Game of Thrones, Season 6 Episode 3, Oathbreaker: five talking points, from Rickon Stark’s return to the Ned Stark flashback

The past, present, and perhaps future of the Stark family was the main focus of the latest instalment – SPOILER ALERT
The early years: fans got a look into Ned Stark's past in the latest episode of Game of Thrones
HBO
Ben Travis9 May 2016

So, has everyone got their breath back after last week?

Game of Thrones closed its last episode with the cliffhanger that had all of us on the edge of our seats for over nine months, telling us – at last – that Jon Snow lives.

That meant plenty of dramatic repercussions in Episode 3 of Season 6, as Snow reacquainted himself with the Night’s Watch, Bran Stark got a look into his family history, and one forgotten Stark made a comeback.

Here are the five major talking points from Oathbreaker.

1) Rickon Stark is back

Let’s get the most important one out of the way – the latest episode not only reminded us that the long-forgotten Rickson Stark existed, but brought him back into play.

The youngest Stark child was last seen in Season 3, heading off with Osha and his direwolf Shaggydog for Last Hearth and the protection of House Umber.

Except, Littlejon Umber is now working with Ramsay Bolton (boo, hiss!) and betrayed the longstanding loyalty between the Starks and the Umbers by handing the young boy over.

While it will be intriguing to see how the re-introduction of Rickon might shift the balance of the board the Stark name holds real weight in the north you can bet that his time with the sadistic Ramsay isn’t going to be spent picking flowers and playing games.

Please let’s also take a moment of silence for poor Shaggydog, the third Direwolf to meet an unceremonious end on the show – or did he? Some fans are already speculating that Littlejon might be playing Bolton, and that the head of Shaggydog might just be another wolf. Or is that just wishful thinking?

Game of Thrones: Season 6

1/20

2) Jon Snow is so over it

The episode started off where last week’s left off – Jon Snow, back in the land of the living, taking some much-needed deep, long breaths.

Trust Davos to have the most appropriate reaction: “That’s completely f****** mad, seems to me.”

While we haven’t seen a huge change in Jon’s demeanour since he came back (read here for some thoughts on why there should still be a cost for his death), he was on a vengeful crusade, murdering Ser Alliser Thorne and his co-conspirators for their treason. Even young Olly, who became one of the most hated characters on the show when he stabbed Snow right in the heart, couldn’t escape the hangman’s noose.

It remains to be seen what Snow’s resurrection hang-ups will be – he admitted after his revival that he “shouldn’t be here” and seemed disturbed that there “was nothing at all” in the great beyond.

With a true mic-drop moment, he closed the episode as he declared himself officially done with the Night’s Watch. Is he allowed to do that? Probably not, but the man’s already come back from the dead – he can break as many oaths as he likes at this point.

HBO

3) That Ned Stark flashback

Bran and the Three Eyed Raven continued their vision-quest flashbacks this week – and it’s unpacking some juicy details from the history of Westeros.

The fight between a young Ned Stark and the soldiers at the Red Keep was one of the show’s best action sequences in a long time, sharply choreographed and cleanly shot.

And then there was the small lie that Ned told Bran about how that clash ended – what other lies could Ned have told in his time?

After all that build-up, we now have to wait again until the next flashback for the reveal that fans have been waiting for – we won’t spoil it here, but look up the ‘R+L=J’ theory online to see why these excursions into the past could be a game-changer.

4) The politics is back

While Season 6 is proving pacy so far, it’s still not feeling quite a sharp or well-written as the earlier seasons.

However, a few scenes in Episode 3 saw the welcome return of the politics and back-room planning that harked back to the meticulous plotting of previous years.

First up was Varys and Tyrion in Meereen, trying to work out how to appease the locals and stave off the Sons of the Harpy – and even better was Jaime and Cersei conspiring their revenge on the High Sparrow, but finding themselves ostracised from the Council at King’s Landing.

More of this kind of thing, please – Game of Thrones is brilliant at doing the big, showy events, but it’s the build-up and the shifting of players around the board behind it all that makes those moments hit so hard.

HBO

5) A girl got her eyesight back

Arya’s story continues to be surprisingly good this season – she’s now gone full-Daredevil, honing her ears as a sort of second-sight, but she doesn’t really need it now that she’s got her vision back.

Now, can she please be unleashed back onto Westeros to deal out some brutal justice?

Sky Atlantic, 9pm

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in