I know , saying HBO ’s Game of Thrones has anything on GRRM is bluff , if not outright traitorous to some hoi polloi . But I think there ’s a unspoilt prospect that when the credits rolled on last nighttime ’s episode , “ The Door , ” ol’ George stroke his beard and said , “ Damn , I wish well I ’d thought of that . ”
It was a heartbreaking ending to an utterly terrific final scene of what was kind of a mess of an episode , an ending I could n’t see coming until it was far too tardy . The weirdly dissociate nature of it put me further at ease , so that panorama hit me with well-nigh Red Wedding - level impingement . ( It also helped that I did n’t fuck its title until after I watched “ The Door , ” which then also hit me like a dire wolf to the gut . )
Without that final conniption — which we ’ll unpack at the very close — I’m not certain anyone would count “ The Door ” as one of Game of Thrones ’ best ( or most traumatic ) episodes . It actually starts out really strong , as Sansa get a letter from Littlefinger , who has already made it up north , for a secret tryst in Mole ’s Town . Sansa goes , not for the happy reunion Littlefinger might have hop for , but to tell him — and I may be paraphrasing here — he fucking wet-nurse . “ You rescued me from monsters who murdered my class and then gave me to monsters who murdered my home , ” she says with everlasting disgust in her voice . She then boldly enquire Petyr Baelish what he thinks Ramsay Bolton did to her … and then demands he answer , just to make him take out loud what he allowed to chance . Sansa is complete blade in this scene , and her inhuman announcement that she wants nothing more to do with him is wondrous . All Littlefinger can do is drop the word that her uncle Brynden has gathered the Tully force at Riverrun .
After that , though , the episode makes its usual plosive consonant on various storyline , but they ’re all amazingly low wager , and in some font a little irksome :
• Arya is ordered by Jaqen to kill an actress who seems prissy , possibly at the behest of an actress who does n’t seem nice . When Arya tries to drop subtle hints about hey , maybe kill nice masses is n’t cool , Jaqen flatly evidence her the Many - Faced God number for the overnice and not nice likewise , and if Arya screws her assigning again , she can get the hell on earth out of the House of Black and White .
• The Kingsmoot is held at the Iron Islands ; Yara nominates herself , and Theon carry off to give a skillful language proclaiming her the estimable ruler at which stage Euron Greyjoy go far , announces he in reality killed Balon and is going to hook up with fellow would - be Westeros encroacher Daenerys Targaryen in Meereen ( both militarily and sexually ) . The Iron Islanders immediately happily vote the totally psychotic Euron their new king and Yara and Theon get the netherworld out of Pyke with all the ship and men who will follow them ( well , Yara , at least ) .
• Daenerys forgive Jorah his treachery ; Jorah shows Daenerys his greyscale , admits he do it her and examine to leave ; Daenerys orders him to chance a remedy to be by her side when she rules the Seven Kingdoms . It ’s courteous , but the feel on Jorah ’s face as he watches Dany ’s khalasar drive off allege he ’s not feeling particularly affirmative .
• In Meereen , Tyrion and Varys decide they need to do some p.r . for Dany , namely by giving her credit for brokering the peace between the slavers and the people . They meet with a Red Priestess appoint Kinvara , asking her if maybe the priests of the R’hllor could aid disperse the news . Kinvara says sure , since Daenerys is Azor Ahai at any rate , and then start out speak about killing all the nonbeliever , which Tyrion very diplomatically asks her to hold off on .
• Then we check back in at the Wall where Jon is wondering how to hold the Wall and take back Winterfell . Sansa drops the news about the army at Riverrun , but lies about how she get a line of it . In the end , Sansa get off Brienne to Riverrun to treat with her uncles , and then embarks on a tour of the Houses of the North that did n’t sky-high toast themselves to House Bolton , hoping to gather those loyal to the Starks . Brienne really does n’t desire to leave Sansa , but has to follow her order . This all seems like a high-risk mind .
Bran has the biggest storyline in the episode , but even that commence out strangely . His first visual sense with the Three - Eyed Raven is of the distant past , where the Children of the Forest foregather around a giant Weirwood tree , surrounded by a helix of stones . They have a military man , a human mankind , tie to the tree , and a kid — the same Child who ’s been flow out with him and the Raven — slowly promote a knife into his chest , clearly sacrificing him , and the man ’s center turn ice downcast .
This is a major reveal — it ’s the origin of the White Walkers ! They were a weapon of mass end against the First Men who initially invaded Westeros and took the country away from the Children — and yet “ The Door ” casually announces this news at the commencement of the sequence with only a minor “ You did it ! ” from Bran , and the Child give him a “ sorry not sorry ” since it was her forests being veer down and her citizenry being killed .
Want to eff what else is treated nervelessly ? When Bran sneaks off for a vision of his own , revisit the same Weirwood tree in the present , now of row in the dead of winter . But when he become , he sees the army of wight digest there , star at the tree . Bran walk through them , stunned about the force out mass against humanity , until he realize the White Walkers atop their emaciated horses … and the Night ’s King looks at him , even though he is n’t there . Which cause all the Isle of Wight to also stare at him ( or at least the place where he ’s projected his thinker ) … . And when he turn around , the Night ’s King is standing justly there , next to him . And he grabs Bran .
Bran is shocked out of his vision , and ( justifiably ) freaked out ; he ’s freaked out even more when the Three - Eyed Raven says the Night ’s King has marked Bran — there ’s in spades a frosty suntan on Bran ’s branch — and that this will allow the Night ’s King entree to the cave . The Raven announce Bran must give , but he does n’t give a timeframe on it , and when we return to the cave in the episode ’s last act , Meera and Hodor are just hanging out , express mirth it up when Meera has a strange feeling and goes outside to see all the Wight and the White Walkers are standing mightily out of doors .
What follows is yet another terrific GoT action scene , as the armies of the undead attempt to pullulate the cave with their disturbing swiftness . Meanwhile , Bran and the Raven are revel a easygoing vision in quondam Winterfell , ascertain the daytime Rickard Stark send young Ned to be the Montgomery Ward of Robert Arryn in the Vale . A rigidify Meera attempt to snarl Bran out of it to no service . And poor Hodor is too panic-stricken to move ; he can only rock back and forth , shaking , and muttering “ Hodor ” over and over to himself .
I would wish to maneuver out , by the elbow room , that this whole sequence is terrifying . Game of Thrones is not a revulsion serial , of course of study , but as the terror of the White Walkers has solidified , the show has done an awesome job of making sure everyone read the threat they flummox , by cause them fearsome in the extreme , most notably in last time of year ’s episode “ Hardhome , ” and now in ” The Door . ” When the Children of the Forest throw away their magic grenades , it neither slows the Isle of Wight nor makes a dent in their number . When the Children manage to get off a paries of fire in front of the cave , the wights just scamper over the hillock the cave is situated under and bulge out savvy their path through . Meanwhile , it keeps cutting back to Bran in old Winterfell , where he can try Meera ’s holler through his vision , but he ca n’t wake up .
Which is when Hodor ’s eye go white and he stands up , in the present . And in the past , at Winterfell , Bran watches young Willas , the giant male child who will become Hodor , break up to the ground and begin ingest seizure .
I ’m not 100 % sure if Hodor has warged himself from the past times , or if Bran has done something to Hodor , or something else whole has happened , but it ’s almost too late . Bran ’s fearful wolf Summer heroically sacrifices itself to buy Hodor enough meter to get Bran on his gurney ; Meera gets lucky and tosses a spear with a dragonglass tip , killing one of the White Walkers . The Night ’s King tardily walks up to the body the Raven , trapped in its roots , and cuts down the honest-to-goodness man without indisposition . And lastly , Hodor , Bran , Meera and the Child of the Forest operate down the cave tunnel . Until they get to a door .
It ’s debar . Hodor throws his weight into it , over and over again , while the Child holds back what seems to be a flood tide of wights . Eventually , she too sacrifice herself , allowing the wights to overtake her so that they ’re all caught in the blast of her final conjuring trick grenade . It gives Hodor just enough time to coerce launch the door , and then close it behind him . But there ’s no latch . Hodor run back against it , frame all his exercising weight against it to keep the wights inside and Bran secure .
In the present . Meera shouts “ Hold the room access , Hodor ! ”
In the past times , Bran sentry as the convulsing young Hodor screams “ concord the room access ! ”
And it all clicks into place .
Hodor — gargantuan , innocent , noble Hodor ease up his life so that Meera can drag Bran into the Nox , as the wights tear their way through the doorway part by piece , then through Hodor . And all the while , Meera beg him to “ Hold the door , ” and young Willies screams it too , the words getting more indistinct every sentence .
I could talk about how masterfully this setting was edited ; how it cut between the past and present at the perfect rate for maximum impact ; how even the shouts of “ Hold the door ! ” in both past and present kept bumping next to each other , make the eventual interlocking into “ Hodor ” as natural as two mass scream in different eras can be . How the reveal was dead set up , by letting Bran see Willas back in the second installment of the season , with all his mental faculties , then waiting three more episodes until we forgot the secret of how Willas sour into Hodor .
Instead I want to talk about — and this is a book spoiler , albeit a very pocket-sized one — how it does n’t seem like this setting will be happening in the book . There , Old Nan specifically tells Bran that Willas was complain in the psyche by a horse as kid , rendering him ineffectual to say anything but “ Hodor . ” It seems like a atrocious , normal thing that happens to people in Game of Thrones , and there ’s nothing to show Old Nan is lying . In fact , her tall tale seem to be full of truths ( or part of truths ) that the rest of the world has forget . found on the grounds of the record , it seems very unconvincing that Martin has or had this fate in computer storage for Hodor .
This mean this is the first clock time that Game of Thrones has pull off a Red wedding party - degree instant that was n’t in the books first — yes , it was dissimilar , but to me the realization of Hodor ’s name and his epic outdoor stage was just as emotionally potent . That Game of Thrones could take its most innocent quality and not only kill him off , but drink down him off in a style that felt ripe , trounce me . It was tragical , certainly , but it was also heroic . It was n’t exasperate like many deaths of Game of Thrones are , but it was still heartbreaking . It was nasty and fantastic and shocking and perfect .
If I ’m wrong , and GRRM contrive this , then all quotation to him . But as talented a author as George R.R. Martin is , I have my doubts that reading this conniption would have advert me as deep as what I observe last nighttime .
Goodbye , Hodor . You may have just economize the world .
Assorted Musings:
• Jaqen gives Arya a quick history lesson on the Faceless Men , and it turns out it ’s not that interesting . An on the loose striver was given the gift of face - changing by the Many - Faced god and he kill a bunch of slave trader and recruit slave until he had an unstoppable force of assassins . jolly straightforward , really .
• Arya watch over the gambol the target actress is in , which is essentially an adaptation of Game of Thrones ’ first season , starting with Robert Baratheon ’s demise - by - wild boar and ending with Ned Stark ’s beheading . I read what Benioff and Weiss were trying to do by showing how smallfolk worry about the “ game ” just as much as the White Walkers , at least when it does n’t affect their casual lives ; I infer the play was suppose to be terrible , an unworldly show for peasant that involves Ned being turned into an imbecile and a quite a little of farting ; and I cerebrate Maisie Williams does a neat Book of Job emoting when she is forced to rewatch her don ’s execution , except play for laughs . That enounce , it was still a terrible play and it seemed like it went on forever .
• The Iron Islands poppycock has always been the least interesting storyline in the novels , and it ’s become true in the video show , too . I assume this is why Weiss and Benioff put it off until this season . None of these people are likable — Yara has some qualities , and Theon is of course likable , but no one is rooting for these guys , so it ’s backbreaking to care about their little political dramatic event when it ’s classify to Pyke .
• Also , I ’m not feel Theon ’s newfound assurance and public speaking ability . His recovery from being Reek seems to be happening unrealistically fast ( he say about the show where firedrake will finally be fighting crank zombi ) .
• Varys does not like Kinvara at all . Despite he and Tyrion demand the support of her religion , Varys ca n’t resist speak about how even though Kinvara think Danaerys is Azor Ahai , Melisandre also think Stannis was Azor Ahai and he end up dead . Kinvara buffet by knowing not only about the wizard who had him castrate as a young boy , but also about the supernatural interpreter that came out of the flames when the thaumaturge threw Varys ’ member in a fervidness . Varys shuts up , and hates her even harder .
• So that ’s it for the Tree - Eyed Raven , huh ? Kind of underwhelming , and I understand even less why they mat up they needed Max Von Sydow to tolerate mutely by Bran in a half - twelve visions .
• I ’m not sure another hauntingly awe-inspiring Brienne / Tormund gif lay down up for what happened last night , but it ’s a step in the right direction .
• go for the door .
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