Sophie Turner and Iwan Rheon share their thoughts on Game of Thrones‘ dark denouement between Sansa and Ramsay.
In the final moments of Game of Thrones 6×09, Sansa met with the captured Ramsay Bolton, coldly considering the man who had raped and tortured her. In the face of Bolton’s bravado, Sansa let Ramsay’s starving dogs into his cell — and watched with a smile as they devoured their bloody master.
Both Turner and Rheon told Entertainment Weekly that Ramsay’s gory demise represented a much-needed catharsis for both Sansa and the audience.
“I was loving the idea of Jon killing Ramsay,” Turner says. “But then I was like, no, Sansa needs her first kill and it has to be Ramsay. No one else but her. And when [Jon] basically says, ‘He’s yours.’ I’m like, ‘Yes!’ She leaves him for dead, walks away doesn’t even watch him die.”
“It’s such a great scene,” she enthuses. “So well written, and it’s so great to be able to have my first kill.”
Iwan Rheon agrees.
“I think it was great. It’s a good scene,” he tells EW. “It leaves Sansa in an interesting place as a character, because [Ramsay’s] saying, “I’m inside you now.” It’s horrible, and I think he probably has done some damage. He’s gotten in her head.”
But Rheon notes that he feels fortunate to have “such a great scene to go out on.”
“I’m glad it happens as a fan of the show,” he says of Ramsay’s defeat. “Jon Snow needs to win because otherwise there’s no hope left in the world.”
Dispelling any notions of similarity between Ramsay the character and Rheon the actor, he adds that Ramsay’s death-by-chewing is “justified and it’s the right thing to do.”
“It’s the right path,” Rheon says. “He’s reached his peak. It’s nice for the audience that he goes out on this high, if you will.”
Interestingly, director Miguel Sapochnik says that he was initially inclined to turn the tables on Ramsay’s familiar role as Ultimate Evil.
“I must admit I kind of wanted to make people start to feel for Ramsay in that wonderful way Thrones turns these things on their head,” he told EW. But that vision ran contrary to showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss’ concept of the scene.
“[They] were clear,” Sapochnik recounts. “They didn’t want anyone to sympathize with Ramsay Bolton and this time they wanted blood.”
“In a way I agree,” he continues. “This is not a time to be morally ambiguous. Ramsay needs to die, and horribly. This is what the audience has been waiting to see. That said, there’s no need to dwell on the actual carnage. What’s left to our imagination is always way worse.”
The director, who spent 25 desperate days bringing the “Battle of the Bastards” incredible fight sequence to life, notes the crucial importance of Sansa’s response to Ramsay’s death.
“I loved… the close-up shot of Sansa as she watches the dogs attack,” Sapochnik says. “There’s a moment where she turns to leave but then stops and leans back in, lingering a moment longer. It’s my favorite shot of my episodes this year.”
Turner agrees, framing Sansa’s enjoyment of Ramsay’s demise as a moment of victory for the emotionally tormented Stark.
“Jon doesn’t listen to her,” she says. “She can actually formulate a plan behind his back and they need it. So she does save the day. But she doesn’t really gets her thanks. Her reward is killing Ramsay.”
Game of Thrones 6×10, “The Winds of Winter,” airs Sunday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m. on HBO.