That would be kind of dumb though, why would she walk through the streets like that? How would she know the Waif would stab her exactly there? Also what are these bags made of that they can hold pig's blood? There's no plastic in GoT.

Also, iirc Arya was wearing a slim dress, not only would we have been able to see it but the knife would've gone right through the bag and into her chest.

Given that she knew the Faceless Men were after her, I think the better question is why Arya would walk through the streets like that. She's either an idiot or she was trying to lure the waif out of hiding.

It was certainly a gamble as to where the waif would stab her, but I have heard an opinion that the waif only ever hit her on the body, so she may have assumed that's where she'd be stabbed.

The bags would be made of pigs bladders or leather or some other material. There's plenty of waterproof material in that universe.

And I've attached a screengrab of what she was wearing. It's not bulging, but it's not tight fitting either.

I guess it's just a contingency for like the one killing you could avoid? The waif could have used poison or stabbed her in the neck, and there isn't much you can do about that, but in the case that happened it isn't the worst idea in the world to have some kind of chest protection.

Well the Waif has always hated Arya, and she wanted to make her suffer (which is why I believe Jaquen will either kill the Waif or congratulate Arya on doing it and call it even). I think it makes sense that Arya would walk through the streets like that, she'd just been stabbed and she needs to find help ASAP, what else could she do?

I just thing bags of pig's blood would be a bit of a cop out.

OR

Arya stabbed the Waif with Needle, and it's the Waif who's running confusedly through the streets.

BWWWWUUUUMMMM

Changing faces is one thing, but why would the Waif suddenly shrink 6 inches?

I think when you shape shift in GoT you just take on the size and appearance of the person whose face you're using. The Mountain's face on Arya would look a bit weird if she stayed 5' with a 18yr olds body.

They don't shape shift though, they only take the person's face and voice iirc.

Whaaat, but that doesn't make sense, unless I guess they have quite a vast network of devotees to fit the builds of the faces...idk man, you're confusing me.

Not really, most people wouldn't really take notice of differing builds if the face is the same. They wouldn't question it.

I mean, maybe. Now I do want to see The Hound/The Mountain's face on Arya, lel.

Tbh I just assumed this was a bunch of shape shifters so, thanks for clearing that up.

Nah they're essentially just really really good, slightly magical masks.

Maybe in the book, but I doubt they’d go with that for the TV show. Not that it’s likely to ever come up.

You know what? I think you guys might be right.

This is one of the weird things in the show really. In the book I felt like the faceless men had to be anybody, not nobody. I always thought that wearing a face was about just becoming somebody, not the specific person whose face it was. The lying game was very different - it wasn't all about Arya not being Arya, it was about Arya being able to lie and pick a liar. I guess they had to externalize her conflict more.

This is really making me rethink all of the stuff in the book about the waif's past though.

Mind you apparently I misunderstood the prologue to AFFC when I read it, so apparently in the book there is actually a case of someone being "replaced" by a faceless man wearing their face.

Oh and I read a really good theory about Lady Crane, Arya and the waif which is similar to what's suggested in that video, but also proposed that Arya might not be going back to Westeros from here. The faceless men might need her in the east...

I meant the way she was walking around the streets immediately before being stabbed, completely carefree and not looking out for danger.

The waif turned into Jaquen in the last episode of season 5.

Or was it the Waif? I love that Jaquen isn't even a person, he's just this transcendent face that lives on and on.

See, I know my shit. >:(

So it was just bad writing that Arya would strut through the streets like she did. I want to know how she slept off getting stabbed in the intestine too. Unless there's just gonna be a huge double bluff next week, but I feel like that's just giving them way too much credit.

That episode was fucking great.
Also, I don't think it was poor writing, more that Arya was just pretty dumb.

Also as great as that episode was, not seeing the fight between Arya and the Waif was pretty shit.

Hrmmm.

She genuinely looked ill and at death's door, so I assumed she wasn't faking being stabbed. But then she ran away from the waif rather better than she should have been able to, which either means the script is terrible or Arya's too stupid to consistently pretend to be injured. And then she beat the waif in a fight. So that makes me think that she actually was faking it. Unless the waif actually won and is pretending to be Arya for some deeper reason. Because why the fuck would Arya return to the temple, knowing that a whole tribe of professional assassins want her dead?

Basically, it's internally inconsistent regardless of how you look at it. Sigh.

You know, it could have been the shape shifter dude pretending to be Arya, and this could be a test for the Waif?

I actually thought that episode was the weakest of the season, so it's interesting to hear that people thought it was good. It seemed completely full of padding and filler to push all the exciting stuff to next week, and tie up all the other characters plotlines that won't be involved in a hurried fashion. All the important moments were off screen in this episode. Why did they even have the Riverrun plot in the show? Jamie may let Blackfish's army go North in some sort of redemption story arc, but why have the Blackfish's death off-screen, and have a huge set for riverrun and have not much happen there?

And not to mention Arya. I think at this point I don't think I can assume there's any more double bluffing going on, I think we have to concede that it is Arya. I'll happily eat my own words if it turns out that she is the Waif or something, but I think it's much more simple than most people thought it was. Perhaps the series will end with Arya on the boat back to Westeros and it will turn out the Waif has stolen her face or something and she's off to take over Arya's life or some crazy shit. That would probably redeem some aspects of this episode a bit.

But Arya isn't really known for being dumb at this stage in the narrative. The writing makes her character do dumb things, so I think it was poor characterisation as a result of poor writing.(I'm not saying I could do any better, just how I felt) I think they needed a cliffhanger last week, that was then pretty much ignored at the start of the this episode. In fact, you could have chopped out all of Arya's scenes from this episode and just have her story carry on with the Waif chasing her down the street at the end, and it would have seamlessly carried on from last week. Unless, of course, there is a bigger picture.

I hate to sound like I'm overly cynical, but that was a very disappointing episode after some real home-runs this series. Next week looks brilliant though.

I don’t think Arya’s story was as complicated as everyone thinks it is. She got stabbed, Lady Crane healed her, Arya thought on her feet and led the waif into a trap, then confronted Jacquen gambling that he wouldn’t kill her after all.

I don’t think she would have let Lady Crane be killed like that, and there’s no indication that she faked being wounded.

Cutting her face off was kinda overkill though.

But anyway, HOUND REAPING REVENGE NEXT EPISODE SHIT GOING DOWN AT WINTERFELL

What a cooky episode.

I agree this season, and especially this episode, has had a lot of random crap in it. So all of the Tyrion stuff, him batering with the Slave Masters and having his big plan was all for nothing. His speech about them underestimating him because he was a dwarf had no payoff. We knew this was coming though - Meereen was only ever going to shit and the dragons haven't even come into it yet.

The faceless man stuff this episode was the least faceless man it could have been. Faceless men kill kind of subtly, and avoid making it look like an outright murder. You don't kill more than your target. The waif broke those rules pretty hard. And then Arya somehow got the waif's face to the temple of black and white, which I'm pretty sure is on a fucking island, but still managed to leave that ridiculous trail of blood. Was that Arya's blood? How long has she been bleeding for? Can someone remind me if she was stabbed in the gut or if she just had a stomach ache?

That trap was ridiculous. Pretty fucking lucky that all worked out hey.

I mean there are lots of things I can excuse because it's a fantasy show. But Arya shrugging off her wounds was pretty bad.

Not much happened in the episode. I keep thinking "this week it's all going to happen." But then it doesn't. Meereen getting attacked is good... but we still need the Ironborn and Theon to get there. I agree they could have cut the Riverrun stuff too. Just... don't have then join Sansa? She's already written to the lords of the Vale. If they come and help is there any need for the riverlands men too?

I'm just praying Bran's story has a payoff this season. He has the most intriguing storyline at the moment for me personally, but damn is it moving slowly.

You think? He's the absolute least interesting character for me at the moment.

Really? He's the only interesting character for me at the moment.

Basically, Connell's description of the last episode feels like it could describe the entire season for me. It's good enough, but it feels like it's just setting things in place for the next season to be interesting. There's been no standout moments or really interesting twists.

The whole fucking Arya storyline is so contrived and shit. Two seasons of training for her to tell whatsisname she's actually not a faceless girl. She's Arya. Whoop-di-fucking-do. What was the point?

Also the Blackfish's death was off screen. The Waif's death was off screen. YAWN.

Normally I can get behind GoT for its story telling and world building but christ that episode was a weak one.