Given the sheer amount of pay offs this season, the last two episodes of Game of Thrones have felt a bit like the makers are holding their best for the home stretch. That’s not to say The Broken Man was uneventful. It just was obviously setting things in motion before all hell (presumably) breaks loose in the final three episodes of the sixth season.
The biggest development of the episode was that Sandor Clegane (The Hound) is back. Not quite back from the dead, but he’s back. Turns out he was found nearly dead by a septon, Brother Ray (Ian McShane), and nursed back to life. Now, he lives in a tiny community which whiles away its time building places of worship out in the wilderness. But where the Hound goes, death follows, and sure enough, the Brotherhood Without Banners runs into the small group, and slaughters them, sending the Hound into a vengeful frenzy.
Elsewhere in Braavos, Arya Stark, having shrugged off the yoke of the Faceless Men last episode, is reveling in her newfound freedom and the prospect of going back to Westeros, so much so that she is ambushed by the waif and gets stabbed repeatedly. But the youngest Stark girl is not in any danger given that the next episode is titled “No One” and also given the sheer amount of time and story invested in her.
In King’s Landing, it turns out Margaery wasn’t that sincere about atoning for her sins after all. The Queen put on quite an act, convincing the High Sparrow of having turned a new leaf, all the while staying true to her roots. She even slips a note to her grandmother Olenna, prompting her to pull out of King’s Landing, leaving Cersei all by herself.
Jaime takes over the siege of Riverrun only to shrink in the face of withering scorn from the Blackfish, who’s holding fort against the Freys.
In the north, Sansa and Jon are finding it harder than expected to gather allies for their battle against Ramsay Bolton. But that’s not the true fight, as Davos told Lyanna Mormont, the head of Bear Island. The real battle is not between squabbling houses, but between the living and the dead, “For make no mistake, the dead are coming.”
