What They Say:
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken – Arya begins training; Jorah and Tyrion encounter slavers; Trystane and Myrcella make plans; Jaime and Bronn reach their destination; the Sand Snakes attack.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show moving further into new territory, it’s certainly been interesting to see various aspects of it. The time spent with Sansa and what she’s learning with the Bolton’s has been a delight to see since it plays partially to what we had in the books but goes its own direction as well. Bringing her connecting with Theon into the mix adds a really great kind of menace to it, which is wonderful to watch because it really does go both ways and it’s lorded over by Ramsay himself. Add in some good time at the Wall last time around and a really great end sequence that gave us some time with the Stone Men as they made an attack on Jorah and Tyrion, which provided a game changer for Jorah with him being infected by the greyscale now. Having not finished book six, I don’t know if it’s in there or not, but it certainly provides a new challenge for him in his future.
Arya’s time in this particular place has been one of interest to watch as she was drawn into it, but also to see the way she’s taking to the rituals of it all and a greater, quieter, understanding of what it means to serve in this function with those that have passed. The opening is haunting in its own way as she prepares the body and seeing just her facial expressions as she works through it is engaging – especially comparing her against her first season self. Arya’s still struggling with what she’s doing though, since she doesn’t know what the bodies are being used for, and she’s wanting to get into learning what she truly wants here but finds that everyone keeps telling her she’s not ready. And it is apparent she’s not ready to play the Game of Faces as it’s all about wholly committing to a role and becoming it. The question of “who are you?” takes on a very different meaning here. Her time with Jaqen as she talks about herself, attempting to insert lies into it, shows that she has much to do before she can be convincing. It’s a wonderful sequence as it unfolds because of the starkness of it all, and as she embraces her role a bit more later in offering a quiet and calm death to a young girl that she will have to take care of her body with later on.
That opens doors for Arya, quite literally, as Jaqen is now ready to bring her further into this world, which is disturbing enough with its visuals as they descend further down into the world beneath the House. It’s here that she learns the truth with the hundreds and hundreds of faces that exist there from all the bodies that they’ve taken care of over the years. It’s hauntingly beautiful, especially as Arya takes it in and realizes the depth of it all, as there’s a real attraction to what it represents and the way she can truly become someone else.
Tyrion and Jorah’s journey is one that takes some time to get going again, but before they move on they spend some decent time talking together and actually getting to know each other a little. It’s done to bring each of them up to speed on different things, particularly for Jorah to learn about his father and the fate he met in the North. The location for this continues to be beautiful and the performances are great as they deal with exposition that really does little more than recap, but in a way that really works well. For Jorah, his reveal is the change he went through in losing his cynicism after seeing what Dany went through in the birth of the dragons and her own not being burned. The two in their journey in talking about this is really fun to watch though since we get Tyrion’s particular snark about the whole situation. A situation that gets worse when they stumble across slavers by accident and get taken in by them.
Though that at least takes an amusing turn as through a little conniving and dealing, Tyrion convinces them to take them to Slaver’s Bay to have Jorah fight in the pits to earn a fortune for him since Jorah has quite the reputation, when revealed.
Littlefinger’s return to King’s Landing proves that the city has certainly changed there, with Lancel making it clear that what Littlefinger used to parlay in is not to be had here anymore. Littlefinger just oozes his way through it, but when he spends time with Cersei, the verbal banter between them is a series of burns against each other that leave some impressive marks. Littlefinger definitely knows how to play the game, and using his position with the Vale certainly gives him some new bargaining powers to play with while playing to one angle all while holding to another as we’ve seen. The real reveal here is an enticing one as Littlefinger reveals that he knows of Sansa and reveals what Bolton’s plan is here as it comes across as a series huge stabs in the back to her with what’s going on there. His plan that he suggests is certainly a smart one for the bigger game he plans, but it also makes a lot of sense that earns him even more position should it go his way. His manipulations are certainly grand here, though you get the sense that he has plans within plans.
Jaime and Bronn haven’t had the easiest of rides since coming to Dorne, though they’ve managed well enough in the end to reach the Water Gardens, which feels like it happens far too easily, especially since they basically walk right up to Myrcella as she’s engaging in some serious kissing with Trystane in the gardens. Naturally, it does not go well in the slightest since the Sand Snakes knew of it all and basically were ready to attack. It’s a good bit of swordplay and whips with the mix going on here, especially as Bronn does well to hold his own overall and fight dirty, but there’s some good choreography here to make it quite engaging to watch since he doesn’t hold back. But there is a rift within Dorne, as we’ve seen, and the arrival of Doran’s forces brings the fight to an end, though not without some choice words all around, including Bronn being rather playful in a way that isn’t going to end well for him.
The arrival of Olenna Tyrell at King’s Landing to deal with Loras being taken by the Faith leads to an absolutely wonderful bit of dialogue with Cersei where you can see that her patience and age has her tired of dealing with Cersei and the patently obviously things she’s doing. When the event moves to an inquest, you see the bigger game that Cersei is playing when Margaery is brought to question herself, as it puts them in a position where saying that Loras is innocent and then proving otherwise changes the nature of everything. Cersei is definitely fun in the way that she plays this, pretending to defend Margaery and the Tyrells, but it all falls apart with Loras taken away and then Margaery. You can see the conflict in Tommen over it as it happens, as Margaery has certainly made an impression on him, but Cersei still holds sway as his mother. It’s an intriguing change to the status quo in King’s Landing to be sure.
In Summary:
With a wedding about to play out in Winterfell, giving us some quality time with Sansa as she takes Myranda down a few pegs and establishes herself well enough, the final act here is an intriguing one with Sansa truly taking a position of power amid the Godswood. The dynamic between her and Theon is really engaging to watch, especially considering the lies and truths between them, and the enormity of the past. The sequence is a wonderful ending piece to the episode overall with its visuals, especially with Sansa done out so elegantly for the North and cleaner in a sense than she has been in some time. The nature of the North continues to evolve and change, and while certainly not what Sansa once envisioned, you can see that she might have her own larger plan in all of this as well. There’s a lot of great movements across this episode in so many ways that even as it avoids the majority of what we had in the previous episode, it has all sorts of ramifications across those arcs as well. Largely calm, largely quiet, there are some beautifully tense moments that just makes you get all a flutter with what truths me really come from all of these actions.
Grade: B+
0 comments