Callbacks and Easter eggs in “Book of the Stranger”
Welcome to another Game of Thrones-themed Easter Egg hunt, where we catalog the callbacks and winks in the latest episode. This week, we go digging around Episode 604, “Book of the Stranger.”
There were plenty of neat little callbacks in this week’s episode, and leading the charge is the visually stunning finale where Daenerys Targaryen, the Unburnt herself, emerged from the flaming wreckage of the hut in Vaes Dothrak. In Season 1, Dany showed that she was impervious to fire by climbing onto the funeral pyre of her deceased husband, Khal Drogo. Sunday night, we saw the Mother of Dragons come full circle:
And with Dany burning down temples and killing khals, some fans wants to draw parallels between her and her father, Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King:
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Next, we heard Jon Snow tell Sansa: “I fought…and I lost.” This was the same thing Ser Alliser Thorne spat at Jon, right before Jon hanged him. That’s kind of a sobering comparison.
When he returns to the Vale, Littlefinger brought up an oft-used phrase. “He’s enjoyed a distinguished military career,” Littlefinger said of Lord Yohn Royce. “If we could trust his absolute loyalty, he would make a capable commander in the wars to come.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that phrase used. In fact, it isn’t even the first time this season. Ser Arthur Dayne used it in “Oathbreaker,” but before that, in the Season 5 premiere—titled “The Wars to Come”—Mance Rayder uttered it, too.
GIF Courtesy of
Vanity Fair
Apparently, this phrase is extremely common in Westeros.
More old lines cropped up in this episode. Recall what Tyrion told Missandei: “As a clever man once told me, ‘We make peace with our enemies, not our friends.’” What clever man is he referring to? In Season 1, Lord Eddard Stark is debating with Littlefinger about making peace with the Lannisters, and Littlefinger says something very similar. Perhaps that’s where Tyrion learned it.
Here’s a neat Easter egg that HBO put on on its Making Game of Thrones blog: the letter from Ramsay that Jon and Sansa read towards the end of the episode. Click and see.
This is a nice nod to book-readers, as Ramsay (or someone) sends a similar letter to Jon in A Dance with Dragons, albeit under different circumstances. Ramsay’s handwriting is spiky, as described by George R.R. Martin.
Finally, singh_sahil24 on Reddit took a few other scenes from “Book of the Stranger,” like new Daario and Jorah stealing into Vaes Dothrak, and compared them to similar scenes that happened earlier on the show, like old Daario and Jorah stealing into Yunkai.
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Oh boy, that look from Tormund to Brienne…you could cut the sexual tension with a Valyrian steel dagger.
That’s it for this week, kiddies. Tune in next week when we try and find the Easter eggs hidden behind “The Door.”