Episode 6×6, aptly named Blood of my Blood, has continued to deliver high drama and good character development.  Here are our best moments from the episode.

Bran and Meera

Last time we saw Bran and Meera they had barely escaped out of the tree due to Hodor’s sad sacrifice.    In the start of this episode, we see them on the run.  Meera is doing everything she can to get Bran to safety as Bran is still in a trance.  Bran is getting flashes all across different time periods from flashes of the Mad King ordering his men to burn down King’s Landing to flashes into his own family’s past.

The White Walkers are not far behind them.  Bran is still having flashes in the past.  He breaks from the trance just as Meera can not carry him any further.  He tells her that “they have found us”, and sure enough they are surrounded by White Walkers.

Just as things look dire for the two of them, Bran and Meera are saved by a concealed man on a horse. The man makes short work of the White Walkers attacking them.  He gets Meera and Bran on his horse and they escape.  As it turns out, their savior is none other than Bran’s Uncle Benjen, who has been missing for a couple seasons now.

Once they are safe, we get to hear Benjen’s story of what happened to him.  Benjen doesn’t look quite like himself, and it is revealed that he was attacked by a White Walker, and was going to be turned when the Children of the Forest found him, and stopped the transformation mid-process using the same method of how the Night King was made.  When Meera asks how it was he found them, he says that the three-eyed Raven called to him.  Meera states that the three-eyed Raven is dead, and Benjen looks at Bran and says he isn’t.

A lot of interesting things were revealed in this episode about Bran’s power and about the White Walkers.  The biggest one is that the transformation can be reversed, but only the Children of the Forest know how to do this, and they may have just gone extinct.  Still, if there was a way to reverse it Bran may learn how to do it.

The second interesting thing that happened is that Bran was able to call out to Benjen and tell him where his location was.  Bran may have done it accidentally, and because they were in danger, but he was still able to alert someone to help.  Is it because Benjen was a Stark, and the Starks have a special bond between each other that Bran was able to reach him?  Or was it because Benjen was half White Walker, and that means Bran may have a way to control White Walkers.  Bran is just coming into his powers and it will be interesting to see what he will be capable of.  We are also interested to see the relationship between Meera and Bran as we think Meera has a little thing for Bran.

Samwell and Gilly

Last we heard of Samwell and Gilly, they were on their way south to the Citadel where Sam plans to become a Maester and take care of little Sam and Gilly.  The Citadel does not  allow women in the Citadel.  So Samwell makes a detour and plans on bringing Gilly and little Sam to Hornhill, where Sam is from.

Samwell has a rocky relationship with his father as his father gave Samwell a ultimatum: take the black and forsake his inheritance to his younger brother or stay and die.  We are already predisposed to dislike Samwell’s father from that story alone, but in this episode we got to see first hand the relationship that Samwell has with his family.

Samwell is greeted warmly by his mother and sister, who are very willing to accept Gilly, little Sam and Sam back to the castle.  The mother and sister really are good people, and we immediately love this part of his family.  We can see where Samwell gets his good heart.

His father is a completely different story.  There is an awkward and frustrating part where we see the true depth of Sam’s father’s contempt for him at the dinner table scene.  Samwell warns Gilly not mention that she is a Wildling as Sam’s father hates Wildlings.  At the dinner table while trying to defend Samwell’s abilities and his feats in the North, Gilly let’s slip where she is from.  This infuriates Samwell’s father, who heaps loads of harsh and unnecessary criticism on Samwell.  Fortunately, Samwell’s mother and sister step in and stop the abuse.

Later in their bed chamber, Samwell tells Gilly goodbye as he has to leave that night to go to the Citadel as his father won’t have him at Hornhill anymore.  Samwell immediately comes back and tells Gilly to pack up.  He takes Gilly, Little Sam and his father’s prized Valyrian steel sword that has been in the family for generations, and they leave Hornhill together.

This part was an eye opening glimpse into one of the character’s backstory that we have only caught bits of.  Now we get to truly understand Samwell and his story, but we also see great character development in this episode as both Gilly and Samwell show great courage and backbone.  We don’t know what will happen to them, but we think they will only get stronger.

Arya

As seen in last episode, Arya was given a second chance to become a faceless one.  She was given the task of assassinating an actress, Lady Crane, with the underlying knowledge that it was either assassinate the actress or die herself.  Arya once again goes to see the play and her intended target.  She slips back stage while they are on and poisons Lady Crane’s wine bottle.

The play ends and Lady Crane comes back stage where she has a run in with Arya.  They have an interesting heart to heart and we can see that Arya likes the actress.  The actress is talking with her fellow actors and is about to drink from the wine that has been poisoned when Arya knocks it out of her hand.  She warns Lady Crane of the younger actress who wants her dead, and then flees.

The fellow apprentice girl, who hates Arya, is back stage and sees this all go down.  We now know that Arya is in deep trouble.  Arya goes back to the place where she hid needle, takes it and goes into hiding.  The apprentice girl tells Jaqen H’ghar of Arya’s inability to follow through with the assassination and he gives her permission to go after Arya.  Things are about to get interesting here as we want nothing more than to see Arya take this apprentice girl out.

Some interesting things that happened in this part:

-Arya was moved by Lady Crane’s performance of Cersei on the loss of her son, and when she is having that heart to heart with lady Crane on how to change her performance, she is spot on in describing how Cersei felt.  This is interesting as it seems that even Arya may feel some sympathy for someone she considered her enemy, even if it was because of Lady Crane.

-The symbolism of Arya being reunited with needle and not being able to let go of who she was was nice to see.  If Arya had killed Lady Crane, she would have just become another heartless faceless one, and not the Arya we love.

Margaery and King’s Landing

This part of the episode was a slower part, but it had huge importance.  Last we heard of Margaery, she is in a dungeon and about to take her walk of atonement, which her grandmother, the Queen of Thorns, and her father are not happy about.  They plan on using their army in conjunction with the Lannister army to stop this from happening.

Margaery waits on the steps for what looks like her walk of atonement, surrounded by the High Sparrow’s men, and the Tyrell’s and Lannister’s armies come to intercede. They plant themselves between the High Sparrow’s men and the crowd that has gathered to watch.

Things look intense and dire for Margaery as she is right in the middle of it all, and the tensions rise when Jaime Lannister states to hand Margaery over and the High Sparrow states he nor Jaime have the authority to do this.  And this is when the High Sparrow pulls a pretty clever move.  He tells the crowd, the Tyrells and the Lannisters that Margaery will not walk the walk of atonement as she has gotten someone important on their side or “brought him to the light”.

Out walks Tommen, to Jaime’s dismay, who then pronounces a union between the crown and the faith.  What this means is that any harm that comes to the faith is like harm inflicted on the king and will be dealt with as such.  This means that Tommen has submitted to being a puppet king with the High Sparrow as the puppet master, and as the Queen of Thorns states “He’s beaten us.”

The effects of this new relationship is seen immediately when Tommen strips his father of the title of Knights Guard, and sends him to retake Riverrun from the Tullies who have taken it back.  Jaime, of course, is furious and wants to kill the High Sparrow, but Cersei talks some sense into him, and gets him to calm down.  Things will get interesting when Cersei goes to trial as it is a trial by combat.  We wonder just who the High Sparrow will pick to be his champion.

Daenerys

Daenerys’s part is a small one, but super powerful and our favorite one in the episode.  Daenerys is still riding at the head of her Khalasar back to Meereen when she notices a shadow pass over her in what can only be Drogon.  Drogon has been missing for a few episodes, but this episode he comes back in a big way.

Daenerys tells Daario that she is going to ride ahead.  When she doesn’t immediately come back, Daario tells the leaders at the head of the Khalasar that he will be right back.  The Khalasar may have decided to follow her, but we think there is still some doubt in them about her at this point.  This doubt is demolished though as Daenerys comes back to the Khalasar riding Drogon.  After landing, she gives a rousing speech which galvanizes their support and loyalty to her.  Now she will have no worries of them following her across the sea in ships which may have been a problem before.

Daenerys is primed for an invasion of Westeros as she now has two loyal armies and Drogon back.  With the White Walkers coming from the North, her invasion may be coming just in time as we know White Walkers don’t fair well against fire.

Notable Moments/Predictions:

-The Frey’s find themselves the laughing stock of the Riverlands as they have just lost Riverrun.  Walder Frey wants them to take back Riverrun despite the numbers against them as his sons warn him about.  We really hope to see some justice served on Walder Frey.  He still does have Edmure Tully as a hostage, and we hope nothing bad happens to him.