Last week's episode called 'Blood Of My Blood,' had its drawbacks, but supplied us with some new plot developments to chew on.
Walder Frey, the traitorous bastard made a cameo appearance, spurred on by the stubborn Brynden Tully, who refuses to surrender his home. Jaime Lannister, after trying to oust the High Septon from King's Landing, was sent to confront the Blackfish at Riverrun after having been stripped from the Kings Guard by King Tommen.
Oh, yea, the King has now merged church and state with the "Faith of the Seven," with the apparent approval of Queen Margaery, by succumbing to the charms of the High Sparrow.
[Spoilers Below]
What to say, what to say. This episode was a major disappointment. In fact, this might be the worst episode in the entire series. I say this as I'm almost done binging the first four season of GOTs.
CAUTION: Be careful when you turn on a house guest to the pilot because it'll pull you back in.
"The Broken Man" was mostly transitional, setting the pieces up as our players try to dig themselves out of unfortunate positions. They could have said what needed to be said in about fifteen minutes of screen time, instead of the entire episode.
We are deeply invested in these characters, so even if we're not thrilled with what's happening, we are still deeply involved in the story. That's been Martin's strength all along.
Last week we saw a remarkable transformation within Margaery and Tommen, who suddenly became enamored with the "Faith Militant.' It happened so quickly that it seemed quite unbelievable.
It was!
Now it appears that Margaery certainly is pretending to be one with the Gods, when she tipped off the always awesome Queen of Thorns to get out of town before the High Sparrow threw her into a cell to be tortured to confess her many sins.
Olenna Tyrell's hatred for the Faith is just a little less than her hatred for Cersei, who came to her begging to join forces against the High Septon.
Olenna's reply was filled with acid, "I wonder if you are the worst person I've ever met? At a certain age it's hard to recall, but the truly vile do stand out through the years."
Yes they do.
One of the "broken men" is Theon Greyjoy, and he's not happy watching his fellow Ironborn looking for comfort in a Braavosi brothel. Yara, who constantly makes jokes about his lost manhood, delivers a pep talk to Ramsay's play thing and finally gets him pumped up to be the brother she needs. She wants to make a deal with the Dany, the mother of dragons before Uncle Euron shows up.
After easily convincing the Wildlings to march on Winterfell with them, Jon Snow, Sansa and Davos Seaworth do their best to convince many of the smaller Houses that were once loyal to the Starks, to join with them to take back Winterfell.
Davos seems to be the best recruiter, but all he got for his troubles were sixty two soldiers from Lady Lyanna Mormont, Jorah's precocious ten year old (I think) niece that is ruling Bear Island now after her mother died fighting in Robb's war.
As they make camp, some of the men start fighting. Sansa realizes they don't have enough to storm their home and tells Jon they need more men. Snow understands this, but says they have to strike now because they can't afford to wait.
Locked in thought, Sansa sees a basket of crow and gets an idea. She writes a message and seals up the parchment. I freeze framed the note several times but couldn't make out what it said, I'd wager it's to ask for Littlefinger's Knights of the Vale, even though she told him to bugger off in episode five.
It got me thinking about all the times Petyr explained his thought process while playing the games of thrones to Sansa, while he was trying to woo her and I believe she's learned more than he bargained for.
Jaime Lannister brought the always welcome Bronn with him to Riverrun and witnessed the stupidity of the Frey sons trying to convince Brynden Tully to give up the castle for his nephew's head.
After Jaime takes over the siege, Blackfish agrees to a parlay with him and he tells the Kingslayer, in no uncertain terms to go f*ck himself. He has enough provisions for two years and he knows Jaime doesn't have that kind of time.
"As long as I'm standing the war is not over."
The only thing redeeming in the episode was to see another "broken man" come into view that I've missed.
Welcome back Hound!
He's hooked up with Al Swearengen, errr...Mr. Wednesday, I mean Ian McShane, who was a former soldier, but now is a Septon to a small flock of believers that are building a temple made of wood.
He found Clegane almost dead from his encounter with Brienne's sword, and tells him that the God's most have a use for him still. Unfortunately, a group Brothers Without Banners show up and kill the lot of them while Sandor was off chopping wood. As he takes stock of the carnage around him, the Hound reaches for an ax.
I don't remember the Brothers being so merciless to the helpless when we last saw them. These people had no gold and little food, why kill them?
I was glad when Arya mentioned that she no longer wanted to kill the Hound and I was hoping that Arya turned up after the Hound found the dead bodies, but her fate was much different.
Back in Braavos, she has acquired a lot of money to pay off a ship to take her back to Westeros and she's practically whistling along when Waif show up wearing an old lady's face and repeatedly stabs her in the midsection.
Arya fights her off and jumps off an overpass into the sea, trying to save herself. She's able to make it back into the city, bleeding profusely from her stomach.
Is this another Jon Snow fake out?
**I don't know if you've heard about the new Arya Stark conspiracy theory. That Arya is actually Waif as well.
**Olenna: "You've lost Cersei. It's the only joy I can find in all this misery."
(Please forgive any mistakes I've made and feel free to correct them in the comment section)
