Has Arya succumbed to her stab wounds?
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So get yourself revved up, because, although this has been one of the best and most eventful “Game of Thrones” arcs yet, I expect the drama to get intense around this time in the season.
The actress Lady Crane, whose life Arya spared in an earlier episode, finds Arya bleeding and tends to her wounds.
“A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell, and she’s going home”, she told him.
Arya explains her plan to quit Essos, and head overseas.
Defenders of the show will argue that it was Arya’s plan all along; to lure out The Waif by acting out of character in public.
Then there’s the fact she really was just strolling around the city, exactly the same way Tyrion was in Mereen; arms behind her back. It was the only way she could beat the Waif. In the House of Black and White, Jaqen finds Waif’s face in the room with many faces. Will he get revenge after Arya left him for dead? “You sent her to kill me”, says Arya. “You can’t change that, I can’t change that, no one can”.
In the final scenes of last week’s episode, Arya was seen going up against The Waif.
This week seemed to be getting people into place or at least moving them in the same direction – Arya, toward a reunion with her family; Daenerys, back at Meereen; the Hound joining forces with the Brotherhood without Banners. Yeah, he’s not messing around. But he has to hang them. Hound is not pleased with that, but okay, whatever. It was nice to see them catching up and having a meaningful conversation after a long time.
The only glimpse we have of Arya and the Waif is a Bourne Identity-esque chase sequence through Braavos. And Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) finally arrives in Meereen to add to her army, on the way to Westeros. In contrast to how much they mean to Cersei and what she would do to keep them from harm, her children couldn’t care less about her. Both were resolved, though only one was completely satisfying (but even then a little confusing). And suddenly, bells are ringing because a fleet is coming.
This, for me, was the best episode since The Door. The Mountain and Qyburn, Cersei look to be approaching towards the throne. She chooses violence. When one of the Militant attacks Ser Robert Strong, he gets his skull and spine separated from his body. And like his brother, he makes mince meat of one of those little shits.
In other news, Cersei (Lena Headey) receives some distressing news from her son, King Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) when he announces there will be no more trials by combat while he’s in charge. She requests to speak with Jamie, who hears what she’s been up to and is surprised Sansa is still alive. But, of course, it doesn’t work and Jaime has to resort to being awful to Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies) to get him to “surrender” to Blackfish.
Of course, Blackfish will have none of it. And Sansa is very much aware of the danger that lies ahead. We leave you to learn The Blackfish’s fate yourself. Once this happens, and Edmure is safely inside Riverrun, he takes over and orders everyone to surrender to Jaime instead. Since he is technically the lord of Riverrun, the captain of the army must obey. The Blackfish dies protecting it.
Edmure was allowed inside and told his men to lay down their arms. However, Lady Brienne escapes Riverrun in a boat with Podrick.
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The scene comes towards the close of the episode but brings a great end to a plot line we wanted to be rid of for so long. It came to a rather predictable end after all this time. Tyrion waves goodbye to his old buddy Varys who is off somewhere to get a fleet. No question, Jamie has a lot of respect for Brienne. Who will win the battle for Winterfell?
