When the fifth season of "Game of Thrones" ended, everyone knew that Jon Snow was brutally betrayed and murdered by his fellow Night's Watch men—hell, even people who don't watch the show knew that Jon Snow was dead.
But there was a problem with this shocking turn of events— everyone knew that somehow he was going to come back. There was no way that one of our favorite and, arguably, most important character on the show wasn't going to be resurrected by the red-woman Melisandre and book readers like myself read the clear signs pointing to a resurrection in the upcoming "Winds of Winter."
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It was no secret to super-fans of the show either because Kit Harington (who plays Jon Snow) was spotted on an airplane heading to Belfast where the show is filmed with fellow actor Tom Wlaschiha. People have been even keeping track of the actor's hair length because he is contractually obligated to have long hair during filming.
So we all knew that he was coming back to the land of the living, but one question still remains for me.
Why did the latest episode, "Home," which (spoiler alert) resurrected Jon Snow in the final minutes, make me feel heart-pounding-stomach-in-your-throat anxious? The type of anxiety I remember having during the bloody "The Red Wedding" episode back in season three.
The answer: really good writing.
"Game of Thrones" was an amazingly written television show from seasons one to four, but in season five we were introduced to the hot-mess known as the sand-snakes and Dorne plot lines that managed to have one of the worst fight scenes in television that I have ever seen; plus horrible dialogue every time the characters had a conversation.
With a less-then stellar fifth season, the show was heading down the dark pit of bad writing where many dramas tend fall during their final seasons, but "Home" (the second episode of season six) managed to spark something I haven't seen since season four— fan interest.
This episode did everything right leading up to what we were all expecting. (Big spoiler alert.) For fans of the books, and fellow redditors who follow the subreddit, we finally got to see "Balon Watch" end as Balon Greyjoy was tossed off the bridge by his brother Euron Greyjoy, who book readers were excited to see come to life on the screen.
We got to see Rasmey and Roose Bolton's story lines come to a head in a very shocking way (Ramsey's "I am Lord Bolton" was one of the best moments this season so far) and finally we got to see a build up to the resurrection of Jon Snow that lasted so long it made me doubt the Lord Commander was actually going to come back.
Even though we knew exactly what was going to happen, the writing in this episode created a sense of tension that only great television can accomplish. The type of anxiety hooks viewers to keep watching and what gives them what they want to see—less sand-snakes, more Euron Greyjoy, a goodbye to Roose Bolton and a big fan theory proven.
Good writing makes for good television; making the fans happy also makes for a great show. That's what I believe the "phenomenon" is in television writing; when the writing is so great that it captivates the viewer like a great novel would captivate it's reader. Turning that great writing into something watchable that resonates with people is what truly makes television shows magical.
