Game of Thrones: “Home”—Thematic Analysis

To entitle an episode “Home” is a cliché—a major, honking cliché, one that not only has been used on shows from Supernatural to The X-Files, but in numerous songs, all of which get stuck in my head at once whenever I type the episode title.

Tyrion: “I’m here to help. Don’t eat the help.”

But Game of Thrones‘ last crowning glory of a reveal episode was entitled “Hardhome.” I don’t think it’s an accident that its big honking reveal episode this year harkens back to that. This “Home” is just as hard, though not because the White Walkers stand over it. Here, the hardness is less bombastic. It’s a hard truth that Bran can only visit home in his dreams. It’s Arya’s hardened determination not to fail that gains her entry back into her home in the House of Black and White. It’s the High Sparrow’s hardness that keeps Jaime Lannister in line on his home turf: the Sept of Baelor. Tyrion’s hardens his courage to free the dragons, allowing them once again to make the Meereenese countryside their home. Ramsay Bolton’s hardness allows him to take control of his own home, while Theon has to endure a hard goodbye with Sansa so he can return to the home of his birth.

On that last point, it’s a good thing that Theon decided not to try to go home until now, considering that half-mad Balon had disowned him due to his changed circum….stances. Instead, he can come home to a country presided over by fully mad Uncle Euron and very pissed off sister Yara.

Bran: “You finally show me something I care about, then you drag me away.”

We should discuss the Ironborn. As with the new Dornish characters George R.R. Martin introduced in A Feast for Crows, it was frustrating for fans to read about an entirely new cast of characters that late in the series. As far as I have been able to tell, those book-readers who enjoyed the Dornish story in the books liked the Ironborn, too. But those of us who disliked the Damn Dornishmen and their seeming inability do anything that added value or moved the story along were only more irritated by the Idiot Ironborn, who not only failed on the first two counts, but were shortsighted morons as well.

Last year, the show chose to cut the Ironborn and their Kingsmoot in favor of just doing Dorne. But having made all the same mistakes with Dorne as the books did, just in different ways, the show has stuck a spear in the face of that storyline and moved on to the Ironborn plot.

It will be interesting to see if the showrunners can manage to improve on the original in any way, or if this will be another example of how the TV show can see Martin’s mistakes and then remake them. I will say that Pilou Asbæk, as Euron, was far more promising than the Sand Snakes as we first saw them: in their cheap Target-brand backyard tent, blathering about revenge. However, as with last week’s “how the heck did they get there” scene with the Sand Snakes and Trystane, one wonders how Euron got in and out of Pyke without anyone realizing what happened.

The show did makes things more straightforward by leaving no doubt that it was Euron who kills Balon. On the page, it was vaguely hinted that Euron may have hired an assassin from among the members of Arya’s death cult to do the job, but nothing was ever proven and the uncertainty grew tiresome. At least here, we’ve established that Euron is a mad killer, and if Asbæk is as good as he seems, he’ll be making meals of scenery for our entertainment as long as he lasts on the show.

Tyrion: “Next time I have an idea like that, punch me in the face.”

Speaking of things that the show depicts even though the books don’t, what *is* it with Benioff and Weiss’ sick fascination with putting Ramsay’s antics on screen for us to watch? No, really, I’m asking. Because at this point, it’s not just distressing me, it’s making me angry. We only have 21 hours of show left after this episode. Why are we wasting ten precious minutes that could be spent…I dunno, allowing Tyrion and Varys to trade friendly barbs, or watching the Dothraki make more listicles…watching something that we did not need spelled out for us? We have brains, you know.

What we like about Game of Thrones is it doesn’t insult our intelligence. And yet here it could not trust us to take a giant hint? Once Roose was dead (and lord, what a nice call back his stabbing was to the one he gave Robb Stark three seasons ago—I almost wished Ramsay would have said something about his own regards or something when delivering it), Fat Walda and the baby were too. The woman signed her death warrant when she gave birth to a healthy red-cheeked son. We didn’t need to see how. Our imaginations would have done just fine on their own.

But forgive me as I skip over Tommen’s sniveling, Tyrion’s wonderful one-liners, and our first look at Lyanna Stark (we’ll have more to say about her soon), and head straight to what we really want to talk about: Jon Snow.

Ramsey: “They obviously had help.”
Roose: “I didn’t think she killed them all herself.”

The second episode of Season 4, “The Lion and the Rose,” spent a lot of time in King’s Landing. “Home” spent a lot of time at the Wall, time that climaxed with the culmination of a major plot point the show had worked very hard to keep under wraps (and they would’ve gotten away with it, if it weren’t for The Daily Mail.) Everything at the Wall this evening was a delight, starting with Wun Wun crashing back through those gates.

In the books, the wildings have not actually left the Wall. Part of the reason that the mutineers are so angry is that they are being forced by Jon Snow to share their food, water, and lives with the wildlings, whom they have been taught for many years are the enemy. When Jon is called out by the mutineers to be stabbed, they do it on the pretext that Wun Wun has run amok. Wun Wun’s handling of the crossbowman in “Home” felt like a service to fans who had dearly missed that. The only thing that would have made it better is if it were Olly the giant was waving around. (But no, the boy must live a long time, alone with his cowardice.)

“The Lion and the Rose” climaxed with the terrible death of a major character who was hated by all—Joffrey—that set in motion the events that would dominate the season. This was the inverse, where the resurrection of a character beloved by many now sets in motion the events to come. Jon inspired love and devotion in the wildings and in many members of the Night’s Watch. That love called the wildlings back to Castle Black, and it inspired Davos to go to Melisandre and give her the pep talk to end all pep talks. That it comes from Davos makes it even more moving. He once hated her. He didn’t believe in her Red God or her prophecy nonsense. But he’s seen her do things. And he may still not believe in her god, or her visions. But he believes in her.

Melisandre: “You were right all along. The lord never spoke to me.”
Davos: “F*** him then. F*** all of them. I’m not a devout man. Obviously. Seven gods, drowned gods, tree gods, it’s all the same. I’m not asking the Lord o’Light for help. I’m asking the woman who showed me miracles exist.”

And that inspires her to go and try her hand at this magic, this spell to raise the dead she doesn’t even really believe can work. Was it the spell? Or was it the magic word “please” that she breathed at the end? We’ll never know. But we do know this. When Jon Snow sat up on that table, a resurrected man, he gave her a path back to that faith which is her home.