season 6 premiere review: The unremarkable 'Red Woman' is saved by a killer twist 

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It\'s been one of the most talked-about TV moments over the past 12 months: Is Jon Snow really dead?

Viewers have been theorising wildly about ways the fan-favourite could survive, with poor Kit Harington\'s private life put under the most intense scrutiny - has an actor\'s haircut ever been more important?

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season six appears to cement our worst fears: Jon\'s body remains where it fell, lying cold for more reasons than just the snow. The mournful keening of direwolf Ghost appears to further confirm it: Jon Snow is dead.

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Of course, that he was dead was never really in question - it\'s more an issue of whether he\'ll come

from the dead. There\'s no movement on that front as of this first episode...

But perhaps there is cause for hope, what with the titular Red Woman expressing her shock over Jon\'s demise, despite the fact that she "

". And as Cersei suggests to Jaime later in the episode, prophecies do have a habit of coming true in this world…

The Jon Snow saga aside, \'The Red Woman\' is, as you might expect, principally concerned with dealing with the aftermath of the previous season\'s drama and setting the board for the new one. That means it\'s not the most dynamic of episodes - more a necessary one.

South of the Wall, Ramsay Bolton nearly gets a moment to soften his edges, as he mourns the loss of his sort-of-girlfriend Myranda. Iwan Rheon almost makes Ramsay sound like a true romantic as he recalls their relationship… until, that is, he commands his maester to feed her body to the dogs. After all, she\'s still good meat! Ah yes, there\'s the Ramsay we know and

As for Reek/Theon and Sansa, they\'re fleeing through the frozen North, and director Jeremy Podeswa makes you feel every biting gust of wind, every chilly step.

When Ramsay\'s men catch up to them, it\'s Brienne and Pod to the rescue. "Bloody woman!" exclaims one of Ramsay\'s men as Brienne charges him down, and it\'s a phrase that could equally work as a nickname for the fearsome warrior (while also lending another meaning to the episode\'s title).

As Brienne is finally sworn into Sansa\'s service - in turn completing her oath to Catelyn - Gwendoline Christie does some terrific work. You can really see how much this all means to her; it\'s writ large in those big, expressive eyes. The fight that preceded it may be fun, but it\'s moments like this that really keep us watching.

Lena Headey is equally good in the moment Cersei\'s face shifts from hope and joy to anger and despair as she watches Jaime return to King\'s Landing with the body of her daughter. Podeswa keeps the camera fixed on Headey for a long time, and not a second of it is wasted.

What does feel like a waste, however, is Alexander Siddig\'s Prince Doran, who is betrayed and murdered in Dorne - along with Prince Trystane - by the vengeful Ellaria and her Sand Snakes.

Siddig is a fantastic character actor, but was given precious little to get his teeth into during his time on the show. The Dorne scenes continue to be the weakest aspect of the series, but perhaps clearing the board of surplus characters will give it some focus.

"Weak men will never rule Dorne again," asserts Ellaria. She may well be a strong woman in this world, but a strong character, capable of carrying that strand of the show? The jury\'s still out.

Across the Narrow Sea and Tyrion and Varys are assessing the state of play in Meereen now that Daenerys has left the city. While it\'s a delight to have one of the show\'s best pairings back together, the sight of the Meereenese docks burning feels like yet another stalling tactic in terms of anyone challenging for the Iron Throne.

"Well, we won\'t be sailing to Westeros anytime soon," Tyrion sighs ruefully. Buddy, we know how you feel.

Similarly frustrating is the fact that Daenerys has been captured by another Khalasar, one led by Khal Moro, who may lack the gravitas of the great Khal Drogo, but entertains in other ways - his conversation with his underlings about the \'best things in life\' essentially turns into a comedy skit.

But for Daenerys - who was edging ever closer to being ready to take the fight to Westeros and \'breaking the wheel\', as she so fearsomely put it last season - being ripped away from all that she\'s achieved feels like yet another way of stringing her story along to keep her in Essos.

Maybe she\'ll end up recruiting Moro\'s Khalasar for war like she once planned to use Drogo\'s? But for now it feels like an irritating obstruction.

Arya, meanwhile, has been rendered blind by her training in the House of Black and White, but she hasn\'t been abandoned. The Waif shows up to give her a beating, in typically brutal fashion. She also promises that she\'ll be back tomorrow. This isn\'t abandonment: it\'s training. (Perhaps Arya could ring Matt Murdock for some tips?)

The episode also catches up with Margaery (still being held by the High Sparrow), and Jorah and Daario (on the hunt for their Queen), but it\'s in the return to the North that the episode will stick long in the mind - and not because of any revelatory moment regarding Jon Snow.

What looks at first to be another gratuitous nude scene turns into something far more affecting, with Podeswa cleverly subverting the show\'s reputation. As Melisandre looks at herself in the mirror, she also removes the signature jewel she wears around her neck, and in a brilliantly handled reveal, the reflection in the muddy mirror changes subtly. Even when the camera pans across to reveal a decrepit old woman, it takes a moment to register what we\'re seeing.

There\'s a reason Melisandre is always so confident, wise and all-knowing: she\'s ancient.

ancient. From the looks of the (impressively ghastly) make-up/effects, the Red Woman is centuries old; her true form concealed by a glamour.

It\'s a haunting image, supplemented by an equally haunting score from Ramin Djawadi. Seeing one of the show\'s most powerful figures reduced to a frail and fragile creature is an image that\'s hard to shake - and adds a seriously creepy slant to all of her sexual exploits throughout the series.

If \'The Red Woman\' as an episode isn\'t overly memorable, that final moment - a decrepit old Melisandre crawling feebly into bed - nevertheless stands as one of the more enduring images in the series\' history.

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