This week was a mixed bag for Game of Thrones as pieces were moved around the board, setting up later episodes to be more effective, which unfortunately resulted in one of the weaker episodes of this season. There were a few characters that got a chance to shine but ultimately this episode belonged to one character and one character alone.

*Spoilers ahead as I look at The Five Best Things in “The Broken Man”:

DAVOS

Davos has been a bewildering character of late. Though this might not be a negative sign but quite possibly a character strength. The reason he is bewildering is that I’m genuinely surprised he’s still around. In the show he has been mostly a sidekick to Stannis, following his orders like a puppy, a conscious, wise puppy, but a puppy nonetheless. At least in the books he has his own story arc, which may still be at the orders of Stannis, but it is his own journey nonetheless. In terms of his presence on the show, until this episode I was genuinely surprised he hadn’t been written off, especially seeing as Stannis’s arc has been wrapped up. Thankfully he hasn’t and this week we learned exactly why he is so relevant to the show. Davos may be a knight but he is an upstart smuggler that was only knighted by Stannis after he gave up the top half of his fingers in penance for his previous sins. Now we are seeing why Stannis knighted him in the first place. Davos is not just a great tactician but also sound council and more important than all of that, he is an everyman, an embodiment of the people who get caught up in the wars of the rich houses. We saw this this week when it took his advice in order to swing favour from Lady Mormont, which might have been lost had it only been both Jon and Sansa there to beg for it. Davos has been hanging around for the past while, a fact that was starting to be truly surprising. This week we found out just why he is so important to the show.

THE IRON FLEET

The Iron Fleet are ready to shake up the world of Game of Thrones and shake it up they will. Yara and Theon Greyjoy are putting their case forward for being one of the most interesting stories this year and it’s all thanks to something that may go unnoticed to casual Game of Thrones viewers: in Westeros time is moving much quicker now. In the space of an episode Jamie Lannister travelled a journey that should take two weeks. In the space of an episode Littlefinger travelled five weeks worth. This has been a conscious effort on the part of the writers to move along the overall story because the casual viewer won’t notice this. It’s a strange balance the show has now where only a day has passed for one character (Arya) while weeks worth of travel is being done by Jamie or the Greyjoys. It is because of this new desire from the writers to move quicker, which they can do now that they’re unhinged from the George RR Martin narrative, that the Iron Islands can be more important to the show. Now the Greyjoys will be in Meereen much sooner than anyone could expect and that makes them incredibly relevant to events not just in this season but also for the rest of the show to come. While before they would have been stranded on the water for weeks on end, straddled with time constraints and geographical logic, they are now not just let loose logic wise but story-wise too. A Greyjoy army that is that free to influence the rest of the universe could be very dangerous indeed and this week was the first time we saw just how quick, and how effective, they will be in shaking things up.

RIVERRUN

It’s been a long time coming but The Blackfish is back. This is an intriguing turn of events for this season of the show as the Riverrun story arc seemed to have been jettisoned from the show and, quite frankly, it has always felt like an odd story in the books too. It is not necessarily a pivotal part of the world, particularly in terms of the show. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of reason to go there for Jamie, and when I think about it, there only seems to be one logical reason to visit there at all at this point. Riverrun is an easily defendable position empowered with what Blackfish claims are two years worth of food. It would make a very good place to hide should the White Walkers come flooding the land, and with it all but being confirmed that there’s only thirteen episodes left after this season, there is a good chance the White Walkers might be coming by the end of this season. With Jamie and the Blackfish logging heads in a stalemate, this story could very well drag out until seasons end, and pull in Brienne with it too. With all those characters wrapped up in one location, we could very well see the trio locked up in Riverrun hiding from the impending storm of winter. There doesn’t seem to be much more of a reason to come back to this corner of Westeros but it might be a good time to start paying good attention to it. It can’t simply just be back in play for the sake of Jamie/Brienne reunion.

LYANNA MORMONT

This was a quality introduction and one that might have stolen to show if not for another element that was simply impossible to top. Lady Mormont’s turn in this episode was great for two reasons. First, it showed the horrors of war and where it can leave once-great houses, and second, because it quietly leaves the door open for a possible Jorah Mormont appearance. Despite being reviled in Westeros for his previous history with slavery, Mormont could be gladly welcomed back into his home on Bear Island. It would also make sense for his character, seeing as Shireen Baratheon is the only other character in the show that we have seen with greyscale and he just so happens to be searching for how she found a cure, a route that could take him through Bear Island. For now though, credit should go to Lady Mormont who showed not just great poise in her young role as leader of House Mormont but great sass when dealing with Sansa’s remarks. She may not play a massive role in influencing the overall state of the world, especially seeing as she only had sixty-two men to hand over to Jon, and she may not even pop up again this season or ever again, but for now she should be recognised as being the purest embodiment of strong females on a show already stacked with them. One can only hope now that Jorah Mormont does find his way back home so we can spend a little more time with Lady Mormont, just in time to see her shun Jorah like any young, intelligent ruler should. The writers even managed to squeeze in a nice reference to Lyanna Stark just to keep her top of mind before he important role in the history of Westeros is revealed in the weeks to come.

THE HOUND

Welcome back to The Broken Man, the namesake of this episode. That’s right, this episode saw the return of fan-favourite character Sandor Clegane, The Hound. It wasn’t entirely perfect though, as it suffered from a recurring theme this season: predictability. It would have been very easy for the writers to skirt their way around this reveal, rarely mentioning anything to do with the Clegane bloodline but they didn’t, and one of the truly ham-fisted foreshadows in Game of Thrones, show or book, looks to be returning to the forefront. The Hound has always carried with him one goal: he wants to kill his brother, The Mountain. At the time of his death, this hanging plot always seemed unsatisfactorily resolved. There was always rumblings and suspicions that The Hound was out there somewhere. That is why this reveal was painfully predictable. Had there been no real mention of anything to do with the Cleganes, his return would have been a shock, but Cersei hasn’t stopped talking all season about how she will request a trial-by-combat and how The Mountain will represent her. A match up between the Clegane brothers has felt inevitable, even considering one was believed to be dead. Now that The Hound has a newfound relationship with the faith, and the writers have thrown all geographical and transport logic out of the window, it is easy to believe that The Hound will find himself in Kings Landing by seasons end, facing up to his brother. The Hound stole this episode and, thankfully, he adds a new flavour to the show going forward. There was a hole in the world of Westeros while The Hound was away but thankfully he’s back, and now we have one more intriguing, if unfortunately predictable, plot to look forward to each week.

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If you like my review of this week’s Game of Thrones, why not check out my opinion of the Five Best Things in Last Week’s Episode “Blood of my Blood” or follow me on twitter. Thanks.