Game Of Thrones Recap: S6E10 ‘The Winds Of Winter’

Wow “The Winds of Winter.” Just wow. Some Game of Thrones finales have seen the finale’s pick up the pieces from the epic ninth episode. But this one is just as big and, in terms of impact, much more meaningful. Several storylines were kept at a boil this season and perhaps the greatest surprise of the episode was how many characters got to make appearances. There’s a little something for every Game of Thrones here and that makes it a very powerful episode, (Although I’m sad I got my prediction about the Wall collapsing on the end wrong, but I get why they wanted to end the year teasing Dany’s long-awaited return to Westeros)

For simplicity’s sake, these reviews will be formatted thus: we start in the furthest north and go south – covering the Wall, the North, King’s Landing and the rest of the Seven Kingdoms – and then east, to the Free Cities of Essos and finally, the Dothraki Sea and Slaver’s Bay.

The Wall: Bran, Meera and Uncle Benjen

We haven’t seen Bran since he and Meera got picked up by sorta-kinda-undead Uncle Benjen in the sixth episode. And kinda-sorta undead Uncle Benjen promptly leaves them in front of a weirwood tree close to the Wall, because the undead cannot pass under it. Thank God for that! Oh wait, doesn’t Bran still have the Night King’s mark? Surely he told Benjen . . .

Bran takes the opportunity to test out his new Three-Eyed Raven powers, warging into the Weirwood network to re-witness the Tower of Joy’s aftermath. In the past, his father Ned finds Lyanna at the top of the tower with her haidmaidens, bleeding from birthing her and Rhaegar’s child. She wants him to promise something, because she knows if King Robert found out the truth, her child would die. That child?

Jon Snow.

The North: Jon, Sansa, Tormund, Davos, Melisandre and Littlefinger

Jon and Melisandre are in Winterfell’s great hall when Davos finally confronts her about Shireen’s death. She admits she and Stannis burned her at the stake. Davos demands she be executed for murder. Despite her warnings about the the Long Night, Jon chooses to exile her from the North and Davos promises to personally kill her, should she return. This has been a long time coming and, like many elements in this episode, it was nice to see that many elements thought lost in the shuffle were simply held back for maximum impact.

Watching from the ramparts as the Red Woman leaves, Sansa comes to join Jon. He’s grateful for saving them last episode and she explained her lie about knowing Littlefinger prior to the battle. All Jon wants is for them to trust each other.

Littlefinger approaches Sansa in the Winterfell godswood. He puts on his “charms” and admits what we’ve always known: he wants to sit the Iron Throne. And he wants Sansa to be his queen. She rebuffs his creepy advances but he takes the opportunity to remind her the ramifications of his decision to ally with House Stark. She’ll have to make a decision about what comes next.

In the great halls with all his allies Northern and wildling alike gathered, Jon is left to navigate the political aftermath of the Northern Rebellion. Fortunately, he has a very spunky 10 year-old girl on his side and her name is Lyanna Mormont. She calls out the absent lords who refused to fight for Winterfell and generally just does her badass thing about how they only kneel to a true Stark (best new character IMO).

Lord Manderly, a very popular book character, appears to give a short speech and endorse Jon Snow as king, followed by Robett Glover, last seen acidly rejecting the Starks in “No One” and all the others, culminating in a chant that echoes the crowning of Robb in season 1.*

“The King in the North! The King in the North!” “The King in the North!”

*This sets up some tension, since we discover this episode Jon is Lyanna’s kid, not Ned’s. Will this information be used against the very newly-crowned King in the North, when it inevitably gets out?

The Riverlands: Jaime, the Tullys/Freys, Brienne, the Hound

After the epic King’s Landing opening, we jump to the victory feast at the Twins between the Freys and Jaime’s Lannister army. Bronn teases him about a serving girl briefly before “Late” Walder Frey arrives with his whole lecherous attitude.

Once the Lannisters leave, it’s just Lord Frey alone in his great hall, the site of the Red Wedding. He asks to see his sons but the serving girl from earlier, who served him his dinner, tells him his sons are already in the room. Walder asks where and she points to his dinner pie.

Yes the infamous “Frey pies” scene, thought discarded gets a return alongside its book perpetrator Lord Manderly. Nice touches for book fans like myself. The serving takes her face off, revealing herself to be Arya, who borrowed Littlefinger’s Magical Teleporter (after Varys used it of course) to get back to Westeros lickety-split from Braavos. She slits her family’s murderer’s throat and watches with a demented smile as he dies, the first on her vengeance list.

Meanwhile, Jaime and his retinue arrives outside King’s Landing to see the smoking ruin of the Great Sept. Furious, he goes to investigate and arrives in the Red Keep throne room to see Qyburn name Cersei Lannister Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and sit the Iron Throne. The twins share an ambigous glance as they begin down their final treacherous journey.

King’s Landing: Cersei, the Tyrells, the Sparrows

The show opens in King’s Landing, with the various players getting ready for Cersei and Loras’ trials to the tune of a ringing bell that becomes a moving classical medley. It makes me realize we’ve never had a scene set to music the way this one is. King’s Landing, once the center of activity in the show, has been at a slow boil all season. The times we thought we’d get action, we were disappointed (Jaime confronting the High Sparrow with his army, Cersei having FrankenMountain behead a random sparrow).

Cersei, High Sparrow, Margaery, Loras, their father Mace,  Kevan, Lancel and Grand Maester Pycelle gather in the Sept of Baelor while Tommen refuses to attend out of guilt and shame. Before Pycelle arrives, a little bird (aka a child spy) informs him of something secret.

The trial gets underway. Loras goes first. Instead of undergoing a trial, he freely admits everything he is “accused” of – his homosexuality, loving Renly and lying about it. In something that catches even High Sparrow surprise, Loras asks to join the Faith a a show of his repentance and loyalty, which means giving up his rights as the heir to Highgarden. They accept and carve the seven-pointed star on the Tyrell heir’s head.

Margaery is pissed but there’s a more pressing matter – Cersei didn’t arrive for her trial. Back in the Red Keep, FrankenMountain arrives at Tommen’s door and stops him from leaving. What follows is a slow build to horror with the multitude, set to the piano, strings and female vocals from earlier.

The little bird Pycelle followed, it turns out, was leading him into a trap of Qyburn’s. He is dispatched by the child spies. Lancel, sent by the High Sparrow, follows another such bird into the catacombs of King’s Landing, which only succeeds in getting him stabbed. It’s here where, in secret from all of King’s Landing and even us the audience, Cersei and Qyburn found something.

Wildfire.

Margaery, the savvy operator she is, realizes something is amiss long before High Sparrow does, but her protestations are fruitless. She tries to stir the Sept to action, to leave. In the catacombs, an injured Lancel realizes everything and crawls toward the improvised fuse (a candle waiting to touch the green liquid). In a single moment, everyone everywhere realizes . . . and then they are all incinerated. High Sparrow and his minions, the Tyrells, all the stray Lannisters . . . all wiped from the game board in an instant.

As the Great Sept of Baelor is destroyed in the distance, Cersei smiles from the Red Keep, Tommen in shock. Next up for our Mad Queen, torturing her former torturer Septa Unella, by waterboarding her with wine and her twisted confession. But her final surprise proves the kicker: she has FrankenMountain remove his mask and then simply stand by her side, staring at her through the rotted flesh. “This is your god, now” the Mad Queen yells.

In his tower, through an open window that shows the devastation from Cersei’s wrath, King Tommen promptly leaps to his death. Qyburn informs her and she demands to see his body. She orders his body burnt and his ashes buried at the ruins of the Great Sept.

Oldtown: Sam & Gilly

Sam and Gilly arrive Oldtown. It’s a spectacular locale. To be honest, I thought we wouldn’t get this to the season 7 premiere but they chose to tease it up here. It’s also a necessary bit of humor for a very dark episode. Sam awaits to speak with the unseen Archmaester about recent developments at the Wall and elsewhere, he is allowed to check out the library, which couldn’t be more glorious. Honestly reminded me of the scene in Beauty and the Beast when Belle discovered the Beast’s library.

Dorne: The Martells

We were promised/threatened with Dorne this episode and we get it. But instead of leading off with Varys, as I had assumed, we find that Olenna Tyrell has gone to Dorne in the aftermath of the death of her whole family. Dressed in black, the mourning Queen of Thorns meets with Ellaria Sand and her Sand Snakes. But she doesn’t want just vengeance, she wants to scorch the f***ing smile from Cersei Lannister’s face.

Fortunately, this powerful cabal of women has another ballsy (pun intended) operator working with them – Varys, who used Littlefinger’s Magical Teleporter to get from Meereen to Dorne in a mere three episodes. And he brings a promise: “fire and blood.” Dany has yet another new ally.

Meereen: Dany, Tyrion, Daario and the Greyjoys

Dany, on Tyrion’s advice, orders Daario and his Second Sons mercenary company to remain in Meereen and enforce her new status quo in the newly-renamed “Bay of Dragons.”

Tyrion, as she notes, fails at consoling her about it later. But she’s not there for consolation but to reward his. For his efforts to bring peace to Meereen, she names him her Hand to the Queen. Peter Dinklage crushes it, etching Tyrion’s face with a life worth’s of desire and pain.

We end on an epic shot of Dany’s armada of allies, the Greyjoys, Grey Worm, Missandei and inexplicably Varys (what???) finally, finally, finally makes their way to Westeros to claim her Targaryen birthright. Question: how is she overcoming the massive problems that come with sticking thousands of warriors of different, conflicting cultures together in what amounts to wooden crates on the water?

MISSING THIS WEEK:

  • Only Euron Greyjoy, who’s introduction this season was merely a portend of bigger things to come in Seasons 7 and 8. Aka watch out Oldtown!

NEXT YEAR:

Winter isn’t coming anymore. It’s here: Game of Thrones Season 7. The seventh season, as well as the eighth, will be truncated per the showrunners’ request, consisting of 6-7 episodes each. Presumably, this move isn’t just an eager way to end the show but a way to concentrate the already-massive budget so the show can keep topping itself. Given that a wintry apocalypse is coming, it’s hard to get much bigger than that and thus the show must regretfully end.

Thank you so much for joining me on this awesome journey this year. I have enjoyed every episode and every word about them and especially seeing you guys get something out of them. Nothing is better than sharing the joy of watching the best show in the world. I’ll have one more Thrones piece running tomorrow morning, giving you guys all the latest knowledge on Season 7. Until 2017, friends! The night is dark and full of terrors.

Sam Flynn

Sam Flynn

Sam is a writer and journalist whose passion for pop culture burns with the fire of a thousand suns and at least three LED lamps.