Sunday's bloody 'Game of Thrones' episode features major character deaths [SPOILER ALERT!]

LOS ANGELES, June 20 (UPI) -- Sunday's Season 6 penultimate episode of Game of Thrones saw some exciting alliances and deaths both heartbreaking and well-deserved.

The Starks and their wildling cohorts met the Boltons on the battlefield with the hated Ramsay [played by Iwan Rheon] releasing his hostage Rickon Stark [played by Art Parkinson] in front of his half-brother Jon Snow [played by Kit Harrington] and telling Rickon to run. As the youth attempted to flee and join Snow's army, Ramsay showered him in arrows, eventually killing him.

Just as it seemed Ramsay's men would completely crush the smaller Stark clan, Stark ally Littlefinger [played by Aidan Gillen] arrived with fresh troops and vanquished them, saving the day and allowing Snow and Sansa [played by Sophie Turner] to reclaim their ancestral home of Winterfell.

Snow confronted Ramsay and beat him to a bloody pulp, then turned him over to Snow's half-sister Sansa, who had been forced to marry the abusive Ramsay, but managed to escape his clutches. She ended up feeding the husband she detested to his own, starving hounds.

Meanwhile, Daenerys [played by Emilia Clarke] and Tyrion [played by Peter Dinklage] struck up an alliance with Greyjoy siblings Theon [played by Alfie Allen] and Yara [played by Gemma Whelan.]

The Season 6 finale is to air next Sunday.