The Door (S6x05)
Airdate: 22 May 2016
Written by: David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
Directed by: Jack Bender
Running Time: 57 minutes
By the time Game of Thrones reached its sixth season, the series had irrevocably entered its post-literary phase. Having outpaced George R.R. Martin’s glacial literary output, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were left to drive the sprawling epic without the novelist’s intricate source material for guidance. The result, as evidenced across the later seasons, was a gradual but perceptible decline from the complex, politically nuanced tapestry of Westeros towards a simpler narrative engine fuelled by melodrama and spectacular action set-pieces. The show began to favour visceral payoff over patient plotting, a shift that would ultimately culminate in the controversial final seasons. Yet, within this broader decline, occasional episodes managed to synthesise the show’s remaining strengths into satisfying, if fundamentally different, television. The Door (Season 6, Episode 5) stands as a prime example: an episode that provides a potent cocktail of long-awaited fan service, a devastating tragic origin story, and a genuinely explosive finale, all whilst showcasing the very narrative shortcuts and tonal inconsistencies that would later plague the series.
The episode’s primary function is one of logistical chess, moving pieces across two continents with varying degrees of success. In Essos, Tyrion Lannister, ruling Meereen in Daenerys’s absence, finds his precarious truce with the slave masters holding, albeit tenuously. His solution to bolstering the regime’s legitimacy is to enlist a figure of zealous authority: Kinvara (Ania Bukstein), the High Priestess of the Red Temple in Volantis. Her arrival at the Great Pyramid leads to one of the episode’s more subtly effective scenes—an awkward, tense encounter with Varys. The Spider’s palpable disgust, directed both at her fanaticism and her unnerving knowledge of his childhood mutilation, echoes his deep-seated aversion to the red god’s magic, previously embodied by Melisandre. It’s a brief but pointed reminder of the show’s enduring capacity for low-key political and philosophical friction.
Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen consolidates her power, departing Vaes Dothrak as the undisputed khaleesi of the united Dothraki hordes. In a moment of genuine pathos, she learns of Ser Jorah Mormont’s greyscale infection. Deeply moved by his undying loyalty, she commands him to find a cure, setting in motion a subplot of doomed devotion.
In Braavos, Arya Stark, back in the dubious good graces of Jaqen H’ghar, is given a new assignment: assassinate Lady Crane (Essie Davis), a popular actress in a travelling theatre troupe. Arya’s surveillance allows the episode to indulge in a clever meta-commentary. She watches a bawdy, satirical play within the show, a crude recreation of the War of the Five Kings where Lady Crane mocks Cersei, and Bianca, (Eline Powell), a younger actress, plays Sansa. This ‘play within a play’ offers a fascinating glimpse into how popular culture in Martin’s world—devoid of modern media—mythologises and distorts recent history for public consumption. The segment is well-conceived and darkly entertaining, though it also provides the episode’s potentially controversal element: gratuitous nudity. In a clumsy attempt at parity or subversion, the scene features not only an Bianca’s bare breasts but also a close-up shot of a young male actor (Rob Callender) examining his penis and complaining about warts. Critics rightly noted this as the very definition of gratuitous, hardly titillating, and failing to redress the show’s longstanding imbalance in nude exposure.
The political manoeuvring continues in the Iron Islands, where Theon Greyjoy arrives at the Kingsmoot to support his sister Yara’s claim to the Salt Throne. The proceedings are hijacked by the sudden, dramatic appearance of their uncle Euron. In a brazen display of charisma over morality, Euron admits to murdering his brother, King Balon, but wins over the ironborn with tales of his voyages and a bold promise: to build a new fleet and sail to Daenerys, offering the Iron Fleet as her means to conquer Westeros. His coronation forces Theon and Yara into a desperate flight, stealing a portion of the fleet—a classic Game of Thrones power shift executed with theatrical flair.
North of the Wall, however, is where The Door etches its name into series lore. In the cavern of the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran Stark’s training reaches its apex. During a greenseer vision, he learns the monumental secret of the White Walkers’ origin: they were a desperate weapon created by the Children of the Forest to defend against the invading First Men. This revelation recontextualises the show’s ultimate threat as a classic tale of a magical creation turning against its makers, a Frankensteinian tragedy with apocalyptic scale. Flush with this knowledge and reckless with curiosity, Bran again wargs into the past alone, against Brynden Rivers’s warnings. He witnesses the Army of the Dead and is physically touched by the Night King. This single act of carelessness has catastrophic consequences, breaking the cave’s magical protections and revealing Bran’s location. The Night King and his forces attack en masse, in a sequence that powerfully establishes them as relentless, Borg-like villains who adapt to and overwhelm magical defences.
The ensuing massacre is brutal and efficient. The Children of the Forest and Brynden Rivers (the venerable Max von Sydow, making a final appearance) are slaughtered, as is Bran’s direwolf Summer. In a moment of sheer panic, Bran wargs into the simple giant Hodor in the present, whilst simultaneously being in a vision of Winterfell’s past, where Hodor was a stableboy named Wylis. The two timelines catastrophically intersect; the command “Hold the door!” from Meera Reed in the present bleeds into the past, causing young Wylis to seize, collapse, and repeat the phrase until it distorts into the only word he will ever speak again: “Hodor.” In the present, the warg-controlled Hodor fulfils this destiny, holding the door against the wight horde and dying a hero’s death to allow Bran and Meera to escape.
This sequence is the episode’s undeniable masterpiece and its emotional core. Hodor’s death was profoundly traumatic for the audience, the loss of one of the series’ most beloved and innocent characters. Its genius lies in its tragic circularity: it simultaneously provides a heartbreaking origin story for Hodor’s condition and a devastating conclusion to his life, all whilst introducing a fascinating, if dangerously paradoxical, concept of magical time travel into the narrative. Notably, this poignant twist was one directly conceived by George R.R. Martin himself, a fact that perhaps explains its elegant, novelistic depth compared to some of the surrounding plotlines. Thematically, it resonates perfectly: Bran’s careless meddling, which unleashes doom upon his protectors, directly mirrors the original sin of the Children of the Forest, whose creation of the White Walkers unleashed an even greater evil upon the world. The unintended consequences of wielding powerful magic is a theme the episode explores with remarkable efficiency.
Yet, for all its strengths in the far north, The Door stumbles significantly in its handling of more grounded political drama. The subplot involving Sansa Stark and Petyr Baelish at Mole’s Town is a prime example of the later season’s penchant for overdramatic, logistically dubious encounters. Sansa, accompanied by Brienne, confronts Littlefinger over his betrayal, delivering a cathartic and powerfully acted diatribe. She spits contempt, forcing him to acknowledge her horrific abuse at Ramsay Bolton’s hands, and delivers the iconic line: “If you didn’t know, you’re an idiot. If you did know, you’re my enemy.” Whilst Sophie Turner’s performance is commanding and the moment is satisfying on a visceral level, the very premise is flawed. The notion that the ever-cautious, scheming Petyr Baelish would magically teleport across the North, solely to place himself in physical danger before a righteously furious Sansa and her lethal sworn sword, strains credibility. It feels less like organic character movement and more like a writerly contrivance engineered to deliver a specific dramatic beat—a hallmark of the simplified, plot-driven storytelling that came to dominate the post-book era. Furthermore, Sansa’s subsequent lie to Jon Snow about how she learned of the Blackfish’s retaking of Riverrun introduces a note of nascent distrust between the siblings that feels artificially manufactured for future conflict.
In the end, The Door is an episode of stark contrasts and telling compromises. It contains one of the most emotionally resonant and intellectually satisfying sequences in the entire series—the tragic revelation of Hodor’s fate—a segment that benefits from its roots in Martin’s own planning. It effectively expands the mythology with the White Walkers’ origin and delivers solid, if workmanlike, advancement across its global chessboard. However, it also embodies the creeping weaknesses of its era: a reliance on gratuitous shock value (the ill-judged nudity in Braavos), a tendency towards melodramatic confrontations that privilege catharsis over logical character behaviour (the Sansa-Littlefinger meeting), and a gradual shift from complex political intrigue towards a more streamlined, fantasy-oriented narrative. It is, therefore, a perfect microcosm of late-period Game of Thrones: capable of breathtaking, memorable brilliance, but increasingly built on a foundation of narrative simplicity that would ultimately fail to support the epic legacy it sought to conclude.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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