A 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 scorecard

Before the sixth season of HBO's "Game of Thrones" began two months ago, I wrote about the five things the show needed to give fans in the wake of the deeply depressing, sometimes infuriating Season 5. The season finale airs at 8 p.m. Sunday. Did showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss give us what we needed?

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">1. Sansa's revenge</span> - Yes. Last week's brutal, big-screen-worthy "Battle of the Bastards" ended with Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) releasing the hounds on Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), the man who married her - then raped her, killed her little brother and became the most despicable character in a show full of them. With Ramsay gone, Sansa now rules over her ancestral home of Winterfell alongside her half-brother, Jon Snow (Kit Harington). But what price will Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) demand for sending his army to Winterfell's rescue?

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">2. Cersei's revenge</span> - Inconclusive. The mother of King Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) is still holed up in the Red Keep, forced to watch her son form an unholy alliance with the religious zealots who have taken over King's Landing. Will Cersei (Lena Headey) triumph over her oppressors, or will her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) return just in time to talk her out of whatever violent plan she's hatching? Either way, I hope The Mountain (Hapfor Julius Bjornsson) finally puts an end to Septa Unella's (Hannah Waddingham) bell-ringing.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">3. Daenerys Targaryen's arrival in Westeros</span> - Signs point to yes. This weekend's finale may very well end with the Mother of Dragons (Emilia Clarke) walking on the shores of the land she wishes to conquer. Last week's demonstration of power in which all three of her scaly, fire-breathing children unleashed hell on the slave masters of Essos is surely only a small preview of the carnage that awaits us in Season 7 now that Dany has the iron-willed Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) on her side.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">4. Brienne of Tarth back in hero mode</span> - Yes. After a season on the sidelines, the noblest person in all of Westeros saved Sansa from Ramsay's goons in the premiere. Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) will presumably be a key ally to the Starks once the White Walkers and their zombie army make their way south to Winterfell, and she also humorously gained an unexpected suitor in red-bearded warrior Tormund (Kristofer Hivju), sending hearts aflutter on Twitter and Tumblr.

<span class="x BTO fact box text bold">5. Lady Stoneheart</span> - I think it's time to give up the ghost on this one. A mysterious character so far only mentioned in George R.R. Martin's novels upon which the series is based, Lady Stoneheart's introduction would, sadly, make little sense at this point.

But do we really need her? Season 6 has been consistently stirring as the patriarchy of the Seven Kingdoms begins to crumble and the endgame begins to take shape. It has given us two all-time classic episodes - last week's action spectacular, and Week 5's revelatory, mind-bending, tear-jerking "The Door" (R.I.P. Hodor). It has restored our faith in Benioff and Weiss.

Now what about that tower that Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) saw in his time-traveling vision? Can we see what happened up there on Sunday? Please?

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.