Small Council: Let’s talk about “The Red Woman”

“The Red Woman,” the Game of Thrones Season 6 premiere, has come and gone. What did we like? What didn’t we like? Did it meet, disappoint, and/or confound our expectations? What does it mean for what happens next? The Small Council is in session.

DAN: I enjoyed watching “The Red Woman” a lot. There were a couple of great scenes (Brienne and Sansa exchanging vows, Melisandre looking her age) and several solid ones.

There was also some crap. The storyline involving the Dornish characters, for example, became even more muddled and sloppy, something I didn’t think was possible at the end of last season. And although it hasn’t gotten as much attention, I thought there were a lot of unanswered questions in the air at Castle Black. (Why did the mutineers abandon Jon’s body? Why are Jon’s loyal friends bothering to protect the body in the first place? Why are the wildlings so far away that Dolorous Edd has to spend a day and a night finding them?) I can see how the writers are setting up future events here, but I didn’t see how the characters’ actions make sense in context, and that’s bad.

But you know what? I found that those holes didn’t hurt my enjoyment. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t seen the show in a while, or maybe it’s because my expectations have dropped a bit since Season 5, but I was transfixed. “The Red Woman” slipped past my defenses.

Maybe that’s because, when the show gets things right, it gets them really, really right. The Sansa-Brienne scene was powerful, and had the force of several seasons worth of storytelling behind it. I loved how the vows mirrored the ones Brienne and Catelyn exchanged in Season 2. I loved the blissed out look on Brienne’s face as she finally managed to fulfill her oath to her mistress. I loved the way Sansa and Theon comforted each other after escaping their personal hells back at Winterfell. I loved how Pod took out a guy, meaning that Brienne followed through on her promise to train him. I loved the snow—the visuals are the one area where the show consistently excels. It was just so emotionally gratifying to see the good guys come out on top for once, and because we’d seen how much they’d suffered to get there, it felt earned.

If the show can continue mining its rich history like that, we could be in for a spectacular season. At this point, I have to face up to the fact that I’m emotionally involved with this show, and if they continue to deliver on that front, there’s no telling what plotholes I’ll be willing to excuse.

KATIE: My overall thought is that “The Red Woman” was a really solid premiere all around. As Dan said, we encountered a few mishaps, but the good in the episode far outweighed the not-so-good. We’ve heard a lot of great things about Season 6, and the first episode set up for the success that’s been promised.

I’m especially here for Brienne slaying, Podrick’s fighting skills 2.0, and my girl Sansa looking regal as all get-out. That scene began with such trepidation and fear, and ended on such a note of relief, calm, and security, and everything in between was perfectly paced. It was gratifying to see that Sansa is in a position where she can succeed; she’s been torn down again and again over the years with nary a break from her suffering, and now we can see that things are going to start comin’ up Sansa. She finally has people on her side who genuinely care about her well-being without any ulterior motives that would hurt her, and that kind of support is just the first step in her journey to recovery and revenge.

What I liked most about the episode was the overall theme of the characters reverting to their original state, only under different circumstances: Sansa is once more the proud Stark of Winterfell with a strong sense of purpose and a support system at her back; Brienne isn’t chasing her oath, but fulfilling it; Theon saved Pod in much the same way he saved Bran from the wildlings in Season 1; and Jaime and Cersei are putting themselves first, but doing so without the security that being a Lannister once bought them.

After all that ugly business with Stannis, Davos is reclaiming his sense of honor; Arya is back on track with her training, fighting the Waif as she fought Syrio, but at a significant disadvantage both physically and emotionally; Ramsay is made to feel incompetent and replaceable, and once again must prove himself to his father; Tyrion is back in a position of power; and Daenerys is back amongst the Dothraki, even more a prisoner than she was when her brother sold her to Khal Drogo, and her past experience will likely work in her favor.

While the premiere couldn’t explore every character’s journey, we saw a lot of them getting back to their roots. Their experiences thus far have certainly changed them as people, and that will affect the way they tackle these new-but-old situations, and whether or not they come out on top this time around. Chaos is a ladder, after all, and you either climb up or you fall down.

LEXI: Besides my overall excitement about the show being back I think my favorite scenes were definitely those with Sansa and Brienne. It felt really rewarding to see Brienne fulfill her oath to Catelyn, and also for Sansa to finally catch a break. I felt like that scene represented a turning point in Sansa’s arc and I’m hoping she’ll be calling a lot more shots from here on out.

Plot holes aside, I was glad to see Doran and Trystane bite it. The length of the books allows for the Dornish plots to be expanded on, but with so little time in the show, I’m glad their deaths free up time for others. I’m also getting slightly bored with Dany and Arya’s storylines but my hope is that there’ll be a big payoff at the end of the season.

The biggest shock for me was seeing Melisandre’s transformation. As a book reader I knew she may have been older than she appeared but I didn’t think she was that old. It adds a lot more intrigue to her character and puts her actions into perspective. For this week’s episode, I’m excited to see Bran and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it will end with Jon’s resurrection!

ANI: Did I enjoy “The Red Woman?” Well, I’d say it definitely fell within my Top Five, along with killing another khal, True Love, and a nice MLT—mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe. And obviously Davos and I are in agreement on the mutton part.

This episode had good parts to balance out every quibble. For every Sansa and Theon magically fording a river, there was a Brienne and Pod fight. For every silly Dothraki dialogue moment, there was Dany seeing herself brought all the way back down to as low as we’s ever seen her. For every failure to resurrect Jon Snow, or leave the wildlings somewhere close by for easy rioting, there was Alliser Thorne reminding us that just because a character is an asshole doesn’t mean he has to be an over-the-top Joffrey style villain, and Melisandre taking it all off and going the hell to bed. And then there were the parts that were good all the way through, like the High Sparrow’s Good Cop routine. Cersei and Jaime’s reunion. Arya’s training. Watching Ramsay be quietly shaded by his father at every turn.

As for the bad… What can be said about Dorne that hasn’t been? This week has been full of thinkpieces, from our own site to Vulture and Vox, that meditate on how a plotline that drags on in the books wound up being even worse on screen. The show may have thought cutting off the Hydra heads of Dorne would kill it quickly, but that seems to have only highlighted how mishandled it was from the word go.

How odd… It says “Hail Hydra.”

RAZOR: I rather enjoyed the Season 6 premiere. The aftermath of Jon Snow’s death happened exactly as I thought it would, and I was pleased that Davos, Melisandre, Ghost, Edd and friends are all still firmly on team Jon, despite Jon’s exsanguination and death. I was more than happy that the showrunners took the time to explain how Jorah and Daario were able to find Dany’s ring, because I greatly feared that would be a massive plot hole, and that they would just happen upon a ring in the middle of the plains.

My favorite part of the episode was without a doubt when Brienne and Theon rescued Sansa and Theon. Theon shed the last vestiges of Reek, and even counseled Sansa when Brienne pledged her sword to Catelyn Stark’s eldest daughter. Game of Thrones is a better show for having an actual strong female lead in Gwendoline Christie’s Brienne, who has a sense of honor and duty, rather than some contrived notion of girl power, as with those chicks from Dorne.

Speaking of which…

I do understand the hate that Dorne received from Season 5 and even in the Season 6 premiere. The Sand Snakes have been turned into outlandish cartoon versions of their book incarnations. That they achieved their goal of getting revenge for Elia Martell, her children, and Oberyn (who died in a fair trial by combat) by killing two innocent kids and then killing Oberyn’s own brother was total character assassination. I get the show is the show and the books are the books, but the show version of Dorne has been a bitter pill to swallow.

Instead of spending the time to murder the Dornish story, I would have liked to have seen more of blind Arya in Braavos. We got so little time with Blind Beth that I felt almost cheated. The Waif smacking the bejesus out of Arya was neat to watch, as I saw it more of a training exercise than something deliberately vindictive or malevolent. Hopefully, Arya won’t be blind for too much longer, because I want to see her take the next steps in her Faceless Man training.