I am having a hard time processing that we are already at the half way mark, with only 5 more episodes left of the season. This season has been keeping a pretty good pace, and Sunday’s episode had all the drama that we’ve come to know and love.
Over at Castle Black, as Stannis and his men prepare to leave and head to Winterfell, Sam reads a message regarding Daenerys to Maester Aemon Targaryen, who happens to be her great-uncle. Aemon mentions that she has no family within close distance to help protect her. At that moment Jon walks in looking for advice from Aemon, but first he dismisses Sam from the room. Without even knowing precisely what decision Jon is struggling with, Maester Aemon says to Jon, “half the men hate you already. Do it, kill the boy and let the man be born.” With that Jon pays a visit to Tormund. He wants the Wildlings back South of the Wall, before the army of the undead can destroy them. Essentially he needs them to survive so they can merge together with the Night’s Watch and defeat them when the time comes.
The talk with Jon’s men goes pretty bad, and its understandable that they despise the thought of working with the people they themselves have fought against for so many years. Jon is set in his decision though, as he tells his men, “we can learn to live with the Wildlings, or we can add them to the army of the dead.”
Back at Winterfell, the sweet and loving Ramsey is still fooling around with Myranda, but quickly puts her in her place when she tries to act out in her jealousy against his marriage to Sansa. He makes it quite clear that jealousy bores him, and she knows all too well what he’s capable of when he’s bored, something along the lines of hunting others and killing them just for fun. Myranda has an agenda though. She catches Sansa looking at the Broken Tower, where Bran fell from, many moons ago. She urges Sansa to take a peek inside. It appears to be just a dark and dirty kennel inside, until she gets near the end and sees a man in one of the animal stalls. Its none other than Theon, or Reek as Ramsey so aptly refers to him.
Later that evening during a most awkward dinner between Sansa and the Boltons, Ramsey surprises everyone with making Theon serve them and apologize to Sansa for “killing” her brother Bran and Rickon. After dealing with Joffrey’s psycho behavior in Kings Landing, Sansa knows very well how to handle Ramsey. She carries herself quite differently now. Maybe Ramsey has met his match with Sansa. How much can she possibly get shaken after everything she has endured? Surely being escorted down the aisle by Theon won’t break her. On the flip side, we all know that weddings in Westeros are not usually a blissful affair, but rather bloody ones.
In Essos, Tyrion is still held captive by Jorah, and they are en-route to Meereen by way of Valyria, which was the original home of the Targayren dragonlords. It was considered a lost city of great enlightenment and power. However, the present Valyria is now just ruins that remain from the mysterious disaster called the Doom of Valyria, which happened over 400 hundred years ago. As Jorah and Tyrion drift though the smoking sea, Drogon appears, and its honestly such a fascinating sight for both men actually. But the fascination dies quickly as they are attacked by the Stone Men. The Stone Men who reside in what’s left of Valyria have the dreaded greyscale, and all it takes is a touch and it will spread. So Jorah warns Tyrion not to let them touch him, but with his hands still bound, it’s a bit hard to fight them off. With Jorah fighting the men off, and Tyrion in a corner, he jumps in the water. The outcome of the fight is that they are safe and stranded on a beach. Tyrion appears to be fine, but not Jorah, he’s been infected by the greyscale.
After last weeks epic battle in Meereen, we learn that Grey Worm is alive. However, Ser Barristan’s fate was much graver. As a result of what has transpired, Dany asks for the leader of each great house of Meereen. As a first for these leaders, they bare witness to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come close to Dany’s dragons. Are they all going to be dinner for the dragons? Nope, only one unlucky soul, gets burned alive and ripped apart like wishbone.
Contemplating what her next move should be, Dany asks for advise from Missandei. She reluctantly offers her council to stick to her instincts, “because there was a better choice, one that only you can see.” With that, Dany pays a visit to Hizdahr in his cell, and she apologizes to him. She admits that she was wrong about the tradition in Meereen and agrees to reopen the fight pits for the free men. She also decides that she will marry the leader of an ancient family, more specifically, Hizdahr. he looks a bit stunned at the news. And it looks like Dany found herself another husband. I wonder how Daario will feel about that?
Let’s see how the second half plays out….it should be very interesting!
