Game of Thrones S6 E2: Home

Melisandre, who seems to be in a bit of a funk since little she has seen in the fire has come true, recites her resurrection prayer repeatedly. Jon Snow’s body stays cold, with the dull red of his stab wounds breaking up the blue skin. Nothing happens. She repeats it. Nothing happens. Deflated, she and Davos and the rest leave without hope that the former leader of the Knight’s Watch will live again. It’s just Jon’s body and the direwolf …

… wait for it … wait for it …

Suddenly Jon lives again, his panicked eyes opening with a gasp. I really can’t say I’m shocked because even with a crowded cast, Jon is one of the main protagonists and Game of Thrones would lose something without him. I wonder what the cost of this resurrection will be for him or Melisandre. At least he got a haircut. I like his curly locks but they were getting a bit long.

For once, I agree with the Wildlings in attacking the people who stabbed Jon. That’s saying a lot because I can’t stand the Wildlings as a group. They’re just assholes who attacked and killed that family, who were minding their own business in the countryside, for no reason.

We also reunite with Bran and Max Von Sydow and Hodor and the gang. I was glad to have a break from the tedium last season because as one character said, “I sit there and watch him have these visions and nothing ever happens.” Hodor is not Hodor’s name so who or what is he referencing when he says “Hodor”?

Two lords of two kingdoms fall. Balon Greyjoy falls in the treachery of his mysterious brother while Roose Bolton falls before his son’s knife. I hope Yara wins control of the Iron Islands because disputing her inheritance of the kingdom is a bunch of nonsense. Maybe Theon will support her upon his return because she is certainly better suited to rule than he is. (Those people must always be cold, wet and miserable.)

Ramsay Bolton not only kills his father but feeds his stepmother and very newborn baby brother to the wolves. Every time you think this guy has done the worst thing that anybody ever did, he finds a new low. At least they didn’t show the whole thing on camera.

Over in King’s Landing, King Tommen is having a crisis of confidence, after everything that’s happened with his wife and sister. He’s learning that there are some things even a king can’t do, given the extreme separation of church and state between the royals and the High Sparrow. Doubting himself is the last thing the boy king needs.

And that’s about it for this week.