Review Roundup: Season 6, Episode 1: “The Red Woman”
A new year for Game of Thrones means another round of recaps and reviews from all corners.
Naturally, some plots in “The Red Woman” jumped out over others to take center stage for most reviewers. Aside from general griping about Dany never getting back to Westeros and mixed reactions to the new Khal’s compatriots and their sexual harassment of Dany, Meereen was mostly ignored—as was Ramsay, though the “she smelled of dog” line was quoted frequently. Margaery is also in this episode, but the recappers merely pinged her on their way to Cersei, and the more in-depth reviews tended to ignore her. No, the true winners of the night were Team Brienne/Sansa/Theon/Pod (they need a new team name, STAT) and Lena Headey, with plenty made about the big Melisandre reveal at the end as well.
So let’s start with the obvious: people LOVE Brienne and Pod. At Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall writes: “After seemingly failing in one oath (protect Catelyn’s daughter) while pursuing another (avenge Renly), it felt great to see Brienne manage to do both, and for Podrick to demonstrate the fruits of the lessons she’s been giving him.” And both of The A.V. Club reviewers (Brandon Nowalk for the Unsullied, Myles McNutt for the book-readers) noted the virtuous heroism inherent in the scene. McNutt:
"The quixotic qualities of Brienne are a perfect fit for this world, constantly driving her forward, sending her barreling into groups of soldiers with Podrick in the search of purpose, that flame that lights a fire under her ass. And when it pays off here, riding in to save Sansa and Theon from Ramsay’s men and finally becoming the sworn sword to one of Catelyn’s daughters as she has long hoped to be, it’s a rare victory for long-term planning. And it is to be cherished, because it’s unlikely we’ll see many such victories in the immediate future."
"The parallelism is gutting. If only Sansa had accepted her service the last time, she might have avoided Ramsay and Myranda. She would have been spared so much torment. But now the four of them make a strange, exciting brotherhood, Sansa holding court, Brienne kneeling before her lady, Theon nodding his head to advise her, and Pod standing by dutifully. The wide shot of the ragged underdogs against the ugly, snowy waste is the image of the episode, an old nudist notwithstanding."
Elsewhere, Sonia Saraiya at Salon found something powerful about Sansa in the moment when she accepts Brienne’s sword and oath: “To see this young woman step into the tentative but rightful role of royalty is both frightening and incredibly validating; it feels like she has finally come to value herself, even when so few others around her will grant her dignity.”
Meanwhile, Lena Headey continues to impress; for a moment that was as glancing as almost anything else in this episode (hi, Arya!), the former Sarah Connor sure knows how to wring fancy words from people. Matt Fowler at IGN: “More great facial acting from Lena Headey here (in a moment directly following Brienne’s great facial reaction) as Cersei watched Jamie come in closer on his boat, slowly realizing that the one truly good thing she ever created had died.” Alicia Lutes at Nerdist: “When she spoke of the prophecy that opened last season, it felt like a real moment of vulnerability and hopelessness from Cersei, a woman who usually comes out fangs first in almost any situation.”
At the Wall, discussion of Jon Snow’s situation basically amounted to “yep, he’s kinda cold-lookin’ and maybe Davos and the Bro’s Watch are preparing to do something about it” but—quelle surprise—the Melisandre reveal provoked some discussion about its meaning, in more ways than one. Saraiya, Salon:
"It’s easy to make jokes about an old naked woman, but seeing Melisandre unmasked and unglamored is to see her truly undone, too. Her visions appear to have been lying to her; her Azor Ahai reborn is now dead. And this mortal coil that she has augmented, with a kind of magical cosmetic surgery, to continue getting her way with the men of this world, is now just sad evidence of her ultimate hollowness. The maiden is really a crone, the witch is really a witch, and beauty is an illusion that serves a pointed end; “Game Of Thrones” would like to remind you that it is no fairy tale."
(Funny, because E!‘s recap wondered if Thrones was just “an extra messed up Disney fairytale”.) Myles McNutt noted the vulnerability of the character: “Melisandre was a woman who saw the future in the flames, but the flames betrayed her, and tapped into a very basic insecurity: without her necklace, she is an old and broken woman, withered and frail, with none of the power she conveys and demands from others. It’s a shortcut to vulnerability for a character that has undoubtedly become more vulnerable than ever before”
Tim Surette at TV.com puts it plainly: “She wasn’t getting old-naked to draw in the all-important ancient demographic that’s sick of seeing perky boobs for HBO, she was rejecting the Lord of Light and all his falsehoods s/he’d planted in her trusting mind.”
The episode as a whole was noted as a premiere of quiet change; whether or not this translates into impactful stories free from George R.R. Martin’s words will be an underlying theme in the weeks to come.