It’s finally here, the season premier for Game of Thrones season six. But oddly enough, there doesn’t seem to be much fanfare around it, perhaps because fans are both fearful and excited as to what this gory season of Game of Thrones will bring them. I’m not going to do a recap of what happened last season (you can go here for that) and instead dive into the thick of the first episode of the season which is called “The Red Woman”. This episode is as usual written by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, the show’s helmsmen who have steered it into and out of plot lines faster than book readers can take offence from. I’ll be honest, I’m a book purist, but the fact that the show is now nearly in its entirety deviating from the fabled prophecies of George R.R. Martin, I’m quite tantalised. The episode is directed by Jeremy Podeswa, who has directed two previous episodes of Game of Thrones and who has also directed the second episode of this season.
The Red Woman is fantastically shot and features nearly all of the main characters of the season, firmly planting the seed from which they will grow out from during the next couple of episodes. While some notable characters are omitted, like Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, Bran Stark and Asha Greyjoy, the season premiere gives us screen time of nearly every other character on the show that we’ve either come to hate or love, at times both replacing each other as rapidly as the change of regency in Westeros.
Right of the bat we start with Kit Harrington’s corpse lying in the snow, it soon being discovered by Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham) and other members of the Night’s Watch who were loyal to Jon. The group move his body into a room and fetch Ghost to help guard him before Dolorous Edd is sent to round up someone who will help fight the rest of the Night’s Watch, my money is on the wildlings, specifically on Tormund Giantsbane who is probably trying to come to grips with living south of the wall. Things of course never go smoothly in Westeros as the rest of the Night’s Watch confront the leaders of the mutiny and after some yelling back and forth, quickly fall in line with the new leadership aka Ser Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale). To be honest while I like the fact that the show creators are sticking by the unofficial Game of Thrones motto which is “don’t get emotionally invested in any character because they’re probably going to die at some point”, I can’t help but wonder who else other than Jon Snow could potentially lead a defense against the undead army.
So he may be coming back and it figures the only way that could happen is if Melisandre brings him back. Priests and priestesses of the Lord of Light have been seen to bring the dead back to life and as a result many fans concluded that her arrival to Castle Black at the end of the last season was hinting towards this. But enough about Snow. Melisandre (Carice van Houten) is the one character I felt a huge amount of pity towards this episode. It’s heartbreaking seeing her lose faith in her religion, in the flames she believed in and in R’hllor considering that her religion was the main motivating factor for the majority of her decisions and also influenced decisions made by others. As a result of her coming to terms with her loss of faith, she removes an amulet that reveals she’s infact ancient and that her appearance (much like her religion) was a farce. Whether Ser Davos can pull her out of this spiral of decision is something I hope he’s capable of.
South of the wall but still North of the the Neck we see Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) mourn the death of Myranda (Charlotte Hope), his lover, though any tinge of pity you may feel for him is instantly dashed away as he orders her body be fed to the dogs rather than buried or burnt. It’s a very Ramsay thing to do and I kicked myself for thinking he would do something as humane as burying a body. However before any anger can be directed towards Rheon’s character (which he does a superb job of portraying), his father enters and berates him. Roose Bolton is perhaps the only person in the show I detest more than Ramsay; runs in the family I suppose. Michael McElhatton’s character goes about berating his son for losing Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy and does a great job conveying the heartless character that Roose Bolton is. However it is hinted that we may now expect a war between the South, i.e the Lannisters and the North, i.e the Boltons.
Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) spend their debut in the season running away from a pack of dogs and men sent to capture them and bring them back to Ramsay and while they do indeed catch up to them we perhaps see Theon’s moment of atonement as he tries to distract them, giving Sansa a chance to escape. While this ultimately fails, it’s endearing to see Theon think of someone other than himself and I hope the show’s writers play out this character development. Luckily the escapees recapture is thwarted by the timely arrival of Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and everyone’s favourite lackey, Podrick (Daniel Portman). And thus begins the first sword fight of the season and it’s an excellent one thanks to the stunt team at HBO. Before the blood even begins to seep into the ground Brienne once again offers her sword and allegiance to Sansa, who this time accepts it thus beginning a new posse, one that has different dynamics that’s sure to bring about internal strife, but the important question is which direction will they head in?
Further South we arrive in King’s Landing and the Lannisters where the death of Myrcella breaks Cersei (Lena Headey) whose grief pushes her to the brink before she’s consoled by Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). What’s odd is that these are two of the characters I detested all the way back in season one but Jaime’s lack of a hand and Cersei’s new haircut seemed to have grown on me and I wish they carve a big chunk out of Dorne. The loss of another child of there’s makes me believe that we haven’t seen half of what they’re capable of, assuming they can redirect their grief and channel it as anger instead.
Also in King’s Landing is the captive Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) who is being lectured upon by a zealous septon before the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) walks in and drops his daily dose of wisdom. I for one don’t believe that Margaery is contemplating spending the entirety of the season in jail nor that she’s not plotting revenge against Cersei, but unfortunately the few minute of screentime she was awarded this episode didn’t really give us anything substantial.
Dorne. I’m not sure what the writers were thinking of doing with Dorne and now we have an answer. Death. Not just for Prince Doran (Alexander Siddig) and his son Trystane (Toby Sebastian) but for the entire nation, or that’s what the Sand Snakes plan on doing. It’s a shame really, Prince Doran is one of those characters in the books who truly captivates the reader and whose arc is actually important to the course of the series but here we see the show make its first big leap away from the books and it’s not in a direction I like.
Meanwhile across the Narrow Sea in Braavos, Arya (Maisie Williams) is coming to terms with being blind. Of course her days of a being a blind beggar can’t simply go on as she must practice her kendo training with another disciple of the House of Black and White. To be honest, we all knew that Arya being blind was another test set before her in the style of the Karate Kid. Again she’s one of the few prominent characters in this episode that only gets a token amount of screentime that honestly reveals nothing.
Further South in Meereen, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is trying to come to grips with being a new found regent after Daenerys departure at the end of the last season. Luckily he has Varys (Conleth Hill) helping him; the two have one of the best on screen dynamics in the entire show, both are incredibly smart, manipulative and, in their own ways, brave. Furthermore Varys seems to be the only person Tyrion trusts, begrudgingly for sure, but it’s great to hear their back and forth banter about eating kids and castration. Alas though, Meereen is still a dangerous city and it’s up to Tyrion to root out the Sons of the Harpy before Daenerys’ returns to the city whilst also keeping the general populace under control and fed as work seems to have ground to a halt.
Hopefully Daenerys won’t be missing for long as her current lover, Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman), and victim of unrequited love, Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen), are hot on her trail, coming across the place she was captured by a Dothraki riders and finding her ring. I’m not entirely sure what the two plan to accomplish but if anyone can sneak into Vaes Dothrak and rescue Daenerys it would be these two, though I have a feeling Jorah’s time in the show may come to an end as he is also suffering from Greyscale, the disease young Shireen Baratheon was suffering from.
But the rescue plan may be a moot point because it’s Daenerys “Stormborn” Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Mother of Dragons and a number of other great titles. Knowing how Daenerys operates I wouldn’t be surprised to see her riding back to Meereen at the head of the Khalasar of the yet unnamed Khal. On a side note it was hilarious seeing his bloodriders state the number of great things a guy can do. However unfortunately for Daenerys the current Khal isn’t entirely accommodating of her wishes, intending to return her to Vaes Dothrak to live with the other widows of dead Khals. But the road between their current location and the Dothraki city is presumably long and could span at least another two episodes, episodes where something may happen.
As I stated above, the episode is a great stepping stone for the season but screen time is sadly short for most characters this episode, with many not appearing. Furthemore they absolutely butchered the Dorne storyline after painstakingly laying the seeds for it back in season 5. That being sad, it did give us an idea of where most characters are, both in location and story. Also, I made the mistake of assuming the bloodshed wouldn’t start so soon but HBO have a way of reminding you that you’re not watching any ordinary show.
