Tormund: "I’ve seen the way she looks at me." and the Hound land on the subject of Brienne, who the Hound remembers well: Tormund, expounding on the unrequited love waiting for him on the other side of the Wall, is surprised to learn the Hound has encountered Brienne himself. Visibly tempted, Jorah acknowledges his past sins and insists that Jon keep the sword and make it his own, to pass down to his children. Later, Jon and Jorah have a chance to discuss Jorah’s father and his demise at the hands of mutineers. Gendry has an opportunity to air his complaints to Thoros and Beric, but the Hound quickly shames him into accepting the new arrangement. Jon explains the difficulty of kneeling to Dany to Tormund, who cites Mance Rayder as an example of the cost of pride. Making their way slowly north, Jon and his allies pass the time in conversation. Now that she has the catspaw blade, it should only take a small nudge or a kernel of information for her to consider using it on Littlefinger. I was a little concerned when Sansa broke her streak of humiliating Littlefinger at every opportunity, but her decision to send Brienne away immediately after he recommended using her was a comforting return to form. I don’t think she has any real desire to murder Sansa, so why bother slow-walking at her with dagger in hand before handing it over? The only thing happening in Winterfell at the moment is the collection of food for winter there’s plenty of time for Arya and Sansa to sit down and hash out their issues. Arya seems to oscillate between wary but socially competent (interactions with the actress in Braavos, sitting with Lannister soldiers) and utterly psychopathic (refusing to meet Hot Pie’s eyes, telling Sansa she could take her face). Similarly, I found Arya’s bizarre intimidation tactics at the end of the episode superfluous. They’d collectively shrug and wonder why Arya was wasting their time. Based on what we’ve seen, Sansa should have let Arya do whatever she’d like and explain the letter to her lords the same way she did to Arya. Despite all this, Sansa seems petrified at Arya’s suggestion of giving the letter to the Northern lords, which leads to the rest of the action we see between the sisters this episode. Robb and Maester Luwin recognized this immediately upon receiving her letter, saying “it is your sister's hand, but the Queen's words.” Some of the Northern lords she’s working with are likely already aware of the letter, as it spurred Robb to declare war. Sansa’s counter to Arya’s confrontation is perfect: she was a captive of the Lannisters when she was asked to write the letter and she was barely a teenager at the time. My take: I found the action in Winterfell exceedingly tiresome and nonsensical. Sansa refuses and asks about the faces Arya explains the full power of the Faceless Men: Arya interrupts her and suggests they play the Game of Faces. Sansa inspects Arya’s room and finds a satchel filled with faces. Sansa sends Brienne to King’s Landing in her place, and burns the scroll. Sansa summons Brienne, who doesn’t want to leave Sansa alone with Littlefinger. Winterfell’s Maester interrupts Sansa’s response to deliver a scroll from Cersei, summoning her to King’s Landing. Turning back to Arya, Littlefinger suggests enlisting Brienne to prevent further damage. With no word from Jon, Littlefinger advocates for Sansa to seize more power. Sansa explains her troubles to Littlefinger, who of course is happy to help. Unswayed, Arya threatens to give her letter to the Northern lords despite Sansa’s point that internal strife is exactly what their enemies want. Sansa rightly points out that neither of them did anything to save him in that moment, and goes on to take credit for their being safe in Winterfell now. Sansa explains that she was forced to write it as a Lannister hostage, but Arya has no sympathy for her, and reveals she was present for Ned’s execution. Arya confronts Sansa with the letter she took from Littlefinger’s room.
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