WARNING: This review contains spoilers for Game of Thrones.
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little disappointed with the trajectory of the show so far this season. There have certainly been high points, like Jon’s return, Bran’s vision of the Tower of Joy, and this episode’s reunion between Jon and Sansa, but by and large things have been moving too slowly for my taste. I’ve said this before, but when you only have ten hours of television every season, every minute counts. Up until now, it was hard to see the main story of this season, and some of our favorite characters like Dany and Tyrion were left in uninteresting or repetitive scenarios. While it definitely isn’t perfect, Book of the Stranger remedies most of those problems.
First off, let’s talk about the moment that had everyone in tears of joy, for once. Sansa and Jon are together, and it’s the first Stark reunion we’ve had in quite a long time. My wife and I audibly gasped when Castle Black’s gates opened and Sansa rode through them. We all knew Sansa was heading to The Wall in search of Jon, but with his plan to leave, it was easy to imagine a scenario where they just missed each other, as that’s been all too common with the Starks on this show. But no, we got that major payoff, and it happened right at the top of the episode! The writers are clearly setting events up for the eventual endgame of the show, as major things are finally coming into place. Jon and Sansa are going to take back the North, we’re learning more about the nature of Bran’s magic, Littlefinger is marching South with the armies of The Vale, and Tyrion and Dany are both securing a pretty solid foothold east of the Narrow Sea.
I’ll also say that I love how Sansa was the one ready to kick ass, with Jon being more reserved. It’s clear that dying has changed him, and he needed that push from Sansa. The writers are definitely doing their best to avoid more criticism of weak female characters. I for one have never seen how the female characters on this show were weak, but whatever. As long as they give us moments like Sansa’s rousing speech, I’m happy.
On the other side of the coin, I might be the only person that wasn’t happy with the resolution to Dany’s trip to Vaes Dothrak. The ending just felt like something we’ve seen before, several times at this point. I was curious to see how Dany would talk herself out of that situation, but instead, she just burned everything to the ground. That’s becoming a common theme with her problem solving, and that’s not a great trait. Also, enough with the circle of people bowing to her as the music swells to end the episode. It’s getting old, and losing its effectiveness.
Tyrion’s scene in Meereen was thankfully more interesting this episode. He’s definitely making some unpopular decisions when it comes to dealing with the masters, which could take things in multiple directions. Will Grey Worm and Missandei betray him, not thinking he’s the right person to rule in Dany’s stead? Will the masters betray their new peace, as the people of Meereen seem to think will happen? Or will it all pay off, hopefully teaching Dany and her other advisers that sometimes you have to make compromises rather than using brute force to always get what you want? Say what you will about Dany being a great character, she’s been an utter failure as a ruler up to this point. Tyrion seemed like the perfect person to put her on a better path, but he’s also out of his element in the east. He’s never dealt with people quite this sinister, so he could be wrong. It’ll definitely be interesting to see the whole thing play out, especially with Dany’s new Dothraki army.
We also got a reunion of sorts on the Iron Islands with Theon and Yara, but it wasn’t quite as heartfelt as the one between Jon and Sansa. Even after watching him suffer for so long and help Sansa escape, it’s still hard to completely root for Theon. And we’ve spent so little time on the Iron Islands that I don’t really see them as all that important in the grander scheme of things. Whether Yara or Euron take over ruling, what difference will it make? The Greyjoys have already proven that they aren’t capable of making a significant impact on Westeros, at least not for an extended period of time. We’ll see, the writers must have plans for them otherwise they’d have just killed Theon off, which leads me to another criticism.
Osha dying the way she did was the absolute worst part of this episode. I’m getting the feeling that since departing from the books, the writers of Game of Thrones are taking characters they don’t know how to utilize and just killing them. That’s lazy writing. First it was Doran and Trystane Martell, now it’s Osha. It’s hard to understand without knowing the larger story happening at Winterfell, but let’s break down the options. First, it’s possible that Rickon and Osha being brought to Ramsay was all part of a master plan, and the Umbers didn’t really betray them. If that’s the case, was Osha killing Ramsay one on one really the plan once they got there? What’s the possible outcome of that? If she succeeded, it’s not like the Bolton army would lay down their weapons and support Rickon. They’d murder him and Osha all the same. And if the two of them really were betrayed by the Umbers, same argument. How would murdering Ramsay improve their predicament? It shows a stupidity and lack of forethought in Osha that we haven’t seen before. She’s always been able to manipulate people very well, and is always thinking two steps ahead. I find it very hard to believe that this was her plan, even taking into account that she might not know how messed up Ramsay is in the head. It’s lazy writing, and we’ve lost a cool character because of it.
And now some quick thoughts on King’s Landing and Littlefinger. King’s Landing has kind of become a secondary storyline this season, which is weird. There are certainly more interesting things elsewhere, but Cersei and her machinations have always been a backbone to the larger plots of the season. That may still be true, but I’m starting to tire of the High Sparrow stuff. With things moving so quickly elsewhere all of a sudden, this story is going at a crawl. We may get some resolution next episode now that Cersei and Jaime have outlined their plan on freeing Margaery, but I don’t believe for one second that Cersei is really willing to work with the Tyrells. She has something else up her sleeve. And anyone else constantly terrified by how Littlefinger always seems to get exactly what he wants? I’m not sure that I even want him fighting on the side with Sansa and Jon against the Boltons. He has something else in the works, too.
Finally, I want to touch on the absence of Arya and Bran in this episode, which are two of the more interesting storylines at this point. This, to me, is indicative of the larger story problems with the show right now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there are just too many damn characters and storylines going on right now. The focus and scope of the show is so scattered around the globe that they can’t even get every story into every episode. We usually get one scene for each character, and that often isn’t enough. I hardly think the solution is to kill off even more characters for no reason, but something needs to be done if they really do want to wrap things up by season eight. Hopefully this just means more characters teaming up. I’d love to see Arya hook up with Dany and Tyrion, and then join Jon and Sansa in taking down the Lannisters. But this is still Game of Thrones, and good things rarely happen. Enjoy the Stark reunion while you can, it won’t last forever.
PS – The flirtation between Tormund and Brienne was adorable.
8.4/10