Two Against the World - "Book of the Stranger" Review

It seems that this episode is full of siblings trying to regain power and control over what was lost or taken from them. Sansa Stark and Jon Snow, Theon and Yara Greyjoy, Margaery and Loras Tyrell. Let's not go over everything the Starks lost, since that encompasses most of Books 1-3 of the series and there's just isn't enough space, but Theon and Yara are also struggling to regain control over the Iron Islands (Theon is mostly trying to pick up the pieces of his broken self first though), and then there's Loras and Margaery who are cruelly tortured by the Sparrows sect and are trying to keep it together in the face of the fanatic sect which keeps them as prisoners. But let's go over each one of these "siblings in distress" plots by itself -

Episode four of Season 6 starts with a reunion of Sansa Stark and Jon Snow. Finally, we get a happy Stark moment; a small ray of hope in the otherwise bleak history of House Stark. Sansa immediately tries to persuade Jon Snow to join her in conquering their besieged Winterfell from the hands of Ramsay Bolton. Even more than the reunion I liked the "new Sansa" much better than her old whiny self. No more falling head over heals in some pseudo-medieval, ridiculous tween infatuation while ignoring everything important. Sansa wants a piece of the action. Maybe Petyr Baelish did not waste his good advice on a mindless Tween after all. Speaking of Baelish, he does make an appearance in this episode. It is unclear what his plans are, he keeps his cards so close to his chest one truly wonders whose side he is on (he is on his own side), but he manages to convince the weakling Robert "Sweetrobin" Arryn, Lysa Arryn's son with his Eyrie army, to come rescue his favorite cousin, Sansa. Good to have Baelish back in the game.

However, one thing is slightly troubling in this whole Sansa/Jon scenario  - their planning of a military advance on Winterfell bring to mind Catelyn Stark and Robb Stark - both had such good ideas when it came to strategy in battle yet their time was cut short at a most memorable wedding. If there's one thing this show taught me is not to rejoice too soon. It might be a coincidental echoing of Robb and Catelyn, so let's just hope that the Jon and Sansa duo will succeed better then their predecessors in their conquests.

Theon Greyjoy manages to get to Pyke. Congrats. Homecoming is successfully completed (sans private parts, though, Yikes!). His voyage on the ship which takes him back to his childhood home (from which he was taken prisoner by Ned Stark prior to season 1 events) is reminiscent of Odysseus' return at the end of the Odyssey. Odysseus arrives at his kingdom as a beggar to find his wife Penelope besieged by suitors and no one but the dog to recognize him. Theon arrives at Pyke, his home, completely devastated by Ramsey, he admits to his sister, Yara, that Ramsey broke him and his arrival is just in time for the Kingsmoot when Pyke's next ruler is to be chosen. Theon's reunion with Yara is less warm than that of Jon and Sansa (that's an understatement). Frankly, she is ready to bite his head off for showing up and messing with her plan to rule the Iron Islands and bringing back the painful memories of all the men she lost trying to get what's left of him back from Ramsey. Thoen persuades Yara he wants to help her win the throne and he is not going to interfere with her plans at all.

Margaery Tyrell is allowed to visit Loras after hearing another tale of "reject your worldly goods" from The High Sparrow. At first, it seems that Margaery is captivated by the story, in which the High Sparrow found his faith (after a night of drink and debauchery, of course), but then when she is taken to her brother she implores Loras Tyrell to remain strong and still very much clings to the hope of redeeming their family and family name. Loras is not as mentally sound as Margaery, but perhaps her strength will suffice for them both. Margaery's withstanding of the Sparrow's religious fanaticism acts of attrition puts her on an equal footing (and perhaps in a superior position) to that of Cersei Lannister in terms of her mental composure and tactical understanding. Cersei, her main rival and the reason she is at the Sparrow's prison in the first place, should watch out because once Margaery is back at the Red Keep, there's no knowing of what she may be capable of.

In the meantime, Margaery's and Loras' predicament brings about a ceasefire between two old rivals - Cersei Lannister and Olenna "the Baddass Grandma" Tyrell (Olenna poisoned Joffrey, Cersei's annoying son). Both agree that Margaery cannot be made to do a "walk of shame"; it will be destabilizing to the already weak monarchy in King's Landing. From a deeper perspective perhaps Cersei and Olenna are only different on the surface - both want what is best for their own family and are driven by their will to see their family do well. Cersei recognizes that they have this quality in common and decides to use Margaery's predicament to achieve a temporary ceasefire with the Tyrells in hopes of regaining control over King's Landing and kicking some zealots' ass.

Besides some sibling action (ewe, not the Cersei/Jaime kind), things were warming up in Essos...

Tyrion Lannister is still trying to bring peace to Meereen. Why does he bother? Unclear. At the end of last season he didn't care about anything after having to kill his treacherous girlfriend Shae and dad Tywin Lannister and nearly drank himself half to death trying to drown those bad memories. Suddenly, he is interested in the well-being of the Meereenese? All his mental powers are suddenly invested in Daenerys' affairs? His story arch is making me sad since the most interesting facets of his character are not expressed at all for the past four episodes. And on top of that, the unblemished morality of Grey Worm and Missandei who are outraged when Tyrion is trying to negotiate with the Maesters of the other Slaver Bay cities by buying them off with prostitutes, is annoying. Perhaps this is meant to show how eventually Tyrion manages to convince them and gain their trust, but if that was the purpose of that scene, it could have been done with less repetitive dialogue, especially such dialogue which presents Missandei and Grey Worm as simplistic and politically unsophisticated to the point of embarrassment. Bring Tyrion back to Westeros! Straddle him to a dragon already and fly him over to the good side. Enough with this squabbling over in sandy pyramids no one cares about. Just let Drogon burn everything up and let the Meereenese solve their own slave issues.

And now, the finale - Daario Naharis and Jorah Mormont manage to reach Vaes Dothrak and enter the city (almost got caught, but almost doesn't count). In the meantime, Daenerys Targaryen is set to be brought before the Khals and judged on whether she continues on her journey to become a crone with the Dosh Khaleen or... rape... basically. She meets Daario and Jorah and with the help of a certain Dothraki widow she befriends, manages to get all the Khals locked up within a tent made of flammable reeds and a bunch of torches. Now, that would be a good time to mention that The Mother of Dragons is quite the pyromaniac (it helps that fire doesn't burn her). She offers the Khals one chance to accept her offer and join her quest to the Seven Kingdoms, they offer rape by Khalasar in return. Daenerys politely rejects their proposal by turning them to ash. The Dothraki are in awe and everyone bows down before her and her awesome naked form. The end of the episode is reminiscent of the scene where she walks out of the funeral pyre of Khal Drogo holding three dragons. I liked that her nudity was not presented as erotic in that scene, but rather as fierce. The show finds all kinds of original ways to weave in female nudity but this time the nude didn't feel superfluous or as means of distraction.

The overall episode structure did not bother me this time for some reason. Perhaps since it ended on such a high note with the Dothraki Khal pyre...I'd give this one a 7.7 if I have to rate it.