Shea Reviews – Game of Thrones S06E01 – The Red Woman

Game of Thrones premieres have always established the new status quos for characters, brought certain characters together for the season, and laid some of the teasing groundwork for what’s to come. By that reference, “The Red Woman” did its job. Unfortunately, it did so in a bit of a messy way.

Last season ended with a few disappointments before that jaw-dropping Jon Snow scene. Brienne killed Stannis, but we didn’t see it. And if you don’t see someone actually die on Game of Thrones, are they really dead? If you think so, I have a fallen tree in a forest to sell you. But, as it turns out, Stannis really is dead, or at least that’s what Roose Bolton said in some forced expository dialogue. There was also the cliffhanger of Theon and Sansa leaping from the battlements of Winterfell. Did they survive? Are they hurt? Turns out the answers are yes and no, as we quickly see them running through the forest away from Ramsay’s dogs. It just makes me confused as to why the writers left us guessing at the outcomes of those two situations when the answers were the obvious ones. It just isn’t particularly interesting.

But let’s jump to some of the set up for the season. We all knew Jaime’s return wasn’t going to be roses after he held his dead daughter in his arms, so it came as no surprise that Jaime and Cersei effectively declared war on Dorne. What did come as a surprise was the quick offing of Areo Hotah, Doran Martell, and his son Trystane. This sequence of events completely confused me, for so many reasons. First, let’s talk about the two of Oberyn’s daughters that killed Trystane. Am I wrong, or weren’t they standing on the pier in Dorne with their mother, watching the ship with Jaime and Trystane sail away? How did they get to King’s Landing? Also, why the hell would Jaime have let Trystane sail back to Dorne after he landed? We see the ship sailing away from King’s Landing, right? I know he wouldn’t have killed Trystane or anything, but wouldn’t it have made sense to hold onto him until they found the truth of what happened?

And then there’s the whole assassination of Doran himself. Why was Ellaria fearful when Doran started reading that letter telling of Myrcella’s demise? She knew that was going to happen, she had to. It’s not like it would stay a secret forever, especially since she had already planned Trystane’s murder, as well. And if she was planning on assassinating Doran, and knew that the guards would support her, why would she wait until that moment? It all just didn’t make sense, and was clearly just the writers tying off some loose ends before the Lannister/Dorne war begins. And poor Areo Hotah, such a badass character in the books that got to do absolutely nothing cool on the show. What a waste. I will say that I’m excited to see this war happen. We’ve gotten to experience too little of Dorne until now, and it’s always fun watching two armies that you hate duke it out. Maybe everyone will die.

Beyond the Dorne problem, there were some highlights to this episode. I always love seeing Tyrion and Varys together, and I’m excited to witness their exploits this season, as Tyrion tries to rule the clearly chaotic Meereen. It’s also great to finally see Brienne win one, as she finally reconnects with Sansa. I would have liked to see some plan as to where they’re headed, but maybe we could presume it’ll be The Wall, as they still think Jon is in charge there? There’s also a chance, albeit small, that they could head to The Last Hearth, where the Umbers preside. If you remember back to season three, that’s where Osha took Rickon Stark. Not that Brienne or Sansa would know that, but the Umbers remained loyal to the Starks, even after the whole Red Wedding fiasco, so you could assume that word would have spread. It would be nice to see Sansa reunite with someone from her family, she’s earned a bit of a break.

It’s also great to see Sir Davos get some more screentime. He’s become one of my favorite characters, and it’s been tough to watch him so blindly follow a clearly insane man in Stannis. Now that he’s free, I’m really curious to see where he goes. He’s obviously now very closely tied to the Night’s Watch, Melisandre, and the Wildlings. It was weird that his whole story wasn’t resolved in this episode, but clearly there’s something bigger going on at The Wall. The ending with Melisandra was creepy as hell, and makes you wonder about all of the other red priests and priestesses we’ve seen on the show. Is Thoros of Myr older than he appears? Whatever the case, it’s clear that the Red God has some pretty hardcore powers. He’s the only god on the show that we’ve actually seen make something happen, and that’s pretty terrifying.

Really quickly about the other characters, I’m not particularly interested in seeing Dany deal with another Khal, but maybe they’ll take the story in an unexpected direction. It should be safe to assume that Sir Jorah and Daario will catch up to them quickly, it’s not like the khal were hiding their tracks. Arya is still blind, and I’m definitely still interested in where her story will go. Will she stay true to herself, or will she finally embrace the Many Faced God? Roose Bolton seems afraid that the Lannisters will come knocking on their doors soon, but they’ll clearly have their hands full with Dorne. I’m not sure where they’re going to take the Boltons, but I’m excited to find out.

Anyone else bummed that we didn’t get to see Bran this episode? The writers had said that he was coming back in a big way this season, so I had hoped to check in with him during the premiere. Oh well, maybe next week. There’s also two storylines from the books that I was waiting to appear, but I don’t want to spoil anything here. For book readers, think about Griff and Euron. There’s a chance that those stories are being cut completely in order to free the writers from the books, but that would be a shame. There were so many great twists and characters involved that I’d love to see happen on screen. But I guess we’re still only one episode into the season.

Finally, I wanted to address the theory about Melisandre bringing Jon back. A lot of people thought that was going to happen in the first episode, but sadly not. However, his body is still sticking around, so it could happen at some point, assuming Melisandre doesn’t waste away in that bed.

I still have concerns about the show juggling so many characters and plotlines at once, and the premiere did nothing to allay those fears. This episode didn’t feel as rushed as most of last season, but it did spend too much time cleaning up the mess from last year’s finale. And when you only have ten episodes to tell your story, every minute counts. Hopefully we get off in some interesting directions next week.

7.9/10