Wildcard:

UNCLE BENJEN!!! Mate, what a pleasure to see you again, champion. Not that anybody though you were dead or anything, especially not this season as little hints and theories of the past have started coming to fruition. I presumed that there’d be a little help for Bran and Meera because, like, otherwise they were simply going to die. That it was Uncy Ben that came to their aid… best case scenario.

First because it means there’s another Stark out there but also largely because he is a forgotten link to that past generation that we know is going to have a major influence on how this story plays out. For example… you reckon he knows who Jon Snow’s mumma is? The one other guy from that era that I’m hoping we get to meet sooner rather than later is the guy we saw Ned fight alongside at the Tower of Joy in a previous episode… Meera’s father Howland Reed. If any living person knows what happens in that tower, it’ll be that bloke.

But the thing is, while we were introduced to Benjen again (for the first time since S01E03 when he helped convince Jon to join the Night’s Watch), that was all we got. He killed some baddies and saved the day, then he gave Bran a drink of some rabbit’s blood (tasty!) and filled in a few blanks. Yes, he was ambushed by Others. Yes, the bastards stabbed him in the gut. But they didn’t get him, the Children of the Forest saved him the same way they created the White Walkers, a good ol’ dragonglass knife through heart. Hey, I wonder if it was Benjen who buried all that dragonglass that Sam and Jon found? Probs, aye.

Dammit though, now what for Benjen and them? Does he know where some more Children are? Do they just go rogue north of the wall and hope the bad guys never find them… because they already found them more than once. Or perhaps they head back south. The thing is, we don’t know because all they did here was introduce a guy and leave them chilling in all their peril.

Okay so Bran’s rapid visions at the start? I freeze-framed what I could and I made out a couple folks digging through potions (reminding me of where Tyrion found the wildfire back when), a dragon flying, who I’m assuming was The Mad King, The Night’s King, zombie wildlings, Bran falling at Winterfell, days passing in fast-motion over the snow, Catelyn’s death, another dragon, a city beneath a dragon’s shadow, Dany with a baby dragon, Craster’s baby getting turned by an Other, then most of that plays again even quicker before Ned Stark is beheaded and we’re back with Branny Boy. For the main event we get a bunch of the same things, then some crows flying, weirwood roots, green potion poured, the Mad King declaring “Burn them all!”, fire in the aisles, the potion pot place back on the shelf, the Kingslayer drawing his sword, young Ned asking of his sister, blood on somebodies hands, Jaime slaying the Mad King, Robb being slayed at the Red Wedding, a crow, back to those two deaths, the Children of the Forest creating the first Other, the Night’s King swinging his sword after Jon last season, a whole bunch of repeated images and then someone running through a northern forest.

If you can see the pattern there then you’re better than me… but the juxtaposition of Starks, Others and Targaryens is pretty enticing. The third set of visions is mostly Others, rising zombies and scary stuff. Umm… I hate the stupid theory that Bran’s responsible for the Mad King’s madness too so not digging those connections, people. Simmer down.

One stray thought: With the vision of that baby being turned still lingering, I am not at all comfortable with Gilly’s son’s blue eyes. Also… that kid’s really aging quickly, isn’t he?

Right, now I’m pretty sure some other things happened too. I seem to recall Dany riding a dragon for no reason, at least she found the bugger again, that’s nice. Mostly though it was yet another rallying call from a person who only ever seems to rally, never any action. Also, I know where she can find 1000 ships but she won’t like the idea.

The biggest revelation of the episode was probably Arya’s though. A girl has a name, it turns out, and all it took for her to remember it was a quick chat with an actress playing Cersei Lannister and it wasn’t her rage that reminded her who she is but a shared moment of empathy, actually. Geez that’s weird. When Lady Crane asked her if she enjoyed pretending to be other people and the actors in a moment were no different to her or Jaqen or the Waif that wants her dead now. Apparently… I reckon that’s a bluff though. Waif was maybe only talking about the Lady Crane contract, whether she tries to kill Arya now or not she won’t be able to. As Jaqen said… a girl has many talents. Or something to that effect. In the books it’s even suggested she might be able to warg like a couple of her brothers. In the show, well, it’ll be needle that is her unexpected skill right here.

I wouldn’t mind seeing more from those actors but they’re probably all doneskees for now. A couple of recognisable faces in that cast too – which reminds me that we still haven’t seen Ian McShane yet. Although that’s likely to happen soon with Cersei’s trial by combat on the way.

On that note… Jaime has been banished to lead an army on Riverrun. As Cersei says, it’s not the worst punishment but guiding his horse up those stairs deserved better, unfortunately for him and the Tarly’s, the Sparrow won. He got Tommen onside and reinforced his power before an adoring crowd. A crowd that I don’t blame at all for siding with the Sparrows over the scummers that have led their city and kingdom politically.

But how legit was Margaery about her newfound faith? She’s always been a schemer and the last time we saw her there seemed no chance she was about to give in and repent, so either something changed dramatically or she saw an opportunity. What she probably didn’t expect was that her family would unite with the Lannisters to save her. From Margaery’s POV she was kinda doomed, so in that light I don’t blame her. Also, while she would have gotten free by their way, she wouldn’t have done it by her own means and she wouldn’t get to be the winner of the whole thing. This way, while she sorta screwed over her family, it’s now her and Tommen in control alone and we all know that Tommen is nothing but a puppet. She straight up owns him now.

As for Jaime, well that Riverrun thing is gonna be a big deal soon, I’m guessing. It had better be because for that cause we had to see Walder Frey again, that grumbling old prick. The Blackfish (Catelyn’s uncle) escaped from the Red Wedding back when and as we learnt from Littlefinger to Sansa, has re-established an army. Word now is that he’s taken back Riverrun. Jaime is off to help the Lannister/Frey alliance reclaim it. Walder also has one major ace up his sleeve with Catelyn’s brother Edmure still held captive.

Brienne, by the way, is currently on her way to Riverrun with Tormund and company. Get ready for a reunion there, a convergence of powers. This is bound to have big ramifications on Sansa and Jon’s northern reclamation act.

As for Horn Hill that entire sequence was kinda unsatisfying. Sam has a dick of a dad, we know this. Spending dinner with him was not a pleasant thing and it all went about as expected. What was the point of bringing Gilly and son back there? Find somewhere else for them to live, I guess the women in his family are pretty cool though. Still, there was nothing triumphant about any of it. Sam sat through some horrible things and didn’t say a word, then he quietly snuck out taking a very valuable sword with him. At least Tyrion shot his abusive daddy with a crossbow for some kind of victory. I’m not liking how Randyll Tarly was set up as Tywin 2.0, we’ve already done that thing.

After last week’s absolutely brilliant episode, this one was a comedown. Setting up the chess board again (or the cyvasse board, fellow book readers). Arya is poised for action, Bran is poised for something, the Riverrun is about to have at least two armies bear down upon it (who knows whether Ramsay will be in on that too, or the northerners that join the Starks?). Even Dany is a talking about returning to Westeros, finally. These episodes about the decisions before the action are always a little hollow but they tend to be followed by incredible sequences so… episode seven, buddy. Should be a belter.

Diggity Doc:

Compared to the action packed hour we got served last week and the other Game of Thrones episodes that jump around all over the show, from one battle to another, from ice to fire and back again, this episode was exactly how the Wildcard described it. Just without the negative vibes that my comrade put in his work above as I love these episodes, even though I understand that people want shit to hit the fan and asap.

Without knowledge from the books, an episode like Blood of My Blood does a great job of setting the scene, which is difficult to do when people are getting killed everywhere we go. While we were taken on a trip around the Seven Kingdoms (a small portion), it all came with the vibe of preparation and this theme took on a few cool pre-violence moments. In King's Landing, after his army marched through some narrow lanes, Mace Tyrell delivered an absolute stinker of a motivational speech that was followed by silence from his troops and a funny look from Jamie.

Compare that to Dany's speech and it's no contest really. 

I choose violence, that's just me though ... and Cersei.

Everyone is preparing for drama, for things to get a bit hectic and it's only right that we had the tempo of the season slowed down before we near the season's climax. This also served the purpose of providing context as to how many of the characters and their storylines could intersect, which has me extremely interested in this Riverrun that the Wildcard spoke of. It seems as though a few characters are converging on Riverrun, characters who don't exactly fit into the big scheme of things in the North and purely based off of what the Wildcard has said, I'm intrigued as to how the possible upcoming antics at this Riverrun place impact the bigger picture.

The ease with which Margaery sided with the High Sparrow sparked an uneasy feeling in my belly. Tommen won me over for a second in recent episodes but he's a weasel and Margaery is the star of the show, strong-willed, smart, determined and with a splash of evil flowing through her veins. That doesn't sound like a young woman who would happily hand herself over to the High Sparrow without some sort of undercover motive, especially with how the various major female characters in GoT generally enjoy pretty powerful positions. Margaery is free though, free from her parents, so too is Tommen and this follows the general theme of the younger characters, led by the Stark children, all playing crucial roles in the wider context.

There are a few power couples (not romantic, just two people teaming up) in GoT that have recently come to be, this could be one of them. Or not.

Who knows if any of y'all actually like the High Sparrow, he talks it up but he's still a bit of a knob. I'd loving nothing more than Margaery pulling a few tricks out at the High Sparrow's expense.

I love castles, so Horn Hill took my heart and had me begging for more depth about everything to do with Horn Hill - that shit looked awesome. What went down inside Horn Hill didn't quite live up to the billing though and surely we won't be let down with what happens now that Sammy boy has escaped with that sword. Sam is a smart dude, he's done a whole lot of reading and the number of people with the sort of knowledge that Sam has - or could have with a little more work - decreases with every episode. Sam knows all about that sword.

Sam knows nothing about 'Needle' though, no one knows much about Needle besides Arya and she's been reunited with her favourite weapon. Obviously she's going to need it fairly soon as she's the hunted and the hunter at the same time, it's probably a nice time to rejoice in that we'll likely get to see Arya really step up, go from 2012 Steph Curry to 2015 Steph Curry. That's legitimately Arya's scope of her potential and we've had to endure a pretty stagnant storyline to wait for Arya to get out and put her prowess to use.

I mean, none of us watched Steph Curry shooting 3's in the gym for weeks and weeks and weeks, did we? We just saw him in the NBA, draining 3's from everywhere because watching him train isn't nearly as exciting as watching him murder the NBA. Arya's been in the gym and we've been watching, checking our phones, mucking around with our own ball, waiting for her to get some game time...

S06E06 Character Rankings:

1. Margaery Tyrell – Shining the light of the faith upon the faithless.
2. High Sparrow – Even if he’s getting played, he’s still winning.
3. Bran Stark – You the real three-eyed raven now.
4. Gilly the Wildling – Girl got herself a new dress on the sly.
5. Arya Stark – Hey, even if they kill her there’s a promise that she won’t suffer.
6. Benjen Stark – But… is he Coldhands? Or is he just Benjen?
7. Lady Crane – You never know when that random act of kindness to a stranger will save your life.
8. Cersei Lannister – Trials by combat are so ridiculous. Damn Lannisters keep milking them.
9. The Blackfish – Getting things done when nobody is looking.
10. Meera Reed – Save some rabbit’s blood for the chick who did all the heavy lifting?