Game of Thrones review season 6 episode 4: Why that scene with Daenerys was a big problem

This week’s episode had drama, bloodshed and intrigue and it was still boring. But, more importantly, it was highly problematic.

Let’s start with the  heartwarming Stark reunion, since the show gives us so few of them. Sansa finally reaches Castle Black, right in time to meet a newly resurrected Jon Snow. The two hug and chat in front of the fire where Sansa admits she behaved like an ass with Jon when they were children. The siblings share some tender moments before discussing how to tackle the new Lord of Winterfell.

How do we solve a problem like Ramsay Bolton? The man continues to run loose, his latest victim being Osha. Saw that coming the minute she strained to reach the knife. Nothing Ramsay does is surprising anymore.

Sansa is gunning to reclaim Winterfell with the help of families in the North still loyal to the Starks. But death and betrayal have taken the fight out of Jon Snow. Until Ramsay’s letter reaches him (a nod to the books). Ramsay promises to march to battle against the Night’s Watch unless he gets Sansa back. And just like that we’ve set the stage for the big battle scene of this season.

Melisandre is convinced Jon is the Prince who was Promised, feeding fuel to all those Azor Ahai theories. As she’s chatting with Ser Davos, Brienne joins their conversation and tells them how and why she executed Stannis.

This season is seeing a lot of characters and storylines collide, resulting in a lot of conflict being put to rest very easily. So easily that it throws up several questions. Why isn’t Davos mad at Melisandre for burning Shireen or being wrong about Stannis? Why does Brienne not confront Melisandre about the shadow that killed Renly, an incident that tarnished her reputation? Why hasn’t Sansa asked Jon about  his death? Why hasn’t he asked her about Ramsay? Are all these conversations left for the next episode? Or am I expecting too much introspection and exposition from the characters?

Speaking of characters colliding, say hello to Petyr Baelish and Robert Arryn. Littlefinger arrives in Vale and in a few short strokes manages to ingratiate the Lord of the Vale, show an Arryn bannerman (Nestor Royce) who’s really in charge and have the mountain kingdom join the war. It’s not clear whether this is all for his own gain or to make up for what happened to Sansa. Probably both. This return is timely given the impending uprising in the north.

Quick stop at King’s Landing and Pyke where sisters unite with their broken brothers. While the Lannisters plan her rescue, Margaery is urging Loras, who wants to give up and let the Sparrows win, to stay strong. His complete breakdown makes one wonder what they did to him. At Pyke, Yara’s anger at her brother’s return is abated when he says he’ll help her take the throne to rule over the Ironborn.

In all of these locations, save Castle Black, the plots have barely moved an inch. Game of Thrones has always had a problem with pacing, something that comes from having to coordinate multiple storylines with each other. As fans, we've shown we're willing to put up with it as long as it keeps giving us the adrenaline-spiked twists in the plot. Perhaps, this is also why the show has no incentive to better the parts in between these twists.

But if there’s one place the show could and should do better, it’s Essos.

In Mereen, Tyrion’s putting his diplomacy skills to work with the slave masters of Astapor and Yunkai. He plies them with banter, wine and women and allows seven years for them to adjust to the ban on slavery. His move to make peace with these men is not going down well with Missandei and Grey Worm, both former slaves, who think he’s sullying Daenerys’ legacy. Tyrion may have managed to hold off the a battle among the cities of Slaver’s Bay a little while longer, but the same cannot be said of civil war within Mereen. His meeting with the masters has infuriated the men Daenerys freed.

The Breaker of Chains, meanwhile, is quietly plotting her move at Vaes Dothrak. Jorah (the Explorer) and Daario have made it to the Dothraki city and have vague plans of how to rescue their queen. (“We have to at least try!”) In a scuffle with two Dothraki men in an alley, the obligatory shot of his disease-ridden arm comes as a moment of revelation for Daario.

Daenerys waves off their rescue mission because she has an actual plan in place. Put Dany in a room full of torch fires with all the khals. What happens next should not shock you. We’ve all seen this before. Shot like a bad horror movie, Dany puts her hands on the brazier, unflinching as the fire licks her fingers and shoves it towards Khala Qono. The room catches fire quite quickly and the whole building is razed to the ground. She steps out to face an awestruck city (of brown people ) who fall to their knees when she (a white person) emerges unscathed.

Here’s the problem with this scene, if you've not caught on already. It’s repetitive, it’s predictable and it’s hella racist. In fact, that’s been the problem with Daenerys’ storyline in Essos from the very beginning.

Just look at how things unfold in this episode. How do you introduce a foreign city to a pair of white travellers? Cut to a couple of natives having sex on the street. So untamed, so wild!

How does Tyrion address the concerns of former slaves worried about compromising with slave masters? By whitesplaining the art of diplomacy. Keep in mind that slavery is rampant in Essos but banned in Westeros, a clear indication of which part of the world is considered more ‘civilised’.

How does Dany end with another army by her side? By freeing a Dothraki city from its Neanderthal male leaders. Their response, not confusion, not terror, not ‘why has our way of being, being crushed overnight’, but gratitude. Bent knee, bowed neck gratitude.

Scene from season three.

No, you say, that’s exactly what the story is trying to tell us. It’s commentary on how benevolence and good intentions are not enough. It’s a critique of the White Saviour Complex. Because Dany fails to bring peace to her city, she fails to put in place an alternative to the systems she crushes and she fails to protect the very people she freed. If this is the story that the show is trying to tell, and I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here, it needs to tell it better. Show Dany fall hard and not just walk through these missteps with fire and dragons. Show Tyrion’s fast-talking diplomacy fail in cities and cultures he has no experience of. Give us the perspective of the ones who’ve been freed, the ones who’re being ruled, a perspective that is more than two lines each from Grey worm and Missandei each. But it’s the Game of Thrones, you say. It’s meant to be about the rulers, not the ruled. Then spare us Dany traipse through this eastern continent.

The show is political commentary. Essos and its cities are stand-ins for anything not the West. In this fantasy’s representation of (made-up) cultures, the homogeneity of Westeros is told with more nuance and depth, than any single scene in Essos. If you can do that with white people (with Ramsay, for Chrissakes!) you sure as hell can do it with people of colour. Outside of the white character's perspective!