Ep 606 “Blood of my Blood”
Meera pulls Bran through a
blizzard with dozens of wights hot on their trail. She is basically alone, because
not only does she have to pull Bran, a job Hodor was taking care of, he’s not
even awake because he’s downloading the matrix from Bloodraven at hyperspeed. She’s
so cold and about to lose hope lying down with Bran and crying. He wakes up as
out of the woods a hooded figure flies through the trees on horseback wielding
some kind of burning flail. (I think that’s what it’s called, I tried to do my
medieval weapons research.) He strikes the wights down right and left until
there are no more. Once he’s cut a clear path, he tells Bran and Meera to get
on his horse because they still need to run and “the dead don’t rest.” Just
your typical Terminator “come with me if you want to live” sequence. Apparently
the dead rest at some point or at least are far enough behind for them to stop
and rest and grab some dinner. Their savior is still hooded as he skins and
cooks a rabbit for dinner. Bran is asleep and Meera fills the stranger in on
the Three-Eyed Raven’s (abbr. TER) death, but the stranger says the TER will
live on in Bran. He also says the TER sent him to help Bran and Meera. Bran
wakes up and starts to investigate who this helpful stranger is. The stranger
says the last time he saw Bran he was just a little boy at Winterfell and he
pulls back his hood to reveal he is Benjen Stark!!! If you don’t remember who
Benjen Stark is, I won’t hold it against you. However, this is major as this
hasn’t even been revealed in the books yet and most people have been dying to
know what happened to him. Benjen Stark is the younger brother of Ned Stark. He
was the First Ranger of the Night’s Watch when Jon first joined. He left to go
on a ranging because of wildling sightings close to the Wall and he disappeared.
Two of his men were found dead and brought back to the Wall. They came back to
life and attacked Lord Commander Mormont before Ghost and Jon Snow killed them
with fire, which earned Jon the Lord Commander’s respect. Benjen’s horse
returned as well some time later, riderless. They had given up all hope on him
being alive and there were so many fan theories out there including one that held
the belief that Benjen Stark might actually be Daario Naharis helping Dany
incognito. He’s been north of the Wall all this time hanging with the TER and
killing wights. Oh yeah, he was also stabbed with dragonglass and almost turned
into a white walker, but luckily the Children of the Forest cured him. (So, we
know there is a cure now.) Benjen warns Bran that he must learn to control his
visions before the Night’s King (sticking with the book name here, Benjen said
Night King, but there is an ‘s) comes. The wights and white walkers are heading
towards the Wall so they need to head there and be ready for them.
Now that we’ve covered who Bran’s
rescuer was, let’s talk about Bran’s matrix download of visions. If you haven’t
yet, re-watch them and rewind and review as many times as you need to. There is
so much information in the marathon visions of things we have seen, things we
have heard and things we didn’t think possible.
- Ned
Stark’s beheading
- The
Mad King on the Iron Throne yelling “burn them all” and Jaime striking him down
with his sword
- Bran’s
fall in season one
- The
white walkers turning Craster’s baby son (remember the one he left in the
woods)
- Dany
and her dragons
- A
jar of wildfire and the Mad King again
- Robb
getting killed at the Red Wedding
- A
young Ned Stark looking distraught with blood on his hands
I won’t cover them all in great
detail since some of these are simply visions that are important to Bran, but
that we’ve actually seen happen. The ones I will discuss in some detail are the
visions dealing with the Mad King (Aerys Targaryen) and the vision of young Ned
Stark and the blood. Now, I’m in total agreement that it would’ve been great to
see a longer vision of the Mad King and Jaime killing him, but that’s not
really the basis for this story. I also want to see visions with Rhaegar
Targaryen, but alas, that might never happen. We only get ten episodes per
season and this was episode six. We already know that Jaime killed the Mad King
and as much fun as it would be to see a longer vision of it, this snippet will
just have to do. Remember the big picture here, unless Bran’s visions move the
larger storyline forward or provide NEW information, we probably won’t see them
in detail. Another reason some people may be upset is because after the whole
“hold the door – Hodor” storyline, a new theory emerged. This theory suggests Bran
was responsible for making the Mad King crazy by having a similar Hodor-like
situation. It’s a cool theory, but I don’t agree with it and I’ll tell you why.
First, the reason Hodor had a seizing fit and almost burst into particles was
because Bran warged into present Hodor and past Hodor at the same time
because he was with present Hodor and in a vision with young Hodor. Therefore,
it made a rip in time that left Hodor irreparable. In order for Bran to do that
to the Mad King it would have to be the same situation. Or, like with young Ned
Stark, perhaps Bran is in a vision and says, “burn them all” and the Mad King
hears that and goes crazy and thinking he is hearing voices, he repeats it. I
don’t agree with that either. The Mad King went through a lot in his life to
make him go cray-cray. Even though he was psychotic and burned people with
wildfire for fun, he actually had good reason to lose a few marbles. Aerys
Targaryen didn’t go mad until later in his life and it was gradual before
turning into complete madness. When he was a boy, his closest childhood friends
were Tywin Lannister and Steffon Baratheon (father to King Robert, Stannis and
Renly). As was the Targaryen custom, Aerys married his sister Rhaella. They had
many stillborn children over the years and the few that actually made it out of
the womb usually died within a year. This caused great strain to them both
until finally Rhaegar was born and then Viserys. The Mad King kept Viserys
hidden away in the Red Keep fearing something would happen to him. Then the
Defiance of Duskendale happened. The Darklyn’s planned a trap for King Aerys.
He had become very paranoid and jealous of his son Prince Rhaegar as well as
his Hand, Tywin Lannister. The Darklyn’s called for King Aerys to come to
Duskendale and Lord Tywin urged the king not to go. The Mad King’s paranoia
caused him to go against Lord Tywin’s advice and he went to Duskendale where he
was kept as a hostage in a cell. He was there for about six months until Lord
Tywin gathered the armies of the Seven Kingdoms and marched on Duskendale to
demand the return of the king. In order to stave off more bloodshed, Ser
Barriston Selmy asked if he could have one night to sneak in and steal the king
back and he did just that. He slipped in, found the king and saved the day. Upon
the king’s return to Kings Landing he was beyond help. He tortured and killed
all of the Darklyn’s as well as any family who helped them in their rebellion.
He even feared that his own heir, Rhaegar, was against him and it was rumored
that the Mad King might pass over his eldest son (beloved by the people) for
his younger son Viserys. He talked to himself all of the time, would not listen
to any council and started burning people alive (his favorite source of fire
was wildfire). I write all this to explain why I don’t want to jump on the
bandwagon of “everything that ever
went wrong was Bran’s fault”. I think he learned his lesson after the Hodor
situation, but only time will tell.
I’ll try not to be long-winded
about young Ned Stark. Having read the books, I have a pretty good idea of what
that scene in the past deals with. The one that flickered by quickly where
there was blood everywhere including his hands. All I’ll say for now is I think
it will be an extension of the vision we saw back in episode three and the
Tower of Joy and could possibly be the blood of whoever is in that tower…
We also finally get to see Sam’s hometown, Horn Hill, in
this episode as well as meeting his family. Gilly can already tell that Sam is
nervous and asks if his family knows she is a wildling. Sam explains that his
father would turn her out if he knew where she was really from. Sam’s mother
and sister are there to greet them when they arrive, but Lord Randyll Tarly is
out hunting with his son, Dickon. Gilly gets a taste of southron fashion when
Sam’s sister, Talla, lets her borrow a dress for dinner. Randyll Tarly is just
as Sam has described him. He belittles Sam to the point where Gilly starts to
defend him telling Sam’s father how Sam killed a Thenn and a white walker as they
were on their way south to the Wall. Lord Tarly figured out she’s a wildling
and is furious. He says it was bad enough when he thought she was a whore from
Mole’s Town, but being a wildling is even worse. He points out his family’s
Valyrian sword, Heartsbane, handed down through generations and explains that
Sam will never wield that sword because he is weak. Sam’s mother finally
excuses herself along with Sam’s sister and Gilly, appalled at Lord Tarly’s
words. He tells Sam he will allow Gilly to stay in Horn Hill to work in the
kitchens and says that little Sam will grow up in the household, but Sam can
never spend another night under his roof. He will leave and never return. Sam
gives his goodbyes to Gilly and little Sam, resigned to leaving them where they
will be taken care of. He can’t bare to leave them and comes back telling Gilly
to grab her things. Sam also decides to grab Heartsbane on their way out the
door. Gilly is concerned that Lord Tarly will come after the sword and Sam
says, “Let him try”.
Arya continues watching the mummer’s show. I’m not sure if
this is a continuation of the play we’ve already seen or if this is another
edition. This time we see the depiction of Joffrey’s murder at his wedding as
well as the murder of Lord Tywin. Of course the play depicts Tyrion as the
killer. Arya enjoys watching the play, even laughing at the jokes. Arya sneaks
backstage to put poison in Lady Crane’s rum, but gets caught by the actress.
Lady Crane didn’t see Arya drop the poison in the rum, however. She tells Arya
she recognizes her from the audience and about how she used to sneak backstage
when she was little as well. Lady Crane confides in Arya that she doesn’t like
her last speech in the play where she hovers over Joffrey’s dead body. Arya
encourages her to change it if she doesn’t like it and also gives her advice on
her motivation. She tells Lady Crane that Cersei loved her son more than
anything and when he died, she would not only be sad, but would also be angry
wanting vengeance against the person who committed the murder. The play is over
then and the other actor’s crowd backstage. Arya ducks behind a curtain while
Lady Crane discusses changing her last speech with the head of the troupe. The
man has a fit over a “woman” trying to change his show. Lady Crane opens the
rum to poor a drink, but Arya stops it before she can and tells the woman to
watch out for the younger actress because she is trying to kill her. The Waif from
the House of Black and White happens to be hiding backstage as well and hears
the exchange. She immediately reports back to Jaqen. He is disappointed. The
Waif reminds him he promised she would be allowed to kill Arya if she didn’t
work out. He asks the Waif not to let her suffer and she walks away with a huge
smile on her face. Good thing Arya kept Needle, which she retrieves before she
goes back to her cell and waits. I guess she knows they will try and kill her.
We only get one scene with Dany this week, but it was a
defining one. It’s not quite as breathtaking as her coming out of the temple of
the dosh khaleen as it’s burning
down, but she does ride Drogon again and she has decided that it’s time to go
to Westeros! She is marching her khalasar through Essos, heading back to
Mereen. At least I hope that’s where she’s going because she definitely needs
to pick up a certain dwarf as well as Missandei, Grey Worm and her Unsullied
and freed men. When they reach a certain area she asks Daario how many ships
she would need to carry her followers to Westeros. He thinks she will need at
least one thousand. Hope they can find some trees somewhere over there. She
decides it is time to take back what is hers and he says she is not made to sit
on an iron chair. She is a conqueror. She asks Daario and the Dothraki to wait
there for a few minutes. After being gone longer than he is comfortable with,
he begins to go after her. She appears riding Drogon, completely in control.
She gives a speech naming all of the Dothraki her bloodriders (instead of just
the traditional three) and promises to take them across the Narrow Sea to the
Seven Kingdoms.
And finally, the play of the week definitely goes to the
High Sparrow. He outwitted and out-manipulated all of those highborn folks in
Kings Landing! Tommen has continued meeting with the High Sparrow on a regular
basis so they can discuss Margaery’s walk of atonement. The High Sparrow even
lets Tommen visit with her. She says the High Sparrow isn’t exactly who they
thought he was. He has a different way of looking at the world. The High
Sparrow has helped her realize who she really is. Yes, she helped poor people
in the past giving them food and whatnot, but she always made sure she was seen
doing it and that’s not what it’s about. Tommen asks about Loras and Margaery
says she will always love her brother because his soul is pure and perfect, but
he has sinned and he must atone as well. On the morning of her scheduled walk
of shame, Jaime meets Mace Tyrell and his army. When they get to the Sept of
Baelor, the Queen of Thorns is waiting. When Margaery sees her father’s army it
almost looks as if she has some of her spirit back. Jaime demands the release
of Margaery and Loras, but the High Sparrow says he doesn’t have the authority
to release them. It looks like shits about to get real as Jaime rides his horse
up the steps of the sept. He tells the High Sparrow that he has already
disgraced one noble house and Jaime will not allow him disgrace another. The
High Sparrow says there is no need for any bloodshed because the Queen won’t be
making a walk of atonement. She has already atoned for her sins by bringing
another into the light of the Seven. The doors to the sept open and King Tommen
walks out to join his wife. The king says there will be a new age of harmony, a
holy alliance between the crown and the faith. The crowd goes wild, but those
common folk are fickle. Jaime shakes his head at Tommen, begging with his eyes
for him not to do it, but that Tommen is impressionable. Mace Tyrell is so lost
that he asks his mother what’s happening. She tells him, “He’s beaten us,
that’s what’s happening.” Tommen also strips Jaime of being Lord Commander of
the Kingsguard because he went against the Faith. He will be sent to Riverrun
to quell the uprising caused by Ser Brynden Blackfish.
Speaking of the riverlands, we get to see Walder Frey for
the first time since the Red Wedding. I can’t wait for someone to kill his
creepy old guy ass. He’s angry that his sons lost Riverrun to the Blackfish. He
wants them to take it back. He also mentions the Brotherhood without Banners.
This is the band of outlaws from back in season two, run by Lord Beric
Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr. They kidnapped Arya to ransom her, but basically
put her in the hands of the Hound. It looks like they are still running around.
Maybe we’ll see Gendry again since he joined them. Walder Frey’s sons tell him
they don’t have enough men to take the castle back, but he doesn’t care. He has
Edmure Tully as a captive (Catelyn Stark’s brother). He thinks the Blackfish
will give up Riverrun for his nephew. The Frey’s will have Jaime’s help as
well. Jaime doesn’t want to leave Cersei because her trial is coming up soon,
but she persuades him to take the Lannister army to Riverrun and show their
enemies what happens when you cross the Lannisters. Besides, she has her
champion, the Mountain so she’s not worried. And, who else is heading to the
riverlands to rally the Blackfish’s army? Brienne! Looks like there will be a
reunion.
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