Who is this girl?

She’s no one.

What is the thing you keep, beneath the stones?

Is it a picture, a locket, a roll of money in case you need to run? Is it the memory of a time when you wanted for something, or of a time when you wanted for nothing? Is it the opening chords of a song you can’t listen to on the radio anymore? Lines on a map leading somewhere else?

What is it, in your secret heart?

Arya Stark thinks it’s all gone. Her home, her family, everything she rebelled against and fought with and feared. She thinks it’s all been stripped away. She thinks she can be faceless, slip in and out of a room like smoke, and make all the horrors that have driven her here disappear. But she buries Needle beneath the rocks, a part of her she thinks she can save.

Quick takes: I have no idea where we are now in the books, since Sansa’s playing the part played by I think Jeyne Poole? Taking Lady Stoneheart out of the picture means Brienne’s going somewhere unclear to me, and last we checked in with Asha Greyjoy she was heading off to rescue Theon, but either she never got there or she’s taking the longest way around anyone in Westeros has ever gone.

Sansa Stark is a wolf, always will be, and Ramsay Bolton best watch his hot little ass because she’ll sink her teeth into it with a quickness. The North remembers, bitches.

SHUDDER. SHUDDER. ROOSE BOLTON. SHUDDER. Ramsay’s not the scary one. Ramsay’s just batshit  crazy. He likes to lick blood off his knife, and other gross, boring stuff. Roose Bolton is making a spreadsheet, meanwhile, about which knives provide the best licking experience, and having a servant place orders for said cutlery while inside his head it’s just a metronome ticking.

Speaking of shuddering, Qyburn got Ser Gregor’s body after the trial by combat, and I was wondering if we were going to go there. Not that he couldn’t just be cutting off rat heads for, like, fun or something.

I love Jon Snow and Stannis Baratheon’s mutual admiration society, and Davos Seaworth’s love of Stannis is pretty much my favorite thing on the planet. Jon and Stannis get each other, the inconvenience of their righteousness, and they’re both so damn lonely most of the time. They should be able to talk to each other.

FUCK YEAH JONATHAN PRYCE. I never pictured him as the High Sparrow but he’s perfect in everything.

Alliser Thorne was never going to be on your side, Janos. Never. Thorne is on Thorne’s side, first of all, and second, he’s on the Watch’s. That was made clear Season One, when he talked about what the last Winter did to him and his friends. He holds that memory close, and the sound of the wind howling never leaves him.

Everyone has something buried beneath the rocks. Podrick’s theft, Brienne’s ugliness, Jon’s history, Tyrion’s whoring, Jorah’s betrayal. Maester Aemon’s frailty, and his family. Sam’s cowardice. For Dany, the memory of being sold. For Varys, the feel of being cut. Littlefinger’s love for Catelyn.

Arya asks a thousand questions. Where are they taking the bodies? What do we do after we wash them? Why am I sweeping the floor? When can I learn to give the gift of death? She’s still fighting, raging tooth and claw into the storm, struggling against her bonds. Let it all go, the Faceless Man advises. Throw all your former lives away. And she does. She casts everything on the water, weighted down with stone.

Everything except Needle. Which she buries deep, in case she needs it someday.

A.