’ since they are basically sorcerers, much like the one who made him a eunuch when he was a boy. He tells this priestess that Stannis Baratheon was backed by a red priestess claiming he was the prince that was promised, but he was defeated and is dead. He thinks the followers of the Lord of Light are fanatics. She asks Varys what he heard the flames say when the sorcerer threw his cock into them and he is taken aback.

A GIRL AND HER PROTECTOR

Ser Jorah has saved Dany once again and she finally forgives him for spying on her when they first met. She’s in a bind though because she can’t take him back to Mereen with her and she doesn’t want to send him away either. He tells her the choice has already been made because he has greyscale. She says she is very sorry and asks if there is a cure, but he doesn’t know of one. He tells her he knows what happens when it takes over and he plans to end things before that happens. He also confesses that he loves her and always will. He only ever wanted to serve her. She commands him to find a cure and come back to her because when she takes the Seven Kingdoms she will need him by her side. So, as he goes off into the sunset to try and save himself, she leads her new khalasar out of Vaes Dothrak.

ARE THE STARKS REALLY TOGETHER?

Sansa gets a letter from Littlefinger asking her to meet him in Mole’s Town. He’s got a lot of nerve after what he did to her. She’s smart and takes Brienne with her. He says he’s so happy she was able to escape the Bolton’s unharmed and trys to play that he had no idea what a psychopath Ramsay was. She thinks he knew exactly what Ramsay was and that she can still feel what Ramsay did to her. She says she no longer trusts Littlefinger because he said he was saving her by taking her away from the people that hurt her and killed her family, but he turned right around and delivered her to another group of people that hurt her and killed her family. He tries to convince her that he can still protect her, but she says he can’t even protect himself and says she should get Brienne to cut him down right there. He promises he will do whatever is in his power to do even if it means dying. She says he can go back to Moat Cailin and never show his face again. Before she leaves he tells her that her great uncle (on her mother’s side), Bryden Blackfish (aka, Tully), has rallied an army and taken back Riverrun. She should reach out to him to help her and Jon take back Winterfell. She says she already has an army, but Littlefinger points out that the wildlings are Jon’s army and he is only her half brother. When she gets back to Castle Black, they all try to figure out how to get more northmen to their side. Jon doesn’t have the Stark name to rally them, but Sansa does and they decide to use that in their favor. She wants to send Brienne to ride to Riverrun so Ser Brynden and his army can join them. When Jon asks how she knows about the Tully army, she lies and says Ramsay received a raven before she escaped. For some reason, she doesn’t tell Jon that Littlefinger told her about this. There could be a few reasons for this. I’m hoping it’s because she doesn’t want Jon to go after him so she can deal with Littlefinger in her own way. I hope it’s not because she doesn’t trust Jon, but of course she doesn’t know him like we do and she hasn’t been able to trust anyone in a long time. Jon really still has no claim on Winterfell. If Rickon is in the dungeons of Winterfell, then he would be next in line. Unless Bran shows up. I have a feeling Bran may be busy. I’m all for girl power and Sansa being heir to Winterfell, but Westeros isn’t exactly known for women in power. Brienne doesn’t feel comfortable leaving Sansa there with Ser Davos or Melisandre. And Tormund tries his best to flirt with Brienne, but she is having none of it. C’mon girl, have some fun! She is all business. Even though she isn’t honest with Jon, Sansa makes him a cloak like the one their father used to wear and they prepare to leave with Ser Davos and Melisandre tagging along.

A TALE OF TWO HODORS

We finally find out what happened to poor Wylas to change him into Hodor and what “Hodor” really means. Bran messed with the space-time continuum and poor Hodor paid the price. Bran continues his lessons with Bloodraven, but isn’t satisfied and wants to see more. Bloodraven shows him how the White Walkers were made. They are in a field with a weirwood that is surrounded by stones in a spiral design, much like the designs we’ve seen before. We saw them in the very first scene of GoT when Wil stumbles across the wildling camp and all of the dead wildlings are laid out in a spiral. Then we see it in season two with all of the dead horses in the snow. The children of the forest, including Leaf, who is there in the cave with Bran and Co., have tied a man tied to the weirwood tree and push a dagger made of dragonglass into his heart. His eyes turn blue and we discover that he is the Night’s King. The children made the White Walkers to help them fight the First Men and the Andals who were taking over what we now know as Westeros. Unfortunately, they created a monster and eventually joined the First Men and the Andals to anhialate the White Walkers. When Bloodraven is asleep, Bran’s curiosity takes over and he grabs one of the branches and goes on a solo road trip. Wherever he goes there is snow all around. He sees an army of white walkers and as he walks through the crowd he sees the Night’s King. Bran is no longer a silent observer though. The Night’s King can see him and grabs him. Bran comes out of the trance, but it’s too late. The Night’s King knows where he is now and somehow the wights are no longer blocked from entering the cave. Bloodraven tells Bran it is time for him to take his place. He asks if he is ready and Bloodraven tells him “no”, but there is no other option. He starts transferring all of his knowledge via telepathy as quickly as he can. Meera and Hodor are somewhere else in the cave and are excited to be leaving the cave. They have no idea what has transpired until Meera starts to feel colder and sees her breath. The white walkers have arrived and Leaf tells them they have to grab Bran and escape. Bran is seeing all kinds of different flashbacks and is back in Winterfell watching his father (as a child) getting ready to leave and be fostered by Jon Arryn at the Eyrie. At the same time that this flashback is going on the wights have arrived and even though the children of the forest are throwing firebombs at them it isn’t slowing them down. The Night’s King walks through a ring of fire straight into the cave. Meera can’t get Bran to fully wake up since he’s still downloading information and they need Hodor’s strength to hold off the white walkers. She gets him on his sled and drags him toward the door. Poor Summer (another direwolf down) gets killed trying to keep them away from Bran. While Bran is in the past he locks eyes with the young Hodor (aka Wylas) and at the same time wargs into the current Hodor to try and hold off the wights. They run out from the weirwood and slam the door shut. Meera yells at Hodor to “hold the door”. Young Hodor falls to the ground having a seizure repeating “hold the door” over and over again until it finally becomes “Hodor” and through Bran he sees his older self being torn apart by the white walkers. Pretty messed up. So Summer down, Hodor down and he had to live his whole life with that vision of his death. I wouldn’t talk either.

So, four of the six direwolves the Stark children found are dead. Leaving Ghost and possibly Nymeria who Arya let go into the woods in season one. I wonder if we will see her again… I’ll never let the Starks dog-sit for me. Dany must be making her way back to Mereen, just in time to have her new khalasar join her Unsullied and defeat the masters. Did Littlefinger lie to Sansa about the army at Riverrun? He obviously intentionally placed that doubt in Sansa’s head about Jon. And will Arya become a Faceless Man or stay Arya Stark of Winterfell? Feel free to make your guesses in the comments section below.