This is a recap of Game of Thrones
season 6 episode 7 “The Broken Man.”
********Show and Book SPOILERS
below**********
The Hound is back and he’s out for blood after a group
worshipping the Red God (possibly tied to the Brotherhood without Banners?)
slaughtered his priest best friend and a community of nice happy people devoted
to the Seven. I really hope this is the beginning of a certain Brotherhood
without Banners storyline. And I can’t wait to see what the Hound is going to
do with that ax. But hold on just a second—isn’t Brienne headed that way? Can
you imagine if Brienne and the Hound meet AGAIN?
Brienne wasn’t in this episode but it looks like she’s going
to be reuniting with good ol’ Jaime as soon as next week. Speaking of Jaime,
he’s arrived in the Riverlands to take over the siege from the Freys and pry
Riverrun from the hands of the Blackfish. Bronn also made an appearance.
Sansa and Jon have secured Wildling allegiance and are now
making their way from house to house in the North, with only minimal success in
gathering an army. Jon wants to attack Ramsay as soon as possible, but Sansa
knows they need more men. She wrote a letter to someone (presumably to that
end) and signed it Sansa Stark. Could it be to Littlefinger in the Erie?
Meanwhile Arya has booked passage back to Westeros, which
would be really exciting if she hadn’t also been stabbed and left for dead.
That faceless Waif really has it out for her, although apparently not enough to
make sure Arya is actually dead before she takes off. (Wouldn’t you think that
a servant of Death should be able to tell when someone is still alive?)
And then there’s Margaery, who is playing the game in King’s
Landing. I think it’s pretty obvious that she’s faking her devotion; the real
question is whether it’s obvious to the High Sparrow and Septa Unella. Margaery
took a risk in warning her grandmother that she should leave and now the
situation is out of her hands. The Queen of Thorns plans to go back to
Highgarden, but Cersei desperately wants her to stay and help get things under
control. And although The Queen of Thorns admitted that she hates Cersei more
than anyone, Cersei may be right in suggesting that Margaery needs all the help
she can get.
Finally, Yara and Theon and company have stopped off somewhere
not nearly far enough away from Pyke to party a bit before making their way to
the Dragon Queen. That makes things interesting; I’m willing to bet that
Daenerys would take them—or at least their ships. She is in need of those after
all. So the younger Greyjoys are surviving so far. Yara gave Theon some tough Viking
love that made me cringe a little, but hopefully it did him some good, because
I’d really like to see them win one of these days.
No word this episode from Bran, Sam and Gilly, Ramsay, or
the Wall. Not from Daenerys, Mereen, Jorah, or Euron either. Or Dorne. Will we
ever see Dorne again?
Conclusion:
It’s too bad Ian McShane’s priest character is already gone.
I liked him. I also really liked Lyanna Mormont, who—thankfully—is still alive.
The Hound storyline and the Mormont scene were both highlights of this episode
for me. Also a high point was Arya’s scene, but only because I’m 99% sure she
will live through this. If she doesn’t, I’m going to be very upset.
I did think the lead up to the stabbing was sort of odd.
Last we saw Arya she was in the House of Black and White waiting with Needle.
Why didn’t the Waif attack her before now? Why wasn’t Arya carrying Needle? Why
was she not sneaking around? At first I seriously thought it must be a dream,
because the whole thing just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But anyway, we
knew something was going to happen.
Overall, it was a decent episode. I thought it was a good
choice to focus on the characters they did this week. Even though we only got
about half the characters, it felt like we got everything that was important
and everything fit. These are the characters and stories that I find most
interesting (minus Bran and Brienne). I’m not surprised that Bran wasn’t in this episode
though, just because of the way they’ve shown his story to us in the past. He
hit a good stopping point last episode, so I’m good. I like episodes that are a
bit of a slow burn of building excitement, and I’m certainly excited to see
where this season goes. This episode was a bit of a valley compared to 6.5, but
a step up from 6.6 to me.
I give this episode 3.5 out of 5 kings.
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