Beyond-the-Wall: Bran, Meera, Hodor and the Three-Eyed Raven
This was a big episode for our northernmost fellowship. For starters the origins of the White Walkers were dropped on us with surprising brevity. The first one was created by the Children of the Forest as a defense against humanity by shoving what appears to be obsidian (aka ‘dragonglass’) into the chest of a man tied to an ancient weirdwood tree. The ritual site is surrounded by giant stones arranged in a spiral, quite like how the White Walkers arrange body parts. The lead Child who performed the ritual, Leaf (the same one that’s been hanging out in the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave) spells it out for Bran after he witnesses his vision.
Everyone remembers sneaking out of their bedroom as a kid right? Well, Bran’s version of this is to sneak into the weirwood tree without the Raven to guide him. He returns to the ritual site in present day, covered in snow. He is surprised to see the army of the dead just chilling off to the side. Gotta park your zombies somewhere, amiright? Bran’s presence goes undetected among the lifeless corpses until he finds the Night’s King and his White Walkers. They can see him. Because they see him, everyone sees him.
Before Bran can bolt, the Night’s King “marks” him with his touch. Back in the cave, the Raven tells him the mark allows him entry into the cave and he must leave immediately. If this weren’t the sixth season, that might mean next episode but here, the speed of plot whisks the Walkers and their army to the secret cave in moments. Leaf is suddenly accompanied by a few more Children, appearing out of nowhere, and they do what they can with fire grenades, conventional weapons and self-sacrifice. With the last known Children dead, the Night’s King personally kills the Raven. Goodbye, Max von Sydow. As usual, you were underutilized.
The whole sequence is horrible (emphasis on the horror) and thrilling, even bordering on absurd given the lengths the show goes to ratchet up the tension. For example, while Hodor rocks back and forth and Meera understandably freaks out, Bran spends the whole sequence warging to a wistful memory from Winterfell of Bran’s grandfather seeing young Ned Stark off to the Vale. It’s meant to echo the Raven passing the torch to Bran, even though he readily admits the young cripple is not ready (kinda obvious given how royally he screwed up here). But the flashback is distracting at best and disappointing at worst. And no follow-up on the Tower of Joy? I mean, I get the show had to move Bran out of the cave sooner rather than later but still.
These nitpicks don’t detract from the episode ending, which gives us another origin, albeit one dipped in tragedy and painted with pain: Hodor’s name. While warging in the past, we’ve seen that echoes of the present can travel back, such as when Bran almost alerted his father at the Tower of Joy. While still in the past, Bran manages to get Hodor moving in time to save himself and Meera, who shouts for the gentle giant to “hold the door” at the end of their escape tunnel so she can get Bran to safety. But the connection is a two-way street so in the past, young stable boy Wyllas goes into a seizure from the warging, scrambling his mind until the chant of “hold the door” becomes “Hodor.” The former stable boy manages to hold back the entire undead horde, allowing Meera and Bran to live and perhaps saving the world. There appears to be something in my eyes, excuse me . . .
