‘Game of Thrones’ season 6, episode 6 review: Benjen Stark, Walder Frey, and Dany’s dragons
Last time on “Game of Thrones” we saw Sansa and Jon bonding as they set off to gather the resources they need to take back Winterfell, but we also saw a massive white walker army come after Bran and Hodor helping him to escape. In the process, we lost one of the show’s most-beloved characters of all time. Hodor. Hodor. RIP.
Yet, all things must go on with this show, and in our memories, he’ll remain. What is dead may never die. Let’s move on to the events of Sunday night’s new installment.
Bran is back – It’s too bad we cannot say the same aboard Hodor. He’s in a slightly-more-secure state than he was the week before, but that is really not saying much.
Now, the larger question is who saved him, and that is what will make more people have their hair stand on end: Benjen Stark! The famous Stark, who has long been gone on the show, was brought back at the request of the now-deceased Three-Eyed Raven. It’s better than the last time he was mentioned, which in turn led to the “death” of Jon. Benjen’s smarter than the average Stark, so his return comes at a welcome time.
Sam is LOADED – As it turns out, Sam’s family, including his brother Dickon and his sister Talla, really do have quite a bit of money behind their name! It was enough to send Gilly into a state of shell-shock. Getting dressed up, and then subsequently hearing all sorts of terrible things spit at him courtesy of his father. What a horrible person this guy is, which is why it was SO satisfying to seem him fight back. Rather than having Gilly stay with Little Sam, they all took off, with Sam snatching the family sword in the process. Glorious.
Arya’s mission – As you may recall, she was ordered to take out Lady Crane as one of the ways in which she could prove herself at the House of Black and White. However, here’s the twist: Arya seems to rather like her, and therefore did not exactly want to follow the mission as laid out. Therefore, there’s now a metaphorical price on her own head, and this will be a pain that she has to feel moving forward.
A new alliance – Who knew that Margaery Tyrell and King Tommen would be able to forge a plan of their own? Maybe this is the High Sparrow’s manipulation, or maybe this was Margaery and her husband ensuring that there was no bloodshed. The unfortunate news here is that the High Sparrow is now in power more so than ever before, which probably is not great news for those of you out there who get incredibly frustrated by this story … which we don’t blame you for.
As a result of this move, Jaime was told to go to the Riverlands, where he will have his own part to play there. Remember the Blackfish and Walder Frey? It’s been a long time we’ve seen either one of them on the show, but they are now back in a big way as this region will become a big focus moving forward.
Dany’s got her dragon back – Well, one of them! This was the end of the episode, but we wouldn’t quite call it a gut-punch like last week with “hold the door.” Instead, it was more of a “give us a dragon” moment, something the show needed but hasn’t given us in some time.
In the end, “Blood of My Blood” may be remembered more for its big returns (Walder, Benjer), bringing the Riverlands back into play, and showing the new High Sparrow alliance. It was solid entertainment, and yet somewhat of a slower episode after what we just experienced. Grade: B+.
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