If HBO had its way, Game of Thrones would continue airing until the oceans of Westeros rise, and its empires fall. With Vinyl and Ballers underwhelming both audiences and critics, Girls on its way out and the fates of True Detective and the long-delayed Westworld up in the air, the cable network is in dire need of all the hits it can get – especially if it wants to keep upstarts like Netflix and Amazon at bay.
But HBO only has so much dominion over the seven kingdoms, and GOT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have already committed to ending their adaptation of George R.R. Martin's fantasy novels after season eight (which may or may not consist of a shortened episode order). Which means there is both too much and too little work to be done with the time they have left, as last night's sixth-season opener demonstrated.
On the one hand, Benioff and Weiss must squeeze the fates of roughly three-dozen main characters and hundreds of intertwining narratives into anywhere from 30 to 23 hour-long episodes. But on the other hand, the show has almost completely free reign over how to accomplish that task, as most of Martin's original material has been exhausted.
There's something undeniably freeing about no longer having to tether yourself to a narrative that's already been written – and endlessly salivated over – and judging by Sunday night's episode, Benioff and Weiss have embraced that autonomy straight out of the gate. (Of course, GOT the show has previously diverged from GOT the books, but with Martin still allegedly plugging away on The Winds of Winter – coming soon, maybe! – there is literally no road map left.)
First, as is GOT custom, the deaths. While the lives of Stannis Baratheon and Doran Martell are left up in the air in Martin's novels, the sixth-season premiere definitively kiboshes both, a welcome bit of finality as the characters were stuck in plots that wobbled and waffled, when not being downright slogs. (Shame, though, that the supremely skilled Alexander Siddig was given so little to do as Doran.)
But, of course, there is one remarkable death that the show has yet to resolve: that of Jon Snow. Just like the former Lord Commander himself, audiences still know nothing about the Stark bastard's circumstances. Okay, that's not entirely true: He's definitely dead, that much the episode made clear. But for how long is another question, one that Benioff and Weiss didn't manage to answer by the hour's end. And that's perfectly fine.
Along with Tyrion Lannister and Sansa and Arya Stark, Jon Snow is one of the few black-and-white heroes in a series that revels in the grey, and to figure out a move forward after Martin's novels dealt the character such a dark hand is no easy task. GOT can be accused of many things – lust, wrath, probably all of the seven deadly sins, one of each kingdom – but it has never rushed things through. For all the heated battles and quick deaths, the show is respectful of its core characters and their arcs, developing them slowly, but surely, with a level of devotion that is familiar to any fan of Martin's novels.
In many ways, last night's premiere was a skilled episode of table-setting. Here's how the Lannister twins are coping with the death of their daughter (not well). Here's how Dany is faring with the Dothraki (better, it seems, than one might fear). Here's what's going on in Essos with Tyrion and Varys (they're Meereen's hottest new odd couple!). And here is the corpse of Jon Snow – quite literally set on a table. (The episode did deliver one small twist – hi there, Melisandre – but the importance of that reveal is not yet clear. At the very least, it was a sly rebuke to complaints about the show's tendency toward titillating "sexposition.")
Just as readers once had to trust that Martin knew what he was doing after he dispatched Ned Stark (and Catelyn Stark and Robb Stark and the Red Viper …), audiences will now have to trust that Benioff and Weiss have an end game in mind, and are playing it out as best they can. Martin, as readers know all too well, could continue to write and rewrite for decades to come.
But HBO has deadlines to meet. And, as much as the network might dislike it, a promise from its showrunners to keep. Winter will come, eventually. And with Benioff and Weiss, the season is in good hands.
Barry Hertz