Nope. Because Brienne is the cavalry on that one, they even made a point of showing her looking at the tower. So if they lit it to see who would come, it wouldn't have been the old lady.

I think this is just one of those plot moments where you just accept it, and don't ask too many questions.

I'm not really sure what Brienne can do. Sure they've established that she is a good fighter, but they've never really shown her to be at all clever. There would need to be a certain amount of cleverness required to get Sansa out of there.

I was assuming that the old lady was part of a group of northern conspirators not connected with Brienne, but I could be way off on that.

I think you are! Because they showed Brienne looking at the tower. I think there are old northerners who are on Sansa's side, but I think the candle in the tower thing was 100% Brienne, or so I was led to believe.

Yeah, I think her looking at the tower (and the conversation she had in her room with the innkeep or whoever that was) makes it pretty clear she was the one looking for the signal.

Can someone refresh my memory? For some reason, I thought that Sam had lost the dragonglass knife. I seem to remember him dropping it after killing the white walker and just leaving it there. I could be completely wrong though...

and here's an audible version of that rimshot emoticon

<iframe width="320" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9CdVTCDdEwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That's fine, but it still leaves open the question of how they found the old lady, unless she was the one leading her to Brienne (which would make more sense than Brienne navigating her own way to Sansa's room).

I know, I'm just supposed to accept it and not ask questions.

He has a bag full of them. He found more than one.

Maybe she knew exactly how long it would take to act or noticed some subtle symptoms kicking in.

Ramsay might have known it was the old woman who told her to put the candle in the tower because it seems like the Boltons are limiting the contact Sansa has with the other Northerners, and the old woman was one of the few, if not the only, person she had been in contact with unsupervised.

Well, then it wasn't really that special of a gift to Jon, was it? Thanks a lot, Sam!

Dragonglass is obsidian, so it's probably not too uncommon. If it's something can kill white walkers, then they're probably making some weapons out of it.

Stannis said they had obsidian in Dragonstone, so not rare, but maybe not common in the area of the Wall and north of it.

I thought it was fairly obvious how Ramsay knew it was the old woman. Reek took him the candle and Ramsay turned it over to the Maester who ran DNA tests on it. After accounting for Reek and Sansa's DNA on the candle the only other person was the old woman.
Or at least that's how it would have been solved on CSI.

With the poison and Bronn it could be that as his heart started beating faster the poison would have spread quicker. Now the antidote working that quick is a little problematic.

I think that's what the show wants us to assume is how Ramsay figured it out the old woman who told this to Sansa, but I still think it's a bit flawed. Because Sansa could've set up a signal arrangement with loyal locals outside of Winterfell, such as in Winter Town, before she even entered the lair of the beast that is the current Winterfell. Sansa already knew how Roose Bolton double-crossed her brother so her making such an arrangement isn't farfetched just because she didn't know how bad Ramsay was until it was too late.

But I think the show wants a simpler situation there so that the old woman is gone and Sansa now has very limited options for getting help inside the walls of Winterfell.

It didn't clear things up for me... Cersei basically said that he couldn't do an all out assault because Margery would get hurt, but the perfect time to save her would've been before they seized her. I guess she couldn't exactly say this to her son, or maybe she didn't think of it herself, but I figured the main reason he couldn't attack is because everyone suspects he's a bastard and a product of incest, and not the true heir to the throne.

I actually liked that they gave a hint to the passage of time. I can believe it's been a few years, but it's hard to tell in the series (especially the travel time), so at least they acknowledged that all these things happened over years and not months. I also liked that Stannis was aware of the passage of time too, and that he realized he could get stuck for years in Castle Black.

As for the Stark supporter, I figured she went up to get the candle or something. Ramsay did say that she basically died before she could really give up her secrets, so hopefully she was the only one caught (I didn't know if she was the only one flayed up there)

That scene annoyed me, when he gave the bag to Jon Snow, pulls one out, and Sam says "Dragonglass - it's what I used to kill the white walker." That line was completely unnecessary. Jon Snow knows what it is, and what Sam accomplished with it. Anyone who watches the show seriously already knows what it is, and what it can do. The whole line was put in there to remind viewers who don't pay close enough attention, and dumbs down the show in the process.

I think it's fine to remind the audience what it is, why does it dumb down the show?

As for the old woman being caught. I figured after Reek told Ramsay about it the bastard questioned every person who didn't work for the Bolton's pre-Winterfell and had one-on-one contact with Sansa. Seems like the logical thing to do when you suspect a conspiracy. Question the most obvious people first and it was probably a short list, possibly only the old woman.

There is a ton of stuff on this show that could be covered better, that they don't need to waste time covering things that are already known to both the actors on the show, and the audience watching (IMHO, of course)

How did Ramsay figure out it was the old woman trying to help Sansa? Is Ellaria Sand also in the prison with the Sand Snakes and Bronn? How much time passed between when Bronn was poisoned and got the antidote? Is Brienne working with other northerners, or are she and Pod acting alone? Did Lancel tell the High Sparrow about his own deviant actions in the past when he told about Cersei? Where the hell is Gendry, anyway?

I feel (imho, of course) they should have the covered the dragonglass like they did with Ghost's appearance this episode. He showed up, growled, and the bad guys ran. The characters on the show, and the audience both know who Ghost is, even though he isn't in the show very often. They could have had Sam say "Thanks for saving us, Ghost, Jon Snow's direwolf that he had since Winterfell" to remind the audience of why this wolf suddenly came out of nowhere, but thankfully they didn't.

If that annoyed you, you must be annoyed with every show since they all do something very similar to this. I'm sure GoT does it all the time.

It's an important plot point and to a degree, shows will always cater to those that haven't seen every episode or don't pay close attention.

I just kind of skimmed over the comments about Bronn and the poison, and it seems to me (without having read the books) that the girl (as someone touched on before) intentionally got his blood going faster to get him in a state where he knew he was going to die, and she used her sexuality to give him something to look forward to if he lives. She gave him the antidote, told him she thinks he's handsome, he's grateful to be living...I think she's planning on using him in some way, to get him on their side for some plan they've got. Or, if not a plan, then to just have an ally. I think she saw his worth during their fight.

By the way, I couldn't help but notice this time around that nobody is saying that Ramsay didn't rape Sansa.

I saw a review of this episode that criticized Littlefinger's information "gift" to Lady Olenna about Lancel's secret affair with Cersei being useless because the reviewer assumes that Lancel would've already told the High Sparrow everything about the affair.

But thinking about it, I disagree with this viewpoint. No doubt Lancel confessed to sinning when he got all religious, but I don't think he would've named names unless directly asked. So I think only when Lady Olenna passing this information on to the High Sparrow did he then go ask Lancel directly if it was true. And only after the High Sparrow had that confirmed is when he set up his trap to spring once Cersei visited the Great Sept again.

Also Lancel is the son of Kevan Lannister, Tywin's brother who was upset with Cersei earlier this season (in this Small Council scene) and abruptly left King's Landing to return to Casterly Rock. So I wonder if he will now return to King's Landing due to what's going on or if that storming off scene was just to get him completely out of the picture. (He does say in this scene that he will only respond if King Tommen himself summons him.)

Have to agree with Mad Monk. There are quite a few things going on that require prior knowledge, but I think he was saying that the point was too obviously made. Less obvious would be Sam handing the dragonglass to Jon and saying, "In case you meet a White Walker." Or even just have Jon say, "Dragonglass" and look at Sam appreciatively. Ah, well...it's a minor point.

It does bring up something that may concern others beside myself. I think that D&D have done a masterful job of adapting the saga thus far & have been mostly on target with the newly-created scenes. However, even if they are mostly trying to follow GRRM's outline for the concluding bits, it's hard for the scriptwriters to match GRRM's clever dialogue. It's like someone trying to take an unfinished novel & finish it from the author's raw notes...you might be able to emulate the style, but if everyone could write as well as GRRM, GoT wouldn't stand out from the crowd as much.

Just something I've wondered...if the writers will be able to approximate his dialogue as well as plot twists. I like what the show has done with changes for the most part...and think the Sansa story is a big improvement in many ways, for instance...but wish GRRM would be willing to serve as script consultant to help tweak the dialogue since it seems obvious that any hope of having his work (even in rough form) to rely upon is long gone. They may be able to mine some scenes from Book 6 drafts, but after that it seems that they will be in totally uncharted territory re: having anything firm to adapt.

Wouldn't it make sense that a psychopath/sociopath such as Ramsay (with Roose's approval) wouldn't hesitate to just choose anyone to serve as an example (regardless of whether the person was actually guilty)? It wouldn't be as strong a message to Sansa, but it would serve as an effective deterrent to anyone else considering helping her.

Now that's a good "gift" reference that makes sense. Also, good explanation about Lancel. I had been wondering why they wouldn't have taken Cersei much earlier given Lancel's involvement and conversion.