Small Council: What did we think of “The Door?”

“The Door” made a lot of waves among Game of Thrones fans. Does it deserve the hype? What did we like about it? What didn’t we like? Where do we go from here? The Small Council is in session.

DAN: Although it had several strong moments, “The Door” is all about that finale. In the “Inside the Episode” featurette, David Benioff says that the final sequence is based on information he and fellow showrunner Dan Weiss received from George R.R. Martin, so we can expect this scene to turn up in The Winds of Winter. It shows a great deal of foresight—Martin probably had this idea in his head years and years ago, when he first introduced Hodor in A Game of Thrones. That sense of scale gave poor Hodor’s death a weight that some of the other deaths this season—Osha’s, for example—have lacked.

Not that Martin deserves all the credit. Shot for shot, the Night’s King’s attack on the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave was the best sequence on Game of Thrones since Cersei’s Walk of Atonement. Like the Massacre at Hardhome, it married horror filmmaking with action filmmaking—the wights continue to be the most frightening things on TV—but felt more intimate. This was one to remember.

We could spend the entire time discussing the ending (a year ago, who would have thought that Bran would have the most gripping plotline on the show?), but “The Door” spread the love around. I’ve got to give props to Emilia Clarke and Iain Glen for unexpectedly tugging on my heartstrings during that Daenerys-Jorah scene, and to newcomer Ania Bukstein for creeping me out as Kinvara the Red Priestess. And what did we think of the Sansa-Littlefinger confrontation? I’ve heard some fans wonder if Sansa made the right decision by refusing Littlefinger’s help, but I think that, after all that’s happened, we needed her to stand her ground and tell him off, at least for the moment.

The one scene that didn’t sit well with me was the Kingsmoot. Gemma Whelan has good screen presence, but Yara’s plan was so…not a plan. I probably would have voted for Euron, too. I was also befuddled by the timing and mechanics of Yara and Theon stealing what looked like a lot of ships while Euron was baptized. Let’s hope this plot goes somewhere worthwhile, rather than get mired in crap like Dorne.

Even so, this was strongest episode of the season so far.

COREY:  As a wise man once said, “these go to 11.” And like the amplifiers in This is Spinal Tap, Game of Thrones took it up to 11 in this episode. Last week’s episode was a very well done 10, but they kicked it up a notch with the climax of “The Door.” From the point that Bran snuck into the past and saw the Night’s King until Hodor’s last moments, the tension steadily rose, and just like waiting for the roller coaster to slowly make its way up to that first drop, we sat waiting for everything to come crashing down. And crash down it did with the death of perhaps the most gentle soul on the show, Bran’s ever-present manservant Hodor.

I expect some of my fellow council members were reduced to tears over Hodor’s death, and rightfully so, but I was just left in shock. While I had predicted the Three-Eyed Raven was not long for this world, and even the manner in which he would go down, watching Hodor perish like that was hard to watch, even if it made sense considering his loyalty to the Starks. I imagine Bran will take Hodor’s death especially hard. We don’t know what, if any, consequences Bran warging into Hodor at the moment of the latter’s death might have on Bran’s mind. I also hope that everyone’s loyalty to the Starks pays off in some way, because an awful lot of people and direwolves are sacrificing themselves for the family.

The other big moment, to me, was the reveal of the Children of the Forest’s creation of the White Walkers. It started out innocently enough. It almost looked like the Children were playing dice or something, and then you see the dragonglass dagger. It took a moment for me to catch on, but when the unnamed child Leaf stabbed the dagger into the man’s chest, I caught on right before his eyes turned blue. I immediately started pounding the floor in excitement, as this was one of the biggest mysteries for book-readers and show-waters alike: the origin of the White Walkers. That they were created by the Children to fight the First Men added another layer to an already complex story. Now I look forward to finding out how/when the Walkers turned against the Children. I’m fascinated.

Lastly, and at the risk of being shot with a crossbow in the privy by my fellow council members, I have to say that the entire Arya section of “The Door” felt a little out of pace with the rest of the episode. There were so many grand things going on, and the sequence with Arya, while well-done, felt rather small. I mean, we found out where the White Walkers come from, something we’d wondered for years, so this part felt a bit like nap time compared to that. The developments were important to the plot, as I believe Arya’s lack of desire to kill an innocent woman will ultimately lead to her expulsion from the Faceless Men, but I think the sequence would have worked better in last week’s episode.

KATIE: It’s no exaggeration to say that I cried throughout the entirety of “The Door”—the whole episode, for me, was an emotional rollercoaster of triumph, grief, and anticipation. It’s bookended by two incredibly powerful scenes: Sansa’s opening confrontation with Littlefinger was a quiet, controlled simmer, and at the other end of the hour, the finale was an explosion of action and feeling that I don’t know I could watch again without crumbling in on myself.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (oh, well), my favorite scene was Sansa’s. One of the reasons I find Sansa’s scenes so continuously impactful is how relatable her situation is—a survivor of abuse, she owns her past and the pain that once threatened to destroy her. This one was no exception, as Sophie Turner commanded the screen with dignity and self-assurance. She never once blamed herself for what had been done to her, and wouldn’t let Littlefinger get away with his crash-and-burn plan without hearing about the damage he’d caused. It gave me chills, and I have to give the show props for writing Sansa’s journey so eloquently and realistically (after the events of Season 5 especially).

Like Dan said, I’ve heard some differing opinions about Sansa’s decision to trust Littlefinger, but I don’t think she really trusts him at all. After his manipulations led her away from King’s Landing to an even worse situation, she won’t take him at his word again, but now she needs an army and he can provide that. I don’t blame her for lying to Jon, either—I didn’t like it, but Sansa is still healing from not only Ramsay’s abuse, but years of torment and exploitation. Jon may be family, but Sansa has to learn to trust herself first and foremost; it’s time for her to know what’s best for herself and to act on that. Too many people have called the shots for her over the years, and she’s finally in a place where she doesn’t have to allow that. Ultimately, I don’t think this lie will cause any damage, but all the same, good luck to Littlefinger if Jon ever catches him trying to make the moves on Sansa again. I’m sure Jon will only punch him in the face a little bit.

Speaking of biting off more than you can chew, I fully enjoyed Euron Greyjoy’s declaration that Daenerys will marry him for his fleet. There’s no way for the Ironborn to know that Daenerys don’t want no scrubs, but the audience knows well enough, and I for one can’t wait to see Dany’s raised eyebrow if Euron manages to make such a proposal. By the way, did anyone notice the distinct change in Emilia Clarke’s makeup? Her face appears much harder and more angular in “The Door.” I don’t know yet that it means anything, but…intriguing until proven coincidence.

CAMERON: Easily the best episode of the season, and probably one of my favorites in a long time. Hodor aside, “The Door” was full of pretty outstanding scenes, both from a televisual perspective and from a book-reader perspective. Sansa had some of the best dialogue of the night, although the play Arya watched was full of golden meta opportunities. (It wasn’t quite “The Ember Island Players,” the highly self-deprecating penultimate episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it was pretty entertaining-slash-horrifying all the same.)

I am also apparently the only one who can spill capital-W Words about Daenerys and Jorah, as I found that scene especially moving. It was a pretty good night for Ramin Djawadi, between the Stark theme cue on Hodor’s epic final scene and Dany’s melody line emphasizing the tragedy of her reunion and re-acceptance of Jorah. The best part about this scene was the verbal scolding, really: “Your queen has not dismissed you!” It’s an important bit, because by forcefully re-establishing the dynamic she blew up when she exiled Jorah the first time, she’s acknowledging her desire to want to trust him again, to bring him back into the inner circle. Given Jorah’s condition, that was better than any awkward hug she could have given him. I also adore how Daario’s just sort of awkwardly there; it does kind of bring to mind how much Daario is written mostly for Dany and not for any actual character-development purposes. (Michiel Huisman is getting pretty good at this sort of character, though. Kinda grateful we have him now instead of S3’s Ed Skrein, AKA Daario Prime.)

ANYWAY, I pretty much just cried through the whole episode and felt a lot of feelings, so 10/10, would watch again.

RICHARD: This was the best episode of an already great season, and it looks like most of the concerns regarding the show going “off-book” have been laid to rest. Hodor’s death was television done right, and done off the charts. The gentle giant’s demise, along with other superb Season 6 moments like Jon’s resurrection, his reunion with Sansa, and Tormund’s ogles at Brienne (just to name a few) linger with me. My memory constantly revisits scenes and turns them over and over. So far, Season 6 has lived up to some very high expectations.

I do agree with Dan that the show didn’t get the Ironborn kingsmoot quite right, for whatever reason, and it didn’t leap out at us the way it should have. Gemma Whalen is perfect as Yara and she’s tough and she seemed overwhelmed, plus cut off at the knees by less-than-powerful dialog. Even Euron’s entrance was sub-par and unconvincing. It still worked, and it’s surely unreasonable to ask for the gold standard in every single sequence, but there it is.

Everybody above has covered most of the ins and outs of the episode, so I’ll sign off here with some of what I want to see from the rest of the season: Bran and Meera spark up a romance; Ramsay Bolton dies in the slowest and most horrible way possible; Jorah finds a maester who can halt the grayscale, but almost too late, so he is left half-mad and even more tortured; Tormund and Brienne end up having the strangest and most hilarious sex scene in the history of the world; and finally, Littlefinger is captured and violated by the Game of Thrones equivalent of a female highwayman-biker gang. Bring it on!

DAVID: I tried to warn you, I did. I told you there was a sinister underpinning to this bright and colorful Disney fairytale of a season. And of course it makes sense that an angry ice king and his army should be the one to destroy our happy world by killing the lovable giant…it’s like the script for Frozen II.

If “The Door” taught us one thing, it’s that literally no one is safe. Not your favorite pet (R.I.P. Summer), not your teacher (R.I.P. Three-Eyed Raven), not the creepy doll people that made the big bads in the first place (R.I.P Leaf), and not the loyal stable boy who happily carried you around on his back, despite the fact that he apparently always knew the exact moment he would die (R.I.P. Hodor).

I echo the sentiments of my fellow council members: this was easily the best episode in a season of fantastic episodes. Despite the soul-crushing heartbreak, Season 6 still remains a season of wish fulfillment. We were treated to the origins of the White Walkers, a mercifully short Kingsmoot, and a new Red Woman named Kinvara who scared the knickers off both Tyrion and Varys…I’d say the story is still moving quite rapidly.

With “The Door” marking the halfway point in Season 6, it causes me to pause and look back at Season 5 to see where we were, story-wise, by this point, and I can confidently say that I am much, much happier this season that I was last year. I kind of feel like a kid on a roller coaster: I don’t want to get off this ride, but I know that in five episodes it will come to an end. I just hope the showrunners continue to keep up this feverish pace all the way to the finish line.

ANI: It’s been a long time since I could say that a Game of Thrones episode really stood out as the best of the season, but “The Door” got us there. I think the last time we had an episode this powerful might be “The Lion and the Rose” in Season 4, with the long wedding and party sequence. But this was one where there was no long sequence—Bran and Co get the bulk of screen time, but it’s divvied up between the tamer scenes, all of which are just as strong.

Yes, all. I said it. You can quibble over Sansa, but I wouldn’t. Girl stood up for herself for the first time, and announced she no longer needed her teacher. She then went and used the knowledge she gained from Littlefinger to secure the final push to move out of Castle Black and get this Battle of Winterfell show on the road already. The scene in Meereen might have been short, but if Tyrion and Varys weren’t in over their heads before, they sure are now. Dany’s dismissal of Jorah was short, sweet, and to the point, and then she rode out where she belonged—at the head of a column of Dothraki on a silver mare, with men like Daario as appendages at her side. As for the Ironborn kingsmoot, the fact that a book-long slog full of self important puffery and moronic twatwaddling was neatly condensed and dispatched in under ten minutes with Yara and Theon off with all the ships was a miracle of streamlining. Off to Meereen! (Because where else are they going to go? It’s not like there are many better options. I swear, though, if they go get lost on Westeros and do nothing, I will be thoroughly irritated.)

Anyone who thinks the play within the play TV show was somehow off clearly missed the point of allowing it to go that long. This scene was working on so many layers, from the stunt casting of actors who are too big to be in roles that small, to book-readers getting to relive what it was like to watch show-watchers watch Game of Thrones in Season 1, to letting show-watchers see what it was like for book-readers to watch them watch Season 1, to watching Arya fail completely to be No One, and yet also have to let go of all the rage that drove her to get here in the first place. Seriously, there is an entire thesis to be written on that scene alone. That’s the kind of layered storytelling that I signed up for.

And then of course…Hodor. Time, flat circle, etc. All this has happened before and all of it will happen again. Bran never would have been there in the cave to warg into the past with the Three-Eyed Raven in the first place to make Hodor into who he was if he hadn’t been there in the cave to warg into the past at that moment to make Hodor into who he was. It was perfect. It was devastating. Of course I cried.