After five episodes where the production punched us in the face repeatedly, we’ve now had a reprieve to catch our collective breath. This is the second episode without a face punch. Instead it allowed us to recover from our wounds while we watched other broken characters recover from theirs.
Brother Ray: “It’s never too late to come back.”
Let’s start from the top. As we learn in the opening minute of the episode, The Hound is Back. The show not only did not waste time dilly-dallying over this, they also brought him back in much the same way the book was angling for. This may seem a little strange, as tonight’s scenes were nothing like what happens in the book. But since the production is not tied to having a POV character on hand to show what is happening in a given corner of the world, there was no need to replicate Brienne and Pod passing through on their way to the Riverlands. After all, they do not recognize him anyway–Brienne merely notes a hooded disciple. The reader recognizes the clues. So why shoehorn her in if she’s not necessary? Like Euron killing Balon earlier this season, the show dispenses with suspicions and large circular hints. The Hound is here, unhooded, under the care of “Brother Ray” (what, was the name Septon Meribald under copywright?)
But by cutting any connection to Brienne as she travels south towards Riverrun, or the larger ongoing story, the story of “The Hound’s Return” played a bit like a “story within the story,” if you will. In the books they are supposed to be on an island. Here they are an island in the middle of the larger ongoing story–a weirdly springlike world with green grass and quiet calm poeople, seemingly untouched by war or the changing of the season. In a way, it felt like “The Play within The Play” of the last two weeks in Braavos, complete with big name stunt casting, mostly done “because we can.” Even the Brotherhood passing through did not connect it to the outer world, because it’s been so long since we’ve seen them–and if those were the same actors from Season 3, it’s been so long, and they were such tertiary characters anyway, most viewers wouldn’t remember them anyway. (Though for those hoping the Brotherhood would be under the guidance of a certain lady, we saw no evidence of that this week.)
Brother Ray: “There’s a reason you’re still here.”
The Hound: “Aye, there’s a reason. I’m a big f***** and I’m tough to kill.”
At any rate, The Hound lives. And we can assume that after Brienne and Pod passed on in the novels that something similar happened to the commune, and all of those who The Hound now counted as his world were murdered–the “punishment” we saw him tell Brother Ray he was waiting for the gods to lay upon him for his sins. And with that, the broken man picked up the pieces, and his axe, and went to get on with his mission.
Theon is another character who has spent seasons being broken to pieces. Yara doesn’t need a broken shadow of a man though. She needs her brother, and she needs him to find himself again, even if she has to order him to drink the entire ale contents of Volantis. (Also? New drinking game. Every time Yara says you drink: You drink!) I had thought that Theon, as Yara’s adviser, would be the one to suggest heading to Meereen and providing Dany with the ships they have no idea she needs so badly. But sadly he’s still too broken for such things. Instead she came up with it herself. Quite convenient, that. So after slapping a few butts, Yara went to get laid off screen. (I do believe that is our first outright lesbian character, yes?) And with that, the broken man picked up the pieces, and his ale, and went to get on with his mission.
Theon: “If I got justice my burned body would hang over the gates of Winterfell.”
We skipped over Jon Snow and Sansa Stark last week, but when we returned to them, it turns out things (with a few exceptions) are not going well for their plan of “Getting the North Back Together. (Too bad none of them had Melesandre with them to say “We’re on a mission from god.”) Sansa found herself shamed for her endless marriages and last names, and Jon for his only surname issues. But what was striking is that, in the end, it was Robb Stark who seems to have really sealed the deal when it came to their inability to get men to follow the name of Stark. The failures of Robb back in Season 3 that brought about the fall of their house in the first place were like ghosts following Jon, Sansa and Davos wherever they went. His marriage to Talisa, his misplaced trust in Theon, and above all, his failing to win the war weighed heavily against our crew as they begged for someone, anyone, to join their cause. Some came. ( I expect bumper stickers reading “LADY MORMONT 2016”!) Most didn’t. And though Tormund did a great job by securing the wildlings, that act also worked against the larger goal, by ensuring that all those racial prejudices we saw on display at the Tarly household came out full force.
Jon will go to war anyway–with the army he has, not the one he wishes he had. (Also, it’s bad that they’re at the same camp Stannis burned Shireen at the stake in, isn’t it? Davos is going to find something and figure it out, mark my words, and at a time when they can ill afford any more inter-camp dissension.) But Sansa is still playing the game for all she’s worth, and is undeterred. Jon may say it’s hopeless, but she clearly thinks she must have an ace of some sort up her sleeve, once again going behind his back writing secret messages. And with that, their broken clan picked up the pieces, and their last remaining supporters, and went to get on with their mission.
Olenna: “Does it move or talk? I want to speak to you alone.”
Down in King’s Landing, things are much as we left them last week. Cersei still hasn’t accepted that she’s lost, while Olenna is frustrated as hell that she has. We did get a glimpse into Margaery’s game with the High Sparrow, accepting instructions from him that the time has come to start creating heirs, while silently panicking at his threats against her grandmother. Speaking of which, Olenna, who began the episode railing against the fact that she seemed to have lost her granddaughter, was not only quieted by a single passed note from Margaery, but suddenly seemed to have found renewed purpose. How she understood what this single drawing of the Tyrell rose meant is up for the viewer to decide. But apparently, to her, it spoke volumes. She recognized the warning–that the High Sparrow had threatened her life and she should get out of town. And she recognized that Margaery is looking for allies–and that there is still one place that hates the Lannisters more than their family does. Meanwhile, Cersei tried to continue to play Olenna for an ally, but the Queen of Thorns wasn’t having it. She kicked Cersei as hard as she could–as hard as the Blackfish kicked Jaime up at Riverrun.
How long will it take for the Lannister twins to understand they’re being moved around the board by others now, not calling the moves? Olenna’s advice to Cersei was solid–to get out of town, and start making decisions for herself and her life again, but Cersei was too foolish to hear it. Jaime also was told by his elders the truth of the situation–couched in the same level of insult. Jaime too, refused to hear it, though one gets the sense that of the two, Jaime is better situated to at least win the battle in front of him, even if he cannot see tat he’s lost the war. And with that, the broken Lannisters picked up the pieces, and their last shreds of dignity, and went to get on with their mission.
Jaime Lannister: “You have better instincts than any officer in the Lannister army.”
Bronn: “That’s like saying I have a bigger cock than anyone in the Unsullied army.”
But there was no one riding higher, or with farther to fall this week, than Arya. She thought somehow she could escape her fate. A new change of clothes, a few bags of money, and a willing captain to take her back across the Narrow Sea and she would be fine. I’m confused by this, by the way. Why wouldn’t she travel on with the players? And what exactly does she think she’s going to do back in Westeros exactly? I suppose it doesn’t really matter–the answer is “The show needs to get her back to Westeros, so she’s booking passage. Bye Braavos, it’s been fun!”
But where the rest of the players tonight were already low, Arya’s belief that she was free, when she was very much not, put her in the position to break harder than anyone else. Within moments of her success in securing a ride home, she was brought all the way down, with a knife to the gut–the sort of deadly wound that takes days to kill a man. I guess the Waif wasn’t so keen on the advice of Jaqen H’ghar to be gentle and quick. It was only a moment of her guard being down, but as we’ve seen from the endless training montages, that moment is all it takes to be knocked back to the ground. Arya was injured, down for the count. But those hours and hours of training kicked in, and she rolled into the bay, hiding in the water in hopes The Waif would really think her dead.
Brother Ray: “How many men did it take to cut you down?”
The Hound: “Just one.”
Brother Ray: “He must’ve been some kind of monster.”
The Hound: “He was a woman.”
For the moment, it seems to have worked. But Arya is bleeding openly through the streets on her way back to hiding. it won’t be long until The Waif is back to finish the job. After all, until Arya’s body is on the slab and her face hanging in the hall The Waif will not rest, and Arya knows it. And with that, the broken girl picked up the pieces, and the last shreds of her abdomen, and went to get on with her mission.
Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/06/06/game-of-thrones-the-broken-man-thematic-analysis/
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