Small Council: What did we think of “Blood of My Blood”?

What did we like about “Blood of My Blood,” the sixth episode of Game of Thrones Season 6? What didn’t we like? Tell us your opinions, and vote it our poll!

DAN: Structurally, “Blood of My Blood” was a bridge episode. Everything in the episode worked, and some of it worked really well, but I could have used a climactic moment somewhere, and put me in the camp of people who didn’t think that Daenerys’ retread of Khal Drogo’s speech from the end of Season 1’s “You Win or You Die” cut it. Sure, Drogon looked remarkable, and it was important that Daenerys convince her new army to cross the Narrow Sea with her, but this is yet another big Daenerys scene that inspired some serious déjà vu—I’m ready for something new.

Personally, I was hoping that Arya would provide the episode’s big finish—”Blood of My Blood” certainly set up a confrontation between her and the Waif beautifully. I loved seeing more of the play (I was nervous the show would botch this, but now that we’ve seen all of it we’re likely to see, I’m prepared to call it delightful), and I loved Arya finally choosing to be herself rather than No One. The string of shots before we leave Arya for the hour—pulling Needle from its hiding place, the Waif walking out of a room in the House of Black and White, Arya blowing out the candle—built a lot of tension, but then it was just…tune in next week. Congratulations, show: you have my attention, but the episode needed a climax and I think Arya could have provided a good one.

But how about I discuss what actually happened? My favorite scenes were the ones at Horn Hill. As the show grows older and gets access to more resources, it’s good to see that it can still mine entertainment from good old fashioned family drama. Once Randyll Tarly started in on Sam, I couldn’t look away, much to the credit of actor James Faulkner. I can’t quite tell if it’s just a reaction to Randyll’s loathsomeness, but I sympathized with Sam and Gilly more here than I have at any other point in the series. For whatever reason, I resisted them for years, but they finally won me over here.

That said, I have no idea how Sam plans to get away from Horn Hill with that sword in tow. Again, tune in next week.

Bran’s scenes were a mixed bag: the opening bits were thrilling (I got chills down my back when the Mad King yelled “Burn them all!”), but I could take or leave Coldhands/Benjen (Coldjen?) making vague proclamations about Bran’s future. Nice fire-flail work, though. As for the confrontation on the Sept of Baelor, I still haven’t completely sorted out my feelings. It was grand and unexpected, but the payoff kind of depends on things we don’t know yet, namely whether Margaery is faking her conversion, and to a lesser extent whether the High Sparrow knew the army was coming. And are the guys in the Seven-Pointed Star outfits members of the Kingsguard or Sparrows in armor? I’m not sure if the ambiguity of the scene is a strength or a weakness, but there was definitely ambiguity.

So overall, a lot of interesting things happened in “Blood of My Blood,” but I feel they needed capping.

Oh, and David Bradley is a treasure the show should never let out of its sight again.

“THEY’RE LAUGHING AT US!”

KATIE: This episode was all Arya, and I agree with Dan that it would have done better to end on her snuffing out that candle—the swelling music, one last flicker of light and then, bam, end credits. Not only was this the strongest segment of the hour, it offered the most in the way of cliffhangers and featured more of Arya’s character development and overall story. Arya’s plot, while always intriguing, hasn’t gone much of anywhere since she found her way to Braavos last year, and “Blood of My Blood” is where the big payoff begins.

As a fan favorite whose characterization has so much more to offer than hanging out with a group of assassins whose values vary considerably from her own, Arya has more to do than what she found in the House of Black and White. Arya, who is shrewd and honest and values such qualities in others, isn’t suited to a life as a killer who does her duty for money alone. Arya’s kills have always had purpose, and she sees no such purpose in offing someone like Lady Crane, whose life has been paid for by someone harboring petty jealousy.

Arya’s journey has been all about identity, and here we finally see that she’s accepted who she is and what strength that sense of self gives her. She’s not pretending anymore. Considering that especially now, the Stark name is bolstering all the power it can, it’s essential that Arya follows that trend and finds a way home. And when she does…buh-bye, Walder Frey. His proclamation that he won’t die until everyone “chokes on their laughter” makes me think he’ll hire a certain comical theater troupe for some celebration, and that’s when one of their new actors will strike. Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions, but I feel certain that he’ll meet his end at Arya’s hand, and what better way for her to cross his name off her list? The pieces are all there, and Arya now has the resources to put them into play.

As for the rest of the episode, it seems that we’ll have to wait for those plotlines to play out: will Sam escape Horn Hill unscathed, and—knowing that Heartsbane has disappeared along with him—will Poppa Tarly follow? Is there some broader conspiracy behind the confrontation (or lack thereof) at the Sept, or has Tommen really given up more power to the Faith Militant? How will Benjen help Bran and Meera from here—does he have a plan, or is he going with the flow just as much as they are? Will Daenerys be able to control her khalasar, or will their fighting tactics clash with her wishes to leave the common people of Westeros unscathed, as she claimed to want back in Season 3 when debating the pros and cons of the Unsullied army? There’s much left that needs to play out, but I enjoyed how this week set it all up. Clearly, it’s about to go down.

ANI: Katie talked about Arya. I want to talk about Margaery. Because for the first time since the show introduced the character, it showed her the way the books show her.

I have argued before that Margaery is one of the characters who improved the most in the transition from page to screen because, unlike in the books, the show allows us to see her motivations. She isn’t an inscrutable person who always wears a mask and whose motivations are only guessed at by our various unreliable narrators. To Sansa, she’s a sweet confidante and friend…until Sansa’ marriage to Tyrion abruptly ends that. To Cersei, she’s not only a rival, but a canvas to be projected onto. (In the books, Loras is far more closeted, and Cersei imagines that Margaery must be cheating on Tommen with him—why ever would she think a thing like that?) To everyone else, she seems a mystery—a face that smiles and seems content and happy and no one can figure out how much she is controlling what is going on around her, or if she is being controlled.

So this week, it was striking to hear that same charged leveled against show-Margaery for the first time. Several people on Take the Black said they couldn’t figure out if she was lying about converting or if she had really succumbed to the brainwashing. If the back half of this season seems to be about redirecting characters back onto their book plot paths—Jaime and Brienne heading to the Riverlands, Sansa out of Jeyne Poole’s storyline—then Margaery too has been redirected to her own book path, one where no one can be quite sure of her motivations. And next week’s images, which show Septa Unella standing over Margaery at all times, suggest that any hope of her privately dropping the facade (if indeed it is one) to tell Grandmother Olenna about her long-term game is futile.

I do agree that Arya’s storyline should have closed the episode, even if Daario’s face when he saw he’d been replaced as Dany’s biggest ride was priceless. I also thought that splitting up the Benjen rescue and reveal was annoying. And I don’t know why anyone thinks that Sam is going to have trouble getting away with his father’s sword. Litttlefinger’s Westerosi teleporter has nothing on the high-end Tarly TARDIS that will take them straight to Oldtown.

I cannot *wait* to see all the cut scenes from The Game of Thrones Players on the Season 6 Blu-ray.

COREY: Most of the Small Council seems to be in agreement: this was a bridge episode, the roller coaster going up the track slowly, about to hit the plunge that will be the last three episodes of the season. There were certainly some developments in this episode, but nothing earth-shattering. I’m starting to get worried that the show might have listened to the fans this past offseason, as it seems we’re moving at a breathtaking pace unmatched by previous seasons. How are we going to get the Dothraki, who are religiously terrified of salt water, to cross the Narrow Sea? Well, let’s have Dany give a speech real quick, that will change hundreds of years of dogmatic thinking.

Along with this, producers have apparently completely abandoned any sense of geography or the passage of time. Littlefinger from the Vale to the Wall in a day? It’s only a two month journey by horseback. The Greyjoy siblings from the Iron Islands to Volantis? That’s maybe a six-month voyage by sea, and yet they appear to make that trip in less than two episodes. I am all for not describing each and every day, complete with a description of each meal, but could we at least pretend that the entire world isn’t as close as the nearest Walgreens?

Again, I am all for some expediency, but not when it borders on logic-defying. Season 5 felt like it was moving at a snail’s pace for most of the season, only to rocket to the conclusion in the last three episodes, and I hope we aren’t looking at something similar for the remaining portion of the series. Without George R.R. Martin’s blueprint, I worry that Benioff and Weiss will ditch the slow-building reveals that the author was famous for. We’ve already seen them wrap up the entire Dornish stroyline in roughly 90 seconds, and I worry that this cutthroat storytelling will continue, and what that means for the series. We have all invested quite a bit of time in the characters that we love, and I would hate to see some of their plotlines wrapped up too quickly because Benioff and Weiss don’t think we have the patience.

Also, Randyl Tarly and Walder Frey are jag-wagons of epic proportions, but their scenes were the standouts of the episode for me. More, please.

RAZOR: “Blood of My Blood” provided the perfect respite from watching Hodor and Summer die the week before. We’ve said it before, but Season 6 seems to be the season of wish fulfillment, and in line with that, the story has been moving far more rapidly than in previous seasons.

While “Blood of My Blood” didn’t have the usual murder and mayhem we’ve grown accustomed to, there certainly was plenty of story to go around. Benjen resurfaced, the High Sparrow brought his master plan to fruition, Arya refused to carry out her assignment for the Faceless Men, and Sam stole his father’s Valyrian steel sword.

As we head into “The Broken Man,” I have a feeling that the action, murder, and mayhem will be amped up once more. And when we look back on this season, we’ll be thankful for an episode that took a step back, and really set the story in motion.

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