Is Jon Snow dead? Is ‘The Red Woman’ going to save him with her magical powers? Will Sansa and Theon survive the fall? And if they do, will they escape from Ramsay Bolton? Can Arya see again? These questions from finale of Game of Thrones 5 kept us in anticipation a whole and here we are with GOT 6.
Season 6 is titled ‘The Red Woman’ and the directors waste no time. The camera swoops in on Jon Snow lying in a frozen scarlet pool. If the close-up of his pale waxy face reveals anything, it is the fact that the Lord Commander is very much dead (er, at least for the time being). Ghost is heard howling mournfully from his pen, straining to get out and save his master. Are we still hoping Melisandre will save him? Sadly, yes.
Ser Davos Seaworth turns as pale as us viewers upon discovering Jon’s cold body. He sure seems to have faith in the Red Woman, and when the men of the Night’s Watch are sceptical, he says “You haven’t seen her do what I’ve seen her do”.
As for Sansa and Theon, they survive the fall but are being hunted down by Ramsay’s notorious blood hounds. Ramsay’s men do capture them, and we go, ‘Oh, poor Sansa. Again!’ But wait, here are Brianne and Podrick to the rescue.
Reek sees a flash of his old Theon-self again as he revisits his courage! And Sansa’s teenage silliness withers as she takes Lady Tarth as her personal protector.
Then here is Daenerys’s reunion with the Dothraki. It doesn’t go as planned, though. The Dothraki are no longer as deferential as she assumed they would be. Khal Drogo sure forgot to mention one important tid-bit of information to her about the Khal widows.
As tradition decrees, she is to spend her life in the horse barbarian capital Vaes Dothrak along with other Khal widows. After years of Khaleesi’s despotism, could there be a block in her ever so fervent conquests?
Meanwhile, Tyrion walks the streets of Meereen with the ‘spider’ Lord Varys and he has no clue what he has to do. He spent the whole of last season trying to track down Daenerys only to see her being flown away by an angry dragon!
Speaking of the Lannisters, Cersei is happy and hopeful that her precious Myrcella is returning home. Only, she returns in a casket and Cersei’s “everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls” prophecy comes true. We can definitely expect the Jaime-Cersei duo avenge the entire world for their daughter.
Arya seems to be at the suffering end right now. Sansa sees light and her sister is quite literally in the dark. Blind and homeless, Arya is paying a hefty price for breaking the rules at the House of Black and White.
Last but not the least, Melisandre, the title character of the episode, seems to have a lot of secrets! What to make out of that image of the Red Woman transforming into a withered old crone? Was she in disguise all along? Watching her remove the necklace and morph into an old woman definitely gives a strong kickoff to season 6.
From the title of the episode we expect a resurrection but there’s disappointment. For the time being, one hopes. But typical of GOT, the jolts are gripping, and therefore welcome.