Check out Josh’s recap of Season 5 Episode 6 of Game of Thrones, titled Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, where Arya moves on to the next level, Jorah and Tyrion have some unexpected company, Littlefinger returns to King’s Landing, Jaime and Bronn find Myrcella in Dorne, Loras is questioned by the High Sparrow, and Sansa weds Ramsay Bolton! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Game of Thrones, Season 5 Episode 6: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken
This episode opens with Arya cleaning more dead bodies. After cleaning a body, she puts a sheet over the corpse and men come and use a stretcher to take the body away. Arya still wants to learn more and tries to get a peek as to what is going on with the body, but a woman tells her to get back to work. Arya demands to know what is going on, but the woman says she will find out, when she is ready. Arya then asks who this woman is, and she says she is from Westoros, and has many similar life situations to Arya, and some different. Then in the end, the woman asks Arya if the story she told was a lie or real. Seems this is the point of what Arya is supposed to learn to eventually do herself?
Later, while sleeping, Jaqen H’ghar wakes her and asks who she is. She tells him who she is, from Winterfell, and he slaps her. As Arya continues her story, Jaqen H’ghar slaps her every time she lies. Is this more training for her?
Sometime later, Arya is scrubbing floors, when a man brings his sick daughter into the building. The man tells Arya he is unable to help his daughter, and no healer can either. Arya talks to the sickly girl, and she seems to be getting better at the lying game, telling what seems to be a lie to her to try to make her feel better. She tells her the water from the fountain there will heal her, and has her drink. Meanwhile, Jaqen H’ghar her watches from afar.
Arya returns to cleaning bodies, and Jaqen H’ghar continues to watch. He soon leaves though, and Arya follows him. Deeper into the temple, we see the faces of people embedded into the pillars of the hall. Turns out they are taking the “Many Faced” God literally.
Jorah, meanwhile, examines his greyscale, while Tyrion asks Jorah about the next plan. Tyrion tells Jorah about his ordeal, killing his father, and tells Jorah about the death of his father. Jorah didn’t know yet, and Tyrion realizes this. They continue making their way to Daenerys, and Tyrion asks Jorah about why she is so important. Jorah explains when Daenerys had her dragons born, and how that changed his view on life. Tyrion then asks what happens after Daenerys takes control.
Before they can talk too much, a slaver ship is seen off shore. Too bad the men weren’t seen, as they are caught pretty quickly. They decide to make Jorah a slave, and to execute Tyrion. Tyrion tries to plead his way out. Turns out that the slavers want to sell Tyrion’s penis. Tyrion reasons that since he is so well endowed, the buyer for his “unit” wouldn’t know it was from a dwarf. So they decide to keep him alive until they find a buyer. Tyrion and Jorah then use some more smoth talking to convince the slavers to take them to Slavers Bay for Jorah to fight in the Fighting Pits.
Moving over to Littlefinger, the Sparrows confront him. The Sparrows warn Littlefinger about peddling flesh. Littlefinger says he has a meeting with Cersei, and he is released.
His meeting with Cersei talks mainly about Loras being arrested. He wonders about the reasoning of his arrest. Cersei then decides to change the conversation to that of Robin. Littlefinger then tells Cersei that Sansa is alive, and through “sources” he has been told Sansa will be marrying Roose Bolton’s son. Cersei is not happy about it, promising to skin them both. Littlefinger then explains the best course of action is to let Stannis and Bolton fight each other, and then strike the winner while they are weak. Littlefinger seems to decide to lead men to beat whichever winner comes out, in exchange for being named Warden of the North. She does set a condition though–Sansa must die.
Moving to Jamie and Cersei’s daughter, Myrcella, she and her betrothed seem to be happily in love, considering how most relationships are pretty terrible. The prince of Dorne watches them, and declares they need to be kept safe.
Meanwhile, Bronn and Jamie in disguise as Dornish men head for the city. Meanwhile, Oberyn’s lover Ellaria and her women decide to hunt down whoever may come to rescue Myrcella. So, as predicted, the women confront Jamie and Bronn right when they are about to save Myrcella. They begin fighting, while Myrcella is taken by one of the women. The Prince’s guards surround the fight and demand everyone drop their weapons. Ellaria is then captured by the Dornish guards.
Olenna Tyrell, meanwhile, has come to King’s Landing, and she seems to think the situation with Loras is a simple fix. Olenna meets with Cersei, and unfortunately the conversation doesn’t go anywhere. Cersei says there should be a “pre-trial” for Loras, and should be freed after being talked to. I am pretty sure that things will not go that easily.
So the inquest starts, and the High Sparrow interrogates Loras with Margaery and Olenna present. Loras denies all allegations about laying with any man. Olenna seems relieved when done questioning Loras. But things aren’t quite over. The High Sparrow then questions Margaery. She confirms that all charges against Loras are lies. After Margaery they have one more witness: Oliver, the man Loras slept with. Turns out he is singing like a bird, and even gives away the details of a birthmark that Loras has in a place he likely wouldn’t have seen if they hadn’t been together intimately. The High Sparrow then decides he has enough evidence to have a trial for both Loras and Margaery, and Margaery is arrested. She pleads for Tommen but he just sits frozen as she is taken away.
Moving back to Winterfell, Myranda comes to visit Sansa, and gives her a bath. While bathing her, she warns Sansa about the other women who “bored” Ramsay. Sansa kicks Myranda out, and tells her she isn’t scared.
Sansa prepares for her wedding, and Theon comes to walk her down the aisle, or at least the equivalent to what Game of Thrones would do. The wedding happens as planned. After the wedding, Ramsay wants to “consummate” the marriage. Seems normal right? Turns out it is really creepy. He demands that Theon watch the two it, and it isn’t really consensual–like–at all. It is a very difficult scene to watch. We don’t see much on camera. Sansa is seen crying, then the camera shifts to Theon who is also crying, and cringing as he watches. Sansa, meanwhile, is in pain as Ramsay takes advantage of her.
Josh’s Thoughts: Game of Thrones, Season 5 Episode 6: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken
So the hard part to talk about this episode is Sansa’s final scene. That is a very creepy scene, and has caused a lot of outrage online. I am not sure I should even talk about it, as my opinion, as a man, is very uninformed, as it is not something a man in general can relate to in most situations. I certain understand why people are upset, but I guess my feeling is that this is a TV Show, and it was not really happening. Also, the show did a good job of not making it too grotesque given how grotesque the actual act was. Viewers could not see the terrible thing happening.
I am not sure how HBO/Game of Thrones could have done this more tastefully. This is certainly a behavior we would expect for Ramsay, and one that is definitely done to make us hate him even more. What I hope, is by the end of the season Ramsay gets what is coming to him. What I would really like is if Theon can finally stop being so passive, letting all of this terrible stuff happen. I keep expecting him to snap and shank Ramsay, but so far nothing is happening in that regard. Maybe it will finally happen one day.
Littlefinger, meanwhile, continues his spinning of lies. I am curious if he really plans on taking out Sansa in the end. Or maybe he is really spinning it to eventually take out Cersei?
As for Margaery and Loras, so far Cersei has the upper hand. Another person I hope gets some bravery is Tommen, as him sitting around letting all of this just happen is really irritating. So far of the two, I would much rather see Margaery whispering in Tommen’s ear than Cersei. Cersei certainly has been playing a tight game though.
Moving to Jorah, I have a feeling we will be seeing him fight in the Fighting Pits, and one of the many viewers will be Daenerys herself. I have a feeling this will be a way for Jorah to try to prove himself to Daenerys, and hopefully win her over with his battle wounds. As for Tyrion, well, let us hope they don’t find a penis buyer.
Jaime and Bronn got caught, which was pretty expected. I am wondering where they go from there through. The prince of Dorne and Jaime really are not too far apart on which side they are on. Seems like both parties have more important things to worry about like Ellaria and her band of women. We will have to see what happens to them.
Finally, Arya is slowly becoming the “Nobody” people it seems. She is picking up on the lying quite well. But that room of faces is pretty creepy. I am wondering what the point of that is.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 6 of Game of Thrones: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken
I’m a little nervous writing about this episode, specifically the Sansa rape scene. As a woman, I feel pressured to have a certain opinion, and that if I don’t share that opinion, it will anger people. There was such a strong response to this scene, such outrage, that many people, mostly women, decided to stop watching Game of Thrones because of it. Obviously, rape is a bad thing. We all know this. This was an extremely uncomfortable scene to watch. However, it’s not the first time there’s been something violent and difficult to watch on Game of Thrones, or any other TV show or movie, for that matter. I feel like this was used to serve as a reminder and confirmation of just how bad a guy Ramsay Bolton is. It’s been awhile since we’ve actually seen him do anything reprehensible, not since last season, which was a year ago for most people. Sure, he was being a jerk to Theon recently, but that’s about it. Also, he had assured Littlefinger that he would never hurt Sansa, and he seemed sincere. So maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy anymore? But no, he’s still the same horrible guy he’s always been. This scene confirmed that, and made sure we didn’t forget our hatred toward Ramsay. It also showed the stark contrast between Sansa’s first husband, Tyrion, who was kind and gentle, and never touched her, and her new husband, who was just the opposite. Thankfully, they didn’t focus on the act, but instead cut away to Theon, so at least we didn’t have to witness the horror. In my mind, I’m not outraged by the inclusion of this scene, because it’s not like they were glorifying the act, they were vilifying it. It’ll make it that much more satisfying when Ramsay eventually gets what’s coming to him.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I’ll talk about the rest of the episode. Arya seems to have graduated to the next level of the Faceless Men, and is getting better at the Game of Faces. How long will it be until she is able to change her face into that of someone else? Will she even make it that far in her training, or will she revert to Arya Stark instead of “No one”? As for Jorah and Tyrion, I’m hoping that being picked up by the slave traders will speed up their journey to Meereen. I’m dying for a Jorah/Daenerys reunion! Though with Jorah going into the Fighting Pits, I’m afraid that it will be a bittersweet reunion…
It seems like they have aged Myrcella up quite a bit! I thought she was supposed to be a little girl still. It follows that Tommen is much older than we thought as well. Myrcella seems about 15, which would make Tommen like 16 or 17. That’ll make things a little more difficult for Jaime to “rescue” her, since it seems like she won’t want to go, being in love with her betrothed. But then Jaime gets caught anyway, as well as Ellaria, and it looks like Myrcella has been kidnapped by Ellaria’s crew, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen there.
Speaking of Tommen, he seems pretty helpless in this situation with Margaery and Loras. We already saw that he wasn’t very willing to try to get Loras released when he was first captured. Tommen’s a nice kid, but not a very effective king. He’s a little too nice, and too passive. I would hope that with Margaery being arrested he might be more forceful in trying to set her free, but I’m not counting on it. Also in King’s Landing, we finally see another aspect to Littlefinger’s plan: to take advantage of the Stannis-Bolton battle and take over as Warden of the North. What would happen to Sansa in this situation though, since Cersei wants her dead? Up to this point, it seems that Littlefinger cares for Sansa, but it also appears that Littlefinger is always just trying to find a leg up to get more power. I am curious to see what the next phase of Littlefinger’s plan is!
Scenes from Game of Thrones, Season 5 Episode 7: The Gift
Here are scenes from the next Game of Thrones episode, titled The Gift:
