What is dead may never die... The premiere episode to Season 6 gave us a taste of the craziness of this season, but oh boy, this episode went all out! This is definitely the best episode since Hardhome, and well, arguably better than most of Season 5. They said the first two episodes were going to be strong, but this episode is absolutely amazing, if not perfect. Compared to how "slow" the last season was (which isn't a bad thing), this season is going full-throttle, in terms of fast-pacing.
Firstly, the episode starts off with Bran, and it was good to see him again. There's no more crawling around in the snow this season looking for the Three-Eyed Raven as, after being absent from the entirety of Season 5, Bran Stark is walking and back in Winterfell (kind of). Well, he's actually having a vision as part of his training with the Three- Eyed Raven, and it's an interesting flashback that definitely sets up R+L=J. It was really strange seeing a young Ned Stark and well, a happy Stark family, but it was a good way to start the episode, although it is the only appearance of Bran in this episode.
Then the action really gets going as the Night's Watch finally bash down the door where Davos and co. are defending Jon's body, but (thank God) they are stopped by the Wildlings and taken to the cells. I really didn't expect them to start with this since I thought it would be a great way to end an episode, but it just shows how fast this season is going, much like Season 4 did. Also, it was f*cking awesome to see Wun Wun just destroy one the traitorous black brothers.
It then gets to King's Landing where we spent a strangely short amount of time last episode. It starts off with the Mountain literally smashing someone's head in for joking about Cersei's walk of shame, so I guess Cersei is pulling no punches when it comes to dealing with people that insult/annoy her, which is good to see after her humiliation at the end of last season. We then finally get some answers that were left hanging at the end of last season, revolving around Tommen. I was also quite impressed with his acting in this episode as we have quite a touching scene with him and Cersei, after quite an intense scene with Jaime and the High Sparrow.
Speaking of this season going quickly, Ramsay straight-up murders Roose right in front of Harald Karstark and their maester before feeding Lady Walda and her baby to his hounds. This whole sequence was incredibly dark and unexpected, especially this early in the season, but it was built up to and made much more sense than Doran and Trystane's death, last episode. Not saying that the Martells' death was bad, but their deaths really felt like a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, rather than a pay-off. It was a shame to see Roose's character go out like this as he's such an evil and interesting character, but cunning, unlike Ramsay, who's psychotic and terrifying as ever, in this episode.
We then get to Meereen, where Tyrion, probably under the influence of alcohol, unchains the two dragons and, thankfully, does not get burned alive like the trailer suggests. It definitely hints at the Tyrion Targaryen theory as the dragons seem to have a bond with him. This scene was surprisingly intense as I really wasn't sure if Tyrion was going to make it out of it because of the unexpected nature of the scene I mentioned in the above paragraph, but luckily he did and ended the scene with a funny little quip to Varys.
We also get a quick little Arya scene, which ends with her going back to the temple to potentially get her eye-sight back and start assassinating people...please? This scene was nice and short and didn't drag on like her scenes did in Season 5, which is good.
We also see the death of Balon Greyjoy at the hands of his younger brother. This should've happened back in Season 3 or 4, considering when it happened in the books, but it still works here, even though Balon has been absent since Season 3. I also liked how it cut to this scene after Sansa and Theon's touching farewell, where Theon says he wants to go home, and Sansa reveals her plans to go to Castle Black, where Jon is, but we all know Jon's dead, so that won't turn out great.
Oh, wait! Yes, after a year of speculating and scavenging through interviews to find out the fate of Jon Snow, we finally know the answer. This scene was great in that it built up tension during the ritual that Melisandre was doing and when she seemingly failed to bring Jon back, I started to think they were going to drag the whole "Jon Snow is dead" thing out for another episode. The characters all lose hope too and start to leave. Then BAM! His eyes open. Credits roll...
Bravo, Dan & Dave. You lied to us for a whole goddamn year, and, although I was pretty sure he was going to come back, it made it no less jaw-dropping-ly awesome when it did happen. This episode is definitely one of the greats and while it's not on par with Hardhome or Rains of Castamere, it damn comes close. I can't really fault this episode other than that I wish Roose had gone out in a more respectable or spectacular way than how he did, but this is Game of Thrones after all, and I think this episode is reminding us of how unexpected and shocking this show still is. It's a definite 10/10 from me. The internet is going to freak out over this episode!