Warning: This article contains spoilers from “Game of Thrones” Season 6, Episode 9
Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) literally went to the dogs in “Game of Thrones” epic “Battle of the Bastards.”
In an ironic end to the massive scale of Sunday night’s episode, the evildoer was taken down by Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) bare hands, after the North’s army–with some unexpected help from Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen)–stormed Winterfell after a protracted battle that saw the deaths of poor Rickon Stark (Art Parkinson) and thousands of extras.
Bolton went through an entire quiver of arrows trying to kill Snow but the Lord Commander fended off each one with a yellow shield. Once he had beaten Bolton to a pulp on the ground, Snow had him tied up and imprisoned. It was fitting that his final confrontation come with his brutalized bride, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner).
“Your house will disappear, your name will disappear, all memory of you will disappear,” Sansa calmly tells him, as Bolton’s wild dogs begin to approach, lured no doubt by the scent of the blood clotting on his ravaged face. At the outset of the battle, Bolton had boasted that the dogs were starving–seven days had passed since he last fed them–and were primed to eat Rickon if he so chose.
One by one, the dogs approached. The first licks Bolton’s face. He protests, having overestimated their loyalty. Then the hungry dog bites into Bolton’s face. The other dogs gather round. It’s Alpo time.
As the dogs devour the former ruler of Winterfell, Sansa leaves the scene. She is now mistress of the Stark ancestral home.
The episode’s battle scenes were staggering, with several of Snow’s allies brutalized, including Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) getting into a skull smashing match that almost did him in. Snow himself was nearly trampled to death and saved himself by rising from the throng just in time to see Littlefinger’s men riding in, thanks to a message sent (by raven) from Sansa in the last episode.
Snow’s forces were not only outnumbered–Bolton, serenely astride his horse while the armies killed each other, had 6,000 men and he dispatched them in waves, with swords and then arrows. Piles of bodies littered the landscape. “Battle of the Bastards” was as bloody and savage as advertised. And Snow, who earlier told Melisandre (Carice von Houten), not to bring him back if he lost, was victorious. A fitting climax for the resurrected hero.
In the episode’s other major story line, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) granted the Iron Islands independence after meeting with Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) and his sister Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) and securing their pledge to honor her as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. This scene was yet another example of how the strong women on this show score the most important triumphs.
The season finale is next week, and the trial of Cersei (Lena Headey) will be prominently featured.