Summer Moved On - Winter is Coming

This is the halftime folks! The fifth episode of Game of Thrones is here and it is an eventful one...

If there is a word which can describe this episode accurately, it would be META. The show has taken it up a notch in terms of complicating the narrative structure here and although I will go over the main plot events of this episode, let's first talk about Braavos and the scenes from Beyond the Wall.

In Braavos, Arya Stark is soon to graduate from stick-fighting school with the Waif and is sent on an assassination mission by Jaqen H'ghar. To scout her intended target, a theater actress, she attends a play. In the play, the events from season one we all know and lament are being ridiculed for the enjoyment of the Braavosi public. Her father, Ned Stark, is portrayed as a blundering, power hungry idiot who tries to seize the throne, the death of Robert Baratheon (played by Richard E. Grant, by the way) by a boar is made grotesque by fart pillows and her sister's wedding to Tyrion Lannister is showing the actress portraying Sansa Stark as a bare-breasted prey of Tyrion's lechery. Everything is twisted and made fun of, and frequently between the shots of the actors doing yet another wild scene, there is a short close up of Arya's face, where one can see she is not amused. All that training to become no one, a faceless, nameless assassin cannot put to rest her connection to her own past. Her reaction to the misrepresentation is undeniable. Arya Stark is still very much Arya Stark.

I don't want to give the creators of GoT too much credit...but I have to bring it up - this scene is reminiscent of "The Mousetrap", the play within a play in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet wants to cause his murderous step father to confess to murdering the king, Hamlet's father, and therefore he asks a troop of actors to stage a play before him that shows the king's brother poisoning the king. The play brings out a strong reaction from Hamlet's step dad which provides him with sufficient proof for the murder. The idea that a bunch of actors, a stage and artificial settings and well-delivered lines can cause a genuine emotional response, is the first instance of META in this episode. In the same way the play within a play in Hamlet implies something about the entire play, the play Arya sees says something about the entire Game of Thrones TV show. That although there is a ridiculous amount of boobs and over the top, convoluted plots, the emotional response the audience has is genuine.

Later, Arya goes backstage and then...a wild penis appears. A close up shot of a dude looking at warts on his penis. Yes, they went there. The show's creators are responding in their own way to the criticism made so many times about the profuseness of female nudity on the show and the complete absence of male nude shots. So there you have it, a random penis. And then another actor guy is talking to the "actress" who plays bare-chested Sansa about her less than convincing line delivery to which she responds that she has "only two lines" and he replies by saying the immortal "there are no small parts, only small actors". Hey there "Brothel Attendant #4" and "Unsullied #12" and "Member of the King's Guard #3", this one is dedicated to you. In the short span of this scene the show's audience was exposed to three gestures of metafiction. And if they actually thought of Hamlet, hats off to them. Just this one scene makes this episode great.

And now the scenes with Bran Stark from beyond the wall - he is still with The Three-Eyed Raven being shown flashbacks when a really good reveal comes up. He sees the Children of the Forest - the original inhabitants of Westeros, create the first and most fearsome White Walker - The Night King. They are actually the ones who are responsible for the zombie apocalypse which is about to befall the world of GoT. So, I have very little sympathy for them when they are getting massacred by those same creations at the end of the episode. Their reasoning for creating an army of the undead - men. A bunch of dudes coming over in ancient times to conquer Westeros. You had magic fire! Why make zombies too? Couldn't win with magic blue fire grenades? Then you should happily skip along to your own extinction. It was a fun reveal there.

And the episode ended with quite a scene...probably the best action scene so far in Season 6 - the White Walkers and their Winter Kings appearing at the Three-Eyed Raven's doorstep, cause Bran decided to go mind surfing unattended. Bran crawls over to the tree roots and is transported to a bleak terrain with a looooot of zombies and the Night King grabs his arm. Bran wakes up, but it is too late. The freaky dude knows where he is hiding and he is coming for Bran. They are preparing to run, but first The Three-Eyed Raven is taking Bran to see a scene in Winterfell and there's Hodor, healthy and young standing at the training yard. While Bran is watching what seems at first to be a pointless flashback flick, the walkers reach their hiding place and a battle ensues. The Children of the Forest throw grenades and Meera Reed is desperately trying to wake Bran up so he can warg into Hodor to help fight the battle against the swarm of zombies. But Bran is annoyingly useless. Eventually, her voice manages to reach Bran within the flashback and Bran wargs into Hodor while the Night's King kills The Three-Eyed Raven. Then the most heart breaking moment happens - Summer, Bran's dire wolf sacrifices herself to save Meera, Hodor and Bran. Only Ghost remains of all the Stark dire wolves. This leads to the next mind blowing moment - 

With Bran in Hodor's mind, Hodor manages to help them escape through a tunnel and a child of the forest sacrifices herself, Kamikaze style, to aid their escape, but just when they are about to leave the tunnel and close the door behind them, Meera Reed shouts at Hodor to "hold the door" and Hodor in Bran's vision is having a seizure and starts screaming senselessly "hold the door! Hold Door! HODOR!" while present Hodor is torn apart by zombies while trying to hold the door at the end of the tunnel closed.
 Mind. Blown.

Simply awesome. Now let's get technical -

The scene at Braavos is what we call "broad metafiction" - it comments on acting and actors within a fictional world by creating a "world within a world" with the fake play. The scene at the end is "narrow metafiction". Hodor's condition is a result of Bran's warging into past Hodor which breaks the time-space continuum of the story. Although GoT introduced a lot of fantastical creatures into its fictional world, the possibility of influencing past events from the present is quite the move. And in the middle of all those fireworks is Hodor's inevitable destiny to hold the door. Quite tragic really.

Both these scenes are a comment on the past and how the past of this show whether it is Arya's family history or Bran's messing up Hodor has very real implications for these characters' present.

Another instance in this episode when the past is brought up is the first scene which shows Sansa Stark confronting Petyr Little Finger Baelish for giving her away as a bride to Ramsey Bolton. While Baelish is trying to make the "let bygones be bygones" argument, Sansa is insisting on bringing up the monstrous way Ramsey treated her and blaming it on Little Finger's cruelty or ignorance. Her pain cannot be put to rest so easily, she implies. Even though it happened in the past, the pain is very real for Sansa in the present and she is not in a forgiving mood. On the other hand, Sansa is still showing herself to be under Little Finger's influence when she takes his advice on reaching her uncle, The Brynden BlackFish Tully in Riverrun to organize a rebellion against Ramsey with his help. How can she trust Little Finger didn't lie to her? She also lies to Jon Snow later on and says she overheard this information from Ramsey, not disclosing the fact of her little rendezvous with Baelish at all. Sneaky Sansa! So, Brienne of Tarth is sent on a mission yet again to find the Blackfish and recruit him to Sansa's cause. I hope that won't cut the budding romance with her and Tormund Giantsbane. The way he looks at her is priceless!

And here's some news from Pyke where Yara Greyjoy and bro Theon are doing their best to make Yara's case to rule the Iron Islands in the Kingsmoot. The main objection to her claim is that she is a woman and no woman ever ruled the Ironborn in the past. They are a sulky people anyway who live on a salty rock in the middle of nowhere...but Yara tries and fails due to the appearance of Euron Greyjoy, her uncle and the dude who pushed her father to the abyss a few episodes ago. He doesn't even deny that he did that. He admits to killing him which immediately wins over a few of those salty heathens. Then he points out that Yara is a woman - an astute observation - and reminds everyone that Theon learned a few fancy words while being away at Winterfell ("gallivanting". Long word. Many syllables). So Yara and Theon fail and immediately decide to GTFO before Euron comes to kill them. He actually wants to do just that after being crowned by drowning (their religion is fascinating! How did they even survive with that Drowned God crap for so long?) but Yara and Theon are already sailing away with some of the best ships of the Iron Fleet. So Euron's reaction is to order the men to cut down any tree they see and build more ships. No trees grow on those rocks you call island, dummy! Too much sea water got into his brain. Euron's bright idea, by the way is to mention that there's this queen oversees with dragons and a rightful hate towards all the rulers of the Seven Kingdoms (Danny) and he intends to marry her and give her the mighty iron fleet. I don't think even drowning yourself will help you with Daenerys. She and her dragons will eat this dude alive.

Speaking of Daenerys Stormborn, this time there's a scene with her (clothed) looking at the Dothraki in the valley and probably considering that it would have been a brighter idea to team up with an army that doesn't fear the sea to achieve her goal of conquering Westeros. But, here comes Jorah "Lord Friendzone" Mormont and confesses his love for her and the fact that he is dying of Greyscale and will soon turn to stone and lose his mind. To which Daenerys says that she commands he to go out and find a cure to his Greyscale. Friendzoning him in the worst possible way. I really am sorry for Jorah. His obsession with Daenerys who is clearly not interested in him romantically is so very very sad. And when he tells her he is dying she just sends him out to the wilderness to "find a cure"??? To an incurable disease??? Even Daario Naharis just stands there with a pitying look on his face as though thinking "dude, just no. Just stop." Poor Jorah. Again, the fate of Hodor at the end of the episode overshadows this friendzone moment.    

Hodor. Hodor. Hodor. 8.9. Hodor.