(This review contains
spoilers)
The new season of Game
of Thrones opens with the aftermath of Jon Snow's (Kit
Harrington) assassination by Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) and the rest
of the Night's Watch who deem him a traitor for allowing the
wildlings through the gate. With Jon out of the way, we get some more
focus on Thorne, Olly and Davos, who've been kept to the
sidelines till now.
Thorne's speech about
doing what he sees is right for the Watch – contrasting with Jon's
view of what's right – poses some interesting questions that I hope
will be explored more in the season. For Thorne, Jon's radical
overtures to the wildlings went against one of the key principles of
the Watch – yet in trying to protect those principles, Thorne and
his men have committed their own act of treachery. It seems this
paradox will be the focus of this season's Watch subplot.
For the first time,
Thorne is given a motivation for his actions beyond being an asshole.
Olly (Brennock O'Connor), likewise, has his own personal reasons for
killing Jon. Yet by avenging his parents, Olly shows his partisanship
in affairs of the realm, another taboo of the Watch.
There's two massive holes
in Thorne's argument though. The Watch are already well aware of the
growing threat of the Others, so surely they'd decide the wildlings
were the less of two evils. And if Jon's assassination was done to
prevent a catastrophe, Thorne and his men are a little late –
because the wildlings are already through the gate! The
catastrophe they've feared has already arrived, and they've just
killed the only man who could have brokered a peace between the two
sides. The show might be trying to portray Thorne as misguided, but
he just comes off as an idiot.
That said, I'd still be
interested to see a civil war within the Watch, which, with half the
men calling Thorne the traitor, seems a likely outcome.
Davos (Liam Cunningham) is also given more to do this episode, which is great as you can
never have too much Davos Seaworth. That said, it does seem a little
odd that he should suddenly become so concerned with protecting the
corpse of a guy he barely knew. You'd have thought Davos would still
be recovering from the loss of Shireen, Stannis and the entire army.
He is effectively a fugitive now with no king to support him, and by
rebelling against Thorne he's closing off the possibility of joining
the Watch – perhaps the only chance of survival he has left.
Really, there was no reason for Davos to carry those scenes at all.
Dolorous Edd (Ben Crompton) could have taken his place, and there's
another character who I'm never unhappy to see around.
Melisandre's (Carice Van
Houten) psychological breakdown following her two failures
(supporting the wrong Azor Ahai and failing to protect the real one)
are at least a realistic reaction in the midst of all these weird
character turns. It's also refreshing to see Melisandre scared and
unsure of herself for once. That rapid ageing at the end only adds to
the lack of uncertainty about what will happen next.
Paralleling the
assassination of Jon is the assassination of Prince Doran Martell
(Alexander Siddig), and his son Trystane. Ellaria (Indira Varma) and
the Sand Snakes are tired of Dorne being run by weak, complacent men
and plan to lead the kingdom against the Lannisters.
This is certainly a
gripping setup . . . not that I have any confidence in Ellaria's
coup. Indeed, I expect the four of them to meet some gruesome fate
after such a spectacular miscalculation that's on par with Joffrey
taking off Ned Stark's head. I'll give D&D the benefit of the
doubt and assume we're not meant to see these killings as “badass”,
or Ellaria's pretensions about a new golden age for Dorne. By killing
both the prince and his heir, they've not only extinguished the
Martell line, they've also left Dorne with no clear successor. Being
bastards, the four of them can't legally lead Dorne unless a lord or
lady recognises them. We've so far seen no other Dornish house
willing to make an alliance with them, and apart from Doran's guard
they don't seem to have any connections to speak of.
We'll probably hear of
some as-yet unheard of allies in the coming weeks, but for the
moment, Ellaria and her little band come off more stupid and
irrational than genuinely revolutionary. Indira Varma just about
saves this plot-line, convincingly portraying a ruthless usurper. The
Sand Snakes are still also prominent, unfortunately, and as
indistinguishable as ever. The only entertainment I can see from them
is the expectation of watching as their little power fantasy crumbles
around them.
In the North, Sansa Stark
(Sophie Turner) and Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) are fleeing
desperately from the clutches of Ramsay Snow. Just as they're about
to get recaptured, they're saved by Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline
Christie) and Podrick Payne (Daniel Portman). This was certainly an
intriguing development as we now have four mismatched characters
brought together. It's possible this could be the beginnings of a new
Stark household with Sansa at the head. It would certainly be a nice
change from Sansa being moved two and fro across the board by the
other players.
It will be interesting to
see how Sansa deals with her precarious new position. For the first
time, she's the one in authority and will have to use her own
diplomatic skills to carve out a position of security. I can see
Brienne and Pod using their own experience at court to act as her
counsellors. Sansa's relationship with Brienne will be especially
interesting given Brienne's past service to Catelyn Stark.
Perhaps Sansa will look
to one of the other great houses for help, given the general hatred
of the Boltons. Or maybe she'll lie low in one of the villages and
try to rally the peasantry against them. Given that Sansa has
based her whole life around being a lady up until this point,
forswearing that lifestyle might be the next stage in this trope's
deconstruction.
Whatever else Season 6
may throw at us, this is one subplot that i think is ripe with
potential.
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