{"id":441,"date":"2019-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/china.chinaacheru.com\/wp\/2019\/03\/08\/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-6-recap-you-dont-understand\/"},"modified":"2019-03-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T00:00:00","slug":"game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-6-recap-you-dont-understand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-6-recap-you-dont-understand\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGame of Thrones\u201d Season 7, Episode 6 Recap: You Don\u2019t Understand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

By Sarah Larson<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>On last night\u2019s \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d a North of the Wall-focussed episode that we expected to be snowy, wighty, and grunty, we got all that, and just a smidge more: Khaleesi tears, a swinging-lantern surprise, a knapsack full of gross intrigue. And yet, for some of us, this penultimate episode of the penultimate season of our show of shows underwhelmed; I got reports of a bird flipped at a television in Massachusetts. On the other hand, it\u2019s hard not to love these crazy goofballs. Shall we?<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>We open on snow, snow, and more snow: our gang of fur-clad bravehearts, bareheaded except for Gendry, who wears an amusing hood atop what appears to be a shearling coat. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cYou ever been North before?\u201d Jon Snow asks. \u201cNever seen snow before!\u201d Gendry says, shivering. Tormund mentions the utility of fucking to keep warm, then, after making a crude joke to Gendry that leaves him wide-eyed, worries to Jon Snow that Gendry isn\u2019t smart. How dare you, sir!<\/font><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The long trudge through the North gives the men lots of time to catch up\u2014there won\u2019t be time for exposition, the writers seem to be reminding us, once the wights start skibbling. They talk of the Dragon Queen, and of everybody\u2019s favorite topic: bending the knee. Jon Snow complains about it; Tormund reminds him that Mance Rayder was too proud to do it. \u201cHow many of his people died for his pride?\u201d Tormund says. Gendry squabbles with the Brotherhood guys for selling him to Melisandre\u2014remember the leeches, you bastards? The Hound rolls his eyes. \u201cThis one\u2019s been killed six times,\u201d he says, nodding at Beric. \u201cYou don\u2019t hear him bitching about it.\u201d Like real brothers!<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Jon and Jorah catch up about Jeor Mormont and Ned Stark: fathers who lived nobly and died unfairly. This is a manly prelude to a portentous moment: the handing back and forth of Longclaw, Jon Snow\u2019s Valyrian-steel sword. If you, like me, did a little who\u2019s-got-Valyrian-steel refresher before this episode\u2014because Valyrian steel and dragonglass are the only things that can kill White Walkers\u2014you might have been reminded that Jeor gave Jorah\u2019s sword to Jon, who was like a son to him. \u201cChanged the pommel from a bear to a wolf, but it\u2019s still Longclaw,\u201d Jon says, all decency. No, Jon Snow! You are too noble! You need that thing, for chrissakes. \u201cIt\u2019s been in your family for centuries,\u201d Jon says. Aw, shucks, Jorah says\u2014but I brought shame upon my house. You take it. May it serve you well. Phew.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>At Winterfell, Arya, somehow effectively tricked by Littlefinger\u2019s machinations of last week, has grown suspicious and scheming. Arya tells Sansa a story about shooting arrows even though it was against the rules, and their father clapping for her when she hit the bull\u2019s-eye. \u201cI knew that what I was doing was against the rules, but he was smiling, so I knew it wasn\u2019t wrong,\u201d she says. \u201cThe rules were wrong.\u201d She\u2019s off to a good start; they think of Dad fondly for a second. \u201cNow he\u2019s dead, killed by the Lannisters, with your help,\u201d she says. Oy! No, Arya, no!<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Sansa\u2019s eyes widen. \u201cWhat?!\u201d Arya takes out the scroll she found in Littlefinger\u2019s mattress and reads it melodramatically. It\u2019s the letter that the Lannisters made Sansa send to Robb\u2014remember Robb?\u2014asking him to swear fealty to Joffrey. Standing in front of what appears to be a huge pink slab of meat, they bicker about loyalties and Ned\u2019s execution. Seems like they should have spent more time catching up before this\u2014surely Sansa would have mentioned despising Joffrey at some point? More bickering, hard to believe and harder to enjoy. (You want to be a pretty queen! You should be on your knees thanking me for saving Winterfell! Well, I still hate you! Your suffering sounds like baloney! Etc.) Then Sansa says something sensible: \u201cDo you know how happy Cersei would be right now if she saw us fighting?\u201d To this I might add, do you know how happy Littlefinger would be, too? In fact, he\u2019s probably nestled behind a nearby pole, but for once, the camera doesn\u2019t cut to him doing the old lurk-and-smirk.<\/font>
<\/span>On the Long Cold Trudge, Tormund and the Hound engage in some sailor talk. At least someone\u2019s got some joie de vivre around here! Tormund says he wants to make babies with Brienne of Tarth. \u201cGreat big monsters,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019d conquer the world.\u201d The Hound, we can see, is more focussed on the time that Brienne nearly killed him, but he doesn\u2019t get into it. Beric and Jon Snow discuss the Lord of Light, a.k.a. the Great Resurrector, and his mysterious ways. \u201cDeath is the enemy,\u201d Beric says. \u201cThe enemy always wins, but we still need to fight.\u201d You said it, brother. Up ahead of them, the Hound sees the vision he saw in the fire made real: \u201cA mountain like an arrowhead.\u201d <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The plot is nearly upon us!<\/strong><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>In cozier quarters\u2014the regal caves of Dragonstone\u2014Tyrion is staring into the fire, talking about boys with Dany. \u201cDo you know why I like you?\u201d she says. I honestly don\u2019t, he says. \u201cYou\u2019re not a hero,\u201d she says. As Tyrion offers evidence about the Mud Gate and his face slash, she continues: heroes do stupid things and they die. She rattles some off\u2014all heroic, most not dead. \u201cDrogo, Jorah, Daario. Even this . . . Jon Snow.\u201d They\u2019re all in love with you, he points out. She scoffs at Jon Snow\u2019s puniness, then asks about Cersei. If Bran wargs this conversation and tells Jon about it, I hope he leaves that part out.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Up in Snowsville, things are really getting cooking: a huge blizzard, panting and trudging, and lo\u2014a creature in the distance! Could it be an ice spider? No\u2014before you know what the hell is going on, or why, a bear\u2014a bear the size of a woolly mammoth, with the threadbare fur of an old teddy bear and the eerie shuddering moves of a military-grade robotic dog\u2014is upon them, snarling and snorting and chomping, and being whacked with flaming swords.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>At Winterfell, just as reasonably, Sansa is confiding in Littlefinger. Her concerns are legit: Now that Arya\u2019s found that scroll and believed the worst, will the Lords of the North have reason to mistrust her as she leads them into the Long Horrible Winter? Why not talk to Bran, all-seeing stiff, or that woeful tree he hangs out with? That thing\u2019s never betrayed you while purring about being in love with you and your late mother. Littlefinger acts like he\u2019s being loyal to both sisters. \u201cArya\u2019s not like them,\u201d he says. \u201cShe would never betray your family.\u201d He suggests that Brienne help\u2014a legitimately good idea. What is he up to?<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Now we\u2019re scaling Mt. Arrowhead. Jon and Tormund see some bad guys d
\nown below: a White Walker, accompanied by wights. The White Walker\u2014tall, with good posture, a balding head, and long white hair and beard\u2014looks like a metal version of Mr. Rosso from \u201cFreaks and Geeks.\u201d Sadly, he is much less chill. Our ragtag troupe attacks from behind, and, after a whole bunch of group fighting, Jon whacks the W.W. and he shatters like glass\u2014Goodbye, Mr. Chips!\u2014and the wights, in turn, crumble, too. Well, not all of them.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201c[Snarling continues],\u201d as the closed captioning says: in the background, one precious brown-skulled howler howls on. Our heroes look at him, a little bit in love. Could you be the one?, they all think simultaneously, and begin to capture their new friend to bring to Cersei. They\u2019re in too deep to realize the absurdity of this plan now. (As a friend put it, bringing a wight to Cersei would be like bringing some melted glacier water to prove climate change to Trump\u2014that is to say, ineffective. On the other hand, you can\u2019t let glacier water out of a bag and have it run around the office like a psychopath. I\u2019m optimistic!) As they subdue it and put a bag over its head\u2014?\u2014they hear the rumblings of a jillion more wights in the distance. Jon tells Gendry to scram. \u201cRun back to Eastwatch! Get a raven to Daenerys, tell her what\u2019s happened!\u201d he says. I\u2019d be very curious to read that raven\u2019s scroll.<\/font><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Our pals scamper onto thin ice, pursued by the jillion wights. Within seconds the little group is surrounded, \u00e0 la a certain recent Boston situation, with good guys and bad guys reversed, and minus the gazebo. Meanwhile, Gendry scurries up and down mountains, moving at the speed of late-season \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d everything\u2014in other words, fast. The wights have our boys surrounded, and it\u2019s still just a weird stare-off. Why? I am unclear on wight strategy, but they don\u2019t have brains in those rattling skulls, I guess. Gendry collapses\u2014but he\u2019s right outside the gate! Ser Davos pops out to summon a maester and a pen. So far, so good. And so unlikely, but who cares?<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Thoros of Myr has not survived all this mishegas. Beric prays for him to the Lord of Light; Jon says to burn his body; they do. The wight thrashes a little in his burlap. Jorah suggests that they kill the walkers and hope that their wights fall, too. Jon disagrees. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cDaenerys is our only chance,\u201d he says. Beric suggests killing the Night King, gesturing up at a hill, where the N.K. and some friends are looming icily on horseback. Might that solve this whole shebang?<\/font><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cYou don\u2019t understand,\u201d Jon whispers, snow in his hair. Him and me both.<\/font><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Sansa receives an invitation to King\u2019s Landing; inexplicably, she decides to send Brienne of Tarth in her stead. \u201cMy lady, I swore an oath to protect you and your sister. If I abandon you\u2014\u201d Brienne says, offering to leave Podrick behind. Nope, Sansa says. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>You\u2019re outta here. Man, oh, man, it\u2019s not easy being Brienne of Tarth! How do you serve people who make decisions that aren\u2019t in their best interest\u2014decisions you will later have to fix? (Editorial assistants the world over can relate to this.) On the other hand! Sansa\u2019s weird decision will reunite Brienne with Jaime, which I am very pleased about. Let Sansa be in the hoist-petard business: I want to see what happens when Jaime confronts someone he respects again. In the finale, they can wave hello.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>At Dragonstone, Dany is saddling up the dragons. Tryion is pleading with her not to leave, telling her that she\u2019s the most important person in the world. He\u2019s come a long way since his days of being a drunkard in a basket. Forget it, she tells him: \u201cI\u2019m not doing nothing again!\u201d I\u2019m with you, babe. Our fellows need saving. But Dany\u2014while you\u2019re headed that way, shouldn\u2019t you bring, I don\u2019t know, a ton of dragonglass? Just flap down to the mine on your way! (Where are the storage compartments on a dragon?)<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>As we all know, one of the greatest qualities of White Walkers and wights is their love of pausing, staring, and waiting. Yes, they\u2019ve had the ability to unleash a lot of hurt on our heroes this entire time. Yes, they\u2019ve had some great opportunities. But, like classic Bond villains, or Red John on \u201cThe Mentalist,\u201d they\u2019d just as soon lurk maddeningly, forever, torturing us with bad vibes. Back at Battle of the Bastards on Ice, we see that the Hound and Jon Snow & Company are still just staring at the ring of wights, which is, frankly, insane. So is the fact that the Hound, apparently bored, throws a rock at one, and then another; the rock slides, like curling. It\u2019s on, dingbats. Old Flame Sword fires up his flame sword, the wights advance like ants at a picnic, the men brace themselves, and thus commences about an hour and a half of growling and swordplay. Snarling, flames, throaty noises, chopping with a hatchet, whacking, clubbing, Tormund fighting off one thing after another. Meanwhile, I\u2019m checking the wights for disguised members of rock bands, hoping to jazz things up. Somehow, after a while, Jon and his buddies are on a small cliff, and music begins playing, which, along with the slo-mo, makes you wonder if dragons are coming. They are! Dracarys, motherfuckers! Dany looks cute in her army-of-the-dead-fighting dress, too.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The dragons breathe fire on everything\u2014careful, you guys, don\u2019t breathe fire on our pals!\u2014and Jon Snow looks up at her. These two are finally hitting it off, I think. But uh-oh. The Night King, who clearly has an ice Qyburn, or is his own ice Qyburn, unsheaths some kind of kryptonite ice javelin. In a beautiful and horrifying shot, he throws it at a dragon\u2014Viserion\u2014and hits him, making him catch fire. (Hang on\u2014what is a dragon\u2019s relationship to fire? He breathes it but doesn\u2019t want to be engulfed by it? This is no time to ask questions, I suppose.) Viserion falls from the sky and slips beneath the ice into the water, and everyone watches in horror. Tormund is wide-eyed; Dany is stricken. Even Drogon looks sad. Jon resumes fighting. He looks up at the Night King, like, You want to mess with my sexy secret aunt\u2019s dragons, asshole? \u201cGo! Go now!\u201d he yells to his fellow-humans, and falls through the ice. Everybody\u2019s underwater these days! Suddenly, our whole crew, sans Jon, is on the dragon\u2014pile on, gang!\u2014and they\u2019re flying off as the Night King throws another spear, which, to be fair, should logically hit them all and basically end this show but does not. They fly off, Dany smiling placidly, and Jorah swinging off the side and then clambering on. (Greyscale, take a look at me now!)<\/font>
<\/span>Down below, an artful shot of Longclaw the Sword by the edge of Jon\u2019s ice hole, and then Jon, spluttering his way out. Is this the classic be-your-own-Bronn maneuver, where you outwit your foes simply by going for a dip mid-battle, emerging safely before you freeze, drown, or run out of oxygen? I\u2019m really not sure, nor am I sure what his plan is for defeating an unending army of the dead by himself. Advanced glowering? Staring contest? Super-swift swordplay? Luckily, none of this becomes an issue, because in the distance, on horseback, a man gallops up swinging a fiery lantern and clocking wights with it willy-nilly. Well, if it isn\u2019t Uncle Benjen! I forgot about him, but showing up to save the day is his thing, like Big scooping up Carrie in his town car. \u201cUncle Benjen\u2014how?\u201d Jon sputters. No time to explain that\u2014the season is ending! Take my horse, please! I\u2019ve
\ngot this lantern to swing around. I\u2019ll be fine.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Around this time, I got a text from a dear friend that said \u201cTHIS EPISODE IS SO DUMB I AM DYING.\u201d Fair enough! Dany is watching anxiously for Jon on the Eastwatch ramparts, where Jorah, too noble right now to be jealous, is telling her it\u2019s time to go. Where the hell are they going in such a hurry? But don\u2019t worry, here\u2019s Jon Snow on that horse; two seconds later, they\u2019re caring for him on a boat, and he\u2019s shirtless. Yowza. <\/font>
<\/span>Dany looks at his flagrantly scarred chest, like, A-ha\u2014I knew he was stabbed to death and brought back from the dead! It seems only to increase her affection.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>After all of this, you\u2019re probably not expecting that one of the episode\u2019s craziest scenes involves Sansa snooping around in Arya\u2019s room\u2014unless, unlike me, you\u2019d stopped to consider the notion that Arya probably keeps a knapsack full of human faces under her bed. \u201cWhat are these?\u201d Sansa asks Arya.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cMy faces,\u201d Arya says.<\/font><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>In this episode, Arya has basically started strutting around like a total Jaqen H\u2019ghar\u2014a stringy-haired hotshot enamored with her own freakiness. She makes an irritating speech that she ends with dagger in hand, threatening to cut her sister\u2019s face off. \u201cI wonder what it would feel like to wear those pretty dresses, to be the Lady of Winterfell?\u201d she says. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cAll I need to find out is your face.\u201d I miss the days of Needle and a little gumption, maybe a pie or two.<\/font><\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>That unpleasant scene is followed by a vast improvement. Jon, still shirtless, and Dany are talking about the day\u2019s events, over a fur pelt. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he whispers, shaking his head. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry.\u201d He takes her hand. \u201cI wish I could take it back. I wish we had never gone.\u201d<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>She shakes her head. \u201cI don\u2019t,\u201d she says, kindly. It\u2019s crazy up North; now she knows. The dragons are the only children she\u2019ll ever have, she says. \u201cWe are going to destroy the Night King and his army.\u201d Now she\u2019s invested. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll do it together. You have my word.\u201d Her eyes are glistening with tears. Emotion, Khaleesi! After all this time! <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Well, well. He calls her Dany; she laughs; he says, \u201cHow about my Queen?\u201d He offers to bend the knee. She protests a bit. This I like\u2014two people not acting like jerks. She cries and says she hopes she deserves it; more tender hand-holding in the fur. \u201cYou do,\u201d he says. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>O.K., I\u2019ve made a decision here: they should have sex. Yes, they\u2019re secretly aunt and nephew, but, hey, I didn\u2019t invent this creeped-out world. Jon makes an expression of fatigue that reminds us of when he was dead on the slab. \u201cYou should get some rest,\u201d she says.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>You know who doesn\u2019t need rest anymore? Viserion the dragon. In the final scene, we\u2019re back in Snowtown, where an unusually well-co\u00f6rdinated army of the dead, standing in lines and lugging chains, is hauling Viserion out of the water like a sedan from a lake. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The Night King has a scheme, and I don\u2019t like it one bit. (If only they\u2019d set the rest of Viserion\u2019s body on fire! Benjen really did a sloppy job with that lantern.) In the final moments, Viserion\u2019s eyes open\u2014and they\u2019re as Windex-blue as the Night King\u2019s. <\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Sometimes kids will break your heart. Next week: the season finale. Things might get weird.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Sarah Larson is a roving cultural correspondent for newyorker.com.<\/font>
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Culled from www.newyorker.com<\/a><\/font> <\/strong><\/em><\/font>
<\/span><\/div>\n

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By Sarah Larson On last night\u2019s \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d a North of the Wall-focussed episode that we expected to be snowy, wighty, and grunty, we got all that, and just a smidge more: Khaleesi tears, a swinging-lantern surprise, a knapsack full of gross intrigue. And yet, for some of us, this penultimate episode of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"china","author_link":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/author\/china\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Sarah Larson On last night\u2019s \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d a North of the Wall-focussed episode that we expected to be snowy, wighty, and grunty, we got all that, and just a smidge more: Khaleesi tears, a swinging-lantern surprise, a knapsack full of gross intrigue. And yet, for some of us, this penultimate episode of the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}