It was the second episode of the first season—which aired on April 24, 2011, mind you—that the entire Stark family was in the same place on Game of Thrones. For more than five years, the family has been scattered across Westeros, beheaded, stabbed, tortured, beaten up, abused, and so much worse. The last two currently-living Starks to even see each other were Bran and Rickon at the end of Season Three.

Tonight, after years of watching this family get completely destroyed, they finally had one happy moment. In the opening scene of Episode Four of Season Six, Sansa and Jon Snow reunited. (Do these actors even know each other?) They even broke out some crappy Night's Watch booze to celebrate.

It's a moment that seemed like it would never come, with each character's plot getting (maybe) five minutes of development in each episode. But as slow as it's moving, this season has also been delivering some of the few truly positive moments in this entire damn series (this episode especially with Daenerys's awesome fire moment and the Dothraki khals). 

This reunion shows so much more, though. Now, having progressed past the books, the show writers are finally moving the pieces toward a conclusion. George R.R. Martin's books, with no plausible end in sight, were continuously building into a wider and wider epic plot. Game of Thrones the TV show has an expiration date. And this means it needs to start maneuvering whatever is left of the Starks into the same place. Already, by the end of Episode Four, Jon and Sansa were considering gathering an army to go save poor Rickon, who is in the hands of Ramsay at Winterfell. At this rate, by the end of Season Six, Game of Thrones will be one big happy Full House-style family sitcom back in Winterfell. But probably not, because this is Game of Thrones, and it will all go to shit soon enough.

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