Game of Thrones Episode Recap: Book of the Stranger *SPOILERS*

• This is the episode recap for the Game of Thrones episode: Book of the Stranger. If you haven’t read one of these before this is your warning: BELOW THERE ARE SPOILERS. Pretty significant ones if you haven’t seen the episode yet. For those of you who don’t care, let’s get started. —— We’re starting off in at Castle Black as Jon Snow is packing his things to leave. He tells Edd that he’s planning to go South for the coming winter. Edd is pretty angry with Jon who defends himself by saying his watch ended with his death. But Edd has a solid point when it comes to the incoming white walkers. None of this matters though because Edd and Jon are interrupted by the arrival of Sansa! Finally, the Stark’s don’t miss each other by a hair again! Brienne takes a good look at the men, recognizing a few as Stannis’. Jon and Sansa lock eyes on each other for the first time since separating in the first season, and happily embrace each other. After a bath and a hot meal, Jon and Sansa reminisce on the past. She actually forces him to forgive her for being so intolerable when she was younger. After a few moments of awkward silence we learn Jon has told her everything that has happened. Sansa asks where he’ll go and finds that Jon plans on taking her with him to the south. However, Sansa has other plans. She wants to take back Winterfell with the help of the wildlings. Jon wants no part in any more battles, he is tired and he has lost. But Sansa stands her ground saying she will take back Winterfell, with or without him.

• Davos visits with Melisandre again and is asking her some tough questions. He mainly wants to know what happened to Shireen because he’s completely unaware Melisandre had Stannis burn her to death. He doesn’t get to question the Red Woman for very long though because Brienne jumps into the conversation. She said she saw what happened to Shireen but more importantly what happened to Renly Baratheon (seriously woman, let it go). She also let both Davos and Melisandre know that she was the one who executed Stannis,and just walks away WITHOUT explaining what happened to Shireen (WTF). Guess Melisandre gets to live for one more episode.

• We’re back in the Vale! I would celebrate but there’s a lot of Robin in here and he’s only a little less annoying to me than Ramsay Bolton. Littlefinger has just returned from his trip home and brought Robin a falcon for his name day which he missed while travelling. Lord Royce is quick to try and pin Littlefinger for giving up Sansa to Ramsay Bolton when Littlefinger makes it very plainly known that it doesn’t matter what Lord Royce says because he’s got Robin, Lord of the Vale, completely under his control. It takes him no time to get Lord Royce to back down under the threat of execution. Despite his absence Littlefinger has kept abreast of the situation with Sansa. He knows she’s escaped and gone to Castle Black and without saying anything at all manages to get Robin to agree to help Sansa. The Knights of the Vale are being gathered for war to uproot the Bolton’s from their place.

• Meanwhile in Meereen, a ship containing the heads of the cities of Volantis, Astapor, and Yunkai has arrived. Missendei and Greyworm are pretty loud about meeting with these men. They feel as though Tyrion is undermining all of Daenerys’ work to free the slaves. But Tyrion assures them that this is the path to peace. In the meeting, the city heads express their anger at not being able to meet with Daenerys herself. They demand she leave Slaver’s Bay and are exceptionally rude to Missendei and Greyworm. However, Tyrion brings the conversation back to the matters at hand. He informed the slavers that slavery isn’t necessary but Daenerys may have been too overzealous in abolishing it immediately without having a new system to take its place. Instead, he offers that Meereen will remain without slaves BUT Volantis, Astapor, and Yunkai have seven years to abolish the practice. He also adds that the slavers will be compensated at a fair price for their losses. In return, the men must cut off their support for the Sons of the Harpy (which they denied they were doing). Tyrion also states this is the best offer they’re going to get and then gives them women for the night. Did I mention Greyworm and Missendei fully hated this conversation?

• We’re not done in Meereen just yet though! As soon as the meeting with the slavers ends, Tyrion is confronted by former slaves who express a great deal of unhappiness at the thought of him meeting the slavers to discuss piece. Tyrion ends up relying heavily on Missendei and Greyworm to appease the former slaves, which they do, unhappily. Outside Greyworm informs Tyrion to stop “using” him for his lies. Missendei adds to this saying she has no faith in the slavers to actually keep their promises. While Tyrion is saying he is just “using” the slavers, Greyworm is quick to tell him that he’s the one who is going to be used instead.

• Back in the Dothraki desert, Dario decides to tell Jorah all about how wild Daenerys is in bed because that’s supposed to be funny for some reason, when the duo finally arrives at Vaes Dothrak. Jorah informs Dario that they must leave their weapons outside the gates if they have any hope of passing as merchants. As Dario hands over a dagger he’s particularly fond of, he spots Jorah’s cracked skin. He offers, in a kind tone, to finish Jorah himself when the time comes. That night, the two men enter the city where they are almost immediately caught by two Dothraki who see right through their ruse of being merchants. They get into a scuffle with the two men, and Dario stabs one in the chest. To cover the stab wound, he slams a rock several times in the man’s chest and head.  Meanwhile, Daenerys is being comforted by the older Khaleesi who introduces her to a very young Khaleesi named Lhazareen who was terribly abused by her Khal when she was taken at the age of 12. Daenerys excuses herself to the restroom and receives a warning not to run. She says she would never run from the Dothraki. As she is escorted by Lhazareen they are ambushed by Dario and Jorah. They plead with her to leave, but she has other plans. Big plans.

• In the sept where Margaery is being kept prisoner, she is brought to the High Sparrow. As he speaks to her, he weaves a tale that mixes with the Book of the Stranger which Margaery recognizes and repeats. However, he changes the end of the story to make it even more personal. He relays the moment he realized all of his sins. He then invites Margaery to go see her brother. When she sees Loris, he is badly beaten and psychologically broken. We find, as the Sparrow has been trying to manipulate Margaery, Margaery has seen right through it. She begs Loris to be strong, but he just wants all of the suffering to end.

• Cercei walks down a hallway to see her son and finds Maester Pycelle badly informing him to keep the High Sparrow happy. She dismisses Pycelle from the room, but he only does so when Tommen commands him, giving Cercei a shit-eating grin on the way out. In the following conversation, Cercei finds out Tommen has been meeting with the High Sparrow (apparently frequently) and his head is all turned around. This fact is what she takes to the high council meeting to force their hand. Olenna attempts to leave the high council meeting, only to hear that Margaery will be forced to make her walk of atonement. It is with this fear that both herself and Cercei’s uncle stay and listen to Jaime’s plan. The idea is to bring in the Tyrell army’s and instead of fighting them, the hand of the king will stand down. In the process, the Sparrow’s will be destroyed. If their plan goes south, then there will be civil war to which Olenna relays “Many will die no matter what we do, better them then us.”

• Theon has returned home to face is sister Yara. She is unbelievable angry with him for betraying her and her men to Ramsay. She also finds it very convenient that he’s return just after his father’s death. Yara believes that Theon is there to take the throne from her. He assures her that he wants her to rule, and he’ll help her do it. Back in Winterfell, Osha is brought to Ramsay. She’s unfazed by the flayed man and Ramsay himself. He questions her loyalty to Rickon, and then what use she might be of to him. Osha, assuming Ramsay wants to be seduced, offers herself to him. She attempts to grab a dagger on the table to kill him, but he was on to her the whole time. He brutally kills her before she can kill him. Dammit.

• In Castle Black, a messenger arrives from Ramsay. The message details how Ramsay has a hold of Rickon and that Ramsay will exchange him for Sansa. If not, he threatens all manner of brutality that even Jon cannot read aloud. Sansa has no problem with it. She reads the whole letter and after points out that Roose is dead and that Ramsay must have killed him. They immediately begin taking count of the men Ramsay has versus the men Jon has. Ramsay has 5,000 men while there are only 2,000 wildlings. Sansa assures Jon that he can get support from houses in the north for the fight. Together they decide to rescue their home, and their brother.

• We return to Vaes Dothrak where we find out that the Dothraki leaders do not care about the two men killed by Dario and Jorah or that someone brought a weapon into Vaes Dothrak. Way to uphold your traditions, fellas. Daenerys is brought into the temple where she is going to learn her fate from the all of the Dothraki leaders. They debate among themselves for a time when Daenerys interrupts and asks them if they want to know what she thinks her own future should be. She tells them the story of Khal Drogo and his promise to cross the narrow sea and take the iron throne. She tells them they are men who think small. She tells them that she will lead the Dothraki, not any of them. Their response? They laugh at her and threaten lots of rape. They tell her that they would never serve her. “You’re not going to serve. You’re going to die. Grabbing the ceremonial pot of fire, Daenerys lights the temple aflame and burns it to the ground along with all of the Khals. She steps from the flames and seizes control of Vaes Dothrak, 100,000 men at her bidding. All of the Dothraki hoard bow before her.

• What a hell of an episode!…That book readers hate. Apparently, Daenerys isn’t supposed to be fire-proof according to George R.R. Martin circa 1988.  Now, based on the character in the show there’s nothing to say she isn’t fireproof. After all, we’ve seen her hold the hot potatoes that were the dragon eggs without a problem, and take scalding hot baths PRIOR to her survival of the pyre. Based on this, the showrunners have definitely set precedence with Daenerys. This is yet another major departure from the book that fans are very upset about, but TV audiences love.

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