This article contains spoilers for "Game of Thrones" through Season 6, Episode 4 and for "A Song of Ice and Fire" through "A Dance With Dragons" and spoiler chapters for "The Winds of Winter."

Also this article discusses certain events of the series, including rape, that might be triggering to individuals.

A few corrections from last week:

It appears that in my discussion on the Tower of Joy scene, I unfortunately got the Kingsguard members mixed up. The two members we see in the show were Oswell Whent and Ser Arthur Dayne. Ser Arthur Dayne was the one who was up to that duel-wielding nonsense.

I just assumed that the one who prominently displayed a sword was Arthur Dayne because in the books he has a very famous sword, Dawn, that was forged out of a meteorite.

I don't know where the writers got the crazy two swords thing, but to be fair I don't know where they get half of it anyways.

And now, onto the episode.

Am I the only one who felt that this episode dragged on? Their pacing even just episode to episode has gotten slower and slower and about halfway through I honestly felt that it should've been over.

Plot 1: The Wall

So it appears that Jon made a huge scene of leaving the Night's Watch last episode just to go back to his room and pack. At this point in the episode Jon plans to head vaguely South though his motivation for leaving is not great. This is further complicated because Jon knows exactly what happened at Hardhome and knows that the Ice Zombie Apocalypse is imminent.

In the books, though we've seen some of the Others, the events at Hardhome are less conclusive, and the threat of the Ice Zombie Apocalypse, though real to the readers, is less certain to the characters.

It's clear that Jon's faith in his own leadership abilities has dwindled because he's fixated on the fact that Alliser Thorne conspired to kill him even though Alliser has been an established dick since the first season.

But, to be clear, the only reason Jon has to travel South right now is just to get away from the Night's Watch.

The other tidbit I'm confused about is why he's still alive. The Night's Watch has a pretty strict policy about killing deserters which Jon is definitely doing. You can claim that his death frees him from the Night's Watch vows, but if we're being honest here: Ned Stark would never follow that reasoning, and since Jon's leadership at the wall was an attempt to emulate Ned, he shouldn't either.

But then, as if on cue, some very important visitors arrive at the Wall: Brienne, Sansa, and Pod.

It's very convenient.

Also where did they get the extra horses? I didn't question it when Brienne and Pod ride in with two horses and save Theon and Sansa, but then suddenly in the episode after they have four horses and Theon takes one to go back to Pyke.

Where did the extra horses come from? Is there like animal services in the North or something?

When Jon sees Sansa there's a prolonged period of no dialogue. No body language except prolonged staring at each other until they hug. Then the hug drags on, and I honestly considered if the show was trying to make Sansa/Jon a thing (gross). But literally there was a distinct lack of dialogue for that moment. I get that it was supposed to be a touching moment, but someone can say something.

Then, again, I guess their dialogue has been pretty awful lately so I guess I lose either way.

However, there's some very not subtle glances from Tormund to Brienne which is probably the most bizarre pairing the show has done yet.

Then there's an honestly touching scene between Sansa and Jon where they reminisce, and honestly it's nice to finally have a Stark reunion (considering there hasn't been any interaction between Stark siblings since the end of Season One).

Then like, after some touching moment's the plot of this scene goes rough again. Suddenly Sansa's advocating a return to Winterfell. I'm not necessarily surprised that she's now a full supporter of Revenge, considering they teased giving her the Stoneheart plot multiple times.

But also why is she so eager to return to a place where she was abused? This time, Jon Snow, who has literally been an action hero for like two seasons now is tired of fighting and emotional after hanging Olly last episode in that entirely gratuitous moment where the camera lingers on the hanged body of a child to the point where it was actually just for gross shock value.

The scene then shifts to a conversation between Davos and Melisandre. Here's a summary of the opening of that conversation.

Davos: Lmao what do we do now? I've served my narrative purpose by getting you to revive Jon Snow and now there's nowhere for me to go because my plot to retrieve Rickon has been gifted to Ramsay.
Mel: I will do what Jon Snow says. He is Azor Ahai Reborn.
Davos: Didn't you say that about Stannis? Speaking of Stannis, what happened to him? Also Shireen?

Davos is finally given a chance to react to Stannis's and Shireen's death, but it's not clear whether he blames Mel for it or not. Also this interaction needed to happen during Episode 1. The fact that Davos hasn't thought of Shireen or Stannis since last Season is the direct result of lazy writing and poor understanding of characters.

Also for Davos now to suddenly get his own character motivations again is ridiculous when he just served as a way to get Jon revived these past three episodes. And for Davos to suddenly be suspicious of Mel's support for Jon doesn't make sense given that all Davos has done for the past three episodes has been to support Jon. He convinced Melisandre to revive Jon.

And then Brienne just shows up in their conversation and admits to killing Stannis (which she had no legal authority to do). Brienne and Melisandre are catty towards each other like every Female/Female interaction in this show.

No one seems to have a problem that Brienne killed Stannis, like I've said it's clear that the two biggest people in Stannis's corner, Davos and Mel, have just sort of instantaneously moved on. I guess they were really into the tasteful butt shot from last episode or something?

We next see Edd, Jon, Sansa, Brienne and Tormund having a very awkward dinner with like no conversation. Again we get weird eye contact between Brienne of Tarth and Tormund, which just like needs to stop.

Also a rider from the Boltons arrives bearing a letter where Ramsay reveals that he has Rickon and is going to murder a whole bunch of people if Sansa is not returned to him.

Here's the problem with this: this seeks to emulate the Pink Letter in the books.

This is the direct event that leads to Jon Snow being killed in the books. Basically Jon sends Mance Rayder (who isn't dead!) down to Winterfell to rescue someone he believes is Arya Stark (actually Jeyne Poole). Ramsay sends a letter demanding the return of his wife and "his Reek." This action convinces Jon to prepare to desert the Night's Watch and leads the brothers to stab him.

I mean this letter is intended to give him a reason to want to ride South, which is fine, but it makes more narrative sense to have this happen before he's already decided to ride South? This gives his murder more motive than just being salty that he let the Wildlings over the wall (even though Alliser Thorne opened the gate himself).

My other issue is, of course, the characterization of Sansa Stark. I swear the writers have just decided that Sansa Stark's personality is controlled by a switch. Sometimes she's just the show's continuous victim, and then suddenly throw the switch and she's out for revenge. I just wished there was more of a development and it wasn't just this immediate change.

Characters are supposed to develop not just immediately change.

Also how does she know that Ramsay specifically killed Roose? She was long gone by that point. I mean she could theorize, I suppose, but she sounded very certain that Ramsay killed Roose, and that's knowledge that she shouldn't be certain about it.

Plot 2: Sweet Robin and Littlefinger

So we see Robert Arryn who is still awful at everything, and Littlefinger arrives from King's Landing. Robert refers to Lord Baelish as "Uncle Petyr" which is technically not how you're supposed to address your adoptive father (remember: Littlefinger married Lysa and then murdered her).

So Lord Royce accuses Littlefinger of lying to him about Sansa Stark (which he did because Littlefinger somehow manages to continuously lie to everyone and never get caught), and Littlefinger counters by suggesting the Lord Royce betrayed them to the Boltons which makes absolutely no sense. And it sets up the notion that Lord Royce's very life hangs on Littlefinger's ability to manipulate everyone around him. He manipulates Robert Arryn to first suggest that they're going to kill Lord Royce before getting him not to. So Lord Royce is going to die sometime this season, right?

Also Littlefinger is actively campaigning for more war at this point and basically convinces the Vale Knights to ride against the Boltons, which I'm sure will basically destroy both the Boltons and the Vale Knights in a way that specifically benefits Littlefinger.

My favorite exchange during this scene was as follows:

Lord Baelish: Good news, Sansa Stark escaped the horrible situation that I, without any foresight at all, forced her to be in. She'll head to the Wall, but she's not safe there either! Should we help her? *emphatically nods 'yes'*
Robert Arryn: *looks at Littlefinger* Oh yeah, we should totally help her!

While it's great that Littlefinger and the Vale are important again, where the hell have they been for the earlier episodes? Like this show has set up Littlefinger as this like shadowy villain and then just sort of ignores him when it's not important and they can just brutally murder a bunch of characters to keep people satisfied.

Welcome back, Littlefinger, I guess (according to the preview next week) that you somehow get all the way to the Wall next week. So how does that work? Do you just magically teleport where they need you to be? Just asking.

Plot 3: Meereen (aka Tyrion explains Slavery to Slaves)

This was the worst series of scenes during this episode and that includes what happens later in the Ramsay scene (which honestly no one should be surprised at).

Let's talk about exactly what happens here. It's not well written.

Tyrion has a White Savior complex going on during these scenes and is not subtle about it. It's been bad earlier in this season, but it became something that really stuck out this episode.

Last episode they casually dropped the hint that Missandei was raped as a slave as part of a running gag about Tyrion's hilarious alcoholism and penchant for drinking games. This episode, Tyrion decides to use his extensive knowledge on slavery to explain slavery to two individuals who are former slaves.

I'm not kidding. Tyrion talks down to Grey Worm and Missandei, two people of color who are former slaves, about the institution of slavery. The only thing getting me through these scenes is Missandei's constant "bitch, are you serious?" face that is a blessing.

Later in the episode Tyrion equates being a Dwarf to being a Slave. That comparison is sickening for a number of reasons. First of all, Tyrion is a legitimate son of the wealthiest family in Westeros. Despite the fact that his family doesn't care for him, he has led such a privileged life in that regard. I'm not suggesting that he didn't experience discrimination for being a dwarf, but I am suggesting that perhaps Missandei and Grey Worm's experiences as literal actual slaves for most of their lives are worse that whatever Tyrion has experienced throughout his life even during his small stint as a slave (you know, those like two scenes where Tyrion beats someone up somehow).

Also this show continues to warp the plot around Tyrion. We're just rehashing what happened to Daenerys last season only this time Tyrion is in power, and he's much better at it than she was. He meets with the slavers of Yunkai and Astapor and basically gives them seven years to abolish slavery.

In reward for agreeing to his generous terms he brings in three sex workers (who, in this context are basically slaves or at least former slaves) and treats the slavers to sex. Honestly this show's treatment of sex workers has always been awful. You have sex workers who routinely give up their wages. You have sex workers who offer free sex. You also have the seven kinky gods. Also, sex workers are constantly brutalized for shock value. Need I mention Ros, the red-headed prostitute that the show invented back in Season One and brutally had Joffrey kill back in Season Three?

Missandei is rightfully outraged over the agreement. As am I, Tyrion pretends like he's following instructions on behalf of Daenerys, but really this is just a construction to show how great Tyrion is at leading. This entire compromise reminds me of Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution which forbade Congress from banning slavery until 1808. Article V, Section 9 prohibited changing that section before 1808. Essentially Congress kicked the can down the road for twenty years (shocking...) which is basically what Tyrion is doing now.

Then, after basically allowing slavery to continue for seven years Tyrion puts Grey Worm and Missandei in the awkward position of defending his decision, one they don't personally agree with. He uses their reputation and strong-arms them into telling outraged former slaves that they support his decision.

I was incredibly angry at their decision to show this. They have consistently made Tyrion as morally pure as possible in this show, and they have gone out of their way to make him the Savior of the Meereenese plot. All he seems to do is talk down to former slaves because he's clever and privileged. It's honestly disgusting. It shows that the showrunners love Tyrion so much, and we should too because he's literally so much better at ruling than Dany.

Barf me to hell

Plot 4: Brocation, pt. II (feat. Fire & Blood)

Interactions between Jorah and Daario are super unfulfilling. During these scenes I found myself constantly being distracted by Daario's accent which felt super out of place. My instinct says that it's not the same as it was the last time we saw him, but I'm honestly too lazy to actually check that. His accent was terrible this episode, it sounded too modern and not Medieval enough to be part of a high fantasy setting.

Any conversation between Daario and Jorah made me cringe. First Daario brags about sleeping with Dany and makes Jorah feel bad about being old. Has this show established how old Jorah is compared to Dany? In the book, it's a creepy age difference, but I have no actual idea how old Jorah is supposed to be in the show.

Somehow they both know that the Dothraki will take Daenerys to Vaes Dothrak even though Daenerys herself didn't realize it and neither did the Khal she was with until like they were already on their way for this gathering of Khals.

Also Daario finds out that Jorah has Greyscale and is not worried about it in the slightest. So apparently it's not a big deal even though it was pitched as such a big deal last season.

Honestly the writers probably regret giving Jorah the Greyscale because it complicates the relationship with Daenerys. See writers, this is why you don't cut the Gryffs.

So after ditching their weapons in a random bush (lmao good luck finding them later) Jorah and Daario sneak into the camp and get caught and break the cardinal rule of Vaes Dothrak: don't spill blood in the sacred city.

After Daario shanks a guy Jorah's like "Well we can't let them see the knife wound" so Daario flat out mutilates a corpse with a rock. That's not better. That's still spilling blood in the sacred city.

So then we cut to Daenerys who is having the time of her life gossiping with old women. Except she's not. There's some non-subtle ageism going on and Daenerys sort of teams up with another younger Khaleesi for what might turn out to be an example of positive female friendships that this show lacks.

Then Daario and Jorah find her (somehow) and she has a plan to somehow be able to leave Vaes Dothrak.

So then we cut to the meeting of the Khals to determine Daenerys's fate.

First they find the body of the murdered Dothraki and are unimpressed with the fact that someone has violated the laws of the sacred city.

No one has explained to me why the Khals have a say in who is able to become a member of the Dosh Khaleen, so it all comes across as just some sort of created Patriarchy bullshit (patriarchy-khal if you will). So then the Khals have a debate about what to do with Dany and some suggest raping her. The one Khal she arrived with suggests just giving her to the Dosh Khaleen, and then Dany interjects and says what she actually wants (which is to rule the Dothraki) and suddenly the weirdly feminist Khal does a 180 and is like "alright, then we're just gonna all rape you a bunch" and then Dany responds by setting the entire temple aflame.

All of the Khals died, and Daenerys is apparently immune to fire all the time (despite the fact that George R. R. Martin has repeatedly said otherwise) but whatever, when your adaptation is this sloppy I guess you don't care about nuance.

The major problem here is the major problem running throughout the season: what's the point?

This current Daenerys arc has accomplished what exactly? She has a bigger herd than before, but she can't go to Westeros because she doesn't have ships, so it just means that she's going back to Meereen which (due to the show's obsession with Tyrion) is doing much better without her.

I guess the other problem is one I mentioned last week. Emilia Clarke has said that she doesn't enjoy doing nude scenes. This scene was very nude at the end (her clothes have burned off). This just feels gratuitous we see her full breasts in this episode, and I think they played it off as "Daenerys is empowered so seeing breasts is okay now" but I still gotta wonder why they felt the need. There was no real reason for a closeup especially if Emilia Clarke is uncomfortable with it.

Also that temple burned up awful quick. Did Dany and her young, hot, Khaleesi friend put gasoline everywhere? How did the blaze start up that quickly?

This moment, if it happens in the book, could fulfill another piece of the Daenerys prophecy we first hear in A Clash of Kings.

. . . three heads has the dragon . . .
. . . three fires must you light . . . one for life and one for death and one to love . . .
. . . three mounts must you ride . . . one to bed and one to dread and one to love . . .
. . . three treasons will you know . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love . . .
(George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings)

This is likely the Fire for Death. The Fire for Life is largely suspected to be Drogo's funeral pyre, the fire that is responsible for the birth of the dragons.

Plot 5: King's Landing

Our first scene happens when Septa Unella (who is by far the scariest character on the show) silently leads Margaery through Baelor's Sept until we make it to the room where the High Sparrow is. It's another moment charmingly without any sort of dialogue.

I would like to point out that we're not entirely sure why Margaery is being held prisoner, her worst sin is perjury. A conversation with Evil-Bernie reveals that Margaery's sins include holding power as the queen, being rich and appreciating finery. These are obviously Margaery's sins because she wants to get out of prison to see her family and her husband.

Evil Bernie Sanders (the High Sparrow) says that once upon a time he appreciated the finer things in life. Also the reason he doesn't wear shoes is because he was a cobbler.

Then he allows Margaery to see Loras.

It's incredibly clear that Loras is being tortured for being gay because the Faith Militant has this homophobic crusade going on. Margaery insists that they must both continue to be strong, but it looks like Loras is at his breaking point.

I'm confused over why nothing has been done to get these characters out of prison. Margaery is literally the queen of the realm and Loras is the heir to a very wealthy and politically powerful house (because they cut out his older siblings). Olenna Tyrell has been in King's Landing since last season and still nothing has been done to get these two out of prison.

Well, I stand corrected, Tommen has whined about it a lot. But that didn't do anything.

Then we cut to Tommen and Pycelle who are discussing the situation with the Faith Militant. Cersei appears to kick Pycelle out, and then we spend an uncomfortable amount of time watching Pycelle hobble out of the room.

Then Tommen and Cersei have the most ridiculous conversation when you realize that the only reason the High Sparrow has power is because Cersei gave him power to somehow ensnare Margaery in a perjury trap by getting her to lie to protect Loras's sexuality. So yeah, this whole Faith Militant issue is entirely Cersei's fault. The conversation goes something like this:

Cersei: We need to put a stop to this and rescue Marg and Loras.
Tommen: But mom you hate Marg. You've always hated Marg.
Cersei: That's not important.

So then Cersei goes to the Small Council meeting except that there's only one actual member of the Small Council in that room (Kevan). Olenna has no real authority here, and no other members are present including Mace (Olenna's son) who actually has a job.

In other words, it's not really a Small Council meeting.

But regardless Kevan and Olenna get up to pull the same Mean Girls-esque "You can't sit with us" schtick that they pulled last week only this time Cersei and Jaime are like "Let's team up and stop the High Sparrow," and the plan is to do this before Marg atones for having privilege. The viewer knows this is a significant moment because the soundtrack plays a clip of "The Rains of Castamere" theme which only happens during significant moments.

Considering this was the first thing of actual importance that happened in King's Landing all season, I wonder why it happened now and not earlier. This feels like a much stronger start to this plot than what we've seen happening in King's Landing previously. Now people are actually doing things and not having the same three conversations over and over again.

Plot 5: Theon and Asha

So somehow Theon finds a ship and pays for passage to Pyke within the span of time it takes Sansa and Co. to get the rest of the way to the Wall.

This scene serves as a cute reunion between Theon and Asha which parallels the Sansa/Jon reunion and the Dany and Boys reunion.

Asha is understandably angry because last time she saw him he chose to stay with Ramsay and she lost a lot of good men on that mission. But she doesn't stay that mad once Theon expresses his desire to see Asha sit on the Seastone Chair (which in the show is called the Salt Throne).

In other words, the Salt Thrones, is whatever chair I sit in when I watch Game of Thrones.

And that's all that happens in this scene. It's nice to know that the Greyjoys are important again, but not important enough to spend a large chunk of time one.

Plot 6: The Scene with Ramsay that Everyone Saw Coming

At what point are deaths so predictable that even a shock value kill fails to deliver? Because that is honestly what happened tonight.

When Ramsay received his gift from Lord Umber, did anyone not expect the show to not brutalize poor Osha.

Part of me can't believe they brought her back for like five minutes of screentime only to immediately kill her off again. But the more learned part of me realizes that they've been doing ridiculously lazy shock value kills for seasons now.

So let's let it play out shall we?

Ramsay is sitting in a chair being an asshole. We know he's an asshole because he's peeling an apple and only assholes eat apples on screen. Also because he's murdered and brutalized so many people that I've honestly lost count. Dear showrunners, we get it. Ramsay is bad.

So Osha comes in and the scene plays out in sort of the same way that it played out when Osha seduces Theon to save Rickon and Bran back in Season 2.

We know what she's thinking about when she tries to seduce Ramsay because we see her contemplate the knife. But because Ramsay is such a Mary Sue Villain, he uses his super plot armor survival skills to slit her throat. We're then treated to a gratuitous shot of Osha bleeding out on the floor.

Ramsay just cleans his knife off and then goes back to peeling his apple.

I just feel bad for Osha's actress, Natalia Tena. George R. R. Martin has said himself that her performance inspired him to write more Osha and that he prefers her performance to his actual character. In what seems like a direct slap in the face, Benioff and Weiss decided to bring her back only to immediately kill her off. So anyone who dares to suggest that they aren't Tyrion Lannister levels of drunk on their own power can find me some actual evidence that suggests that they've planned ahead.

Conclusions:

This episode was definitely more interesting than previous episodes. However, the continued White Savior complex that Tyrion has to the extent where he's literally explaining the cycle of slavery to individuals who were former slaves has got to stop.

Finally it appears that things are happening in King's Landing (the season should've started with what we saw today).

Also at some point the writers need to learn nuance. The show lacks it.

Also please stop just killing people for shock value. It's not shocking anymore.

If you properly developed plots the show won't feel like it's being dragged on for an eternity.