Ranking the episodes of Game of Thrones Season 6
By Dan Selcke
4. “Book of the Stranger”
A lot happens in “Book of the Stranger” and a lot of it is really damn good.
The good times start rolling immediately, when Sansa and Jon reunite after six seasons of hardship. We’re right there with them as they stare at each other across the courtyard of Castle Black, letting the weight of everything they’ve experienced since Season 1 slide off their shoulders. And when they embrace, we realize how long we’re been waiting for this. It’s the single happiest moment of the show to date.
But to their credit, Benioff and Weiss don’t pretend that everything is automatically sunshine and rainbows now. Neither Sansa nor Jon are as naive as they used to be, and as Sansa leans on Jon to battle the Boltons—first during their catch-up session and later at dinner—we see a new dynamic forming. Yes, they’re long-separated siblings euphoric to be together again. But they’re also business partners. To some extent, they’re rivals. There may be a touch of romance in there, too. It’s the start of a beautiful, complicated relationship.
If the Sansa-Jon scenes give us all the character beats we need, the Daenerys scenes give us shock and awe. Yes, there’s some déjà vu involved. Her massacre of the khals recalls her sack of Astapor, and her naked walk through the fire is a deliberate callback to the end of “Fire and Blood.” But these are still crowd-pleasing scenes that Emilia Clarke demolishes. By the time the episode is over, we’re thinking of bowing to her, too.
But as good as these bits are, my personal favorite scenes are the ones in Meereen, something I didn’t think I would ever write before watching this episode.
Tyrion strikes a deal with the Masters to keep slavery in effect for another seven years, so long as it is eventually phased out. It’s a morally murky agreement, and Benioff and Weiss have the confidence to examine it from different angles without condemning any of them. As former slaves, Missandei and Grey Worm are horrified, and it’s easy to see their point of view. But Tyrion also has a point that seven more years of slavery may be preferable to open war. By letting equally valid perspectives bounce off each other, “Book of the Stranger” achieves a satisfying richness.
All this and there’s still more! When it comes to cathartic brother-sister reunions, Jon and Sansa take the cake. But the reunions between Theon and Yara on the Iron Islands and Maragery and Loras beneath the Sept of Baelor are also very affecting. And if that’s not enough, this episode brings us comedy gold in the form of Tormurd’s open lust for Brienne. Hopefully that ship comes back around the riverbend in Season 7.
Man, even the High Sparrow’s monologue about his days as a cobbler is well-done. And that scene where Ramsay kills Osha has a dangerous edge to it. “Book of the Stranger” is terrific.