Halfway through season 6 of Game of Thrones, sweet trusty Hodor (Kristian Nairn) is ripped apart by rabid ice zombies. He dies in the cold, hundreds of miles away from home, sacrificing himself for two high-born characters who would never do the same for him.
Hodor’s demise in “The Door” coincides with the reveal of just how much of his life was taken from him. The sequence shows Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) breaking young Hodor’s brain in a case of time-travel warging gone wrong. Bran sends the healthy, talkative pre-teen Hodor (Sam Coleman) into a seizure, one that leaves him saying nothing but the word “Hodor” for the rest of his life. The show offers a glimpse of the happy life that Hodor — whose true name is Wylis — should’ve had, then rips it away.
