Yes, we've officially reached
Mid-Season Lull. This wasn't a terrible episode – the Hound is back ! –
but The Broken Man was nonetheless Game of Thrones at its most cautious
and meandering.
Pieces were manoeuvred on the
chessboard, a fuse was lit for conflagrations to come, a random topless
prostitute chucked in for old time’s sake. Once again there was a sense
Game of Thrones was steeling itself for battles – and expensive
set-pieces – chugging down the track. A storm is brewing – for now, we
were invited to enjoy what remains of the calm.
The Hound returns!
What strange sorcery was this – a cold opening? Amid the endless
beheadings, betrayals and nudity, we have always been able to count on
Game of Thrones kicking off with the anthemic swell of Ramin Djawadi’s
theme. However, the Broken Man earned its departure from convention by
giving us…the Hound! Left for dead by Arya at the end of series four,
Sandor Clegane lived – and, more than that, was fully-signed up to a
sack-cloth favouring peace cult. It has been a surprise-packed season
yet, even by the standards of recent reveals, here was an upset to
savour. Who wants to be the one to tell Arya?
Speaking of Arya…is the Stark princess about to be killed off?
This deep into Game of Thrones
it's increasingly straightforward to predict which characters are
crucial to the final resolution of George RR Martin’s bittersweet epic. Arya is clearly meant to see the thing through
and, riveting though it was to watch to watch her ambushed by the Waif,
it's hard to feel the Stark princess is in genuine danger. Yes, she's
been knifed and almost drowned – but it is going to take more than a
stabby-stabby encounter with the Faceless Men to scrub Arya from the
picture. You wonder why the show is even pretending that her survival is
in question.
Ian McShane was the perfect Game of Thrones tragic hero.
The
craggy veteran caused a stir earlier in the year when he dismissed Game
of Thrones as "tits and dragons" (not inaccurate yet missing the point
slightly). But he was perfect as the short-lived peacenik preacher
who had taken the Hound under his wing. Admittedly viewers of a certain
age will have felt they had stumbled upon that episode of Lovejoy where
McShane solves a murder among a club of medieval recreationists (the
mullet lives!).
For the rest, he was a unique prospect – a spiritual leader who did
not claim to have all the answers. Of course, this man of the cloth was
in the end hung from a post by the Brotherhood Without Banners, his
flock cruelly cut down – which rather took away from his hippy-dippy
message. How frustrating, moreover, that our introduction to McShane
should be a farewell too.
The Jaime-Bronn bromance is back on
The Kingslayer was wasted mooching around King's Landing whispering
icky nothings to Cersei. Leading the siege against the Blackfish, Jaime
was in his element and, presumably chuffed to be back in his cool
armour, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau chewed on the material with relish. With
trusty sellsword Bronn at his back Jaime cut a deliciously antiheroic
figure, especially in his face-off with the rebellious Lord Tully. With
the truly riveting action unfolding south of the Wall and at King’s
Landing, the Riverlands storyline looks like one massive placeholder on
the part of show-runners David Benioff and DB Weiss. Thank goodness
Jaime-Bronn (Jronn? Baime?) are on hand to make it all watchable.
Margaery is faking it to make it
Natalie Dormer continues
to excel as the elusive Margaery, the scheming queen ostensibly reborn
as an acolyte of the High Sparrow. Viewers of the opinion that her
conversion was a ruse were vindicated as she slipped a confirmatory note
to her aunt, Lady Olenna. It was meanwhile heartening to learn that
Margaery was exploiting her pretend religiosity to wriggle out of wifely
duties with boy-husband Tommen (prompting a toe-curling “is everything
alright in the bedroom department?” intervention from the High Sparrow).
One of the emerging themes of the season is brutalised women taking
ownership of their destiny. In her own subtle way Margaery is seizing
control of her fate as surely as Sansa and Arya.
Watch out Ramsay, the Wildlings are coming.
With Brienne no longer around as dreamy distraction, Tormund
Giantsbane had his head back in the game and was persuading his fellow
Wildlings to march with Jon Snow against House Bolton. This was heady
stuff, a sequence that could have felt perfunctory given real dramatic
weight. "Snooow" grunted Wun Wun the giant as he proclaimed his
allegiance – the best monosyllabic dialogue since (sob) Hodor's speech in episode five. We met Ser Jorah’s extended family.
Daniel Tuite as Lothar FreyCredit:
Helen Sloan/HBO
There was a great scene as Jon
and Sansa pleaded with the preteen head of House Mormont to ally against
Ramsay. She correctly pointed out that neither Jon (a bastard) or Sansa
(technically Mrs Ramsay Bolton ) were Starks. It was a moment for Ser
Davos to shine and persuade House Mormont to come on board – if not for
the good of the Starks, then to protect the North against the looming
White Walker threat. But.. but… what of family blacksheep Ser Jorah you
shouted at the screen? Had he sent word regarding his ongoing research
into the incurable Greyscale? Were he and Daenerys in a long-distance
relationship now? Hang Jon Snow’s leadership woes – these were the
questions that really needed answering.
Jon Snow's recruitment drive isn't going to plan
Sansa and Jon attempted to win over House GloverCredit:
Helen Sloan/HBO
"Where was King Robb when the Ironborn attacked this castle," asked
the head of House Glover. "I served House Stark once but House Stark is
dead.” Once again Game of Thrones reminded us of the great, grim truth
underpinning the series. Heroic deeds are good only for songs and boozy
reminiscing. It's what happens next that really counts. Jon Snow died
and returned, Sansa had survived Ramsay's depredations. Yet here they
were, begging the houses of the North to come to their side only to be
rebuffed at every turn. After overcoming impossible odds, might it be
the small details that prove their undoing? How very Game of Thrones
that would be.
Yara and Theon's plan is crazy - but it just might work
You don't have to be original to win the game of thrones - just quick
and ruthless So we learned as we caught up with Yara and Theon in an
excruciating brothel scene that mostly consisted of Theon pulling faces
as he remembered Ramsay had made sausage meat of his genitals (possibly
literally). They'd borrowed murderous uncle Euron Greyjoy's plan of
striking up an alliance with Daenerys across the Narrow Sea – she would
get the boats she needed to bring the Dothraki to Westeros, they would
have the use of her dragons as they reclaimed the Iron Islands. What
could possibly go wrong.
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