Book-Reader’s Recap—Game of Thrones, Episode 602—”Home”

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!

When watching this episode, I kept thinking back to what Emilia Clarke said about Season 6 to the LA Times not long after Season 5 ended.

"It’s just go, go, go, go. Shocking moment to shocking moment. Epic moment to epic moment. It’s mental; it’s epic."

Between this episode and “The Red Woman,” there certainly have been a lot of big moments, and it’s early yet. I think we’re in for an intense year.

Anyway, on to “Home.” We start out in the cave of Three-Eyed Raven, where Bran Stark is lying on the floor with his pupils all cloudy. He’s having a vision of the past: he’s in Winterfell, years before his time, watching young versions of his father and his uncle Benjen and his long-dead Aunt Lyanna cavort around the yard. And I think the guy on the right here is supposed to be young Rodrik Cassell.

Young Ned to Young Bejen: “Keep your shield up, or I’ll ring your head like a bell.” That’s a nice callback to when Jon said that to Olly, back in the Season 5 premiere. Now we know where he picked it up.

Bran watches the scene wistfully, reliving happy memories of when he was back at Winterfell, before everything went to hell for him and everyone he knows. The arrival of Lyanna Stark is especially interesting. The show may have moved past the books, but Lyanna seems exactly as George R.R. Martin described her: wild, free-spirited, and tomboyish—she would have been Arya’s favorite aunt by a mile had she lived.

We also see a young Hodor, before he suffered whatever accident severely limited his vocabulary. He’s about to have a friendly sparring match with Young Benjen, but Young Old Nan comes out and ushers him inside. Do you think we’ll learn what happened to Hodor? Maybe he does eventually get into a sparring match with one of the Starks and it goes badly?

Bran’s clearly thinking along similar lines. When the Three-Eyed Raven zaps him back to the cave, he almost immediately asks Hodor how he lost his speech. “Hodor,” Hodor replies. He carries Bran outside the cave so they can talk to Meera, who’s sitting in the snow and staring into the distance.

Meera, it seems, is not satisfied sitting around watching while Bran lies still on the floor having out-of-body experiences. If, as Bran says, there’s a war coming, she’d rather be in the thick of it. Like Hodor, she’s out of her element, and restless. A nearby Child of the Forest cuts into her brooding time, saying that Bran needs her. Meera says nothing.

Also, it looks like they’ve given the Children of the Forest more elaborate makeup in this season. They look more like proper fantasy creatures now. I’m not sure how to feel about that—I kind of liked the minimalism they had going back in Season 4.

Next, we stop by Castle Black. Davos and company are still sealed up with Jon Snow’s body behind a wooden door, but their time is up. Alliser Thorne demands they come out, but Davos still doesn’t believe he’ll treat them fairly. We see the scene we’ve seen before—where Davos and the loyal Night’s Watchmen prepare to fight while Alliser and his men pound down the door. Things are tense, until…

…there another pounding, this time on the Castle Black gate. I think we can all guess who’s behind there. Wun Wun the giant smashes through, and the wildlings pour into the Castle Black courtyard. Happily, the battle doesn’t last long, because of deterrence. One crossbowman sticks a quarrel in Wun Wun, but the giant just grabs the dude, dashes his head against a wall, and tosses his body at Alliser Thorne’s feet. None of the Night’s Watchmen seem to be in a fighting mood after that.

There’s a bit more action when Olly charges at Tormund, but this battle was over almost before it began. Dolorous Edd steps up and orders that Alliser and Olly be put into “the cells.” I’m not sure if he was just talking about those two, or all the Night’s Watchmen allied with Alliser.

Inside the room with Jon Snow’s body, which must seriously be starting to reek about now, Tormund looks down on his dead friend. “Took a lot of knives,” he says, cutting right to the point. “I’ll have my men get the wood for a fire. Bodies to burn.”

King’s Landing. One of the many citizens who saw Cersei’s walk of shame tells a ridiculous story about how he exposed himself to her during the walk. He claims she licked her lips, because that was such a fun time for her. “You all know me. You know I wouldn’t lie about this.”

He probably shouldn’t have lied about this. Apparently, his story spread and reached Cersei’s ears, because when the man retreats to take a private piss, FrankenGregor steps up behind him, smashes the brains out of back of his skull, and walks away. Kudos to the sound people for including the sound of urine hitting armor.

FrankenGregor returns to Cersei, and the two attempt to make their way to Myrcella’s funeral. Lannister soldiers bar their way—it seems Tommen doesn’t want her leaving the Red Keep “for [her] own protection.” After a bit of a standoff, Cersei chooses to heed the soldiers, and they all breathe a sigh of relief that they don’t have to face down FrankenGregor, who it now seems serves the role of Cersei’s unbridled id. And she was pretty much all id to begin with, so this is a disturbing development.

At the Sept of Baelor, Jaime and Tommen stand over Myrcella’s body. It ends up that Tommen really did bar Cersei from attending the funeral for her own protection—he’s afraid the High Sparrow will put her back in a cell if she attends the funeral. He opens up to Jaime about the reason he hasn’t gone to see Cersei since the walk of shame: he blames himself for not stepping in and putting a stop to the High Sparrow before it happened. I like how fatherly Jaime is being with Tommen in this scene—his brief time with Myrcella must have opened something in him.

Jaime sends Tommen along when the High Sparrow enters, and the two of them have the face-off we’re seen in the trailers. Jaime threatens violence against the High Sparrow, but the older man calls his bluff. Members of the Faith Militant file into the room wielding cudgels and maces, and Jaime lets the High Sparrow walk away.

Once again, the methods these people usually use to get what they want don’t seem to work on a guy like the High Sparrow. Jaime threatens violence, but the High Sparrow points out that he’s just a small part of a much larger movement. “Every one of us is poor and powerless. And yet together, we can overthrow an empire.” We’re beyond the books at this point, and I’m increasingly intrigued to see what role the Faith will play in the story’s endgame. How do you stop a movement like this?

Back at the Red Keep, Tommen reconciles with Cersei. The young king apologizes for not doing more to stop the Faith Militant, and takes an interesting turn when he says he “should have executed all of them. I should have pulled down the sept onto the High Sparrow’s head before I let them do that to you.” I guess Tommen has a few more dark corners in him than we thought. He even asks for Cersei’s help in getting “strong.” Does he wanna become more like Joffrey?

I like the direction the show is taking with Tommen’s character, by which I mean I like that the show is taking his character in a direction.

Meanwhile, far across the Narrow Sea, Tyrion indulges the Lannister family weakness for booze in a council meeting with Missandei, Varys, and Grey Worm. His eunuch joke goes a little awry now that Varys isn’t the only one in the room without genitalia, but somehow I don’t think Grey Worm will take that, or anything, personally.

The foursome exposit about the state of things in Slaver’s Bay. Yunkai and Astapor are slave cities once again, which sets up the coming siege of Meereen. Tyrion suggests they make use of the dragons chained up under the pyramid, and gets in some nice exposition of his own—he talks about the Dragonpit in King’s Landing, and tells us that dragons are intelligent. “More intelligent than men, according to some maesters.” He decides to pay Rhaegal and Viserion a visit.

Tyrion descends into the darkness, while Varys remains at the top of the stair. It might have been a good idea to bring Missandei along for this, since she said that the dragons had never harmed her, but facing two enormous, fire-breathing beasts alone is fun, too.

The scene is a good one. Rhaegal and Viserion are bigger than they were the last time we saw them. They’re touchy about Tyrion, but they don’t burn him. Tyrion talks to them (“I’m friends with your mother”), telling them about his childhood fascination with dragons, something from the books I’m glad made it into the show. Slowly, he approaches, and removes the collar from one of their necks (it’s dark—I’m not sure which one). Hilariously, the other bends over so Tyrion can do the same for him. First contact is made!

In Braavos, Arya is still getting the crap kicked out of her by the Waif. Once again, I am struck by how no one in the area reacts to what’s happening. Those Braavosi are hard to impress.

Still, I enjoy seeing Arya swing her quarterstaff wildly at nothing, which she does with a vengeance until Jaqen H’ghar catches the staff mid-swing. He offers her a tough choice: if she says her name, he will feed her, give her shelter, and restore her eyesight. That last one gives Arya pause, but she maintains that she is No One, which is exactly what he wants to hear. He tells her to follow him. “A girl is not a beggar anymore.”

Those mystical mentor types, always finding sneaky ways to test your resolve.

At Winterfell, we’re introduced to Harald Karstark, the head of House Karstark since Robb decapitated Rickard Karstark in Season 3. As in the books, the Karstarks side with the Boltons, but which one?

Ramsay, Roose, and Harald talk strategy. They want to find Sansa, and figure (correctly) that she’ll head to Castle Black. Ramsay wants to storm the place and kill the Lord Commander, which Roose points out is a really dumb idea, since people in the North respect the Night’s Watch. “If you acquire a reputation as a mad dog, you’ll be treated as a mad dog.” Wise words, Roose—too bad they’re among the last you’ll ever say.

The Bolton’s maester, Maester Wolkan, enters the room and says that Lady Walda has given birth to a boy—I didn’t know she was that far along in her pregnancy, but okay. Ramsay is freaked, and puts what apparently has been a long-standing plan* into motion: he embraces his father, and then stabs him quickly to death.

Ramsay turns to the maester and tells him to send word to the other Northern Houses that Roose Bolton has been poisoned “by our enemies,” which strikes me as an extremely flimsy thing to say. Next, Ramsay is off to kill Lady Walda and her newborn baby.

That was uncomfortable to write, and uncomfortable to watch. Ramsay leads Walda to the kennels, the same place Theon was sleeping last season, and everybody at home lets out an involuntary moan, because we all know where this is going. (Incidentally, Walda is very hale for a woman who just gave birth.) Ramsay unlocks the kennel doors and sics the hounds on his step-mother and half-brother. Blessedly, we don’t actually see the kill, but the camera lingers on Ramsay as we hear it, and it’s just awful.

Outside Winterfell—hopefully a fair way away—Sansa and Brienne talk about Arya. Brienne tells Sansa that she saw Arya with “a man,” and I don’t know if she’s omitting the Hound’s name on purpose or what. In any case, it’s cute that Sansa is curious about Arya (“How’d she look?”), so let’s not rule out the prospect of a Sansa-Arya reunion in the future.

While Pod tries to light a fire, Sansa talks to Theon. She wants him to go Castle Black, but he’s pretty sure that Jon, as Lord Commander, would kill him dead for betraying Robb back in Season 2, among other things. When Sansa realizes that Theon isn’t coming with them, she gets emotional, and the two hug it out again, and it’s still pretty affecting. “Where will you go?” Sansa asks. “Home.” Hey, that’s the title of the episode!

It’s also our segue to the Iron Islands, which, apart from a very brief stopover at the end of Season 3, we haven’t seen since Season 2. It’s good to be back!

Balon Greyjoy is every bit as forceful a character in the next scene as he was way back when. He’s arguing with Yara about making new plans to invade the North. He’s into it. She isn’t. Balon stomps out into the stormy night, onto a rope bridge that connects two towers on Pyke. Aw. The last thing they did is fight.

On the rope bridge, Balon runs into his brother Euron, back from parts unknown. In the books, Balon’s death happens out of sight, and many fans assumed that it was an assassin sent by Euron, not Euron himself, who throws Balon off the bridge. In any case, in the show, Euron does the deed.

Euron, played by Pilou Asbæk, makes a good impression here. He’s nicely crazy (“I don’t mock the Drowned God. I am the Drowned God.”), and although the lighting is dark, Asbæk has a mania about him that fits Euron well. Also, it’s nice to hear these lines from the book: “I am the storm, brother. The first storm and the last.” Again: crazy.

The scene goes as it must. Euron and Balon clash, and Euron tosses him over the edge. The next day, the Ironborn hold a funeral for Balon, and apparently Euron disappeared after murdering his brother, because Yara vows “to find out who did this.” Why isn’t she assuming that he just fell off? Wasn’t the idea to make it look like an accident?

At the funeral, a character who seems to be Aeron Greyjoy (he isn’t named) says that there will be a kingsmoot to decide the next ruler of the Iron Islands. Apparently, it’s the law—in the books, Aeron initiates a kingsmoot because the line of succession is unclear. Also, both Yara and maybe-Aeron mention “the Salt Throne,” which appears to be the show’s equivalent of “the Seastone Chair.” Why bother changing that?

Still, apart from those few niggles, the Ironborn story is off to a promising start. Then again, Dorne didn’t start badly last year, either. Let’s all just watch and wait and hope.

We return to Castle Black for the final scene of the episode, and the moment Game of Thrones fans have been waiting for all off-season. Melisandre sits in a darkened room, staring into the fire. As in the last episode, it’s disheartening to see her so bummed out. I don’t know whether last episode’s reveal is affecting my judgment here, but she looks like a little old lady sitting by that fire, wrapped in furs and thinking about how she was hot stuff in the ’50s. (Actually, the fact that she’s wrapped in furs is significant. Melisandre’s not supposed to get cold. She’s really at a low ebb here.)

Davos, of all people, is the one to comfort her. I say “of all people,” but really, he’s the only one who could. These two have been at odds as long as we’ve known them, but they know each other well, and there’s respect in Davos’ voice when he tells her she made him believe in miracles. I mean, sure, they were horrifying miracles, especially that shadow baby business, but he acknowledges that her power is real, and his pep talk is enough to get her to at least give Jon Snow’s resurrection a try.

So I guess this is why Davos saved Jon Snow’s body in the first place—he may have had the idea to ask Melisandre to bring him back from the beginning. The actual ritual Melisandre performs is intriguing. It involves wiping down Jon’s naked body (it figures that when Kit Harington does nudity on this show, it’s as a corpse—HBO loves to give with one and take with the other), tossing clippings of his hair into a fire, and speaking some magic words that don’t get translated. I don’t recall her learning the specifics of this ritual back when she ran into Thoros of Myr, but maybe he gave her the recipe offscreen.

As the ritual nears its end, Melisandre says a certain phrase over and over, but Jon doesn’t respond. With a heartbreaking “Please,” she finally seems to accept that nothing is going to happen, and one by one, the people gathered to watch her work file out of the room: first Tormund, then Melisandre herself, then Edd, and finally Davos, who lingers to give Jon’s body one last long look. It’s interesting that Davos is so heavily invested in Jon’s resurrection. He must have seen something in Jon back when Stannis was at Castle Black—he put this whole operation together.

And that means that we have Davos to thank for what happens next: Jon Snow lies on the table, naked and unmoving, and Ghost, who remained by his side, stirs. Jon’s eyes fly open wide, he takes several ragged breaths, and the credits roll.

*In the Inside-the-Episode feature, Benioff says Ramsay has been planning something like this for a while.

“That was wild, man.”

Odds and Ends

A Hodor for all seasons. In the books, Hodor’s real name is Walder. On the show, they seem to have changed it to Wyllis. I’m betting they did that so we wouldn’t get him confused with Walder Frey. They did something similar when they changed Asha Greyjoy’s name to Yara Greyjoy, so we wouldn’t get Asha confused with Osha the wildling.

Wun Wun smash. The bit where Wun Wun smashes a guy’s head against a wall seems to be a nod to Jon Snow’s final chapter in A Dance with Dragons. There, Wun Wun does the deed as Jon is getting stabbed. The context is different, but it’s nice they acknowledged it.

Dorne, still making no sense. No one from Dorne showed up in this episode, and if I had to guess, I don’t think anyone ever will again. But that doesn’t mean the waters surrounding that plot didn’t get further muddied. According to a prop from the Making Game of Thrones blog, Trystane was on his way back to Dorne when Obara and Nymeria Sand killed him. And yet Tommen seems to know that Trystane is dead. This episode can’t be happening that long after the last one ended, since Myrcella’s body hasn’t started to rot. That’s too soon for Trystane’s body to have made it all the way back to Dorne, and for news of his death to have reached King’s Landing. So did the ship he was on turn back around, and if so, are Nymeria and Obara in town?

Dorne: still a mess even when it isn’t onscreen.

Tyrion Lannister, Sekret Targaryen? I’m sure fan-theorists will make something of the fact that the dragons listened when Tyrion talked to them. The idea that he’s secretly a member of the Targaryen family has been around for a while, but I don’t think that’s where the writers are going. Tyrion established that dragons are intelligent and would behave around people they considered friendly, which is what it looks like happened in the dungeons. Then again, I could be wrong.

Regime change. Last week, Dorne changed hands, and this week, Ramsay became the new Lord Bolton. I wasn’t wild about how this played out. Roose was a great character and I would’ve liked to have seen more of him, but the show clearly wants to build Ramsay into the arch-villain for this season, and this was a necessary step.

Here’s the thing, though: Ramsay is cruel and mean and I’ll be happy when he goes down, but he’s clearly not as smart as Roose. His cover story for Roose’s death was pretty thin, and killing Walda means that he’ll alienate the Freys. Of course, the Frey-Bolton alliance doesn’t play as big a role on the show as it does in the books…or any role. Also, it’s clear that Harald Karstark was in on Ramsay’s plan before he killed Roose. What did Ramsay offer him that Roose didn’t?

Finally, the Umbers and the Manderlys were mentioned. I don’t think they’ll much resemble their book counterparts if they come into play.

Jon Snow’s back and there’s gonna be trouble. Finally, the wait is over. Jon Snow is back, and everyone on the cast and crew can stop pretending now. Really, this has been a wild, weird story. Fans have known Jon Snow would be coming back since late in 2015, when a photo of Kit Harington in costume, on set leaked. And really, a lot of fans were pretty sure he would be back before that, just because of course he was. Still, HBO’s attempts to keep it all under wraps were pretty staggering, and I’ll be curious to hear about how the network thought about it internally. (Who thinks they’re just going to ignore the leak entirely and act like the ruse was a total success?)

Now that Jon Snow is back, the question is: what now? Will he be as he was, or will he come back…changed? Whatever happens, HBO has our attention.