Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 5 Recap

Game of Thrones (2011-)
Season 6 (2016)

Created by: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aidan Gillan, Gwendoline Christie

Plot: 
HBO's fantasy drama series adapted from George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire follows the civil war of kings and usurpers in Westeros who wish to sit one the throne. The scale and scope of the story is staggering, fully realized with a large ensemble cast.

Previously
Daenerys has finally ascended to the head of the Dothraki, in a scene reminiscent of season one that garnered her self proclaimed name "The Unburnt". Will this add a new moniker? I expect a few hardships before she finally makes it to Westeros. I hope with her full army, she'll finally make a move on the throne.

Jon Snow and Sansa will be fighting for Winterfell. Are white walkers going to delay their progress? We're due some white walkers. That is the catastrophic underlying plot point that has been quite dormant so far. Peter Baelish has pledged the armies of the Vale to help her though.

Will Cersei's trial by combat finally occur? Tyrion's control of Meereen is a 'b' plot, but that has to break out at some point and have a larger influence on the world.

When will Euron return for the Kingsmoot? When will the Kingsmoot actually start?

Check out my Game of Thrones season 6 recaps. 

Review: Episode 5 - The Door
I wondered when white walkers would appear again, and this is it. I'm still trying to parse what happened in this episode. There are still surprises to be had, and reveals that were set up since episode one. This episode provides a Hodor bombshell! Episode four was great, and this might be even better.

The new king of the Iron Islands is installed, while Sansa Stark and company plan for their upcoming battle. All of this is secondary to the Bran Stark story.

Sansa is looking the part of the queen more and more.

Sansa receives a letter from Peter Baelish and visits him in Molestown with Brienne.
Sansa's less than pleased to see him after he sold her to Ramsay Bolton. She forces Peter to imagine the lurid details of her wedding night. He apologizes, but she threatens him. He pledges to do anything in his power for her, even if she asks him to die.

Game of Thrones provides its own parody.

Arya is still stick fighting. Is that other girl going to be somebody more important? Wouldn't this temple have multiple servants? Arya is tenacious and continues to fight, undeterred by defeat. She's clearly outmatched. Jaqen provides a history lesson on the faceless men, before giving her another assignment, a second chance for redemption by killing a stage actress. Either no name completes the assignment or she's the one who dies. Arya, the girl without a name, gets to watch a stage play parodying Robert Baratheon's death. She laughs until the play denounces her father and sister too. It's a bit of history she didn't know.
Arya questions Jaqen on the deed, wondering if the younger actress wants her time in the spotlight. Of course Jaqen tells her to stop asking questions.

Euron Greyjoy- The new Iron Island king.

It's finally time for Kingsmoot at the Iron Islands. Yara Greyjoy makes a claim, but the dissenters want Theon. Yara worries for a moment when Theon begins to speak, suspecting he may claim the throne, but he upholds his promise and supports his sister. It's then that Euron Greyjoy claims the salt throne.
Euron admits to killing Balon, insults Theon to applause, asserts he'll build the largest fleet, and claims Daenerys as his future wife. The crowd quickly rallies behind Euron and his boasts.

While Yara and Theon take the fleet, Euron is drowned per custom, but then coughs up the water. "What is dead, may never die." His first act as king is to murder his niece and nephew. They've fled, but he plans to build ships and give the Iron Islands the world.

Daenerys has a big army, but so far is just looking.

Daenerys ponders what to do with Jorah. She has banished him twice and he's returned twice to save her life. Jorah reveals his stone flesh and admits he must be sent away. She commands him to find a cure for the stone flesh and then return. She wants him to return, but this is either an easy way to write him off the show or provide another deus ex Jorah moment in the last few episodes of this show.

Tyrion is installing a red priestess as prime minister.

Tyrion's plan of peace has resulted in the end of murders for now. Tyrion's not happy with peace, he wants an unwavering figure head for the people. Someone that can't be bought. He meets with a red priestess. The priestess pledges her support to Daenerys, the leader the lord of light predicted.
Tyrion is pleased with the pledge, but Varys questions how Stannis was also predicted as the savior of the realm.
This red priestess proves her legitimacy to Varys, recalling what he heard on the night of his mutilation.

Jon Snow is strategizing with his dream team; Davos, Sansa, Brienne, Edd Tollett, Giantsbane, and Melisandre. Sansa is looking ever more a queen. She also sewed her own dress, something she wouldn't have done a few seasons ago. With Sansa's uncle the Black Fish forming an army, that could be the big name on their roster they need to garner support from the North. Sansa wants to send Brienne to the Black Fish to ally him, but understandably Brienne is against leaving Sansa alone.
The dream team leaves Tollett in charge of Castle Black as they ride out to muster an army.

This episode brings the white walkers, and how.

It's Bran's turn to learn history. The children of the forest created the first white walker in a war against men.
Bran enters a vision on his own, without the Three Eyed Raven, and sees an army of white walkers. How did the ancient people ever confine them to the North? Did humans just flee South and then build a wall? Even then, how could you get far enough ahead to build the wall? Maybe Bran can provide a history lesson on that too.
The white walker king sees Bran in the vision and touches him. Now the white walker king will come for Bran. The king knows where he is and Bran is sent on his way. I didn't expect Bran's training to end that abruptly. Now Bran must become the Three Eyed Raven.

White walkers mean business.

The white walkers moved fast! They are outside of the Three Eyed Raven's cave the same day. I was expecting to see them at the wall, not at the cave. The forest children command Meera to get Bran and run and then begin attacking the walkers with explosive rocks. Bran is in a vision, not waking. Where is Jojen?
The fight is intense! Bran and crew make it out, though Bran's direwolf is killed and Jojen is nowhere to be seen. The forest children and the Three Eyed Raven don't make it either.
Why does Hodor only say Hodor? It's a shortening of "Hold the door." Somehow Bran's vision and this siege bridged space time (I kid you not). With Bran as a conduit, young Hodor was struck with a seizure and he could hear Meera shouting the words. From this moment forward he forever repeated "Hodor." until his death. He held the door, but was ripped apart by white walkers.
Bran as the conduit could have happened as he was in a vision, but also Warged into Hodor to facilitate escape. Bran could very well be the cause of Hodor's condition. He's definitely the cause of Hodor's death. Bran and Meera had a grim outlook before, but this is even worse. Aren't the white walkers just going to track Bran now?