‘Game Of Thrones’ Recap, Season 6, Episode 8: Arya Stark Will Never Be ‘No One’

Game Of Thrones‘ latest episode, “No One,” saw Arya face off once again against the Waif, Jamie reuniting with Brienne and Tommen taking further dramatic action on advice from the High Sparrow

Game Of Thrones Recap: Season 6, Episode 8

Braavos

Lady Crane (Essie Davis), taking Arya’s (Maisie Williams) notes to heart, plays Cersei as a slightly more complicated character, with anger born out of her sorrow for losing her son Joffrey. As Arya had predicted, it was even more affecting. When she goes to her quarters behind the stage, Lady Crane finds Arya, still bleeding out from her stomach. Lady Crane fixes her up, explaining that she has more than a little experience patching up knife wounds. She then urges Arya to join the traveling acting troupe. Arya explains that she can’t, as she’s being followed, and that she plans to head West – to Westeros or beyond.

The following day, after a night of rest courtesy of milk of the poppy, Arya awakes to find Lady Crane dead, killed by the Waif (Faye Marsay). Coming face-to-face with her would-be murderer, Arya escapes out the window. Running through the streets of Braavos, Arya manages to buy herself some time – but the Waif is never far behind. After rolling down steps littered with baskets of fruit and reopening her stomach wound, Arya leads the Waif back to her dwelling, where she has Needle. Cutting out the candlelight, Arya proceeds to battle the Waif in the dark.

Jaqen Hagar, at the House of Black and White, follows a trail of blood to the Hall of Faces. There, he finds the Waif’s face, Arya standing below it. “Finally a girl is no one,” Jaqen Hagar tells her. But she replies, “A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell. And I am going home.”

Riverlands

The Hound (Rory McCann) comes across some members of the Brotherhood without Banners and makes quick work of them all with an ax. He then comes across the trio who had slaughtered his camp. Beric Dondarrion is about to hang them for the crime. He agrees to allow the Hound to kill two of them in vengeance, but won’t permit him gutting them. Kicking out the stumps and letting them hang, the Hound also makes away with a pair of boots and a meal.

Mereen

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is satisfied with his plot to have a red priestess talk about Dany (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons, and her destiny to sit on the Iron throne, believing that it’s slowly winning over the population. He’s less pleased to have his favorite companion, Varys (Conleth Hill), set sail to Westeros to further spread the work about the Mother of Dragons. Tyrion fears that he won’t return.

Part of the trouble with Varys being gone is that Tyrion only has Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) and Missendei (Nathalie Emmanuel) for company. Neither drink or laugh easily. After succeeding in getting both of them to agree to a glass of wine, he tells an inn joke that neither laugh at. Missandei, after swigging a fair amount of wine, tells a joke that even the stoic Grey Worm says is “the worst joke [he’s] ever heard.” As the mood is lightening and Tyrion starts to make another joke, they look outside to see the Masters’ warships storming the Mereen shore.

While the Masters pummel Mereen with cannon fire, Tyrion admits that he was wrong in attempting to parlay with them. He tries to offer a military strategy, but Grey Worm silences him. Before they can set anyone’s plans into motion, there’s a loud thump on the roof of the pyramid. It was a dragon. Dany has returned.

King’s Landing

Cersei gets a visit from some of the Sparrows, who wish to bring her to the Sept of Bailor to speak to the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). Cersei refuses to go. “Order your man to step aside or there will be violence,” Lancel (Eugene Simon) tells Cersei, who replies, “I choose violence.” At that, the Mountain destroys the Sparrow who dared to step forward.

Later on, Cersei attends Tommen’s royal announcement in the throne room, where she is relegated to the gallery. His announcement is a blow to Cersei, as it revises trial rules to forbid any trial by combat. While Cersei won’t be able to have the Mountain ensure her safety, Qyburn seems to have another solution for her. Is it wildfire?

Riverrun

Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Podrick (Daniel Portman) arrive at Riverrun and see the Lannister siege outside of the Tully’s castle. Inside the Lannister camp, Podrick Payne is reunited with Bronn (Jerome Flynn), while Brienne and Jamie (Nikolaj Coster Waldau) discus the situation at hand. Jamie confesses that he assumed that Sansa must have died. And Brienne explains that she is at Riverrun on Sansa’s orders to see if they can spare soldiers for her mission to retake Winterfell from the Boltons.

Brienne hopes that Jamie can take Riverrun without bloodshed in exchange for allowing the Tully forces a safe ride up to Winterfell. Jamie agrees to the deal, but doesn’t believe that Brynden the Blackfish (Clive Russell) will go for it. Brienne then tries to give Jamie back the Valerian sword, but he insists that she keep it. Before leaving his tent, Brienne matter-of-factly informs him that if Brynden doesn’t agree to the deal, her honor will compel her to fight against him.

As Jamie had warned, Brynden proves to be determined not to take any other course but holding the castle. It takes all Brienne has just to get him to read the letter Sansa had sent with her. Even though he cares for Sansa and understands her desire to recoup her home, he doesn’t have the fighting men to spare. Defeated, Brienne has Podrick send a raven to Sansa to tell her of her failure.

Jamie visits Lord Edmure (Tobias Menzies) at the tent in which he’s being held captive. The two go back and forth about what the outcome will be with the Blackfish. Edmure does not believe that his uncle will surrender the castle under any circumstances, but Jamie is not giving up. Jamie speaks passionately about Cersei and his blind drive to get back to her no matter what it takes. It’s not long before Jamie sends Edmure across the moat. Bryden tells the captain of the Tully army not to let Edmure in, believing that he’s acting on Jamie’s commands. The captain, however, insists he follows his Lord’s commands and opens the gate. As Bryden expected, Edmure comes in only to urge his army to lay down their arms and to let down the gate in order to allow the Lannister army enter. As for the Blackfish, Edmure wants him handed over to the Freys.

The Blackfish leads Brienne and Podrick to a rowboat to escape. Brienne urges him to join them, but he refuses, saying that she’ll serve Sansa better than he ever could. He then tells her of his intention to die fighting right where he is, and heads up to meet the army. Jamie, who’d hoped to speak with him once again, soon learns that he was slain. Looking out from a tower of Riverrun, Jamie sees Brienne and Podrick making their escape. Instead of sending soldiers out after them, he merely waves.