Book of the Stranger Episode aired 15 May 2016 (based on "A Song of Ice and Fire" by), 3 more credits » Episode cast overview, first billed only: (as Carice Van Houten) Sansa arrives at Black Castle with Brienne and Podrick and reunites to Jon Snow, who has resigned from the Night's Watch after the deception of the betrayal of his brothers. Sansa tries to convince him to attack and retake Winterfell while Brienne meets Davos and Melisandre and warns that she killed Stannis and she does not forget or forgive the assassination of Renly through black magic. Littlefinger returns to Runestone and is welcomed by his nephew Robin and convinces him to send his army to protect Sansa at Castle Black. In Meereen, Tyrion negotiates a truce and the end of the support to the Sons of Harpy with the masters of Slaver's Bay. Jorah and Daario arrive at Vaes Dothrak and they meet Daenerys that explains a plan to them. Margaery meets the High Sparrow and he tells how he learned the truth.
Tommen tells to Cersei that Margaery will be exposed to the people soon, and Cersei plots a scheme with Olenna to destroy the High Sparrow. Theon returns to the Iron Island and after a... Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilSee All (17) » View content advisory » Release Date: 15 May 2016 (USA) In the books, Theon has not returned to the Iron Islands. After escaping from Winterfell with Jeyne Poole, he is brought to Stannis's camp, where he re-unites with Asha, who is also held prisoner there. Tyrion claims that a clever man once told him "We make peace with our enemies, not our friends". Littlefinger said that sentence, not to Tyrion but to Ned Stark, and Tyrion was not present. Slavery is a horror that should be ended at once. War is a horror that should be ended at once. Written and Performed by Ramin Djawadi See more » Contribute to This Page The first three episodes focused on Ice. Tonight we saw the return of Fire. Daenerys had one of her incredible showstopping moments this week;
plus we finally got a Stark family reunion that was one of the most joyous moments in the show’s history. It’s been said that season 6 is a rather uplifting season, relatively speaking, after the pitch-black darkness of season 5. There’s no better example of that then “Book of the Stranger”: Sansa reunited with Jon; Theon rejoined with Yara; Jorah and Daario found Dany. Even Cersei is joining forces with Lady Olenna. In fact: This just might be the happiest Game of Thrones episode in the show’s history (oh, er, sorry Osha). RELATED: Game of Thrones Exclusive EW Portraits: Queens of the Throne Age Castle Black: Dolorous Edd checks out Jon Snow’s sword, and asks where he’ll go. Jon says he’s headed south to get warm, and points out the Night’s Watch loophole we talked about last week that allows him to leave. You can bet Dolorous is wishing the mutineers killed him instead. Then there’s commotion at the gate, and…it’s Sansa, Brienne, and Podrick, all looking very cold.
We start to realize: This might actually happen. Unless Jon is leaving via some backdoor we don’t even know about. They enter the courtyard, and Sansa locks eyes with Jon. They just stare at each other. It’s a beautiful moment. This is so effective because it’s like they’ve both had so many struggles and disappointments, it’s like their feelings mirror our own — they can’t believe a Stark reunion is going to happen either. RELATED: Game of Thrones star Kit Harington: 7 Exclusive Photos They approach each other and I half-expect a resurrected Olly to fire an arrow into Sansa just before she reaches him (with Melisandre off to the side going, “What? You didn’t think I’d just bring you back, did you?”).Then we get a scene with the two catching up. They’re actually smiling, Jon Snow and Sansa Stark. Reunions, smiles, apologies, hugs… What show is this?! We want this scene to be longer. If the whole episode was just these two telling their respective stories to each other, I think we’d probably be fine with that.
And then, just like that, the fun is over. These siblings have totally different priorities. Jon wants to go lay on a beach in Dorne (and, really, who can blame him?) while Sansa wants to raise and army and get Winterfell back (and, really, who can blame her?). Their journeys have led them to each other, yet on a collision course. “If we don’t take the North, we’ll never be safe,” newly kick-butt Sansa declares. “I want you to help me, but I’ll do it myself if I have to.” RELATED: Game of Thrones: New Season 6 Photos Unveiled Outside, Davos selects this moment to ask Melisandre: Heeeey, so what ever happened to Shireen, anyway? The Red Woman tries to duck it. She’s then rescued, sort of, not exactly, by Brienne coming up and glaring down at her. Either Brienne is a lot taller than I realized or Melisandre is a lot shorter. Brienne accuses Melisandre of birthing that shadow baby to kill Renly, which she’s still annoyed about. Melisandre stares at Brienne as if to say: Dude, that happened like four seasons ago, I’ve done so much worse since then.
Then Brienne brags to both of them that she personally killed Stannis. Clearly this is a conversation that’s To Be Continued on all fronts. NEXT: The Great Southern ConspiracyWhat’s the best song or album you’ve made out to? Book-lover and intellectual Donald Trump fucks up St. Patrick’s Day tweet Iron Fist’s premiere doesn’t make a convincing case for its own existence Is The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild one of the best games of all time? Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below. "Book of the Stranger" was filled with reunions, alliances, and a kickass, fiery ending. As a reader of the books with no more books to read, Season 6 has been a very interesting experience. Payoffs, even predictable ones, are coming quicker than expected. As in, you may have assumed Jon Snow was coming back to life at some point, but maybe not as soon as the second episode of the season. Likewise, we all knew Sansa was heading up to Castle Black, but her big emotional reunion with Jon Snow could have been held off for another few episodes (or even side-stepped altogether).
As it turns out, it was right away. Right at the top of this episode, in fact. AND IT WAS SO GREAT! I audibly gasped right when it was about to happen. We're all still so invested in the Starks and it's wonderful. We're so invested, in fact, that we can now care so much about Jon and Sansa hugging even though they never really had a proper scene together on the entire show. They were both in Winterfell back in the show’s pilot episode, but they never interacted. Jon had a scene with Arya, but never with Sansa. But that didn't even matter here. The North is where this story's at right now. And also, given how many times we've been denied reunions over the years, we'll kind of take anything at this point. There's a ton of politics and conflict brewing down in King's Landing and it was awesome to watch Cersei and Olenna begin to see eye-to-eye regarding High Sparrow and the Faith Militant. Though at this point, with all that's going on up north, with the White Walkers, and over in Meereen, the actual Iron Throne feels like the lesser story these days.
Does it actually matter who's ruling down there once other dominos fall into place? And while High Sparrow may seem like the enemy at this point, everyone involved is a murky shade of gray. We're basically caught between the power hungry and the overly pious. It's not like up north where good and evil is more easily defined and it's easy to root for actual heroes. Jon Snow and Sansa's new mission to reclaim Winterfell is incredible. Not only did Ramsay's awful note shake Jon out of his apathy (while also putting to use all the wildlings he saved) but it's given Sansa the empowering storyline we all wish she'd had last season before she just wound up getting victimized all over again. She's the driving force here. She's determined to topple the Boltons and take back her home. Granted, she may have more of a claim and connection to Winterfell than Jon, who grew up feeling like an outsider there, but it's still an awesome turn of events. Yes, I began shipping Brienne and Tormund right when they locked eyes as Sansa entered Castle Black.
It was great how that odd (currently one-sided) flirtation came back later in a comical way over the dinner table. So just about every part of this arc -- with the Starks, Brienne, wildlings, Melisandre, Night's Watch, etc. -- is really working well. Other material lands with mixed success, like the King's Landing and Iron Islands stories. The latter of which also featured a sibling reunion - between Theon and Yara (Loras and Margery in fact giving us three such reunions in one episode). A nice moment, especially considering how Theon wanted to back Yara as ruler, but Iron Island scenes, almost by design, come off cold. The show just never quite built up the region as a place to consider as a top contender for power. Over in Meereen, it appears as though Tyrion might actually be on the wrong track, diplomacy-wise, for a change. There were moments when he seemed to have the masters of Yunkai and Astapor in the palm of his hand, but Grey Worm and Missandei kind of went overboard with their warnings and there’s a sense that Tyrion may have stepped into big trouble.
And that would make sense if you consider all that happened out in Vaes Dothrak and how Daenerys, like the Unburnt boss that she is, burned the Khal and his top men to a crisp and then stood tall as the fiery, naked Khaleesi once again. Meaning, it's possible that Daenerys re-wrangling all of the Dothraki will help back in Meereen with the Harpys – and perhaps with the trouble Tyrion may have started by proposing that slavery be slowly abolished. What will this all mean in the long run? Her having BOTH the Unsullied and the Dothraki at her command? That sure sounds like an invasion force, doesn't it? You know, should she ever choose to start heading west... That final scene though…. Daenerys utilizing her fireproof body to trap all the bosses in the temple was amazing. It's been a few seasons since she's had a nice badass moment like this one - probably since she had her dragon torch Astapor and then she walked off with all the Unsullied. So this was very satisfying. And again, it was another payoff move that came quicker than expected.
Seeing Daario and Jorah hunting around for her, mocking one another, I wrongly assumed that we'd just be quickly touching base with them. It didn’t seem we'd get the full rescue -- though Daenerys played a huge role her in her own emancipation -- this week, even if you might have predicted she could eventually lead some sort of temple rebellion from within. Overall, I liked that this episode was anchored by really strong-willed women. Even if the King's Landing storyline isn’t quite as compelling, all the women there are doing their best to not get publicly shamed and humiliated by the armed, freak show religious cult that's taken over. And over in Pyke, Yara's making a go at becoming the new ruler. Hell, even Osha tried to use her wildling wiles on Ramsay in order to escape. Her Season 2 trick didn't work though and she wound up getting stabbed herself, but the initiative was appreciated. Littlefinger made his first Season 6 appearance this week too, manipulating simple Robin Arryn into helping him send soldiers up to save, or support, Sansa.
Robin, who's still an inept little sociopath who can be as cruel as a child squashing bugs. Fortunately, Littlefinger can persuade him to do what needs to be done (even if what need to be done is scare the piss out of Lord Royce). I would like to think Littlefinger has a bigger plan here, but it seems like he's just trying to clean up his Season 5 mess. Which is kind of a shame, as most of that storyline was. The only other thing that springs to mind now is that maybe he did intend on putting Sansa in harm's way, so that he could rally the north himself. Because if she died or she escaped, either option would give him cause to attack. "Book of the Stranger" handed us two very lovely, satisfying moments with the Stark/Snow reunion at Castle Black (and the subsequent vow to defeat Ramsay and rescue Rickon) and Deanerys' conquering of Vaes Dothrak. Both were huge, forward-moving story elements that harkened back to Season 1 and gave viewers something to root for and grab onto as the show itself heads into its final arcs.