SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES SEASON SIX, EPISODE 6 FOLLOW

This was an episode of politics, of people showing their true colours, maneuvering into new positions of power and wriggling out of others.

There were no awful shocks or true moments of revenge but a satisfying knowledge that we were getting to the meat of the matter.

Arya showed that her apparent drive to become a girl-with-no-name no longer mattered when she relinquished her task of killing the theatre actress.

Now the annoying Waif is after her but Arya has found her sword Needle so there's a good fight between them ahead.

Bran, working feverishly to take over from the Three-eyed Raven was saved by his long-gone, now half-dead Uncle Benjen.

And Danaerys topped her walking from a burning temple trick by giving an election speech from the back of a ginormous dragon. (Hillary Clinton could do wonders if she only had a mythical reptilian creature the size of the White House to ride at the Democratic Convention.)

King Tommen, perhaps the most gullible idiot in the history of in-bred royalty, has had his head turned by his subtly scheming wife Margaery and her "I have discovered just how lovely the Gods are" thoughts.

This left the High Sparrow on the high ground.

Margaery's walk of atonement has just been interrupted by Jaime and Lord Mace Tyrell riding through the streets when , hey presto, here comes King Tommen, a reformed character who wishes to unite the Gods and the Crown.

This left Margaery's pompous, trussed-up father, Mace Tyrell asking his mother Olenna, "What's happening?"

"He's beaten us," she said, dryly. "That's what's happening."

This propelled King Tommen to dismiss Jaime from his service, and dad was hot happy. But then Tommen doesn't know Jaime is dad. He doesn't know anything, poor lamb.

I think one day he will wake up in a third-rate hotel room with all his clothes gone, plus his crown and wallet, and a pig resting in the bath. Or something like that.

It also propelled Cersei to encourage Jaime to venture to Riverrun as instructed by Tommen the halfwit, because it would show who the Lannisters really are and what they do to our enemies.

This impassioned our favourite, slightly evil lovers who went for a feverish pash. If nothing else they've proven their deep love for each other, despite that half-dead wig clinging onto Cersei's head.

With Hodor's demise fresh in the mind, things began with Meera torturously dragging Bran through the sleeting snow to escape the Night's King and his undead companions.

Meanwhile Bran was warging his way through the Game of Thrones box set on triple fast-forward speed. Presumably as part of his preparations to take over from the Three-Eyed Raven.

His dip into the past included visits to the deaths of his mother and brother at the Red Wedding, his own fall from the tower after being pushed by sexy Jaime, Daenerys emerging from the flame (part one) with baby dragons on her unburnt shoulders, a baby with White Walker anti-freeze eyes and more.

In the present Meera had given up.

She collapsed beside a tree, unable to pull Bran's stretcher any further. He woke and they realised the end was near. The wights were coming.

Then a mysterious horseman galloped up and began walloping the horrid screaming corpses with a swinging ball of fire. Where he got the flame to ignite that fiery weapon in sub-zero temperatures, while on a horse, was even more mysterious.

After he told them to come with him because "The dead don't rest", he turned out to be Uncle Benjen, returning after five years. He was last seen in season one and was the First Ranger of the Night's Watch.

It turns out he was attacked by White Walkers but saved by the Children of the Forest who found him, stabbed him in the heart with dragonglass and thus kept him half-dead and half-alive.

If he ever meets up with Jon Snow they can have a chat about being stabbed and almost dying together.

A world away, Sam and Gilly have travelled to Horn Hill and his parents wow-wee house, where his absolutely lovely mother greeted him with gushes of love and grace.

She told Gilly she was delightful and cooed over her new grandson. Gilly was lent a new dress by Sam's sweet teenage sister - a character very like a young Edith in Downton Abbey and also betrothed, she said almost immediately upon seeing her brother, to someone who sounded like a Wodehouse character.

Later, with Gilly's hair washed and curled she was a vision, taking Sam's breath away and the pair went off to dine with the whole family.

But there, at the head of the table was horrible scowling Randyll Tarly, a bonkers match for Sam's mum and another in a long line of foul fathers in this series.

After insulting his son with comments that he was still fat, soft and pathetic for having his nose in books rather than fighting and hunting and being a violent rich twit, he discovered Gilly was a wilding.

Randyll's fury exploded. Sam was to leave in the morning, Gilly would work in the kitchens and "the bastard" grandchild would be raised there.

Ah the weary air of defeat we expect from Sam. He accepted his fate without a word against his father, who went to execrable lengths, dinner party conversation-wise, and left Gilly and his adopted son to their new life.

Game of Thrones is very good at playing with our expectations and when Sam burst back in minutes later, telling Gilly to come away with him, it was a joyous plot step.

He grabbed the handy Valyrian steel sword above the fireplace and they were off. Horrible fathers are truly a lifeblood of this series and it's hopeful Sam's mum outlives Randyll or at least gets a separate wing of the castle one day.

And maybe show his priggish brother how you hunt a vicious white walker rather than sweet little deer.

Arya was maybe playing Jaqen and the Waif all along when she decided not to poison Essie Davis's theatre actor character. Was all that for nothing? It feels like she is a better companion for Jaqen than the annoying Waif who just seems to moan and be affronted by a posh girl usurping her.

If she brandishes that pole at you Arya stick her in the guts with Needle, we're right behind you.

On a sidenote, who started the hairstyle craze for curled-up plait knobs on either side of the forehead in Braavos?

There was more than one girl in the theatre audience sporting this look, joining Arya in looking like she had old-fashioned radio dials on her head to tune-in to the shipping forecast.

The climax of this episode was, as said above, Danaerys enlivening the Dothraki's minds with a stirring speech about killing all their enemies in the iron suits and tearing down their stone houses.

What is Dany really planning to do?  "How many ships do I need?" she asked Daario. About 1000. How many are Theon and Yara sailing?

Asking: "Will you give me the Seven Kingdoms, the gift Khal Drogo promised me, before the Mother of Mountains?"

Yes, yes, yes, because you are sitting on the back of an absolutely humungous dragon. Of course, whatever you say white-haired lady.

"Are you with me?" she went on. "Now and always?"

Really, she could have asked them to run around the desert shouting "I'm a little teapot" with their Dothraki undies on their heads, or to make her a giant novelty cupcake from their own dried sweat. Whatever. She's got a giant dragon and she's totally in charge.