Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 4 recap

SPOILERS

A note from last week. I mentioned that there are two Stark direwolves left, Summer and Ghost. I had a line about Nymeria, Arya’s wayward wolf, banished in season one because the Lannisters are petty f*cking assholes, but I cut it because since we haven’t seen hide nor hair of Nymeria in five years, she doesn’t count as a player on the board. In response to your emails though, let’s be clear—Nymeria is not dead, but unless and until she returns, there are only two Stark children still with direwolves: Bran and Summer, and Jon Snow and Ghost. Now to this week…

Holy f*ck, Daenerys. Just when I thought this episode was going to be a lot of boring standing around and talking, Daenerys delivers fantasy medieval lemonade. This season is bringing most of the main players home, with Theon returning to the Iron Islands (no one cares), Daenerys going back to the Dothraki (yes), and Sansa and Jon Snow reuniting and deciding to reclaim Winterfell (YES). We only get a brief moment with Sansa and Jon being happy, but it’s really wonderful to see some of the Stark children reunited.

And it’s SO GREAT to see Sansa all grown up. People have complained about her development over five long years, but it’s finally paying off as she is fully her own woman, determined and driven and calling the shots. She was not always the most interesting or even the most likeable, but the reward of long-form storytelling are these moments when you see a character suddenly arrive at their climactic moment, and we’ve gotten three of them so far this season: Jon Snow taking his second first breath, Sansa declaring she will retake Winterfell, and Daenerys demolishing the Khalasar and taking the Dothraki as her own. Ultimately these are all just pit stops—we’re not done with these stories yet. But you can feel it coming, can’t you? We’re building toward the end now.

But first there are scores to settle. The Starks have to reclaim Winterfell and, hopefully, save Rickon. Jon Snow is trying to quit the Night’s Watch but now that everyone thinks he’s Westeros Jesus—and man did Sansa seem really cool with the fact that her brother just came back from the dead—they’re like, “Nah, man, you’re in charge.” Please don’t stay at the Wall, Jon. The Wall SUCKS. You just got interesting, and if you stay at the Wall you will ruin everything.

Ramsey’s such a dipsh*t he can’t stop himself from taunting Jon Snow into battle, and he also has zero foresight regarding Littlefinger, who returns this episode. Littlefinger is manipulating Robyn Arryn, getting that creepy little asshole to turn the Knights of the Vale north to save Sansa. Somehow, I don’t think Roose Bolton would have forgotten about him. Speaking of people making dumbassed decisions—does Cersei not get that allowing thousands of Tyrell troops into King’s Landing could be very bad for her? Let’s say the Tyrell army is able to subdue the Sparrows and take back King’s Landing. What’s to then stop them from removing Cersei and Jaime from the Red Keep? Gregor Clegane can’t kill EVERYONE. …Right?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Narrow Sea, the Khals gather to discuss Daenerys’s future. Daario giving Jorah sh*t makes my life, but when it comes to it they’re a pretty effective team. Their escape plan was for sh*t, but they do manage to get to Daenerys. Who, because she is the motherf*cking Mother of Dragons, has a much better plan. That one Khal who seemed kind of reasonable was willing to let her stay in the Dosh Khaleen, but Daenerys has Plans of the conquering variety she needs to be getting on with.

Whenever she recites all of her many titles, it sounds like grandstanding, but she does, continuously, live up to them. This week she lived up to her title as The Unburnt, as she is able to start a giant fire and survive it. The last time she walked into a fire, she came out with dragons. This time, she comes out with a nation, as the Dothraki kneel before her, which I guess makes her their queen (again). And she did it without Drogon! Like Sansa, Daenerys’s journey has not always been fascinating, but seeing her take control like this without having to use a dragon to do it pays off all those hours of her learning about power and control. And the image of the Dosh Khaleen burning makes you wonder what it will look like when she finally returns to Westeros.

Attached - Kit Harington on The Tonight Show last week.