‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 4 Recap: Jon Snow & Sansa Stark Reunite; Danenerys Sets Temple On Fire

Game Of Thrones‘ fourth episode of its sixth season opened at Castle Black, where Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) is readying himself to make his exit, as he’s already given a life to the Night’s Watch.

Game Of Thrones S6, E4 Recap

Castle Black

Edd (Ben Crompton) does not want Jon to go, even though in his absence, he is the Lord Commander. Edd doesn’t understand how Jon could shirk his duty to help defend The Wall with Winter so near and knowing what it will bring. Before the two can get into it, a call to open the gate is heard from down below. At the gate is Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), accompanied by Brienne (Gwendolyn Christie) and her faithful squire Podrick Payne (Daniel Portman). Jon, who has emerged from his quarters, can’t believe his eyes. Once he gets down to the ground, Sansa runs and jumps into his arms, Stark brother and sister reunited.

Inside, the siblings reminsce about old times back at Winterfell, exhanging memories and jokes. Sansa points out that she had been awful to him before her trek to King’s Landing and his to take the black, and asks that Jon formally forgive her, which he does. The reunion takes a more serious tone, however, when Sansa implores Jon to make war against the Boltons to recoup Winterfell. Jon has no desire to keep fighting, and spits out a list of the horrors he’s seen and committed, including hanging a boy younger than their brother Bran. Sansa persists, “If we don’t take back the North, we’ll never be safe.” If Jon doesn’t join her cause, Sansa calmly promises to do it herself.

Elsewhere at Castle Black, Davos (Liam Cunningham) asks Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) about the fate of Shireen, apparently just remembering about his young reading tutor and Stannis Baratheon’s sole heir. Before Melisandre can answer for her part in Shireen’s demise, Brienne interrupts the conversation. Glaring at Melisandre, Brienne points out that Remy was killed by blood magic. Brienne also reveals that she was the knight who killed Stannis.

Later on at dinner, Jon receives a letter from Ramsay (Iwan Rheon). The letters informs Jon that the Bolton’s have Rickon in a dungeon at Winterfell. If Jon doesn’t turn Sansa back to him, Ramsay promises to have Rickon eaten by his dogs, to have Sansa raped by all of his soldiers when they find her, and to gouge his eyes out after he witnesses the slaughter of his family members. “A monster has taken our home and our brother, we have to go back to Winterfell and save them both,” says Sansa. This time, Jon doesn’t disagree.

The Vale

At Runestone in the Vale, Lord Robin (Lino Facioli) gets a visit from Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen). After sweetening Robin with a gift, Littlefinger turns to Lord Royce (Rupert Vansittart), accusing him of divulging his travel plans with Sansa to the Boltons, who Littlefinger is saying kidnapped Sansa – instead of the reality that he was the one to make a deal with the northern family. Ever the master manipulator, Littlefinger manages to get Lord Robin to order Royce’s death, then to get him to show mercy, thereby gaining Royce’s full loyalty. He also managed to get Lord Robin to decide to raise the banners in an effort to go to war against the Boltons and get Sansa back.

Mereen

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) thinks that diplomacy might get him somewhere with the masters, who want Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and her sellswords to leave Slavers Bay. Tyrion explains to them that she’s eventually going to leave to head to Westeros, but that she won’t in good conscience leave when so many people remain enslaved. He offers to give the masters seven years to end slavery in exchange for the end of the guerilla warfare, and then gives them prostitutes and leaves the negotiations. When Tyrion gets back from his meeting, he has to answer to the freed slaves of Mereen. He explains to them that he’s merely an advisor to Dany, but they do not like peace talks. They want war. Both Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) get Tyrion’s back in public, but in private, they share the other’s skepticism for his diplomacy and philosophy of, “We make peace with our enemies, not our friends.”

King’s Landing

Margaery (Natalie Dormer) is summoned from her cell for a meeting with the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce), who asks her what she would do if she were let out immediately. She admits that she would go to her brother, her husband and her family. The High Sparrow says that’s seeking out sin. After sermonizing for a bit with anecdotes from his own past, the High Sparrow invites Margaery to see her brother, Loras (Finn Jones). In his cell, she finds a shell of what her brother had been. At her touch, he cries, but Margaery implores him to stay strong.

In the Red Keep, meanwhile, Cersei (Lena Headey) learns from Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) that the High Sparrow plans to make Margaery recreate her own shameful walk of atonement. With Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) at her side, Cersei walks into a Small Council meeting. Only Kevan (Ian Gelder) and Lady Olenna (Dianna Rigg) are present, and they try to leave before Cersei can speak. But Cersei quickly gets both of their attention after pointing out that a division among the houses is exactly what the High Sparrow wants. She then drops the bomb about the High Sparrow’s plans for Margaery. Not wanting that for her granddaughter, Lady Olenna agrees to arrange for the Tyrell army to storm King’s Landing. And Kevan, who wants his son out of the Sparrows, agrees to have the City Watch stand down.

Iron Islands

Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) finally returns home to the Iron Islands, where he’s met with his deeply angry and wary sister Yara (Gemma Whelan). Yara, after all, had raised the troops to try and save him, and he all but ensured her defeat. She believes that the timing of his return is suspect, as with their father dead, he can fight her to be the heir. Theon tries to explain to her that he was broken when she last saw him, and insists that he didn’t know about the King’s Moot until he docked. When Yara continues to question his timing, Theon tells her in no uncertain terms that he does not want to rule the Iron Islands, and that he is committed to helping her win the King’s Moot.

Winterfell

Ramsay has Osha (Natalia Tena) brought to his chamber, clean and dressed. Osha, who has seen quite a bit over the years, tells Ramsay that she has no affection or loyalty for the Stark family. She even gamely gets astride Ramsay’s lap, acting as though she was willingly brought to his room. Then, reaching behind him, she grabs a knife to end his life – but Ramsay saw the attack coming and gets his own knife into her first.

Vaes Dothrak

After some banter about who is the best man to please Dany, Jorah (Iain Glen) and Daario (Michiel Huisman) survey Vaes Dothrak, the place where khal widows go, and where Jorah believes Dany to be. Once inside Vaes Dothrak, they run into Dothraki, who know that the two aren’t merchants. In the scuffle that ensues, Dario stabs a Dothraki to save Jorah’s life and then uses a rock to mask the evidence of having had a weapon in the sacred city. Eventually the two run into Dany, who was off on a bathroom break with another young widow. The men want to smuggle Dany out right away, but she tells them that she has a better idea.

Inside the central temple, surrounded by all of the khals, Dany listens to threats issued by the lead khal, who says that after he rapes her, she will be thrown to his men, and then to his horses. Unfazed, Dany informs him that none of them are fit to rule, or even to serve her, the Mother of Dragons. With that, she sets the temple ablaze. She walks out unscathed to the immediate reverential bowing of the Dothraki people.

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