Book-Reader’s Recap–Game of Thrones, Episode 601–The Red Woman

Spoiler Note: This post is intended for those who have read the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. As such, the post itself and the comments will contain spoilers. If you haven’t read the books yet, you can discuss this episode in our non-book reader (Unsullied) recap. Thanks!

Game of Thrones is back, and it is wild. Before we get into the eventful premiere, a note: now that the show has basically outpaced the books, it might seem pointless to have separate recaps for book-readers and Unsullied. We’re doing it anyway. This episode showed that there are still a few book plots the show will be tackling, and others that are so vastly different from what happens on the page that they deserve comment.

On to The Red Woman. We open where we left off at the end of last season: at Castle Black, as Jon Snow’s body rots in the yard. I know all the mutineers just kinda walked away from the body at the end of “Mother’s Mercy,” and now I gotta wonder why. Why didn’t they take it somewhere, or bury it, or burn it, or do something that doesn’t give Jon Snow’s supporters the opportunity to collect it and bring it inside the room where Davos is staying?

We do find out why Ghost couldn’t help Jon during the mutiny, though: he was locked in a pen. Why he was locked in a pen in less clear. Later, Davos asks someone to go and fetch Ghost, which implies that the direwolf is regularly locked up. Maybe it was done to appease the wildlings or the Night’s Watchmen who had it out for Jon? Or maybe I’m spending too much time thinking about this. Anyway, Jon’s dead face looks strange and glassy, like a doll’s.

Once Jon’s friends haul his body inside, Dolorous Edd closes the corpse’s eyes. Aw, he’s broken up. Melisandre also wanders in, looking lost and defeated, and reflects over the fallen Lord Commander. “I saw him in the flames. Fighting at Winterfell.” Did she expect him to come to Stannis’ rescue, then? And if so, why did she bolt so quickly when she learned that Stannis’ sellswords had scattered? I was hoping we would learn a little more about her decision in this episode, but it was not to be.

Next, we have an interesting scene I wasn’t expecting. Alliser Thorne explains why he and the rest of the mutineers (Othell Yarwyck and Bowen Marsh get the briefest of cameos) killed Jon Snow. What he says isn’t particularly surprising: Jon Snow went against everything the Night’s Watch stood for when he allied himself with the wildlings, and had to die. I don’t agree with Thorne, nor would anyone who watched “Hardhome,” but I like that they’re not just making him a mustache-twirling villain—it sounds like he believes what he’s saying.

It’s also clear that there’s dissension in the Watch, so while Jon Snow might not have had many friends close enough to defend his body with Davos and Edd, there are people who, y’know, didn’t want to kill him.

Back with the dead man’s brigade, Ghost adorably nuzzles his master’s hand. Davos, Edd, and Jon’s few other diehard supporters figure that Thorne will want them dead before long (for the crime of being loyal to Jon Snow, I suppose), and hatch a plan: Edd will leave to get the wildlings (no idea where they are) in the hope that they’ll fight the mutineers, and the others will barricade themselves in the room. Well, it’s a simple plan. It has that going for it.

And here’s our first glimpse of Winterfell for the year. It is purdy.

Inside, Ramsay grieves for Myranda over her body, which doesn’t look quite as…squished as I was expecting. He’s thinking aloud to Maester Wolkan about when he first met Myranda, when he was around 11. “Everybody was already afraid of me. You certainly were. Myranda wasn’t, though.” I know some people get down on Ramsay for being a caricature, but I think he has more depth on the show than he does in the books, and scenes like this are what give it to him. Don’t get me wrong: I still want him super-dead, but the extra layers are nice.

And it’s not like the show is turning him into a saint—he still wants Myranda’s body fed to the hounds.

After Ramsay is done grieving for his crazy girlfriend, he and Roose have a back-handed conversation about what a screw-up he is. Basically, Roose congratulates Ramsay for defeating Stannis on the battlefield, and immediately reprimands him for “play[ing] [his] games” with Sansa and Theon and driving both over the walls of Winterfell. Everyone seems to be taking it on faith that Sansa and Theon survived their fall, so we’ll do the same. In any case, Ramsay has his marching orders: get Sansa back, or the other Northern lords won’t stand behind them when the Lannisters come calling and try to make Roose answer for marrying Theon to Sansa in the first place. Ramsay assures daddy that he has his best hounds on it.

And now, Theon and Sansa run like hell through a forest. God, the photography on this show is beautiful, and the music is pulse-pounding. Ramin Djawadi just keeps on trucking. Anyway, Ramsay’s hounds are on their tails, and Sansa and Theon come to a point where they have to cross a river, so they can throw off the scent. Sansa is hesitant, but in she goes.

Alfie Allen, by the way, is still doing a great job as Theon/Reek. His bold actions here suggest that Theon is reasserting himself, but his twitchy little movements and quavering voice are all Reek. Why isn’t he getting movie deals? A treasure, this man.

Anyway, Sansa and Theon make it to the other side of the river and hide under a fallen tree. They are cold, so very cold. They huddle for warmth, and it’s a weirdly sweet moment where they’re allowed to think that they might have actually escaped their personal hells back at Winterfell.

And then the hounds come calling. Theon, again being pretty badass, advises Sansa to go north and ask help of Jon at Castle Black, not knowing what a bust that’ll be, before darting out to draw the hounds away. His plan falls apart immediately, as the hounds and the men driving them skirt around him and start to pull Sansa to her feet.

And then…

It’s Brienne and Podrick to the rescue! “It’s a bloody woman,” one of the Bolton guards says. Bam! Sword to the gut. I love the way Gwendoline Christie shouts and grunts when she fights—she always sells it.

Brienne fights guys on horseback, is knocked off, cuts a guy’s throat, stabs another dude’s horse, and knifes him with his own blade. She’s just an unstoppable murder machine here. Meanwhile, Podrick manages to kill a guy on his own, which I guess means Brienne’s been training him like she promised. Theon also gives an assist; he stabs a guy who’s about to kill Pod.

Sansa, meanwhile, spent the fight huddled under that fallen tree. Lazy (kidding). After the dust snow settles, Brienne kneels before Sansa and again pledges herself to Sansa’s service. Having seen what a beast Brienne is in battle, Sansa wisely accepts. The dialogue here is very similar to when Brienne swore herself to Catelyn’s service back in Season 2, although studious Pod helps Sansa with her end by helping her remember the words of the vow, which apparently is a Westerosi standard. It’s a nice full circle moment.

We’re back in King’s Landing, and the show immediately starts twisting the knife. A handmaiden tells Cersei that a ship from Dorne has sailed into the harbor, and she goes skipping off to meet it looking like a happy schoolgirl. Geez, show. Of course, when she gets there and sees that Jaime is coming ashore with a dead body, her face falls, and I don’t care if Cersei is evil—I feel bad for her here.

Benioff and Weiss keep digging into Cersei’s state of mind during a conversation between her and Jaime. Cersei is curiously calm about Mrycella’s death—sad, but calm—and reveals that part of the reason is because she “knew this would happen.” She brings up Maggy the Frog’s prophecy from last season—the one where the witch told Cersei that all her children would die. It ends up that it’s been on Cersei’s mind, which I like—Cersei thinks about it a lot in A Feast for Crows, but I never got the impression that it was motivating her actions on the show. This clarifies things. From here, it’s a short road to when she begins cracking up.

Jaime, however, puts no store in prophecy. “Fuck prophecy. Fuck fate. Fuck everyone who isn’t us.” We’ll see if he still feels that way when he gets to Riverrun later in the season.

Elsewhere in King’s Landing, we check in with Margaery in her cell under the Sept of Baelor. Septa Unella is pulling the same routine she did on Cersei, where she tells her to confess over and over, but at least Margaery has the sense not to threaten Unella’s life.

The High Sparrow enters, and makes a little nicer with Margaery than he did with Cersei. He’s visiting her, at least. He’s no more forthcoming about Loras’ condition than Unella was, however, and is no more able to wring a confession out of Margaery with his good cop routine than Unella was with her bad cop one. Margaery does, however, admit that no one is without sin, which he takes as a good sign. “You’ve started down the path, but have many miles to go.” So she’ll be in there for a few episodes yet, huh?

Hoo boy, it’s Dorne. It’s probably a good thing I knew this was coming thanks to those screencaps that leaked a couple days ago, because if I hadn’t, this scene might have made me mad.

Ellaria Sand helps Doran Martell to his chair. Book-readers will note that he’s walking, which he couldn’t do in the books, although it was noted that he was able to walk at one time, so it’s not like this is a huge departure.

But let’s not bury the lead. Doran and Ellaria are making pleasant conversation when a maester delivers the news that Mrycella is dead. Then Tyene Sand (aka the character who delivered the worst Game of Thrones line yet written) stabs Areo Hotah in the back. He immediately goes down, which…okay. Ellaria whips out a knife and stabs Doran, killing him. The guards do nothing, and Ellaria would have us believe that it’s because they’re as disgusted with Doran’s inaction as she is.

Doran isn’t the only Martell on the chopping block. On a ship bound for King’s Landing, Trystane is accosted in his cabin by Obara and Nymeria Sand. (Apparently Trystane and Mrycella took different ships to King’s Landing). Some dialogue is exchanged, none of it particularly good, and Trystane dies when Obara stabs him through the back of the head.

Okay, so a lot happens there. Rather than highjack the recap, I think I’ll confine it to the notes at the bottom of this post. For now, let’s move on to the next section of the episode: Varys and Tyrion in Meereen.

The dwarf and the eunuch walk the streets of Meereen to see how the other half lives. They share some banter that I honestly didn’t understand (I feel like Tyrion made a joke when he mentioned Varys’ lack of a cock, but I don’t know what it was), and then Tyrion walks up to a beggar woman and says he wants to eat her baby. I mean, what he wants to do is give the woman money so she can feed her baby, but his Valyrian is terrible. Thank god Varys was there to correct him, cause Tyrion doesn’t need to add “baby-eater” to the list of rumors about him.

The two wander the streets a bit more and come upon a Red Priest preaching devotion to the Mother of Dragons, which will doubtless be important later. As they exposit on the general state of things in Meereen (on edge), a plume of smoke wafts through a nearby archway, and they go to investigate. Apparently, an unseen enemy has set fire to the fleet of ships Daenerys seized when she first took over Meereen. “Well, she won’t be sailing to Westeros anytime soon,” Tyrion says. Six seasons in and we’re still saying stuff like that.

In the Dothraki Sea, Jorah and Daario are hot on Drogon’s trail (just follow the burnt corpses of animals), which means they’re hot on Daenerys’ trail. The two share some banter about how old Jorah is, the show reminds us that he has greyscale, and then they find the ring Dany dropped when she met the Dothraki horde at the end of Season 5. And I gotta admit: Benioff and Weiss were pretty clever here. Remember when the Dothraki encircled Daenerys with their horses in the Season 5 finale? They trampled the land everywhere but where she stood, with this as the result:

So of course Jorah and Daario are drawn right to the one patch of light grass in a circle of dark. Wow, show—you almost got me to believe it was plausible that they could stumble on a single ring in the middle of nowhere. Nice job. Jorah picks it up. “They have her.”

Indeed they do. Daenerys, bound at the wrists, walks with a Dothraki horde, and suffers in silence while two of her captors talk about her weird white hair and how hard they’re gonna sex her later. Emilia Clarke’s facial expressions are pretty funny here, as she resists the urge to tell these jackasses off in their own language. Happily, she saves that revelation for when it counts.

And when does it count? When she’s brought before the khal of this particular khalasar: Khal Moro. This khal seems way more familiar with his underlings than Drogo was—I enjoyed him getting frustrated when his lieutenants challenged him about the finest things in life. Anyway, Dany reveals to him that she knows Dothraki, but he is not at all impressed with her long string of titles. He’s taken a bit aback when she mentions she was married to Khal Drogo, though. As the widow of a khal, she won’t be raped, but Moro still plans to take her back to Vaes Dothrak, where she’ll spend her days with those wild women who once made her eat a horse heart. Happy times…

We check in with one more character before the final scenes: Arya in Braavos. She’s blind, she’s a begger, she is not having a fun time. She catches a snatch of conversation about “what happened to that Kingsguard,” which is a nice touch, and then the Waif shows up and starts brutally beating her with a stick. “See you tomorrow,” the Waif says. It’s just a crappy day for Arya all around.

She doesn’t run, though, so she must think she can get something out of this. If she ends up warging into a cat and using that to her advantage in a fight with the Waif, as kind of happens in the books, I will be very pleased.

Lastly, we visit Castle Black, where Davos and company are still holed up with Jon Snow’s body. Alliser Thorne comes knocking and says that they have until nightfall to evacuate the premises. He’ll give amnesty to any Night’s Watchmen who throws down his arms, and will allow Davos and Melisandre to leave Castle Black unmolested. Davos doesn’t believe him, but honestly, I think Alliser has proven himself trustworthy, in his way. Sure, he murdered Jon Snow, but he had reasons for that. Why would he care if Davos left Castle Black?

In any case, the Jon Snow loyalists are convinced that Thorne has it in for them, and try to think of ideas. Davos suggests they consult the Red Woman, who’s staring into a fire somewhere in the castle. She stands up, looks into a mirror, and seems to come to a decision. She takes off her robe, takes off her choker, and we see her as she really is: a centuries-old woman with sagging breasts and brittle hair. It’s a mysterious, eye-catching end to the episode.

And we’re back! Warts and all, I enjoyed the episode, and want to see what the rest of the season brings. Game of Thrones awakens the optimist in me.

Odds and Ends

That other huge fantasy franchise. While watching Brienne battle those Bolton soldiers, I can’t have been the only person reminded of Kylo Ren’s fight with Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, right? It was all the snow.

Holy rollers. Watching this, I thought for a second that the producers had forgotten that Cersei is supposed to undergo a trial sometime this year. The Faith doesn’t seem to be keeping tabs on her like it does in the books. But the trial is still on, so far as we know.

Margaery’s situation is interesting. In the books, she’s released between chapters—Martin doesn’t make a big deal of it at all. The show seems to be drawing it out more. That’s gotta be partially due to the fact that they want to give Natalie Dormer something to do. Let’s hope they can wring some drama from it.

Oh, Dorne. The short version of this note is that Dorne still sucks. The producers just save all the lame writing for this part of Westeros, don’t they?

I will say that I suspect these particular scenes will suck less for people who haven’t read the books. On the page, Prince Doran is a crafty leader who’s secretly conspiring against the Lannisters while pretending to work with them. He brings the Sand Snakes in on his plot to get revenge, and while they don’t respect him, they work with him. I’m sure a lot of fans were waiting for that Doran to show up, and were disappointed when he didn’t.

That said, the show never pretended that Doran was crafty. As far as Game of Thrones goes, he was a weak leader who wanted to placate the Lannisters. I don’t think the show has violated continuity by killing him. It was a very poor adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s version of this story, but by now I think we all know that the show is no longer adapting A Song of Ice and Fire. Not really.

However, it looks like the show is setting up the Sand Snakes to do roughly the same things they do as in the books—Nymeria and Obara are poised to make some noise in King’s Landing, unless they turn that boat around straightaway. If the show continues to use the Dornish characters sans Doran, I’ll wonder what the point of cutting that very rich character was.

Or maybe we’ll never hear from them again. Basically, it’s still a mess down there.

An undetermined number of good men. So Varys and Tyrion come upon Daenerys’ fleet of ships burning in the bay. This raises a couple of points. From a long-term standpoint, the writers had this happen so when the Ironborn arrive in Meereen towards the end of the season, they can provide Dany with the ships she needs to sail to Westeros. That’s what I took from it, anyway. From a short-term standpoint, it’s fuzzier. Are the Sons of the Harpy trying to cripple Meereen’s navy so it’ll be more vulnerable to attack from people who want to restore slavery? And if so, how did they do it? Those were a lot of ships burning—how did they manage to light them all up? I fear the show is going to sweep that detail under the rug.

Dothraki humor. “Seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time is among the five best things in life.” Well, I laughed. It is nice that Benioff and Weiss try to lighten things up from time to time—otherwise the tension would be unbearable. I also liked hearing “It is known” again.

Game of Thrones Season 6, Attack of the Crones. So Melisandre is actually a really, really old lady. This theory has actually been bouncing around the internet for a while—even the show hinted at it back in Season 2.

Let’s address a few things: yes, the show seems to have messed up in Season 4, when it showed Melisandre bathing without her necklace on. Still, we’re not sure that taking the necklace off is the only thing that needs to happen in order for her true self to shine through. As Dan Weiss notes in the “Inside the Episode” segment that followed “The Red Woman,” Melisandre removed her glamour on purpose; following her crisis of faith, she was sick of all the lies in her life, and wanted to remind herself who she truly was. There may be a mental element at work here.

Also, while we don’t have an exact age, Benioff says that Melisandre is “several centuries old.” Also, he got this from a conversation with George R.R. Martin, so consider this book detail uncovered.