Game of Thrones
Season 6, Episode 8
– Recap –
(SPOILER ALERT: This recap contains details about last night’s episode of “Game of Thrones”. If you haven’t watched it yet, you may want to stop reading!)
by Kyla Brewer
The Recap Sequence
Last night’s episode of HBO’s sweeping fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” was oddly satisfying, despite the lack of the show’s trademark shocking twists and turns. Well, it wasn’t completely devoid of shock factor as some characters met brutal ends, but for “GoT,” it was still a rather tame episode.
Lady Crane (Essie Davis, “The Babadook,” 2014) opened the show with another killer performance, after which she found Arya (Maisie Williams, “Dr. Who”) bleeding in her dressing room. She mercifully bandaged her up and gave her some milk of the poppy.
In the woods, four men ran afoul of the Hound (Rory, McCann, “Alexander,” 2004), who was out for revenge after the massacre of Brother Ray (Ian McShane, “Deadwood”) and his followers. He made short work of them before continuing his search for the man in the yellow cloak he believes was responsible for the massacre.
As a red priestess preached that Daenerys (Emilia Clarke, “Terminator Genisys,” 2015) was a gift from the Lord of Light to the people of Meereen, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage, “The Station Agent,” 2003) bid farewell to Varys (Conleth Hill, “Goodbye Mr. Chips”) who was off on a mysterious secret mission to garner friends in Westeros.
When Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman, “Man Up,” 2015) permitted the Faithful to enter the Red Keep, they tried to insist Cersei (Lena Headey, “300,” 2007) come with them to meet with the High Septon (Jonathan Pryce, “Tomorrow Never Dies,” 1997). However, she called their bluff and refused, siccing The Mountain on them…and that was not pretty, let’s leave it at that. She then countered by telling High Sparrow’s lackeys that his holiness was welcome to visit her.
While Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” 2015) met with Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, “Black Hawk Down,” 2001), viewers were treated to a little comic relief as Bronn (Jerome Flynn, “Ripper Street”) offered to teach Podrick (Daniel Portman, “River City”) a different kind of fighting. His No. 1 rule: “Assume everyone wants to hit you – because everyone does.” Wise words.
Brienne struck a deal with Jaime to try to convince Blackfish (Clive Russell, “Thor: The Dark World,” 2013) to surrender, noting that if he refused, she would have no choice but to fight for Lady Sansa (Sophie Turner, “The Thirteenth Tale”), a prospect which obviously pained her. Unfortunately, Sansa’s letter didn’t sway stubborn old Blackfish, and Jaime was forced to come up with an alternate dastardly plan, but more on that later.
Cersei was summoned to the throne room to hear an announcement, and suffered the indignity of having to stand in the gallery with the other ladies of the court, instead of at Tommen’s side. After revealing the dates of Loras (Finn Jones, “Sleeping Beauty,” 2014) and Cersei’s trials, Tommen outlawed trial by combat, ensuring they would stand trial in front of seven septons. Even Jaime can’t save her now.
Back in Meereen, Tyrion tried to loosen up Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson, “Adulthood,” 2008) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel, “Furious 7,” 2015) with a little wine and spoke of his desire to make his own someday – “The Imp’s Delight” he called it (who wouldn’t line up to buy that?!). Things got giddy for a while but the party was over when the Masters arrived with their fleets, presumably there for their property.
Meanwhile, Jaime tried to appeal to Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies, “Rome”). When Edmure refused to tango and foolishly got under Jaime’s skin, the Kingslayer threatened to go after Edmure’s son if he didn’t cooperate. After pledging his love for his sister (eew!), he explained he needed to take Riverrun to get back to her. Bending to Jaime’s will, Edmure commanded the forces to lay down their weapons and open the gates. Later, a soldier told Jamie that Blackfish had died fighting just as Jamie noticed Brienne and Podrick escaping in a small boat.
Panic struck Meereen when the palace appeared to be under attack, but not to worry, Daenerys had returned.
Sandor finally found the man in the yellow cloak – with a noose around his neck. His old pals Ser Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer, “Good Vibrations,” 2012) and Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye, “Match Point,” 2005) were about to hang the murderous trio for their crimes, but they graciously allowed the Hound to kick the stumps out from under two of them. Over dinner, the members of the Brotherhood try to convince Sandor to join them, but he was having none of it, at least for now. “Lots of horrible shit in this world gets done for something larger than ourselves,” argued Sandor. The Brotherhood seemed to have the same message for Sandor as Brother Ray – it isn’t too late to turn over a new leaf.
The Hound’s old friend Arya faced Waif (Faye Marsay, “Pride,” 2014) once again after Lady Crane was assassinated. Turns out, Waif was no match for needle. Arya left Waif’s face on the wall of faces for Jaqen H’Ghar (Tom Wlaschiha, “Rush,” 2013) to discover, prompting him to conclude that she finally had no name. But Arya retorted with “A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell and I’m going home” (woo-hoo!). With that, Jaqen looked satisfied, if not a little proud.
HBO signed off with a teaser for next week’s highly anticipated episode entitled “Battle of the Bastards,” in which Jon Snow (Kit Harington, “Pompeii,” 2014) is expected to face off against Ramsay (Iwan Rheon, “Misfits”). Let’s hope for poor Rheon’s sake Ramsay loses, because if he takes out Snow, he may not be able to show his face in public.
Don’t forget to check out “Speaking of Thrones” before tuning into next week’s episode of “Game of Thrones,” airing Sunday, June 19, on HBO.
The Recap Sequence 