Arya found her place while Tyrion was captured, and yeah, that happened to Sansa on Game of Thrones season 5, episode 6.
Someone else
In Braavos, Sansa —
Oh, no. Wait.
Arya is tired of bathing corpses at the House of Black and White, because it’s not like she signed up for this or anything. She demands that the Waif tell her what happens to the bodies once they are washed, but the girl refuses; instead, she tells Arya an elaborate backstory story about and then demands to know if she is lying. Arya has no idea.
That night, Jaqen wakes Arya and questions her about her identity. She tells him the story of Arya Stark; Arya embellishes her story with lies, but Jaqen picks out and whips her for every falsehood. He asks if she really wants to become “no one,” and Arya says yes.
Jaqen whips her again, insisting that she is lying.
However, Arya once again manages to find grace in death. A man comes to her with his sick daughter, asking for the dying girl to be put out of her misery. Arya tells the girl that she too was once dying and brought to the Faceless Men by her father, and that drinking from the pool cured her. Jaqen watches as Arya gives the girl the poisoned water.
After the girl has died, Jaqen allows Arya into mysterious passage where the clean bodies are taken. Arya walks through a cavernous gallery full of thousands of human faces, preserved and utterly lifelike.
“A girl is not ready to become no one,” Jaqen tells her. “But she is ready to become someone else.”
Valuable bits
On the road, Sansa —
Ugh, sorry.
Tyrion and Jorah slog forth to Meereen. On the way, Tyrion inadvertently informs Jorah that Lord Commander Mormont is dead. Jorah takes this about as stoically as he takes everything, which is to say, very.
This outlook is challenged somewhat by the fact that he and Tyrion are very shortly captured by slavers. Tyrion manages to save his own life by preserving the investment value of his penis, and tells the slavers that Jorah is a great fighter.
Though it takes some convincing, the slavers decide — by which we mean, agree — to take Jorah to the newly-re-opened fighting pits of Slaver’s Bay.
By which we mean — or at least, Tyrion and Jorah dearly hope — Daenerys.
Trials of the soul
In Kings Landing, Sansa meets with — nope.
Not yet.
In Kings Landing, Littlefinger meets with Cersei, who really just wants to know if the Vale will fight for her Tommen in a completely theoretical upcoming war. She is pleased when Baelish vaguely agrees, but is enraged when he informs her of the Bolton’s defection through Ramsay’s impending marriage to Sansa Stark.
Cersei is scant on resources, so Littlefinger offers her a deal. He will use the knights of the Vale to fight Stannis or the Boltons (whichever faction prevails in the battle for Winterfell) if he is made the Warden of the North in the aftermath.
Cersei agrees.
“I’ll know you’re a man of your word when I see Sansa Stark’s head on a spike,” she says.
“As I said,” Littlefinger replies, his face more mask-like than Arya’s dead visages. “I live to serve.”
Soon, Olenna Tyrell arrives in Kings Landing to help get the matter of Loras’s imprisonment under control. She goes to see Cersei, but shockingly, Cersei seems to come out on top of their conversation. Olenna tries to broker a deal, but the “Queen Mother” neatly slides the blame off onto Tommen and the Faith, and assures the Queen of Thorns that Loras is only facing an inquest from the High Sparrow.
But of course, the “holy inquest” goes exactly as Cersei planned. The Tyrells go full speed ahead with pleading Not Guilty — Loras insists that he has not lain with Renly Baratheon or any other man, and Margaery swears before the Seven that her brother is telling the truth.
They should have gone for a plea bargain. Loras’s boy-toy Olyvar is led in to testify, and backs up his stories of trysting with Loras with the evidence of that unfortunate, Dorne-shaped birthmark.
The High Sparrow calls for a trial; both Loras and Margaery are imprisoned, as Tommen sits like an idiot, and Cersei grins like butter literally will not melt in her mouth.
A bite, sharp and cold as a leech
In Dorne, Sansa — CRAP. In Dorne, Myrcella swoons over Trystane, but the happy times between the Montagues and Capulets Lannisters and Martells is not destined to last. Jaime and Bronn and the three Sand Snakes all converge on the Water Gardens in one ridiculously fortuitous coincidence. Both teams try to capture the flag Myrcella, but wind up in a fight that looks more like a bunch of people waving weapons around in the air for a good time.
There are no immediate casualties, though Trystane is knocked out and Bronn is cut by one of the Sand Snakes. The entire group, plus Ellaria Sand, are quickly arrested by Areo Hotah.
It was all very weird.
White and red
So then we get to Winterfell.
At Winterfell, Sansa — Sansa, Sansa, Sansa — finds herself being bathed by Myranda. The girl tries to intimidate Sansa; she warns her not to bore Ramsay while the dye in her hair washes out, leaving it gleaming auburn again.
But Sansa is not cowed. “How long have you loved him, Myranda?” she asks, calling her bluff easily. “I am Sansa Stark of Winterfell,” she says. “This is my home, and you can’t frighten me.”
YEAH! YOU GO, GIRL! YOU’RE SO STRONG! NOTHING CAN HURT YOU! RIGHT?
….right?
Soon, it’s time for The Worst Wedding Ever. Sansa refuses to so much as touch Theon as he leads her out to the Godswood, but he still presents her to Ramsay, even using his real name. Reluctantly, Sansa accepts Ramsay as her husband.
And then.
Look, we really can’t deal with the details right now, okay?
Ramsay takes Sansa to his room, rips off her clothes when she doesn’t undress fast enough, and rapes her while Theon watches, weeping.
This is what has happened. This is what is real.
The North Remembers.