The Red Woman


 * This article is about the episode, for the red priestess see Melisandre.

"The Red Woman" is the first episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the fifty-first episode of the series overall. It premiered on April 24, 2016. It was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by Jeremy Podeswa.

First

 * Maester Wolkan
 * Khal Moro
 * Maester Caleotte

Deaths

 * Areo Hotah
 * Prince Doran Martell
 * Maester Caleotte
 * Prince Trystane Martell

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Mother Cersei Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre
 * Natalie Dormer as Queen Margaery Tyrell
 * Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand
 * Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Conleth Hill as Varys
 * Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow
 * Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis
 * Michael McElhatton as Lord Roose Bolton
 * Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Guest Starring
 * Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne
 * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett
 * Alexander Siddig as Prince Doran Martell
 * DeObia Oparei as Areo Hotah
 * Faye Marsay as The Waif
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand
 * Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand
 * Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand
 * Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella
 * Toby Sebastian as Trystane Martell
 * Brenock O'Connor as Olly
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Charlotte Hope as Myranda (corpse)
 * Joe Naufahu as Khal Moro
 * Chuku Modu as Ahko
 * Staz Nair as Qhono
 * Rubi Ali as a Khal Moro's wife
 * Fola Evans-Akingbola as a Khal Moro's wife
 * Gerald Lepkowski as a Red Priest
 * Richard Rycroft as Maester Wolkan
 * Diogo Sales as a Dothraki bloodrider
 * Junade Khan as a Dothraki bloodrider
 * Sara Dylan as handmaiden
 * Brian Fortune as First Builder Othell Yarwyck
 * Michael Condron as First Steward Bowen Marsh
 * Steve Cash
 * Robert Fawsitt
 * Michael Hayes
 * Tony Flynn
 * Andrew Bryan
 * Tristan Heanue
 * Sabina Arthur as a Meereenese homeless mother
 * Colin Azzopardi

Cast notes

 * 19 of 29 starring cast members appear in this episode.
 * Starring cast members Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish), Diana Rigg (Olenna Tyrell), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark), Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane), Hannah Murray (Gilly), and Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.

Dorne
The TV series has drastically altered the Dorne subplot of House Martell, and drastically altered it even more in this episode: neither Doran Martell, Trystane Martell, or Areo Hotah have died in the novels.

In the books, after Oberyn Martell is killed, his daughters the Sand Snakes beg him to allow them to take vengeance on the Lannisters (Obara suggests open war, the others targeted assassinations), but Doran refuses all of it. Moreover, Oberyn's eldest child and heir, his daughter Arianne Martell, sides with the Sand Snakes (under Dornish law women have equal inheritance rights - though the live-action TV episodes have never mentioned this). After Doran refuses them, Arianne plots with the Sand Snakes to actually crown Myrcella as a rival monarch to her brother Tommen - under the nominal pretext that under Donrish gender-blind inheritance law, she is ahead of her brother in line of succession.

Ellaria Sand is actually the strongest opponent of going to war against the Lannisters – fearful that the cycle of revenge will never end: they will avenge Oberyn, but then the Lannisters will avenge their dead, and ultimately years from now her younger daughters who are little more than 5 years old will eventually get killed as well.

Two major factors affected the Dorne storyline when it began in Season 5:


 * The writers explained in the Blu-ray commentary that for several years into the TV show, Benioff and Weiss never thought that the subplot in Dorne itself would ever appear, because it doesn’t involve any previously established major cast members. They did know Oberyn and Ellaria would appear in Season 4, but not that the narrative would ever go to Dorne.  Belatedly, Bryan Cogman suggested that they invent the detail that Jaime and Bronn would be sent to Dorne to directly confront the Martells – thus the Dorne subplot wasn’t planned out several years in advance as other subplot were.
 * It was also explained in the Blu-ray commentary that after it was decided to actually take the narrative to Dorne, they greatly expanded Ellaria Sand’s role from what it had been in Season 4 – specifically because they enjoyed Indira Varma’s performance.

In the novels, after Arianne’s attempt to crown Myrcella ends in failure, she is imprisoned by her father. When he later comes to visit her, Doran finally explains that all of his speeches about how Dorne must have peace at any cost were just an act – he has been plotting revenge against the Lannisters for nearly 20 years, he was simply very careful and patient about it, waiting for all of the pieces to come together. It is also revealed that he was a secret Targaryen loyalist the entire time, and is openly planning for Dorne to rise up to join Daenerys if and when she returns to Westeros. Arianne and the Sand Snakes reconcile with Doran now that they know the real plan.

In the TV version, instead of Ellaria arguing for peace, her role was somewhat combined with Arianne’s as the one pushing for revenge in Season 4 – the exact opposite of her actions in the novels. Doran’s eldest two children, Arianne and Quentyn, were never even introduced. Ultimately, Doran’s speeches about preserving peace at any cost were apparently meant at face value in the TV version – to the point that Ellaria kills him for not taking any more aggressive action.

The Sane Snakes also have no need to kill Doran’s son Trystane in the novels because they realize that Doran was on their side the entire time. Trystane’s death in the series also raises other logical questions. Trystane left on the same ship Jaime and Myrcella did – which apparently stayed in the harbor at King’s Landing, given that Trystane is seen painting funeral stones for Myrcella in his cabin. Obara and Nymeria didn’t go on the ship with them – they were shown waiting on the shore as the ship departed. The only plausible explanation would be that the sisters secretly took another, faster ship to race ahead to King’s Landing’s harbor in order to sneak onto the boat and kill Trystane. Moreover, if Ellaria knew that word of Myrcella's death would eventually come out, and that her instant reaction would be to kill Doran when he found out, why did she wait for him to receive a letter from his maester informing him about it, when she could have just assassinated him at a sooner and more convenient opportunity?

With Doran dead and none of his other children established as existing in the TV show, House Martell is legally extinct. Ellaria cannot make any claim to rule because she was only Oberyn's paramour, not even his legal wife, and even if she as his wife she has no blood claim to House Martell. Oberyn's eldest daughter is Obara Sand - but by definition, all of the Sand Snakes are bastards and thus cannot lawfully inherit any of House Martell's lands and titles.

Catching up with the books
Though Season 6 has been widely described as the point when the TV series surpasses the novels, this is not exactly true, as storylines have been adapted at an uneven pace. The showrunners always said they felt they were adapting the story as a whole, not neatly matching up the endings of each book to each season. Indeed, Tyrion surpassed his current book material already by meeting Daenerys at the end of Season 5 - which was on the verge of happening at the end of the current, fifth novel. Broadly, preview chapters released for the as-yet unpublished sixth novel can be counted as "released" material. The point still stands that several of the storylines for some of the most central characters have now surpassed the novels - Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Tyrion Lannister - but many other subplots have not.

Characters and subplots that have caught up with their current material from the novels:
 * Daenerys Targaryen and Meereen, including Tyrion Lannister
 * Jon Snow and the Night's Watch
 * Roose Bolton and Ramsay Bolton
 * Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish
 * Sansa Stark's storyline was merged with Jeyne Poole's from the fifth novel, who is forced to marry Ramsay; her Vale storylines have now been diverted while she has reached the end of Jeyne Poole's material from the most recent novel.
 * Theon Greyjoy, except for his experiences after escaping Winterfell (in a preview chapter from book six)
 * Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre
 * Davos Seaworth was involved in other subplots in the North which were cut, but which may now have been merged with other subplots.

Characters and subplots that have not yet caught up with the books:


 * Arya Stark - Arya goes blind at the end of the fourth novel, in which her storyline was heavily focused on. Her storyline is revisted in book five, in which she has two full chapters. Moreover, an Arya preview chapter from book six was released in which she kills Raff the Sweetling (condensed to be Meryn Trant in the TV series). The majority of the chapter, however, involves a lengthy scene at a stage play in Braavos, which is confirmed to appear later in Season 6. Thus Arya still has a considerable amount of material from the novels which have not yet been adapted.
 * Bran Stark, Hodor, and Meera Reed - Bran's storyline had one chapter left in book five after he met the Three-eyed raven, in which he begins his training in Greensight and experiences several vivid visions of the past, including his father Eddard Stark in his youth.
 * Season 6 is apparently going to stretch out this one Bran chapter for some time in Season 6, using it as a framing device to show important flashback scenes - at least some of which were actually had by other characters earlier in the novels, recounted through vivid narration: in the first novel, Eddard himself mentally recalled his final confrontation at the end of Robert's Rebellion with the Targaryen Kingsguard in the showdown at the Tower of Joy - Season 6 will present this as a vision of the past that Bran experiences.
 * Much of the Dorne subplot was extremely condensed in Season 5, to the point that Doran Martell only briefly appeared in Season 5, and many other members of House Martell didn't appear and were thought to have been adapted out (the TV series did state that there are eight Sand Snakes - there are four adult ones, and the fourth gets involved in other storylines). Nor did it include Doran's daughter and heir Arianne Martell, who has apparently been omitted from the TV continuity entirely. Casting descriptions and trailers confirm that substantial scenes will take place with the Martells again, some of them covering as-yet unadapted material from the novels.
 * The King's Landing subplots are a mixed case, in that after Cersei's Walk of atonement only one more chapter is set in King's Landing; however, it is an extensive scene in which her uncle Kevan Lannister and the Small Council discuss large-scale events across Westeros. The TV series is apparently combining and moving around some of this, and extending elements of the chapter across Season 6: at the same time, Cersei's ongoing confrontation with the Faith Militant (seen in trailers) will certainly surpass the events of the last chapter focusing on the Small Council.
 * The Faith Militant itself and the confrontation with them to have Margaery released has fully caught up with the novels, and trailers for Season 6 show scenes which confirm that she will quickly move into unadapted material in Season 6.
 * Loras Tyrell wasn't imprisoned by the Faith Militant in the novels; indeed he had a rather prominent new subplot: given that the Tyrells' homeland in the Reach is on the west coast of the continent, it is under threat from the renewed ironborn attacks, and Loras has to command their forces to deal with it. This storyline sees Loras return to the forefront, as he was somewhat in the background from the third novel onward after Renly died. It is unclear if this subplot will be worked back into Season 6 or be omitted entirely.
 * Elements from the Slaver's Bay storyline were pushed back from prior novels, dealing with both internal politics within Meereen and a looming confrontation with Yunkai from without. The Yunkish diplomat Razdal mo Eraz is set to return in Season 6, organizing the slaver powers and their allies, while Daenerys's advisors left in Meereen try to deal with the mounting crisis. In the novels, these chapters after Daenerys's disappearance are told from Barristan Selmy's perspective, but with his death in the TV series, parts of them may have transferred to Tyrion.

Tyrion's storyline as he was heading east to Meereen in book five also introduced a new subplot involving a major political shakeup in the Free Cities, but this was cut completely from from Tyrion's storyline in Season 5. After he leaves for Meereen it subsequently intersects with several other subplots (not Arya's). This Free Cities subplot will probably be cut entirely from the TV series.