‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 Episode 1 Picking Up the Jagged Pieces

While a civil war brews between several noble families in Westeros, the children of the former rulers of the land attempt to rise to power.

Creators:

David Benioff, D.B. Weiss

Stars:

Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington

Season 6, Episode 1, ‘The Red Woman’

Our top story tonight: Lord Commander Jon Snow is still dead.

Has it really been nine months since we saw him last, taking the final, cruelest blow from young Olly and collapsing onto the ground, blood pooling behind him? It seems like he never left, what with the various rumors and sightings, reports about haircuts and breathless dispatches about Kit Harington’s romance with the equally dead, in “Thrones” terms, Rose Leslie.

But there he was on Sunday, stone dead and stiffening as Ghost howled in despair. And he only got stiffer as the hour progressed, while Davos pondered his next moves with a few loyalists and the mutineers went public with their treachery. Even the Red Woman, everyone’s favorite candidate for resurrecting Snow, could only stand there dumbfounded by the turn of events. “I saw him in the flames fighting at Winterfell,” she said.

“I can’t speak for the flames,” Davos said. “But he’s gone.”

Now, will he stay that way for long? Probably not. As I noted in a season preview, the show will have to resolve this thing one way or the other pretty soon or it will risk overshadowing the rest of the story — ask the “Walking Dead” folks about viewers’ general patience with narrative shenanigans these days. But for one week, at least, the dude was dead, just like everyone said.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

That said, the scenes at Castle Black had plenty of room to breathe and others, like Sansa’s rescue and Ellaria Sand’s power grab in Dorne, packed plenty of thrills into tight spaces. Also, you go into “Thrones” premieres knowing they’re about picking up the pieces from the previous season, and this year the shards are especially jagged.

Cersei, former shame-walker, has had everything ripped away, to the point that she can’t even get mad at Jaime about the hash he made of the Myrcella rescue effort. The witch told me I’d have three children and they’d all die, she said. “Everything she said came true, you couldn’t have stopped it.” (What’s that, Tommen? Oh nothing. Never you mind …)

Cersei’s old nemesis Margaery, meanwhile, is still in the hoosegow, taking her own turn with the Nurse Ratched of TV nuns. “Septa Unella can be overzealous at times,” the High Sparrow/Septon said. Gee, ya think?

Over in Essos, Daenerys Targaryen has to be wondering if you can really call yourself the Mother of Dragons if your dragons like to abandon you in random fields. She’s now a prisoner of her new Dothraki friends, and they are classy. Khaleesi spent the early moments enduring two charming lads who made all sorts of offensive remarks and speculations. The confab with the Khal continued along the same trajectory until Khaleesi had finally had enough.

I’m the former wife of Khal Drogo, she said. I burned his body and everything. Oh, well that changes things, Khal Moro said, to Khaleesi’s satisfaction, but then he threw her a curveball. The best place for you is the widow temple, she was told, which I’m guessing is just as delightful as it sounds. I still think we should cut off her head, Moro’s wife muttered, probably.

Even Ramsay, the sociopathic monster we’ve come to know and loathe, showed a bit of what almost seemed like actual human emotion and heartbreak. He mourned Myranda, tossed to her death by Theon last season, recalling how only she wasn’t afraid of him back when he was a young bastard and she a simple kennel master’s daughter. “She smelled of dog,” he reminisced fondly. (Awww. Also, Ramsay’s apparently been terrible forever.) He composed himself in time to make plans for the funeral. Coffin or pyre? someone asked. Try the dog dish.

can recall.

Theon led Sansa away from Winterfell with great drive and courage, and continued to suggest Reek may be receding. (Some aspects of the old Theon are never coming back, of course, but maybe he can fill the void with volunteering or something.) He went on to sacrifice himself before Ramsay’s hounds and men. “I can’t wait to see what part Ramsay cuts off you this time,” a henchman muttered with glee. Well, I can’t wait to see warrior maiden slice you up like a ham, friend-o. And so it went, when Brienne arrived with a notably trained-up Podrick to save the day, for once.

Sophie Turner and Alfie Allen in “Game of Thrones.”

I’ve bagged on Brienne for awhile now over her general failure to fulfill her oath to protect the Stark girls. So credit where it’s due: Nice job, Brienne! Score one for dogged persistence. The lesson is that Brienne gets it done, it just takes longer than most of us would like. After all, she killed Stannis in last year’s finale and she’d only been after him since his smokebaby killed Renly in Season 2. So I should probably stop projecting my 21st-century impatience onto her.

• Someone’s burning boats in Meereen. Maybe one day Tyrion and Varys can make me care about Meereen. There is apparently a mysterious figure orchestrating the Harpy insurrection, though, which could get interesting. The baby-eating joke was pretty broad but still enjoyable. (Name me another show about which you can read a phrase like “the baby-eating joke” and not bat an eye.)

Conleth Hill, left, and Peter Dinklage in the new season of “Game of Thrones.”

• On the other hand, get a load of the action in Dorne! There was more excitement there in three minutes than there was in all of Season 5. An underrated aspect of this show is the way seemingly minor characters evolve into major players. Ellaria Sand seemed like little more than a lascivious sidekick when she arrived with Oberyn in Season 4, but there she was on Sunday staging a coup, inaugurating a new post-weak men era of Dornish leadership.

• Blind in Braavos seems like no kind of fun, and that’s before a girl starts beating you with a stick. “See you tomorrow,” the Waif told Arya, in what might have been the most chilling line of the night.

• Forget everyone who isn’t us, Jaime told Cersei (more or less). Is it wrong that I found their reunion sort of touching? Also, should we be preparing for a more sympathetic Cersei this season? “From her first breath she was so sweet. I don’t know where she came from,” she said about Myrcella. “I thought if I could make something so good, so pure, maybe I’m not a monster.”

• The weight of betraying Jon Snow really aged young Olly, huh?

• Over all pretty good, right? I’m intrigued by how Cersei and Melisandre are going to put themselves back together, and by Sansa’s continuing emergence. Clearly Davos isn’t going to high-tail it south, as Ser Alliser advised, but how do you think that whole thing’s going to shake out? Are you still invested in it either way? Please fire away in the comments.