‘Game of Thrones’ #ForTheThrone Countdown: “The Door” (S6E5)

Previous Episode: “Book of the Stranger”

 

Episode: “The Door” (Season 6, Episode 5)

Original Air Date: May 22, 2016

Director: Jack Bender

 

Plot (via HBO)

Tyrion seeks a strange ally. Bran learns a great deal. Brienne goes on a mission. Arya is given a chance to prove herself.

 

Best Moment: Hodor’s origin and death

With the Night King and his army on their way to the cave after marking Bran in a vision, the Three-Eyed Raven is trying to give his successor as much information as possible, so they are at Winterfell when Ned is a kid. However, the White Walkers are geared up and arrive, forcing Meera, Hodor, and Leaf to try to get Bran and escape because he won’t wake up from the vision. The Night King goes inside to kill the Three-Eyed Raven while the others run, and Summer and Leaf both sacrifice themselves to slow the wights down. Meera and Hodor reach the exit with Bran still in the past, and he sees young Hodor there, and the two lock eyes while Meera—back at the cave—is yelling for present-day Hodor to “hold the door” against the wights so she and Bran can escape. That causes the past Hodor to somehow be warged by Bran, and he has a seizure, repeating the line “hold the door” while actually doing so in the present. As the present-day Hodor is clawed at by the Army of the Dead, the young Hodor in Winterfell keeps repeating “hold the door,” which keeps getting shorter and shorter to just simply, “Hodor.” Bran watches helplessly as a sad musical score plays to the credits.

 

Best Quote

“A girl has been given a second chance. There will not be a third.” – Jaqen H’ghar

 

Trivia

With the death of Bran’s direwolf Summer, only Jon’s direwolf Ghost (still with him) and Arya’s direwolf Nymeria (set free to run away after biting King Joffrey) remain alive.

 

Character Deaths

-Three-Eyed Raven

-Summer

-White Walker

-Leaf

-Hodor

 

MVP: Hodor

The Night King had a pretty significant win marking Bran to take out the Three-Eyed Raven, but things would have been a lot worse if not for Hodor’s heroics to allow Bran and Meera to escape. The best part about his sacrifice was that the gentle giant was often too afraid to jump into action, so Bran would have to warg into him. However, this time, the past-day Hodor is somehow warged into, but present-day Hodor is holding the door on his own accord, saving his friends in his final moments as a true hero.

 

#ForTheThrone Moment: Hodor holds the door

In a world as dangerous and violent as Game of Thrones, sacrifices must be made for the greater good, which is what Hodor did for Bran and Meera by holding the door to the cave. Hodor’s true unselfishness was on full display, sacrificing himself to help Bran escape so that he could go on to help the Seven Kingdoms with his power as the new Three-Eyed Raven. The death of a key long-time Stark ally—along with the revelation of the true origin of “Hodor”—is one of the most heartbreaking moments of the series, but it was an important event for the good of the realm.

 

Inside The Episode