'Game Of Thrones' Season 6, Episode 6 Review: Blood of My Blood

Later, we discover the big news, the fan theory finally confirmed: Cold Hands is Benjen Stark, Ned’s brother and Bran’s uncle. But when he shows us his face, it’s transformed. He’s half-turned, we discover, after a White Walker’s blade pierced him. The Children of the Forest saved him and pierced his heart with Dragon Glass, which—I guess, if applied correctly—can actually stop someone from changing, though it’s also used to create White Walkers. I’m not sure of the magic, to be honest. I’m just stoked to see Benjen return.

Benjen is a servant of the Three-Eyed Raven now, and tells Bran that he is the Three-Eyed Raven now. “But I have so much to learn,” Bran says. “I’m not ready.”

The Night King is coming, one way or another, to the realms of men his uncle replies. “And when he gets there,” Benjen says, “you’ll be waiting for him.” (I paraphrase. Suffice to say, Bran as the Three-Eyed Raven plays a crucial role in confronting the Night King.)

All of this is pretty huge as far as the story goes. We continue to move into territory that hasn’t been touched on by the books, and if Martin goes the same route as the show, we just got hit hard with yet another spoiler. It could very well be that this isn’t the same version of Cold Hands as Martin’s. We shall see.

In any case, that’s all the North we get. Let’s fly on our merry way, through the swirling snow and over this high wall of ice. Notice Castle Black as we fly, the little dark shapes of Crows milling about its courtyard. Somewhere not too far off Jon and Sansa are riding to rally the North, though we won’t see them this week. We won’t see Brienne either, as she makes her way to Riverrun, though we’ll need to speak more about that soon.

Rather, let’s fly across the Narrow Sea to…

Braavos

Here, a girl is on a mission. A girl has no name, but she seems amused now rather than perturbed by the play she watches. She laughs at Joffrey’s death, as though seeing it here—even in its bastardized form—is somehow cathartic. She also notices the young actress, Bianca, jealous of the older woman who plays Cersei, mouthing her lines.

So the girl sneaks inside before the curtains fall, and poisons the older actress’s drink. But on her way out, the girl is noticed by her target, and drawn into a conversation. The woman’s name is Lady Crane, the diva of Izembaro’s Braavosi acting troupe, and someone who, we learn, has made many in her company jealous.

When Lady Crane tells the girl she thinks the writing is terrible, the girl says “Why don’t you change it?” She tells the actress that Cersei would not have merely wept at the death of her child. She would have gotten angry. Then the girl leaves, and we see Lady Crane go to take a deadly drink, but the girl swoops in and knocks it from her hand. “Be careful of that one,” she says, pointing to Bianca. “She wants you dead.”

Another girl is watching all of this. Jaqen H’ghar’s helper. She goes to tell him what’s happened, and reminds him that if the girl failed, he promised her she’d be the one to go and kill her.

Meanwhile, the girl gives up on her career as a Faceless Man, and goes back to where she buried her sword, Needle.

Arya pulls it from the rocks, like Arthur drawing Excalibur from the stone. And just like that she returns to us.

(This is yet another of my predictions for Season Six to come true. You can read the full ten here. I’m not doing badly as far as predictions go, but I’ve had both hits and misses so far.)

Soon we’ll get a show down between the two girls, and Arya will stick that mean little punk with the pointy end. That’s my guess anyways.

Let’s hop on a ship and sail back across the Narrow sea. We’ll make our first stop…

Horn Hill

The elegant castle of House Tarly, Sam’s birthplace, is quite striking, and almost Romanesque. Here, Sam plans to leave Gilly and their “son” Sam. He warns her not to mention she’s a Wildling, because his father Randyll “doesn’t like Wildlings much.”

Turns out, Lord Randyll doesn’t like much of anything, least of all his firstborn son, Sam. The old Lord is rude, condescending, and mean-spirited. He glares openly at his son, who he hasn’t seen in years, and then mocks his rotundness. When Gilly stands up for him, she tells the astonished family that Sam is a hero. He’s killed a Thenn (the creepy cannibal Wildlings) and a White Walker.

To that, Gilly receives bemused chuckles and disbelief. There’s no such thing as White Walkers, of course. But she insists, and in her recounting of Sam’s heroics, let’s slip a key detail about her identity. When Randyll discovers she’s a Wildling, he gets even worse and more vicious, to the point that his wife, Lady Melessa, and Sam’s sister Talla, leave the room with Gilly in a huff.

Painfully awkward silence follows, as Sam, Lord Randyll, and Sam’s younger brother Dickon are the only ones to remain at the table.

The most important detail to come out of the dinner, however, was Lord Randyll’s possession of their family sword: Heartsbane. This is one of the few Valyrian steel blades in Westeros. Jon has Longclaw. Brienne has Oathkeeper, a Valyrian steel blade made from Eddard Stark’s greatsword, Ice.

What we know of Valyrian steel is that it’s one thing that can slay a White Walker. That makes Sam stealing Heartsbane all the more wonderful. I didn’t expect him to make such a bold, and quite honestly dangerous, move. No doubt, if Lord Randyll catches him, Sam will not be long for the world. On the other hand, this puts Valyrian steel into the hands of one of the only people to ever kill a White Walker (along with, as far as we know, Jon and Meera.)

Horn Hill is near Highgarden. We’ll fly over the Tyrell’s castle, now emptied of soldiers, as we make our way to…

King’s Landing