GAME OF THRONES: Best Moments From Season 6, Ep. 5 "The Door"

Warning: spoilers ahead for season 6, episode 5 of Game of Thrones, entitled "The Door." If you haven't seen the episode yet, turn back now. 

This season, I'm going to try to write up some quick thoughts about each episode the day after it airs. I won't get too deep into full-on recaps (you can find those all over the internet, and you've probably already read a few today if you're into that sort of thing) and will instead focus on what I consider to be each episode's best moments. This can be as many or as few as I want, and will likely vary every episode — today, there is only one. I'll also toss in some additional observations that don't fit into the "best moments" category, which you can find at the bottom of the post. For the best moments of earlier episodes this season, click here. Onward!

1. Hold The Door

There were a few great moments on this episode, but there's one that stands above all the rest here, and dear God, what a punch to the gut. Jack Bender, the guy responsible for some of the best episodes of Lost (including the time travel classic "The Constant") was behind the camera for this episode, and I should have known as soon as I saw his name come up in the opening credits that we were in for something legendary. The reveal of how Wilys became Hodor was as heartbreaking a moment as we've ever seen on this show, and the last few minutes of this episode contained a masterful collection of "oh shit" moments, nail-biting tension, and crushing revelations. Major props to Ramin Djawadi's incredible score, too. 

So, now that we've processed the death of one of the show's most tragic figures, what do we know? The details of exactly how greenseeing works are a little unclear, because we saw Bran warg within a vision, which we'd never seen before. In another revelation, we discovered the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers, and I think we saw the creation of the Night's King himself when that knife was plunged into the man's chest. Are they simply programmed to kill all of humanity, like wintry Terminators? What is The Night's King's end game? Does he want to kill Bran because he knows Bran is now the only one capable of traveling back in time to possibly stop them, or does he want to use Bran's skills for his own nefarious purposes? Should be interesting to find out.

Additional Observations

The reunion between Sansa and Littlefinger was about as satisfying as I hoped, with Sansa forcing him to reckon with his decision to pass her off to the Boltons. The thing is, even after that conversation, it's still unclear whether Baelish really knew about Ramsay's violence or not, and what exactly his larger plan is here (Littlefinger always has a larger plan). And Brienne has a point: why did Sansa lie to Jon about Littlefinger's message? I still can't quite wrap my head around that.

More amazing looks between Tormund and Brienne this episode. So glad we got a couple more of those before Brienne heads off to Riverrun.

I really thought we were done with scenes of Maisie Williams getting her ass handed to her by the Waif, but apparently not. The best bo staff choreography in the world wouldn't change the fact that I'm just tired of this subplot, but at least there's finally some real movement when Jaqen sends her to assassinate one of the actors in a street performance retelling the events of King's Landing. It's a telling moment for Arya, who takes the bumbling depiction of her father to heart: she has grown a little since she arrived at the House of Black and White, but it still stings, so she hasn't fully let go of her Stark heritage and truly become "no one."

I don't necessarily think Pilou Asbæk was the best casting for Euron Greyjoy, but once I got past that notion and accepted the show's version of this character, he definitely brings a swagger to the role that's entertaining in its own way. George R.R. Martin never could have known how perfectly the parallels between the Kingsmoot and our current political landscape would have aligned when he was writing the book, but the similarities are hard to ignore: a woman tries to rise to power for the first time, but a dick-grabbing loudmouth ends up swaying the population in his favor with bragging and sheer personality. I liked seeing Theon taking a stand for his sister, and for once I'm actively interested in seeing what happens to their renegade fleet with Euron and his boys hot on their heels.

Dany finally letting Ser Jorah back into her good graces was a sweet moment, but coming off her big fiery badass moment last week, it felt a little small scale. Good luck finding that cure!

It's rare we ever see Varys get rattled, but that Red Priestess certainly seemed to know a lot of specifics about his tortured past.

It seemed like a lot of pieces were being moved around during this episode (literally, in the scene in Castle Black), so it was a little slower than normal, but it's the kind of necessary maneuvering that happens in Game of Thrones for the big payoffs to really land later on down the line. Still, this was a solid episode, and I'll never again hear the words "hold the door" without thinking about poor Hodor.

What did you all think?