‘Game Of Thrones’ Recap: Jon Snow Isn’t The Only One Living A Second Life

This is a recap of the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Spoilers!

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Breathe in. Breathe out. It’s done. And everyone is different now.

I loved that this week’s episode doesn’t open with Jon Snow’s breath, but that of Ser Davos. Something profound has changed since we first met him on Dragonstone: he’s no longer just a pragmatic smuggler sworn to an ambitious lord. Davos is tantalisingly close to understanding something new about himself: that he can be a leader, that he’s the one who must “clean up as much of the shit as [he] can” and “go fail again”. After all, he was the one who prodded Melisandre to revive Jon.

But Davos still clings stubbornly to his former deference. He’d never tell Jon this, but one reason he brought Jon back is to give himself another lord to follow: someone who can rally the Night’s Watch and the wildlings. And a freshly purposeful Melisandre is now convinced Jon is The Prince That Was Promised. But everyone in this episode is learning that the ways they once made sense of the world no longer apply. And if they don’t adapt and don’t learn to become someone else by accepting new truths, they’ll be lost forever.

I wonder who the High Sparrow was before he used his silver tongue and mild manner to Occupy Westeros. He’s now beginning to groom Tommen and the suggestible teenager may be about to get evangelical like his cousin Lancel. A devout puppet king would delight the smallfolk and give the Sparrows all the power they wanted. But let’s remember that Baelor the Blessed, the last religious nut to sit the Iron Throne, almost provoked a civil war.

On the other hand, what makes Cersei so infuriating is her stubborn refusal to change. She’s a crash-through-or-crash kind of person — remember how she nearly poisoned Tommen rather than surrender at the Battle of the Blackwater? She wields the people around her as weapons without flair or finesse. And Jaime’s not much better. Seeing the Lannister twins trying to play politics, with Ser Gregor Clegane lumbering behind them (everyone’s already dropped the ‘Ser Robert Strong’ farce), felt like watching two kids in a trenchcoat. Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns — making her salty return to the Small Council, in league with Cersei’s uncle Kevan Lannister — has far more cunning than Cersei and Jaime combined.

Half-maester Qyburn is a sick fuck, but that only matters to Cersei inasmuch as he can gift her reanimated Gregor Cleganes and wrangle Varys’s old network of “little birds”. But can Qyburn manage a vast spy ring on sugarplums alone? What other songs will the birds sing, and to whom?

Varys, the original birdman of King’s Landing, is now working his magic in Meereen. To nobody’s surprise, it turns out the other slave cities are bankrolling the Sons of the Harpy. In an excruciatingly drawn-out scene, Grey Worm and Missandei fail to engage with Tyrion’s schmooze-heavy approach to governance. Tyrion hasn’t yet grasped that brutality is the common tongue here. That’s why the dragons play so well… but will Tyrion’s newfound connection with Viserion and Rhaegal allow Meereen to speak the Masters’ language of violence back?

In Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys, too, is yet to recognise she’s a different person now. The head priestess of the Dosh Khaleen hardly welcomes her with open arms, but she doesn’t greet Dany with open hostility either. We were all young idiots once, dreaming of conquering the world with hot babes by our side. And now we’re recapping a TV show in our pyjamas…

Anyway. Let’s talk about House Stark. Right from its first episode, Game of Thrones used the Starks to show what honour looks like. They had such a strong sense of who they were, where they belonged, and what was right. But Bran has now greenseen for himself that Ned’s founding legend didn’t quite unfold IRL like it does in the stories.

Finally, we saw the much-hinted-at Tower of Joy scene — in which young Ned (someone buy that casting director a drink!) and a group of brave companions fight Mad King Aerys Targaryen’s legendary Kingsguard Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. Prince Rhaegar (Daenerys’s older brother) has posted Ser Arthur and his companion Ser Oswell Whent there to protect whoever’s in the tower.

I’d always imagined this legendary fight took place at dawn, and to be honest it was kind of desultory — which is the Three-Eyed Raven’s point. It’s Ned’s BFF Howland Reed (Jojen and Meera’s father) who fells Ser Arthur with a decidedly not-honourable throat-stab, leaving Ned to finish off a dying man rather than heroically vanquishing him with great skill.

Bran’s desire to follow his father seems to ripple magically back through time so even Ned can hear it. Thank gods Bran’s not going to end up merging with a tree (this prospect really disturbed me), but will his powers become even more intense as he learns “everything”? What’s the bet that Bran himself will turn Wyllis into Hodor by trying to warg into him from the future, or something?

Now Ned, Catelyn and Robb are dead — but not really. Jon swore an oath that his watch “shall not end until my death” — and after discharging his final obligation, the execution of his own murderers, his watch is mos def ended. Sansa has had all her chivalric innocence stripped away — except in Brienne. Even Rickon — dear baby Rickon! — has been cynically bargained away by the refreshingly sassy, Liam Neeson-esque Lord Jon Umber (‘the Smalljon’), with whom Rickon and Osha had sought sanctuary. He now faces the horrifying prospect of becoming Ramsay Bolton’s next Reek. (Unless this is a cunning trap dreamed up by the still-loyal Smalljon. Please let it be a trap!)

Things look especially bad for Rickon because they slew his direwolf Shaggydog. I’ve said it before, but Game of Thrones has never known what to do with the Starks’ direwolves. They’ve mainly become emblems of their owners’ fates. Sandor Clegane killed Sansa’s wolf Lady en route to King’s Landing. Arya set her wolf, Nymeria, free in the Riverlands to form her own savage pack. Robb’s wolf Grey Wind tried to warn him of the impending Red Wedding, and got analogue-Face Swapped for his troubles. Summer is still with Bran, warging free; and am I mad, or did I see Ghost nod sagely at his master as Jon rose from the dead?

Between this and the hanging, Jon’s transformation is the most dramatic. Olly’s treachery grieves Jon most, for he once saw himself in that angry orphan. But perhaps it’s only after Olly and the other Night’s Watch murderers have been swiftly transformed to dangling, blue-faced mannequins that Jon realises his time here is truly over.

Jon’s grim, blank face reminded me of Arya’s stony expression as she finally gets back her eyes after a satisfyingly Daredevil-meets-Rey-from-Star Wars stick-fighting montage, and a sip of what should be suicide-water. Arya’s closer than ever to being “no one” but she still hasn’t told the Faceless Men she hid the sword that was a present from her favourite brother (the brother the Faceless Girl whipped her for counting as a full-blooded sibling). Neither of these Starks are who they once were, but they’re still somehow alike.

Now, what is everyone going to do with their second lives?

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Game of Thrones is on Showtime at 11am and 7.30pm every Monday.

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Mel Campbell is a freelance journalist and cultural critic. She blogs on style, history and culture at Footpath Zeitgeist and tweets at @incrediblemelk. Read more of her Game of Thrones recaps here.