I think we should always be a little suspicious when things seem to be going even somewhat all right in Game of Thrones. Granted, if the series isn't going to be gut-punch bummer in the end, there's got to be some kind of turnaround, but given the stakes - Ice Zombie invasion, to be specific - some of the more mundane political problems are going to need to get resolved in some way.
Season Six has definitely been pushing in the direction of resolving major storylines, and today we got some clarifications and serious developments on a few fronts.
Let's talk about them after the spoiler break.
Braavos:
Arya might have gotten her sight back last week, but she's still being tested, and I suspect she's not going to be willing to totally shed her individual personality in the name of joining the Faceless Men. There's a reckoning to be had there, and I only hope it doesn't end with Jaqen (or the guy currently wearing the Jaqen face) turning on her.
Arya's given the job to kill an actress who seems perfectly decent and normal. The one little wrinkle here is that she's in a play about basically the events of seasons one, only told in such a way that makes Ned out to be both a bumbling idiot and also the villain. That's not cool, random players in a foreign city. But it does show that not everyone in the world is getting the real story.
Mereen:
Tyrion's deals seem to have worked, but they need to win the propaganda war. To that end, they enlist a Red Priestess - indeed, possibly the head priestess of Volantis - to spread the word about how awesome Dany is. There's some unsettling talk of dragons burning non-believers (never good to do anything bad to non-believers) but far more unsettling is that fact that she seems better informed about both Tyrion and Varys than they are. Varys in particular (being a pretty fervent atheist and generally anti-magic) is disturbed by her, mostly because she knows intimate details about his life and partially, I'm sure, because he gathers his intelligence through hard work, not eerily accurate prophecy.
Vaes Dothrak:
We get a short scene that finally allows Dany and Jorah to part on good terms. He reveals his greyscale infection to her and as he prepares to leave, she instead orders him to find a cure and then return to her, but it seems most likely that this is just a way for Jorah to save face and for Dany to let him know that he's forgiven. He finally fesses up about loving her, which... man, took you long enough.
Pyke:
The Kingsmoot looks like it's going to go pretty well, with Theon eagerly supporting Yara's claim. But then Euron steps in and wins the crowd, proposing an alliance with Daenerys as a way to let the Ironborn make their mark on the world. His first order: kill Theon and Yara, who had the presence of mind (along with their supporters) to sail the hell out of there, perhaps looking to beat Euron to Mereen?
The Wall:
Sansa meets with Littlefinger, who must have a freaking secret bullet train or something to get all over Westeros like he does. He informs her that he's got the Vale ready to assist, but given that he turned her over to a horrible rapist, sorry, it's Westeros, "raper," she's not exactly trusting Littlefinger anymore (good move,) or wait, maybe she does, because she takes his word that Brynden "Gotta Take a Piss" Tully has supposedly retaken Riverrun and reassembled the Tully armies.
Sansa proposes using this as they plan to convince the smaller houses (and the Manderlys) to join the Stark cause, but lies about where she got the info. Indeed, Littlefinger seems to be planting seeds of doubt in Sansa's head about whether Jon can be trusted not to try to take over the Stark line for himself. Not sure if she believes that yet, but she sure did lie to him.
The Weirwood Tree:
Here's where the biggest events happen, of greatest series mythos import and also greatest character tragedy.
Still in training, Brann witnesses the biggest lore reveal int he episode. Near what might be this very tree, a group of Children of the Forest (including the one named character, Leaf,) gather around a captive human and plunge what looks like an obsidian dagger (or probably something else) into his chest. Rather than kill him, however, his eyes turn blue and his skin white. Yes, the Children created the White Walkers. This is pretty freaking big.
Leaf explains that they did this in a desperate effort to defeat the invading First Men, but like Cersei arming the Faith Militant times a billion, holy shit did it backfire.
Later, while the Three-Eyed Raven sleeps, Bran is bored, and tries going on a vision of his own. His vision, however? The army of the dead, and four White Walkers, including the Night's King, standing among them. The Night's King grabs hold of his arm, which brands him in the real world.
Not much later, when Bran is watching perhaps Ned getting sent off to the Vale to be fostered by Jon Arryn, the White Walkers arrive. No longer protected by the wards on the tree, they march in there, intent on slaughter.
The Children of the Forest are quickly killed, leaving only Leaf, and Summer, Bran's direwolf, is also killed in the fray. Meera, Bran, Leaf, and Hodor run away, but the Three-Eyed Raven is left there, and is slain while he and Bran are still in the vision. Leaf stays behind, detonating one of her magic bombs as the wights begin to devour her to buy the Bran, Hodor some time. They get the back door open and run, but the dead will follow them unless they can hold the door.
As the sound of Meera calling for Hodor to hold the door echoes in Bran's vision of an long-past Winterfell (and a younger Wyllis/Hodor,) Bran wargs into Hodor to get him to fight off the dead. But as he does that in the present, he also does this in the past, and young Wyllis collapses, having a seizure and repeating the words Meera is screaming in the future: "Hold the door. Hold the door." He speech slurs and eventually these words, the only words he'll say for the rest of his life, become "Hodor."
Hodor is left holding that door as Meera and Bran flee into the foggy snowscape. The wights tear at him, but dammit, he holds that fucking door.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I have something in my eye.
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