Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO(NEW YORK) — (SPOILERS AHEAD!) In Sunday night’s Game of Thrones, we saw the return of an old frenemy whose fate was left unclear last season: Sandor Clegane, aka The Hound. We also saw one of our heroes, Arya, wounded badly…perhaps even mortally. Here’s how it all went down.
An Unidentified Piece of Countryside
We see a group of people building a makeshift church, under the watchful eye of Ray, a former soldier who got tired of murdering, found religion and is now something of a traveling preacher. One of the people helping is none other than The Hound, whom we last saw wounded after a fight with Brienne. We learn that he was near death when Ray found him, and that Ray has given him a second chance to build a new life. Ray tells the Hound that it’s never too late to stop killing and start helping people, which touches the Hound deeply. Soon afterwards, some men from the outlaw group the Brotherhood without Banners slaughter the entire group, including Ray. The Hound then grabs an axe and goes after them.
Braavos
After failing to assassinate Lady Crane, Arya approaches a ship’s captain from Westeros and arranges for passage home. But the Waif, in the guise of an old woman, sneaks up on her and stabs her several times in the gut. To escape her, Arya jumps off a bridge, and when she emerges from the water, she’s bleeding badly. We see her staggering through the streets, clutching her stomach and bleeding, but being ignored by everyone.
The North
Jon, with some help from Tormund, convinces the Wildling army — all 2,000 of them — to join their cause: take back Winterfell from the Boltons, and prepare to battle the Night King and his army of the dead. Then Jon, Sansa and Ser Davos go on a tour of the great Northern Houses, who are all supposed to be loyal to House Stark. Unfortunately, they only manage to convince a handful of Houses to give them fighting men. Despite being outnumbered, Jon feels they need to fight now, but Sansa disagrees. We see her writing a letter towards the end of the episode — could she be telling Lord Baelish, whose help she previously rejected, that she’s reconsidered?
Riverrun
As King Tommen ordered, Jaime, along with Ser Bronn and the entire royal army, show up at Riverrun to help the hapless Freys take the castle back from its rightful owner, Catelyn Stark’s uncle Brynden “The Blackfish” Tully. As we’d heard in previous episodes, The Blackfish had retaken the castle from the Freys, who received it as payment for helping to arrange the Red Wedding. Jaime and The Blackfish have a tense meeting, but the older man refuses to surrender, boasting that he can withstand a seige that lasts two years. “Do you have two years, Kingslayer?” he taunts.
King’s Landing
Queen Margaery continues to act as if she’s a true convert to the High Sparrow’s point of view, praying constantly and memorizing scripture. The High Sparrow advises her to tell her grandmother Oleanna Tyrell, an “unrepentant sinner,” that she should leave King’s Landing before the Faith Militant throw her in prison. Margaery meets with Oleanna and says all kinds of pious things, but then slips her a note assuring her that she’s just acting. She does, however, tell Oleanna to leave town. Cersei urges her to stay, but Oleanna reminds her that the mess they’re in is all her fault — she’s the one who let the religious fanatics take over the city, and throw her grandchildren Loras and Margaery in prison.
En Route from the Iron Islands to Mereen
Yara, Theon and their loyalists are in what appears to be an outdoor brothel, and Theon is uncomfortable because, thanks to Ramsay Bolton, he’s now incapable of having sex. Yara, who we see from her behavior at the brothel is a lesbian, encourages Theon to get a grip, because she needs him by her side. Yara plans to sail their fleet to Mereen and make a pact with the “Dragon Queen” — Daenerys — before their uncle Euron can do it.
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