“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” began with Arya cleaning a dead body. She’s been cleaning them for weeks and has no idea what the purpose is, and she won’t find out until she’s ready. She plays the Game of Faces, in which Jaqen H’ghar tests to see if she’s lying about her past or not. As the game goes on, Arya brings up her time with the Hound, and says she hates him. When Jaqen H’ghar calls this out as a lie, it comes as a relief. Even if she won’t admit it to herself, it’s obvious to everyone else that she doesn’t hate The Hound, after all they’ve been through.
But she’s shocked at this idea about herself, and Arya responds that she doesn’t want to play the game anymore, only to Have H’ghar tell her “We never stop playing.” This is reminiscent of Cersei discussing playing the Game of Thrones in season one, as the players in that game either win or die. In Westeros, the infinite game is the one of thrones, and in Braavos, it seems to be the game of faces. Whoever is the best liar is the winner.
Eventually, Arya is able to become the perfect liar, as she abandons her past life as Arya Stark within the game of faces, and lies to a sick girl she is about to mercy-kill. Due to her believable lie, Arya is allowed to find out what the purpose of cleaning the bodies is. In a scene reminiscent of when the Order of the Phoenix break into the Ministry in “Harry Potter,” Arya is brought into a large, extravagant room filled with mysterious objects. As the scene moves in closer, it’s revealed that the millions upon millions of objects filling the room are faces — the faces that the Faceless Men switch into, the faces of the numerous dead bodies that enter the House of Black and White every day.
One of the most exciting scenes was watching the fight between Bronn, Jaime and the Sand Snakes. It’s rare in “Game of Thrones” that there is a fight scene in which the viewer wants both sides to win, which has probably only happened when the Hound and Brienne dueled in season four. Oberyn Martell was such a beloved character, I want to see his daughters get revenge for their father’s gory demise. At the same time, I don’t want their revenge to be killing Myrcella Baratheon. I want Jaime to hurry in and protect his daughter/niece, and I absolutely don’t want Bronn to die (despite his misogynistic comment about how the Sand Snakes were good fighters — for girls.) Can’t they all work together and kill Lancel Lannister and his religious cult?
Despite being a rare episode without death, it also included another marriage, which was one of the most heartbreaking wedding scenes of the show’s five brutal seasons: Sansa’s wedding to Ramsay. Although rape occurs in the books – and at this point viewers shouldn’t be surprised by its graphic nature – it is always going to be difficult to watch, especially because it’s one of the show’s few real-world issues. Watching someone get burnt alive by a dragon is fine to me, but rape scenes are incredibly disturbing, because they are a problem that occurs daily for women and men across the world. Sansa being raped on her wedding night by her new husband, Ramsay, makes “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” an episode I can only watch once.
Her utter hatred of Theon, and refusal to take his arm and he walked her down the aisle also broke my heart. I know, she thinks Theon killed her brothers, but why can’t he just tell her he didn’t? It’s obvious he loves Sansa, and sees her as a little sister, still, as made evident by his tears when forced to watch her being raped, so why can’t he admit to her that Bran and Rickon escaped Winterfell?
Despite the horrors Sansa is enduring and her hatred of Theon, I think they will be able to gain power over the Boltons somehow, and reclaim Winterfell as their home. If not, all the progression Sansa’s character has made will have been for nothing. She has come from being a naive little girl, to a teenager who doesn’t take crap from anyone. Sansa is now a powerful young woman, and to let her revert back to how she was in the earliest season would be incredibly disappointing for a show with such strong female characters.
Prediction: Remember Arya’s list of people she’s going to kill? As it keeps shrinking, the people on it become less and less attainable for Arya to get to, until earlier this season, when Cersei sends Meryn Trant (the last one on Arya’s list) to Braavos to escort Mace Tyrell. While in Braavos, I think Meryn Trant is going to unexpectedly run into Arya, wearing her first different face, and is going to meet his end.
Kill: The poor Braavosi girl who went to the House of Black and White. Seeing such an innocent character, despite how unattached viewers were to her, die was sad, but it allowed Arya (or should I say ‘No one’) an opportunity to prove herself worthy to the Faceless Gods.
Marry: It was hard watching Sansa marry Tyrion in season three, but as she said in this episode “Lord Tyrion was kind, he was gentle.” Watching her marry Ramsay was a nightmare. Even though she was better off in her first marriage, she’s stronger in this one, and I’m hoping she’ll be able to get out of it on her own terms.
Screw: Cersei is going all out in her attempts to screw over the Tyrell family. It’s been evident she’s hated them since their first appearance, but her hatred has gone too far with the arrest of not only Loras, but Margaery.