White Watchers GoT Recap: 6.4 “Book of the Stranger”

This is a recap of Game of Thrones season 6 episode 4, “Book of the Stranger.”

********Show and Book SPOILERS below**********

This episode opened with Jon Snow (again) talking with Edd about where he’s going to go. All he knows is that he wants to go south and “get warm.” But before he can decide for sure, who should show up at the doors of Castle Black but his sister Sansa. Thank The Seven, I am so glad to see them reunite. I loved everything about them together. The awkward love, the apologies and forgiveness, the hug!

This episode more than any so far we saw how much Sansa has changed; from being a child to drinking ale and accepting the awful food with grace and kindness. These changes and the price they came with are most evident in the scene where Jon gets the letter from Ramsay. When Jon can no longer read the letter aloud because of the atrocities within it, Sansa snatches the letter up because she knows. She just knows. Something has to be done about Ramsay. She pushes Jon to take back Winterfell with his wildling army. 2,000 against Ramsay’s 5,000. Sansa suggest he rally the families of the North to fight as well; the North remembers.

Melisandre is still at Castle Black—for now. She officially named Jon as the Prince that was Promised and said she intends to follow him from here on out.

Also at Castle Black, Brienne confronted Davos—telling him that that she executed Stannis for the murder of his brother Renly. Aaand then there’s Tormund, who has apparently got the hots for Brienne. This is strictly a show development, so who knows where that will go.

No word from the other Starks; hopefully Arya, Bran, and Rickon are still okay. )Which reminds me, RIP Osha.) Also no word from Sam and Gilly, though I'm pretty sure they're still alive at least.

In other news, Baelish is back in the Erie (for now), manipulating Sweet Robin into pledging his aid to Sansa. Robin is as pathetic as ever, and those positioned around him are not much better. It sounds like the Knights of the Vale will finally be entering the war, on the side of the Starks.

In King’s Landing, Margaery finally gets to see her brother. He’s not doing too great and expresses his desire to give up, but Margaery won’t hear it. Neither will the Queen of Thorns, who is making nice with Cersei in order to save her granddaughter from an imminent Walk of Atonement.

Theon has made it back to the Iron Islands in time for the Kingsmoot, but he wants to throw his support in favor of his sister Yara instead of campaigning himself.

Meanwhile in Mereen, Tyrion meets with the Masters of the other cities in Slaver’s Bay to convince them to cut off their aid to the Sons of the Harpies. He offers them seven more years of slavery and compensation for freed slaves. And then he gives them some prostitutes. Groan. Missandei and Grey Worm are not pleased. But they do defend him to other slaves.

Daario found out that Jorah has greyscale, but that’s the least of their activities this episode. They snuck into Vaes Dothrak, but Daenerys had the situation under control. Now it makes more sense why the show set up Daenerys to have her fate in the hands of the khals. It gave her an easy way to murder them all at once and become the new leader of the Dothraki people. The Dothraki follow whoever is the strongest, often the person who killed their old khal. I’d say Daenerys fits that description. It’s the best way for her to have escaped that situation; it’s a little worrisome that she may be taking on even more responsibility though, because her hold on Mereen is tenuous at best.

Also, this fire takeover scene seems to be divergent from the lore of the books, where Daenerys is not *necessarily* fireproof. (She burns her hands when Drogon attacks in the fighting pits; also George R.R. Martin has said that she is not fireproof and would probably not survive another fire.) That said, there is also nothing in the books to definitively say this could not have happened. And Daenerys did say early on that “fire cannot kill a dragon” (meaning her).

Actually though now that I think about it, this episode was almost totally independent of the books. Basically everything that happened in this episode was new information—none of it has happened (yet) in the books, and most of the storylines are officially ahead of where the stories were left at the end of the last book.

 

Conclusion:

This episode showed us a bit of a turning point, where our heroes are regrouping and preparing to take back their power. That made it one of the happier episodes in a long time, though there is still a heavy sense of impending doom. Rickon is the only one that seems to be in immediate danger, but in Game of Thrones, no one is safe for long. 

I personally liked this episode, if only for the last scene. And Jon and Sansa reuniting at last. The rest of it was a little on the boring side for me.

I give this episode 3.5 out of 5 kings.