Season 6, Episode 4: Book of the Stranger: Recap and Review

Recap

Edd questions Jon about leaving and then the horn blows. The gates open to Sansa, Brienne and Pod. Jon comes out and sees her and the two of them send me into sobbing fits. Starks reuinited. Round one. And smiles!!! Both of them. They decide to go together, Sansa urging him to take back Winterfell, but Jon is tired of fighting. Sansa insists she will do it alone if necessary.

Davos asks Melisandre her plans. She says Jon is the Prince who was promised. They are interrupted by Brienne who tells them Stannis admitted to the blood magic that killed Renly before she executed him. That was a mood killer.

Robin Arryn still sucks at archery, but is happy to see Petyr who gives him a falcon and guides him (via suspicion and forgiveness of Lord Royce) to committing Vale troops to helping Sansa.

Tyrion negotiates with the slavers from the other slave cities. He tells them they can have seven years to phase out slavery and make a new system, but in exchange for time they need to stop funding Sons of the Harpy. Grey Worm and Missendei are not happy about it, but when confronted by slaves they back him up. They give a piece of their minds to Tyrion afterward though.

Jorah and Daario make their plans to go into Vaes Dothrak. Daario brags about “riding the dragon”—Jorah manages not to hit him. Daario sees Jorah’s grey scale as they remove their weapons for the descent into Vaes Dothrak. They are spotted in the city and have to kill two Dothraki—one with Daario’s forbidden blade, though he covers it by smashing his head in with a rock.

Dany talks to the Dosh Khaleen. She agrees that their role guiding the Dothraki gives them more than many have. She is respectful. She spots a young Khaleesi though, she feels bad for. The young woman is asked to guide Dany when she goes to make water—they seem to bond. Daario and Jorah grab her, but Dany says she has a plan.

Margaery is brought to the High Sparrow where he tells her a story about the trappings of wealth and his own realization about how it blocked him from truth. She wants to see her family but he tries to point out the sin of how they live. He then lets her go see Loras who is a MESS. He is broken. Margaery however, proves with Loras that she is not—she sees what they are doing and tries to encourage him to stay strong. It looks like she may have to be strong for both of them.

Cersei interrupts Pycelle’s prattling to Tommen. She kicks him out. Tommen advises caution about antagonizing the High Sparrow. Cersei says it is irrelevant whether she likes Margaery—queens must demand respect, kings more so. Tommen shares a secret the High Sparrow told him. Unfortunately it cuts out so we don’t learn it.

Cersei and Jaime crash the small council meeting and convince them of a plan to seize power back from the Sparrows. Kevan has been ordered NOT to take action with his army, but he has not been ordered to stop the Tyrell army.

Theon arrives home. Asha/Yara is pissy about it—when she tried to rescue him, he got some of her men killed and she thinks he has come back now to try to take the throne. He says she should rule and he will help her.

Osha comes to Ramsay and plays wildling, offering her “services”. She isn’t scared, and clearly she plans to do what she did with the guard when she helped Bran and Rickon escape. Unfortunately Ramsay knows how that played out and this time, as she reaches for a knife, he stabs her in the neck instead.

A messenger of the Boltons arrives with a scroll for the Bastard Lord Snow. (Tormund ogles Brienne). The scroll is brought in and Jon begins to read it out loud. Ramsay tells them he has Rickon and that he wants his wife back. He threatens to skin all the wildlings, have all his men rape Sansa, feed Rickon to his dogs, then he will scoop out Jon’s eyes. They piece together that Ramsay killed Roose. They discuss how many men they have. Sansa encourages Jon to ask the northern lords.

The khals discuss the dead men and then Dany is brought it. The women leave her behind for the Khals to decide her fate. The wise masters have offered 10,000 horses for her. She asks if they want to know what she thinks. She tells them they are khals of small things and none of them is fit to lead the Dothraki, but she is. Then she burns them ALL…  She steps out of the burning building, naked and the only survivor. All the Dothraki bow before her.


Thoughts

I sobbed through the entire Jon/Sansa reunion. It was truly wonderful to see them back together again. And only on the rewatch spotting Tormund lusting after Brienne that I realized how much I ALSO love that.  It may not be apparent from my online activity, but I am 5’11” and we tall girls who don’t have model’s figures don’t get nearly our share of lust, so I admit I enjoyed this…  But back to Jon and Sansa—I am so glad she apologized to him for being the petty brat she was.

Bit of friction with Brienne telling Davos and Mel she killed Stannis… wonder how that will go if they are all heading south together…

The scene where Robin Arryn decides Lord Royce’s fate was a sharp reminder of the danger of boy lords… Glad there was no moon door scene here…  I was going to say Petyr was a better advisor for Robin than Joffrey had, but I think Petyr WAS the advisor Joffrey had… his goals just have him aligned to not be quite so horrible here.

Missendei’s reality check to Tyrion that his days as a slave were not enough for him to quite get it was fabulous. She has a point. But so does he—you can’t do it all—need to pick the battles one at a time and right now the Harpies are the nearest threat, so that has to be resolved first. I am a bit skeptical that Dany will allow this negotiation to stand… when she comes back she will be in a much stronger position.

I felt bad for Jorah, ribbed by Daario, grey scale spotted, then nearly killed by a Dothraki—Daario had to save him.

Oh Loras… so sad. He really is broken. But also, it’s so clear how much of a matriarchy House Tyrell is. The women hold up the whole thing.

I am suspicious of Cersei’s plan. I think Tommen may be right about the danger to Margaery and Loras but Cersei thinks they are worth the price.

The scene with Yara and Theon went the way it had to go. I would have liked her to be more welcoming, but she wouldn’t have been a Greyjoy if she had.

Loved Osha: “do you eat them after? Then I’ve seen worse.” But then NOOOOOOOOOO! As sad as this made me though, I think this sort of had to go this way.

This Pink Letter!!!! And I love how fierce Sansa is in convincing Jon both to take Winterfell back and to ask the northern lords for help.

Loved Dany saving herself, too. I had been expecting a dragon, but it was great for her to take it on herself. It is a departure from the books where she is not fire proof, but I like the agency she gains doing it this way. The books will cleverly set up something fabulous, but this totally worked for me.

I think this was a great episode. The only piece I didn't like was Osha dying and I can see why that had to be done. Rickon there is alone is more compelling, though I did rather want Osha to play the Ghost at Winterfell for a while. I'd rank this right up there...8.5 probably.