This is a really hard episode of Game of Thrones to grade. In fact, this whole season is becoming hard to grade. Six episodes in and it still feels like the show is spinning its wheels. Narratively, this season is getting pretty messy, but it’s still entertaining, so do the two balance each other out? I don’t know. I’m not sure yet what grade I’ll give this episode, so take whatever it is with a big ol’ grain of salt.
One story that is living up to its promise is Arya’s. The House of Black and White looks gorgeous, and it’s always nice to see new places (see also: Jorah and Tyrion in Valyria). Arya is still being Arya, demanding to know where the dead bodies go and refusing to wash any more until someone tells her. She has a great scene where she helps a supplicant die, and Jaqen looks on approvingly. Or disapprovingly, it’s almost impossible to tell with his face. Anyway, he shows her the catacombs, which is a pretty cool reveal: the dead becomes the faces used interchangeably by the Faceless Men. “A girl is not ready to become no one,” Jaqen says. “But she is ready to become someone else.” Maisie Williams has always had fantastic chemistry with whatever older, male actor she’s paired with (the Hound, Tywin Lannister), and Jaqen is no exception. With Bran’s bonkers storyline sitting this season out, Arya’s story is as weird as we’re likely to get, which is good. Game of Thrones needs weirdness, and weirdness has been responsible for some of the show’s best scenes – Daenerys emerging unburnt from a funeral pyre, Beric Dondarrion lighting his sword on fire with his blood, scenes like that.
The reason I’m hammering home the point about weirdness being a crucial – and vital – part of GoT‘s DNA is that its largely being ignored in favor of one road trip after another. These scenes are not without their merit, but we’re spending an awful lot of time watching characters go to places without ever actually arriving.
Joran and Tyrion are a strangely good match, probably because, as Tyrion puts it, Jorah is the world’s worst travelling companion. Pair a man who never talks with a man who never stops is a tried and true narrative tactic, but it works, especially when those men are Peter Dinklage and Iain Glen. There’s a weirdly tender moment when Tyrion tells Jorah that his father Jeor was killed by his own men. Jorah says nothing, but his face threatens to betray him; it comes close to cracking, but he snaps it shut and tells Tyrion that they need to go.
Back in King’s Landing, the Faith Militant is still in charge of the streets. Lancel threatens Littlefinger, who seems more amused than anything. He’s enjoying watching Cersei dig her own grave – there’s no way this doesn’t blow up in her face. An inquest into Loras Tyrell’s “perversions” results in both his and Margaery’s arrests, all because that punk ass Olyvar couldn’t keep his mouth shut (hehe). Lena Headey and Aidan Gillen seem to be having a smirk-off, but only one of them hasn’t bitten off more than they can chew. It doesn’t help that Cersei has aggravated Olenna Tyrell to the point where she’s openly threatening her (Diana Rigg remains magnificent in the role).
Okay, I guess we need to talk about that scene. Sansa marries Ramsay, and the ceremony is…kind of lovely? Look, I’m trying to find something good in all of this, and you can’t deny that the Godswood was very pretty lit up with lanterns. It’s the consummation that – okay, fuck it, I’m not going to repeat everything note for note. Let’s just talk about the bigger picture.
I’ve talked about Ramsay in the past (which is a stupid thing to say about a somewhat major character; that’s like bragging that I’ve talked about Stannis in the past). He’s the strutting peacock of a villain that is getting his time in the limelight now that he doesn’t have to share it with Joffrey. And in “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” he rapes Sansa, while making Reek watch. This is a “line in the sand” moment for Game of Thrones. On the one hand, rape should never be used as a narrative tool. It’s cheap and demeaning, and this show is above it. But oddly enough, in the wake of this painful to watch scene, I’m giving the show the benefit of the doubt. Well, I have to give it the benefit of the doubt, otherwise it’d be hard to justify watching it at all.
Sansa can’t just be the show’s punching bag. And to be fair, season five has done a pretty great job of making sure she isn’t. Just look at how she dressed down Myranda for trying to scare her. Sansa is not the same scared girl who the Hound had to save from a mob. A lot has been said this season – by Littlefinger, by various Northerners – that Sansa at last has her chance for revenge. “The North remembers” is an ominous phrase that now has very bad implications for Ramsay. I don’t think of Sansa as a victim. A victim would have succumbed long ago, after the first time Joffrey beat her, or after her humiliating wedding to Tyrion. I think of Sansa as a survivor. Just look at the title of this episode – “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.” Sure, those are the words of House Martell, but I don’t think that’s who they refer to this time.
A Few Thoughts
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I’m kind of disappointed in the Sand Snakes. We’ve seen them all of twice, and their story ends with their apprehension (at least that’s how it plays out in A Feast for Crows, but with Benioff and Weiss straying so far from the books, there’s hope that we’ll see more of them).
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“The dwarf lives until we find a cock merchant” is one of the best lines in GoT‘s history
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I like that Arya is becoming more feminine. Of course that frock she’s wearing isn’t meant to be flattering, and it isn’t, but my point is that Arya isn’t disguising her femininity anymore. It’s the difference between her being a badass character and a badass female character
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Where is Varys?
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