Daniel Portman talks about Podrick and Brienne being back to “square one” in Season 6

Since Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne set out from King’s Landing in Season 4 of Game of Thrones, fans have had a hard time predicting what they’ll do next. This includes those familiar with the Song of Ice and Fire books, as these two characters have gone pretty far afield off George R.R. Martin’s source material. In the books, Brienne and Pod are looking for Sansa, but thus far haven’t found her, to say nothing of her sister Arya. On the show, they’ve found both Stark sisters, and both have slipped through their fingers.

If Daniel Portman, who plays Podrick, can be believed, it sounds like they still haven’t made much progress. He talked to IGN to mark the release of the Season 5 home boxset, which comes out today, and dropped a few hints about the season to come.

He also reflected back on the season that was. Some highlights:

• His favorite scene was either the horse chase from “The House of Black and White” or the quiet scene from High Sparrow, pictured above, where Brienne and Pod talk about their pasts.
• Portman thinks that other characters jump to conclusions about Pod’s intelligence. “I think his intellect is actually one of his biggest assets. Because if you’re quiet, then people think you’re stupid and no threat to anybody, so he just keeps his head down.”
• On Pod’s growth in Season 5: “He’s starting to come out the other end of being a teenager and starting to go into a young man, which is lovely to explore because I started Game of Thrones when I was 19, and I’m 24, so I’ve had a very similar journey on the show myself.”
• If Pod was left to his own devices, Portman thinks he would “track down Tyrion again and to make sure he could keep Tyrion safe.” Aw. He’d love for those two character to catch up over a glass of wine after everything is said and done.

As for what’ll happen to Pod in Season 6, Portman was diplomatic but said enough for obsessive Game of Thrones fans like me to read into. SPOILERS INCOMING!

Basically, Portman said that Pod and Brienne will continue trying to do in Season 6 what they’ve been trying to do since Season 4: keep the Stark girls safe, thus fulfilling the oaths Brienne made to Catelyn Stark and Jaime Lannister. But there may be some detours on the way:

"So I would say that’s where we start in Season 6, essentially in the same place — not geographically, but in the same place as we started in Season 5, where they’re still trying to do what she said she was going to do."

And later:

"Their situation changed them, and their relationship has grown. So they are different people, and they are geographically in a different place, but they are sort of back to square one in terms of their quest."

LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK BEFORE THE SPOILERS START

To me, this says that Brienne and Pod will not meet up with Sansa at the beginning of Season 6. We can’t be entirely sure of that, but based on spoilers collected during filming, we know that by the end of the year, Sansa will be at Winterfell while Brienne and Pod will be at Riverrun. Those are on vastly different areas of the map, which tracks with Portman’s comments about Brienne and Pod not being in the same place “geographically.”

Now, why would Brienne, who must know that Sansa isn’t likely to leave the North, hightail it out of there when she’s duty-bound to protect the eldest Stark girl? Maybe she does meet Sansa and takes her somewhere safe before leaving on another errand? But if that were the case, they wouldn’t really be at “square one.”

Whatever happens, this is probably one of those plot points that will get resolved near the top of the year, hopefully not long after the season premiere on April 24.

Also, seeing as Portman’s interview was designed to promote the release of the Season 5 home boxset, here’s yet another clip from the special features, this time courtesy of Games Radar. This one, from the “Day in the Life” feature, shows Emilia Clarke and members of the production preparing to shoot a scene in the great pyramid of Meereen.