WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Photos courtesy of Home Box Office (Game of Thrones)
Wow. Let me get my bearings first. The Broken Man was quite the episode.
Okay, so we all know we’ve been through a lot thanks (or no thanks) to the first six episodes of this season. Jon Snow gets resurrected by Melisandre. Who knew a trip to the salon was all he needed? After getting her eyes back, Arya Stark is now on the run from Jaqen and Waif for botching up Lady Crane’s assassination. Yes, Arya suddenly realized she still has a conscience. Daenerys once again burns a bunch of rude men alive and ends up getting the loyalty of many Khalasars. We discovered that Bran basically ruined Hodor’s life and we should stop making excuses for the kid. We shall never look at doors the same way again.
Poor Hodor. There are just some things you can’t get over.
Just when we thought that all surprises would now happen during the 9th or 10th episode, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss show us through the seventh episode that at any point during the season, we should never think that our emotions are safe. Expect each GoT experience to be some sort of sadistic pleasure. In this show, bad moments outnumber happy moments 100 to 1.
Nevertheless, not all the things that happened were bad, as evidenced by our first point here:
SANDOR LIVES!
- Sandor Clegane is alive and well (at least for now, I suppose). He basically did a Benjen! Hurray! Fans have always believed that he was still alive since his supposed death was never shown on camera. Ian McShane guest stars as Brother Ray, the head of the peaceful group Sandor is currently staying with—or rather, stayed with. Ugh, that last scene was pretty awful to look at. Although the episode title could be used to describe Jon or Jamie, Sandor seems to be The Broken Man. Is he now going to take up arms and challenge what’s left of his brother, perhaps? Clegane versus Clegane. That fight would be beyond epic!
Ian McShane as Brother Ray
- Arya bribes a man to bring her back to Westeros, and there, she lived happily ever af—Fine, that’s not how it happened. You can’t blame a guy for trying though! Anyway, she repeatedly gets stabbed in the belly by Waif but manages to jump off a bridge. Arya’s part in the episode ends with her walking down the alley, losing blood and all that. She’s just met with apathetic stares from the crowd and no one attempts to help her. Is she going to bleed to death and scar us for the rest of our lives, or is someone going to come to her aid? I’m thinking Lady Crane will be in the next episode, and Arya is eventually going to master being faceless with her help instead. *fingers crossed* There is also this feeling that if Arya survives this endeavor, she and the Hound will cross paths again in Westeros.
Have we seen the last of Lady Crane?
- Sansa and Jon try to convince the Wildlings and the other Northern houses to rally under the Starks as they did in the past, except most of them don’t recognize Sansa and Jon as legit Stark members. Ouch. You know the sales agents who give out pamphlets about condominiums? How they feel when you continuously reject them is how Sansa and Jon must be feeling right now. It’s an extremely hard task since they’re trying to sell a product AKA joining a suicidal mission to fight a maniac like Ramsay, something that nobody really wants to do at the moment. Luckily, Tormund convinces the Wildlings while Davos saves the day and convinces the fierce and current fan favorite Lyanna Mormont of Bear Island (where Lord Friend Zone comes from). If you recall, Davos was also the one that swayed the Iron Bank to lend Stannis enough gold to hire sell swords. Come to think about it, he’s like Littlefinger, only with loyalty and honor.
Good luck finding an army.
- Queen Margaery continues to excel at playing the game of thrones as she tells the High Sparrow what he wants to hear, but secretly conveys to Lady Olenna that she has not lost her mind yet. I know King’s Landing is not the most exciting place right now but I’m intrigued with her storyline. Let’s just hope all this scheming will actually lead to something. Meanwhile, Cersei is still boohoo-ing. She seriously needs to up her game! I think she’s going to have the Mountain kill someone before this season ends.
The Queen’s Strategy
- Bronn is just loads of fun. It doesn’t matter who they pair him with but right now, the Jamie-Bronn bromance is working just fine. Hahaha. On a more serious note, it was refreshing to see Jamie take command of the situation and actually make fools out of the Frey brothers. Unfortunately, Blackfish Tully doesn’t take any BS and won’t surrender. What can be Jamie’s next move? More importantly, are we going to see another castle siege? Yes, please!
Bromance in the King’s army
- Greyjoy siblings have a little drinking session, which Theon finds highly uncomfortable. Yara reveals to us that they plan to use their uncle’s strategy and ally with Daenerys to take back the Iron Islands. Why do I get the feeling that she will die? Will Theon and Tyrion meet again in the city of Meereen? Since they disliked each other before, maybe they’ll kill each other this time around?
We find out Yara is kind of obsessed with ale.
BEARDICT: The Broken Man is one of the best and most balanced episode of this season. It provides us with answers but also sets up the next three episodes pretty nicely. There was a lot of character development for Sandor Clegane so we should expect to see more of him soon.
Brace yourselves, this season will be over before we know it, and we’ll be left with a hole in our hearts once again. Seven hells! *raises fists to the air*
Catch Game of Thrones every Monday night at 9pm (Philippine Time) on HBO.
Beardict: A Review Site 