Game of Thrones returned for its sixth season Sunday with one big question looming in viewers’ minds —Is Jon Snow really dead?
The question was answered almost immediately: He’s definitely dead. Snow, played by Kit Harrington, appeared at various times throughout the episode, but he was ice cold in each shot.
But this is Game of Thrones. Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean he’s gone. Lady Melisandre (Carice van Houten) returns to Castle Black just after Snow’s assassination and seems genuinely distraught, even confused, at his death. Perhaps she will use her religious superpowers, some of which are revealed in this episode, to bring him back to life— after all, without Jon Snow, the popular fan theory that he is destined for the Iron Throne is a moot point.
The first episode of the season also covered several other plotlines left loose at the end of season five, including the uncertain fates of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen); Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke); Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau); and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), among others.
Turner and Allen delivered almost touching performances as their characters escape from Winterfell. At one point, the pair embrace each other in an act of pseudo-sibling bonding (after all, they did grow up with one another) before Allen’s Theon attempts to sacrifice himself and save Sansa. It seems as though his character, previously one of the most detestable on the show, may be on the route to redemption.
The Dothraki have captured Daenerys Targaryen, who was last seen swarmed by a horde, abandoned by her dragon. The Dothraki men insult her in their native tongue, and she spits back at them with the type of venom that made Clarke’s performances so memorable in earlier seasons. Daenerys under duress offers a far more engaging plotline than the powerful and power-hungry Daenerys of recent seasons. Her entrapment is a welcome change.
Similarly, Headey’s best performances happen when Cersei Lannister is in emotional pain, and Cersei finding out her only daughter, Myrcella, has died by poison is no exception to this rule. Headey employs a Lady Macbeth-like mix of power, weakness and pain here, bewailing the loss of her child.
“I thought if I could make something so good, so pure, maybe I’m not a monster,” Cersei whispers to her lover and brother, Jaime, who shares in the pain of Myrcella’s loss as her father.
The pair then makes an ominous pact to destroy those who have wronged them, heading them down a rather beaten bath of violence and deception, away from their shared pain and suffering.
The pair’s baby brother Tyrion Lannister is seen still in Meereen, trying to piece together the crumbling empire Daenerys Targaryen left behind her when she disappeared last season on her dragon. Multiple shots show him through the slats of a window shade, or possibly a cage. This voyeuristic view suggests someone — or something — is watching him. The audience can only guess what or who, but a massive ship fire at the port means he won’t be getting out of the city anytime soon, offering suggestions of a wild plot for the Imp this season.
The episode also included many other plotlines, including a look at the now blind Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and the strange, rather secondary land of Dorne, where women are taking over without a whole lot of exposition. Overall, the episode opened up a season that looks to be just as enticingly bloody, mysterious and beautiful as last year’s near-perfect season five.
