Warning: This story contains revelations aboutGame of Thronesseason 6, episode 7, “The Broken Man”…
The Hound is back!
Yet his appearance was nothing like what the show’s fans might have expected.
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: For the return of The Hound, it’s a unique story in this show.
Very much on purpose it tonally doesn’t really feel likeGame of Thronesuntil the end when everyone gets slaughtered.
He sees Sandor as a candidate.
He recognizes in Sandor a bit of himself.
The Hound, apart from being grateful, starts to open up to him.
He’s the first and only friend he’s ever had in his life.
And that was an interesting relationship to explore.
Did the you and the showrunners, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, ever consider leaving The Hound dead?
He was always going to come back, it was just a matter of how.
Were other ideas than this explored for his return?
Yeah, there were a few.
Would a character we already know encounter him?
In the books, Brienne meets these septon characters, not The Hound.
We took that idea of the remote sept and weaved The Hound’s [story into it].
Rory is such an amazing actor and the audience has such an investment in him.
We realized he could anchor his own return storyline.
We could cut to him and have his own mini-episode and he’d be able to hold it.
The title has its roots in the books too, correct?
It’s an interesting move for a series where characters are typically focused on urgent problems.
There’s wonderful philosophical discussions that happen.
Yeah, they sort of mirror each other.
Both are exposed to a different world and then each come to their own conclusions.
Speaking of which, Arya is now in real trouble, it looks like.
She defied the Faceless Men once, and now she does it twice.
She’s been well trained, but she’s up against [professional killers].
It was also an opportunity this season to make her story into slam bang thriller.
The episode also started with a cold open, which is obviously very unusual, particularly for midseason.
Well that makes sense!
The timelines between the various storylines don’t necessarily line up within a given episode.
Also, Cogman gives a bit of insight into that scene withinstant breakout Lyanna Mormont.
