Game of Thrones Season 6 has lots of callbacks to earlier seasons—we catalog them

“Someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve ever done or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.” – Rust Cohle

There seems to be a pattern emerging in Game of Thrones Season 6, and the above quote from Matthew McConaughey’s character on HBO’s True Detective Season 1, Rust Cohle, sums it up quite nicely. If you haven’t yet seen Episode 2, “Home,” then you may want to turn back now, as there will be SPOILERS.

If you’re starting to notice that certain scenes from the first two episodes of Season 6 look familiar, then you are not alone. Whether it’s Roose Bolton taking a dagger to the gut, or young Ned and Benjen Stark practicing swordplay in the training yard at Winterfell, there have been some neat callbacks to previous seasons and episodes, and they’ve been caught by eagle-eyed fans.

Our first callback comes from Reddit user SqueezeAndRun ,and it shows how the tables have been turned on Roose Bolton. Ramsay stabbed him in much the same way that he stabbed Robb Stark at the Red Wedding. The Lannisters and Ramsay sends their regards, Roose.

Then there’s a nice callback to Jon training Olly at Castle Black in the Season 5 premiere…you know, before the smug little scrub turned traitor and murdered his Lord Commander. This scene was picked out by StanManRatheon, and it shows young Ned teaching young Benjen how to fight. Both Ned and Jon say the same line: “Shield up, or I’ll ring your head like a bell.” That must be where Jon picked it up.

Also, check out old Rodrik Cassel next to young Rodrik Cassel. Bran’s vision was a treasure trove of callbacks.

They even have the same belt! Nice attention to detail, there.

Sticking with the flashback, Vanity Fair caught this nice nod to the series premiere:

This next photo was shared by singh_sahil24, and it shows that the High Sparrow may be getting exactly what he’s been praying for. This isn’t a comparison photo, but it’s fun.

Finally, Reddit user MrFameKills created a thread with a collage of photos, titled “The Theme of Reversion.” These show comparisons between Season 1 one shots and shots from the Season 6 premiere, “The Red Woman.”

As you can see, Episode 601 had loads of callbacks to previous seasons. Arya is still training, Brienne swore her sword to a new Lady Stark, Dany is back among the Dothraki, and Jaime and Cersei are together again.

With Game of Thrones Season 6 seemingly relying heavily on Bran’s weirwood dreams, it’s a safe bet that there will be a lot more nifty callbacks in the episodes to come.