Reviews: Game of Thrones - Season 6 Episode 5 - The Door

Season six of Game of Thrones continues. Here's Liam's review. 




As many of those of you who browse social media on Sunday nights know, season six of Game of Thrones (GOT) continues this week with the fifth episode of the season “The Door”.  “The Door’ continues this season’s winning streak, revealing more information that propels the story and packs an emotional punch for the loyal viewers who have remained with the show all these years.

You shall feel the wrath and prowess of the never ending sexual ginger.

This week’s episode continues where we left off last week. Tyrion seeks a strange ally in the need for support. Bran learns a great deal about the origin of the White Walkers and his family.  Brienne goes on a mission to drum up support for the Lord Commander.  Arya gets a chance to prove herself as an assassin. The Greyjoy’s fight amongst themselves over power. Dany and Jorah reunite after the ending of last week’s brilliant episode.

This week’s episode offers a lot of new information that explains crucial elements of the back-story. What happened to Hodor that made him who he was?  Who created the White Walkers? It also starts questions like how will Jon Snow take on Ramsay and his forces? Who will fight with him? And where does Jorah go from here?  Will Bran and Raven still go on wacky adventures through the Stark family history? This episode does a great job of answering those questions and setting up potential storylines.

Tis nothing but another hobo from the
mountains. Hence, you shall die
for slaying my bearded brethren,
Obi-Wan of Tattoine. 
As an episode, this week is a mythology and character heavy episode. There are a lot of callbacks to the earlier seasons, most prominently the reenactment scene of her father’s death that poor Arya had to watch. It’s hard enough to actually have to see your dad be executed but now you have to watch a shitty improv group reenact it? That’s just painful.  The scenes with Bran and The Raven reveal a lot about the Starks and Bran and offer new insights into the characters.  The White Walkers are as genuinely creepy as they always are. It is nice to see Bran actually doing something this season, even it leads to a heartbreaking moment at the end of the episode.

The performances in this episode are great. I have really enjoyed having Jon Snow and Sansa back together. The partial reunion of the Starks is a welcome part of this season. Arya’s scenes with her as a budding assassin are great and I look forward to where she goes as a character. Emilia Clarke (Dany) has a great scene with Jorah that is one of the better scenes of the season.  The scenes I appreciate the most this season are the ones that allow the characters to move forward and to react in a way that most people would. In a show that is often concerned with spectacle, it is nice to have small moments that allow the audience to connect with the characters.  

Overall, this episode of Game of Thrones was a solid episode in a pretty great season so far. We are midway through this season and it is already better than season 5. I am so excited to see where next week’s episode takes us.

Score
Until next week,
Liam.