Arya Stark (Maise Williams) and I probably felt the same during this episode: finally, things are happening.
The scrappy Stark finally gets a break from scrubbing corpses, and I get a break from the dull wash of a season that was making me wish I were a corpse. She gets to properly worship the many-faced god while viewers may resume worshiping the many-faced series that might finally return to being worthy of our prayers.
This episode was finally back in stride with the “Game of Thrones” we love. Especially when it comes to characters, story and — of course — the “oh shit” factor.
The acting was definitely a highlight in the shorter scenic sequences. It would be superficial to simplify that the quivering Alfie Allen is playing a crazy person.
Reek is in constant anguish because of his crippling fear of the expertly emotionally abusive Ramsay (Iwan Rheon). Allen also embodies how Reek’s suffering is accented by Sansa’s (Sophie Turner) hatred for him in spite of his obvious remorse.
Then there’s Lena Headey as Cersei, enjoying the challenge of playing Westeros’ proud woman discovering what it feels like to be utterly powerless. If someone had asked me in season one if Cersei would slurp water off of a cell floor, my reply would be, “Yes, but only if it would make her children immortal.” Maester Qyburn (Anton Lesser) mysteriously sums up the acting on this show when he says, “the work continues.” Of course, we know he’s referring to the Franken-Mountain in his lab.
Fans can praise the follow-through on this season’s promised union of Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke)
The thought of the “Thrones” universe’s smartest mind helping the Mother of Dragons can bring hope to many a viewer. The tragic collection not rooting for “BAE-nerys” can now at least enjoy her storyline with Tyrion as her new advisor. Anyone who despises Tyrion would’ve stopped watching the show a long time ago.
People love rooting for the little guy, and I’m not just saying that because Tyrion is a dwarf — though let’s be honest, “Game of Thrones” isn’t known for its subtle symbolism.
Take, for example, the four horsemen of the snow-pocalypse at the end of the episode. That allusion is about as deft as Wun Wun. But I don’t want to talk about wildling giants or the fact that we could predict Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) Valyrian blade would vanquish the ice necromancer based on the spoon-feeding in the previously-on-Game-of-Thrones intro.
I do want to talk about Karsi (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), the epic female wildling elder of Hardhome whom I would argue is the embodiment of this character-driven show.
Karsi is an intense, strong leader and fighter with a sharp tongue and two young kids. I think it would be fair to say most of us were in love with this new, compelling character within a single episode, which — as is the nature of this show — is also how long it took for her to be introduced and then promptly killed.
The fact that her fatal flaw was her femininity keeping her from combating frozen, undead children was also a classic “Game of Thrones” move. We get so close to a strong female character until the writers do something silly and a little bit degrading to women.
On the bright side, she will 100 percent be a fighter now that she has been reanimated by Stannis’ icier doppelganger.
Griffin Leeds
