Game of Thrones: S06E07 The Broken Man Review

Warning: spoilers ahead.



This episode doesn't open the show Game of Thrones usually does. Instead of having the kickass opening theme play straight away, it opens with some people building a sept before the camera turns to the Hound carrying a log (I'm pretty sure most fans aren't that surprised about this, especially book fans, I mean...you knew the Hound would never die by Brienne's hand; you knew he'd turn up sometime later), then it gets to the opening sequence. I guess they didn't want us to see Rory McCann's name in the opening credits. Funnily enough, I don't really pay that much attention to the credits in the intro, I'm too busy staring at the 3D animated map of Planetos that pans from King's Landing to Winterfell to the Wall, with all those castles springing into action. I'm usually playing spot the differences with myself when I do that, I ask myself if the map for this episode is different than the map for previous episodes, 'cause it changes from time to time, for instance there used to be a direwolf in Winterfell, now it's the flayed man. If they stuck to their usual format, I probably wouldn't notice Rory McCann's name there.

Anyways, the Hound has left the life of a soldier behind and now he's joined a group of peasants (led by a septon played by Ian McShane)  in the Riverlands. The septon gives us some exposition, he found the Hound lying on the ground, with insects all over his body and his leg bone sticking out, he thinks the gods must have a plan for him (*cough* Cleganebowl *cough*), otherwise they would've let him die by now. The Hound disagrees and thinks if the gods exist, they would've punished him by now, but the septon thinks they already did. I guess what happened to the hound is bad enough. Think about it, he's had insects like maggots and beetles crawling around in his rotting flesh, they're eating it, breeding inside it, and then the larvae hatch, and they start growing and eating him. The Hound knows what's happening, he can feel everything, but he's too weak to do anything about it. That's got to suck.



In King's Landing, Margaery gets a total wardrobe change. You know those really sexy dresses she used to wear? The ones with plunging necklines that showed off her back?



Yeah, she doesn't wear those anymore. Now she just wears this plain teal dress with a really high neckline.



After a talk with the High Sparrow about the Mother, how "herp derp the poor is what we all are, stripped of all the fancy clothes, jewellery and perfume that hide our true nature," how the so called "true path is hard to follow" and how Olenna Tyrell should repent or else...
Margaery gets to go back to the Red Keep, with Septa Unella watching her every move to make sure she's truly a changed woman. She seems to be when she meets up with Olenna and all she can say is how "wrong" they were for marching against the Faith, how merciful the Seven were for not striking them down, how Loras should confess and repent (does that mean another walk of shame? it usually does) so he could live again as a "free man" without his title or his place as the heir of Highgarden, and how Olenna should go back to Highgarden to "find peace in prayer and good work," before she slips a note into her grandmother's hands. The conversation's done, and once Olenna leaves, she unravels the note to find a drawing or a rose.

There's speculation on what it means, I've seen somebody say it's a warning to Olenna, telling her to leave King's Landing (though I don't know home you can go from rose to leave now, I can't make a connection), another far fetched theory said it was a reference to Flowers, the surname for bastards from the Reach and that Margaery is pregnant with Loras' bastard (uh...what? I think they confused Loras and Margaery with Jaime and Cersei, I don't even know how that's possible), someone else thought there were alphabetical letters in the drawing that spelled out home, telling Olenna to go back, but I (and most people on r/asoiaf) think it's a reference to the sigil and words of House Tyrell--Growing strong. Margaery is doing just that, her time in prison hasn't broken her, she's playing the High Sparrow and Septa Unella, she's still scheming and waiting for the right time to strike back. It's a message saying she's still fighting for House Tyrell's side.

I think Margaery's pretty cool and badass in her own way. I used to think out the the three potential younger and more beautiful queen to replace Cersei, Margaery was the most boring one. Dany has the blood of the dragon, three actual dragons, a kingdom to take back, a great destiny ahead, assuming she is the Prince That Was Promised, Sansa has the blood of the First Men, a castle to take back, Littlefinger to outwit, etc. Margaery already had everything--she's a beautiful lady of a powerful noble family, members of her family have a high position in court like Mace Tyrell, she's so much better at manipulating people (Cersei wishes she could be like Margaery); she can nimbly navigate her way through court politics, the people love her. There was no rule for character growth, so I never paid much attention to Margaery, I was too busy speculating about Dany and Sansa's arcs. Now I have some newfound respect for her. Even trapped in a cell with no company but that unbearable Septa Unella and not knowing when she'd be freed, she knew she can't take the easy way out and confess, so she thought of some way to get Tommen involved in a Crown/Faith alliance to get off the hook, and now even under surveillance, she's still finding some way to stay ahead in the game. It takes a lot to accomplish all that under all those circumstances. A lot of people praised Lyanna Mormont for being badass, but I think Margaery deserves some credit too.

But then again...the one who came up with the home theory might have a point, because Olenna Tyrell decides to get out of King's Landing ASAP (I still don't know how you go from rose to leave this place, that's still a pretty far jump to me). Cersei approaches her, and Olenna calls her out on the fact she's not half as clever as she thinks she is. It is glorious, anytime someone calls Cersei out is glorious.



The line about Cersei surrounded by enemies and how impossible it is to kill them all, that one made some people think she'd actually do it, she's been losing since season 5, now that everything's crashing down for her in season 6, they say she'll snap and try to burn King's Landing down with wildfire, and Jaime would save the city again by fulfilling the prophecy of the valonqar and killing her. I hope that's what happens, I'd love to see Jaime turn against her, he deserves so much better than Cersei, and I'd love to see Cersei's face when she realises it's the brother she loved, as opposed to the one she hated. You know what would make it even better? If he strangles her with his golden hand.



In the Riverlands, Jaime and Bronn and their army ride to the Frey camp. Nobody saw them coming, since Frey scouts are incompetent, so Jaime gets mad at them for being the dumbest soldiers ever. But wait! The Freys know how to get the Blackfish to give up, they threaten to hang Edmure if he doesn't, but the Blackfish knows his nephew is the last card the Freys can play and he's a part of their claim to the Riverlands, so he knows they're bluffing. And they are, when they see the Blackfish won't give up Riverrun, their next move is to threaten to slit Edmure's throat. It goes just as well as you think. The Blackfish ignores them, and Jaime calls them out for making threats they can't carry out. When a Frey soldier says he doesn't care what Jaime thinks, Jaime smacks him and shuts him up. Then he tries to form a treaty with the Blackfish, saying that if he yields, Jaime would let his men live, but the Blackfish refuses, he was born in Riverrun and he'd die in it before he gives it to Jaime, who says they'd break through the walls, but the Blackfish is sceptical, the walls are thick and Riverrun has enough provision for two years.

The Blackfish's pretty cool. He's still fighting for his house even though its glory days are long gone (Hoster, Catelyn and Lysa are dead and Edmure's a prisoner), it's easy to admire a guy that never gives up, plus he gets some cool lines like "as long am I'm standing, the war's not over."



In the North, some of the wildlings don't want to fight in another southern war, but they're convinced when Tormund tell them if they don't, Ramsay will skin them all alive, that changes their minds. Wun-Wun even pledges his alliance by saying "snow." Wun-Wun's great. The books said every Northmen soldier was worth ten Southrons, I say one Wun-Wun is worth a hundred soldiers. He's definitely going to come in handy, I'm 9001% sure.

I can already picture Ramsay boasting "I have an army" and Jon replying "we have a Wun-Wun."

Sansa and Jon make their way to Bear Island to get Lyanna Mormont to join them. She's the one who wrote Stannis the note telling him "Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is Stark," and you think she'd join the straight away, but she's against them, as "it's not her fight." Nothing Sansa or Jon says can convince her, but Davos comes in and says the real fight's between the White Walkers and the race of Men, the White Walkers are coming, as long as the Boltons hold Winterfell, the North will be divided and a divided North is a North that would fall (hmm...that reminds me of something Ned once said to Arya, when winter comes the lone wolf will die but the pack survives, Northmen gotta stick together if they want to live). This convinces her, and she pledges sixty-two good men to their cause.

Unfortunately, they don't get lucky at Deepwood Motte, the place of House Glover. Lord Robett Glover won't help, no matter what. House Bolton helped his get his house back when the Ironborn invaded, House Stark did nothing, so he's siding with the bad guys. We don't see any more negotiations, but Jon says at the end of the day they have two thousand wilding soldiers and a few hundred northern ones. I assume some other houses sided with the Starks. Jon says they'll have to make do with what they have and attack Ramsay before the snow gets deeper, but Sansa thinks they need more people, so she writes a letter presumably to Littlefinger.

That's what it looked like and at first I thought that's who she wrote to, but when I thought about it, I thought it was more likely she wrote to the Vale soldiers in Moat Cailin or Lord Robin Arryn himself. Sansa hates Littlefinger, and now that she's no longer a naive summer child, she knows going back to Littlefinger would be a bad strategy. He'd just be like "I told you so," nothing good would come out of that, and she'd just be under his thumb again.

The gathering soldiers part of "The North Remembers" plan involves pitting the Starks good, honourable reputation against the Bolton's terrible one. House Stark doesn't just have a good reputation in the North, they have do in the Vale too, because one of them was fostered there. Sansa can use that to her advantage, all she has to do is convince them in a letter that having the largest part of the Seven Kingdoms under Stark rule would be so much better than Bolton rule. Revenge would be a good motivator too, 'cause the lords of the Vale loved Ned Stark.

As for Robin, Sansa must know that kid's easier to manipulate than the lords of the Vale, and he holds more power too, meaning once she convinces him to help (which can't be too hard considering all it took for him to march against the Boltons is "Sansa is my cousin"), he can make the Vale soldiers fight for the Starks.



In Volantis, Yara and Theon are at a brothel. Turns out, Yara's a lesbian (or at least bisexual). Theon looks like he wants to run out of there as fast as he can. I don't blame him at all, after what he's been through, a brothel would definitely be the last place he wants to visit. Why the hell does Yara even bring him there? I'll bet it's just to torment him, they literally could've gone anywhere in Volantis.

Yara tries to deal with Theon the best way she can--by pouring him a drink and telling him "I want your old self back, if that's not possible, kill yourself; slit your fucking wrists already if you're gonna be like this for the rest of your life." That's her approach to a guy that's been flayed, tricked into thinking he's been rescued only to be led back to the torture chamber; that was some maximum level mental torture, tricked into revealing his secrets to the guy who'd become his torturer, castrated, forced to become Reek, forced to watch Ramsay rape Sansa etc. "Kill yourself if the old you can't come back," that's her advice. That's messed up.

Anyways, Yara has her own plan to get the Salt Throne. Take the fleet she stole to Dany before Euron can get there.



In Braavos, Arya bribes a ship captain from Westeros into sailing home. Then she walks through the city and she stops at a bridge to gaze at the scenery around her. For some reason, she doesn't even have Needle with her. Hey, you've got these faceless assassins on your tail, they could be anyone, anywhere, shouldn't you be a bit more vigilant? Before she can heed my advice, an old lady approaches her and stabs her in the gut. It's the Waif, and then she twists the knife in. So much for not causing her pain. The Waif's terrible, as a Faceless Man you're supposed to be very, very apathetic, but the Waif seems to have it out for Arya for some reason. Anyways, Arya gets herself out of the Waif's grasp, and she leaps over the bridge into the water.

She emerges from the water in another area of Braavos, where the Waif's nowhere to be seen. Arya's stumbling through the city, dripping blood everywhere, no one's helping her, these guys know Braavos, they're probably used to seeing random attacks by the Faceless Men, so they don't step in, 'cause no one wants to make an enemy of the Faceless Men.

There's two theories on what will happen from here on. Either Lady Crane will conveniently by in the part of the city Arya's currently in, she'll recognise her as the one who saved her life and return the favour, or that wasn't Arya who got stabbed. I'm for the latter. Arya's not acting like I said, like how you'd expect someone on the run to act. She retrieved Needle in the previous episode, she knows the Faceless Men are after her, she knows just how dangerous they are, and she's not suicidal, there's no reason for her to not have Needle. Second, the way Arya walks like a rich person, that is to say, carelessly, like she's just having a normal stroll around. As I said, she knows what she's dealing with, she's not suicidal, there's no reason for her to not be looking around, being a bit more suspicious of her surroundings. Third, how does Arya even have the money to bribe a Westerosi captain? That makes me say this: I'm all for the theory that it was really Jaqen. Faceless Men get paid a lot, it'd make more sense for Jaqen to have money.

Jaqen's noticed how the Waif hasn't been acting the way a Faceless Man should, so he's set up a secret test of character for her, and he's disguised himself as Arya. By literally twisting the knife, the Waif has proved to Jaqen that she's the one who's not ready.

Fourth, in the preview for No One, the next episode, Arya does another leap.



I don't think she can manage that if she had those stab wounds.



Back in the Riverlands, the septon's preaching about how he used to be a soldier that followed orders no matter how cruel they seemed to be, how he only stopped after how ashamed he felt after he mercilessly killed some old lady's sons, and how it's never to late to start as a new, changed man. That attracts the attention of these three guys from the Brotherhood without Banners. They claim to be "protecting the smallfolk" and they ask for horses but the septon says they don't have that or anything valuable, just some food if the Brotherhood wants to join them for supper. The Brotherhood Without Banners guys then ride away before telling them to stay safe, for "the night is dark and full of terrors."

Hey, isn't that something R'hllor followers say? And don't R'hllor followers like to burn non-believers alive? Yeah...these guys better watch out, but I bet the Hound can fight them off, right? He's the Hound, and the septon's a soldier too, but he's unwilling to fight, even if it is to save his life. That's pretty naive, and it doesn't work because there's always another guy who's all too willing to take advantage of that and kill you. The Hound feels the same way as I do, and he calls the septon out for his naivete, but the septon says killing's a disease and you don't stop it by doing more killing.

The Hound goes back to working, chopping wood to be specific, for the night is dark and temperatures are low. He hears some screaming so he runs back to find everyone dead and the septon hanged in his own unfinished sept. The sight of the guy that set him on the right path (or tried to in my opinion, I still think his philosophy on not killing is stupid) makes the Hound set foot for the Brotherhood Without Banners, so he can kill the all for revenge.

That'd be awesome to see next. Until then...