This episode opens north of the wall as we see Bran Stark for the first time since season four; he is being tutored in his skills and sees into the distant past to a time when his father was a child and Hodor could speak. Further south the traitors of the Night's Watch move to kill Ser Davos and his men but just as they strike a Wildling force arrives from the south and the tables are turned. In Meereen Tyrion frees the two remaining dragons from their chains. Cersei is kept from seeing the body of her daughter while High Sparrow stands up to Jaime Lannister. In Winterfell Ramsay murders his father
and worse. On the Iron Islands the king is murdered.
This episode got off to a fine start; I'd almost forgotten about Bran, he'd been out of the show for so long; his reintroduction was well handled and raised some interesting questions about Hodor and what happened to his aunt. The other highlights of the show were the events at Winterfell and on the Iron Islands; the death of Roose Bolton at the hands of his son was a shock but not half as disturbing as what Ramsay did to his step mother and new baby half-brother. With one leader dead I certainly didn't expect the death of Balon Greyjoy moments later. The show's finale should have been equally surprising but unfortunately it was impossible to avoid spoilers about Jon Snow's resurrection so it was just a question of which episode he would actually return in even so the scene was well handled. While the other scenes weren't quite as dramatic as these I still found them interesting and at no point did I feel that anything we were shown was unneeded. Overall a quality episode that was definitely a step up from the season opening, which I also enjoyed. I'm definitely keen to see what happens next.
This episode got off to a fine start; I'd almost forgotten about Bran, he'd been out of the show for so long; his reintroduction was well handled and raised some interesting questions about Hodor and what happened to his aunt. The other highlights of the show were the events at Winterfell and on the Iron Islands; the death of Roose Bolton at the hands of his son was a shock but not half as disturbing as what Ramsay did to his step mother and new baby half-brother. With one leader dead I certainly didn't expect the death of Balon Greyjoy moments later. The show's finale should have been equally surprising but unfortunately it was impossible to avoid spoilers about Jon Snow's resurrection so it was just a question of which episode he would actually return in even so the scene was well handled. While the other scenes weren't quite as dramatic as these I still found them interesting and at no point did I feel that anything we were shown was unneeded. Overall a quality episode that was definitely a step up from the season opening, which I also enjoyed. I'm definitely keen to see what happens next.