Season 6, Episode 4, ‘Book of the Stranger’
“Game of Thrones” lived up to its billing as a song of ice and fire on Sunday, as there was plenty of action in both of the signature halves of the story.
In the North we witnessed perhaps the rarest event in the Known World: An actual Stark reunion. The show has gone to gymnastic lengths to scuttle all previous brushes with the same — Arya and Sansa at the Eyrie; Bran and Jon at Craster’s Keep; and most tragically, Arya and Robb and Catelyn at Chez Frey. For scarred “Thrones” fans, last week’s revelation that Jon Snow was moving on, as Sansa was making her way to Castle Black, promised to be the latest example of this.
But there Sansa was on Sunday, showing up just in time to share a hug with her (theoretical) half brother and have a look at Ramsay’s charming Dear Jon letter. I may have yelped with joy when the gates opened to reveal Sansa and Brienne. This story has sprawled so prodigiously, there is a visceral thrill that comes from seeing disparate pieces connect, especially pieces of the tortured family that represents whatever good is left in the world.
As for the fire portion of the program, well, you saw it. The Dothraki hut went up like a haystack soaked in kerosene, taking the potty-mouthed khals with it and allowing the unburnt dragon mother to emerge from the flames. As Dothraki-cowing parlor tricks go, it’s a good one, which we already know because we saw her do roughly the same thing with Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre in Season 1.
Indeed, for many us, Dany’s effortless Bar-B-Coup probably inspired the suspicion that the net result of the Slaver’s Bay excursions and Meereen misadventures were to get Daenerys Targaryen back to where she was over four seasons ago: leading a Dothraki force with designs on taking them on wooden horses across the Black Salt Sea.
It was more complicated than that, of course, and we’ll come back to Vaes Dothrak. But first let’s return northwestward, where the show packed quite a bit into a few poignant scenes.
It is a different Sansa whom Jon Snow met on Sunday — one full of righteous rage and a plan to retake their ancestral home by force. As for Jon, well he’s still the same sullen dude who sulked in the corners of said home, give or take a zombie fight and a resurrection or two. (I did enjoy the self-referential joke about Jon as a moody youth in Winterfell.)
But Sophie Turner and Kit Harington infused the scenes with warmth and a sense of familial comfort — the siblings’ delight at being together again was palpable, though tinged with melancholy for obvious reasons. “We never should have left Winterfell,” Snow said. We were reminded that most of what has happened over the past six seasons, not just the Stark strife but the various wars, betrayals and other machinations that have convulsed the world of this story, were triggered when Robert Baratheon called Ned to King’s Landing.
I’m sick of fighting, Jon told Sansa. It’s all I’ve been doing, and did I mention I got killed a few days ago? If you don’t come along, I’m doing it without you, she said. Then Ramsay the Terrible’s mocking letter arrived to put everyone on the same page.
The missive signaled Ramsay’s overflowing arrogance (“come and see”) and why wouldn’t it? Since we met him in Season 3, we’ve seen him break down and enslave a young nobleman, win his legitimacy at Moat Cailin, trick the formidable Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish into letting him marry Sansa; defeat Stannis; and murder his own father to take control of House Bolton. His only misstep was allowing Sansa to escape but he quickly replaced her with her little brother.
A few commenters thought the crafty and capable Osha might spell doom for him, and she apparently had the same idea. But nope. Soon she had a hole in her neck and the kennel master’s hounds had a new special on the menu. (Fun fact: Natalia Tena and Iwan Rheon played a couple in a dystopian sci-fi mini-series last year called “Residue.” I haven’t seen it but it’s on Netflix.)
The guy has good reasons to be arrogant, is the point. But the letter’s grandiosity felt like the moment Ramsay finally invited his own demise. Few things undo dramatic characters as effectively as preening hubris — just ask Joffrey, Oberyn, and any number of killed-off slaver and henchmen — and Ramsay doesn’t realize how many forces are aligning against him. Over in the Vale, Littlefinger (welcome back!) has manipulated the Suckling Robin into sending troops to help Sansa. Plus Ramsay’s never met Wun Wun, who might not appreciate Lord Bolton’s vile threats against Wildlings. (I realize I’m sort of obsessed with the improbable notion of Wun Wun being the one to kill Ramsay but come on, what would be better?)
Sansa’s steadfastness in the face of Jon’s reluctance offered the latest evidence that Sansa has assumed a leadership role within both her own family and her own story, in general. It was also one of several sibling dynamics that found the sisters taking command. Cersei Lannister bossing around Jaime is old news, of course, but on Sunday we also saw Margaery bucking up the disintegrating Loras and Theon volunteering for the committee to elect Yara leader of the Iron Born.
It’s become common this season to note that the female characters on “Game of Thrones” are stepping to the fore, but that was especially evident on Sunday. Women took purposeful steps to reshape their fortunes while, on the other side of the fence, our beloved Tyrion Lannsplained slavery to former slaves and the High Sparrow did his usual poverty-porn self-mythologizing for Margaery, who sees his empty brand-burnishing pieties for what they really are.
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