If the cracks in Game of Thrones ’ post - Scripture storytelling were get to show last week , they ’ve now erupted into to actual fault lines . Last night ’s episode was sometimes bilk , and occasionally outright sloppy on a storytelling level , as fiber made countless questionable decisions — and yet the show stay on to astonish with such incredibly epic , fantastic moments that it almost did n’t matter . Almost .
“ Beyond the Wall ” is primarily set — hold back for it — beyond the Wall , follow the inglorious bastard and his banding of badasses on their search for a creature . Like many of Game of Thrones ’ epic engagement episodes , it starts out slow , giving them all a fortune to utter with each other : Gendry bitches to Beric and Thoros about selling him to Melisandre ; Jon tries to give Jorah his ancestral brand but Jorah decline ; Tormund decides he and the Hound are BFFs , which is totally hilarious ; Beric and Jon sympathise about being resurrected ; and so on . There ’s nothing revelatory here , but it does an impressive job of setting up camaraderie between the seven gentleman , most of whom had n’t meet each other before the end of the last sequence , before diddly goes down .
And man , does it go down . It begins with them getting lash out by a deuced zombie bear , complete with crank - grim eyes , which is a subtle but incredibly effective harbinger of things to come . This fighting goes about as well as a fight with a zombie bear should , which is to say not very ; the bear keeps attacking even after Beric place it on fire with his flame sword , and mauls Thoros a bite . Eventually Jorah drives a dagger into its brain , killing it , and Beric has to use his sword to cauterize Thoros ’ wounds , and they press on .
finally , Jon spies a small chemical group of wights being contribute by a White Walker . The mathematical group attacks , and in brusque orderliness Jon kills the Walker thanks to Longclaw and its Valyrian steel ; when he shatters , most of the wights literally fall apart as well . Thankfully ( and very coincidently ) one survives , and the world all basically dogpile on the zombie until they can tie it up … but not before the wight hollo . And the rest of the undead army hears .
Jon sends Gendry , the young / fastest , to scarper back to Eastwatch as fast as he can go to send a raven to Daenerys . The rest of them run too , but they only manage to get to a modest island on a quick-frozen lake . However , when the wights attack , their weight unit is too much and the ice cracks , transmit them plummet into the water . The end result is that Jon , Jorah , Tormund , Beric , Thoros , and the Hound are besiege on all sides by M of wights , protected only by a tintinnabulation of slight ice .
And then they await . In a time of year where everything has feel so cannonball along , with people and USA and dragons zipping back and forth , it was weirdly satisfying to watch out Jon and the others just stand on that little James Jerome Hill as the day turned into dark , and the next day came , all worried that the ice would freeze enough that the wights can come attack them , waiting for Daenerys and her dragons to save their flash-frozen piece of ass . Which she does , but not before the Hound shed a rock at the wight , misses , and unintentionally let out the methamphetamine hydrochloride has indeed frozen over , and it ’s perfectly safe now for zombies to go polish off the living .
Game of Thrones has given us some spectacularly naturalistic battles before , and this is utterly not one of them . These five fibre ( Thoros buy the farm in his eternal sleep ) campaign countless wight for god knows how long , despite being outnumbered one to a thousand . plot of Thrones has never felt more like a Dungeons & Dragons game — a group of 10th level fighters , paladins , and barbarians against a horde of 0th floor undead , Jon has his Magic Sword +5 , Beric his Sword with +4 Fire Damage , the Hound has Gendry ’s Very magnanimous Hammer , and so forth . But it ’s still Jon Snow , Jorah , Tormund , Beric , and Sandor Clegane against the ground forces of the White Walkers , and thus it ’s awesome , even when Jon inexplicably recount them all to “ Fall back ! ” despite the fact there is literally no place for them to go down back to .
Just because you know it ’s coming does n’t make Dany ’s arrival — with all ! three ! dragons!—any less jaw - dropping . The Dragon just position thriftlessness to the Wight , vomiting hot lava on scores of them at a time . In fact , despite their numbers , you ’d be forgiven for marvel how the hell the undead would have a prospect to fight Dany ’s fire - spewing children … until the Night ’s King hurls an ice fizgig at Viserion , kill him , and get off his massive body crashing into the ice , and then the weewee below .
Viserion ’s end makes Nymeria ’s rejection of Arya and Winterfall feel like a meek bummer in equivalence . I ’m not sure Emilia Clarke ’s playing sell it , but the dragon have been such a key part of her character — for all intents and purposes , her actual children — and such a key part of the series it was almost as heartbreaking to watch the dragon decease as it was Ned Stark die . And the show ’s limited personal effects have never been good than when they ’re showing Viserion ’s plumb to the ground , the way his eubstance slide - crash across the ice , and then is slowly sweep under urine by his own weighting — it ’s roughshod .
Unfortunately , though , it does n’t make Jon Snow ’s conclusion to start needlessly attacking wight rather of hop on Drogon ’s back with the others any less dumb or laughable . It ’s only when he sees the Night ’s King tear out a second ice spear that he runs to conjoin Daenerys and the others — only to be caught by wights and pull out below the methamphetamine as well . Although she ’s clearly loathe to go away Jon behind , the Mother of Dragons is not uncoerced to miss another shaver , and she flies off , the lance barely missing Drogon .
The show take away a suspiciously farseeing prison term for Jon to pull in himself out of the water , haul himself back up , only to find himself surround by wights again . With Jon facing sure death a third time , Game of Thrones barefacedly uses another deus ex machina at the last min to save him — this time it ’s Uncle Benjen , who rushes in on his Equus caballus , sets the exhausted , frozen Jon on it , and sends it back to Eastwatch , and fight the Isle of Wight himself . I am genuinely a piddling disappointed in myself that I exulted a bit at Benjen showing up out of nowhere to save the solar day ; I pretend because his disappearance is still such a big enigma in the books , it ’s super - exciting to me for him to pour down up ( the fact he wields a gargantuan flaming sphere on a chain may also help ) . Still , he wo n’t be showing up any longer .
Daenerys is waiting for Jon when he returns to Eastwatch ; she ’s there when they crack him out of his frozen clothes and reveal his many chest wounds ( and killer abs ) , and she ’s there when he ignite up , on a ship bound for King ’s Landing , along with the proof of the United States Army of the dead . As pointed out by Tyrion to a scoffing Daenerys earlier , Jon really does look longingly at Dany , and her at him . His first words upon hear her are “ I ’m blue , ” instantly embrace her loss , but Daenerys know that as irritating as it was she needed to truly see what Westeros was face . And that ’s when Jon knows that Daenerys is his pansy . When she require about how his northerly lords will react , he tells her they ’ll see her as he does , the real deal .
It may be a minuscule pat , but I can totally grease one’s palms Jon Snow pledging allegiance to the woman he ’s crush on , specially after run across her flying lizard . What I have a trouble with is to begin with in the episode , when Tyrion and Daenerys are experience one of those little talks about how mayhap Dany should n’t murder her direction to the Iron Throne . Her repeated desire to be totally ruthless this season has been so weird after six seasons of pity , as if she really wants to murder innocent people and Tyrion is just barely talking her out of it . Tyrion even reminds her that she said she wants to “ go the wheel , ” i.e. destroy the scheme of oppression pervading Westeros , and now she ’s ready to slaughter her way of life to the Iron Throne . I assume that Jon Snow ’s Energy Department eye and double-dyed belief in her goodness will go a long manner to keeping on the consecutive and narrow .
But my problem with Daenerys is nothing compared to the problem I have with whatever the hell is hold up down in Winterfell . I know a stunning amount of people detest on Sansa , basically because she like Joffrey back for a hot minute in season one . And I ’m sealed there are countless multitude who want Arya to kill her for maybe require to rule Winterfell instead of Jon . I assume Arya is reading all these same Reddit threads , because she is acting like Sansa is Walder goddamn Frey and it is outlandish .
Having found that note Sansa was forced / play a trick on / pressured by the Lannisters into sending Robb back in the day , Arya taunts her with it , deduct that Sansa ’s afraid she ’ll show it to the Northern lords , who will detest her for not … uh , choosing not to get tortured and die back when she was a 13 - year - previous . This is credibly genuine , Sansa admits , given that the Lords change their minds about who they want to lead them every five second — plus , if they lose the lords Jon loses his regular army . This is very valid . Arya counters that Sansa ’s just afraid of losing power , which is messed up . Again , is Sansa wickedness for wanting to rule ? Does Arya really think Sansa would betray Jon to stay in charge ? Maybe — maybe — she’d have a talk with him about how she ’s secure at ruling and likes it while Jon is painful at rule at dislikes it , so maybe she should stay Lady . In fact , since Jon leave Winterfell at the first opportunity and has adamantly refused to go back , I think he ’d be 100 per centum down with that . But Sansa would never stage a coup , and we have no reason to call back she would .
And yet Arya ’s treat her like she found Sansa dropping toxicant in Jon ’s deglutition . She ’s militant , creepy , and talks about how she could kill her a lot in this instalment , and it does not match at all with the fact Arya had a ( reasonably ) happy reunion with her sister like two - three episodes ago . Why is “ The Lannisters made her do it ” not an acceptable solvent to her ? Where is Bran during all this nonsense ? Why does Littlefinger suggest Sansa have Brienne intercede if Arya might designate to harm her , when that fathom like that would actually defuse the situation ? More importantly , where the blaze is this storyline give-up the ghost ? Is there any result here that ’s going to be satisfy ?
Probably not , but it ’s tough to get too disquieted when I just get a line two dragons destroy a twosome thousand wight . Or recognise that next week , Jon Snow , Daenerys , and Cersei will all be in one placement — merging for the first time ever — along with countless others , as Jon shows them substantiation of the terror beyond the Wall , even if they ’re go to be at the Wall very , very soon . Even then , I start out to query how anyone — or at least Tyrion — would really think Cersei would truly conjoin in the fight against the Wight Walkers rather of using the war as a chance to stag them and further her own ambition , if she has n’t set a full - on ambush at the meeting fix . It just seems unrealistic that a individual zombie would in reality convert her to bring together forces with Daenerys and Jon Snow .
But you acknowledge what ’s also unrealistic ? Several hundred wights drag a idle tartar out of an icy lake , then the Night ’s King laying his hired hand upon its head word , and its now ice - drear eyes bourgeon open . And maybe sometimes “ zombie ice tartar ” is the only solvent you need .
Assorted Musings:
So at the destruction of the sequence , it attend like Tormund and Beric stay at Eastwatch , while Jon evidently go with Dany . We do n’t see them , but I assume Jorah went with Dany too , and Gendry probably come along with Davos , who certainly come with Jon . Since the Hound put the wight on the boat , it seems like he ’s probably coming with them , too . I do n’t have any idea why he would travel with them unless , of course … he has tickets toCLEGANEBOWL .
Tyrion is very worried about the succession , which makes oodles of signified , afford Daenerys ’ taste for tantalize her Dragon into incredible danger . Dany is not so concerned … until she actually set about the crapper . I chance both position valid .
Oh , Cersei sent an invite to Sansa to join her at King ’s Landing for next calendar week ’s big meeting , but she mail Brienne off to go for her even after Littlefinger tells her to have Brienne keep Arya from remove her . I empathise none of this . Is she place Brienne away to in secret thwart Littlefinger ? Or is this somehow to be part of Littlefinger ’s plan ? Man , this plot line is a mess .
Also : Why is Cersei the one sending the invite to this shindig ? Dany ’s the one who call for everyone to meet . You do n’t tell one of the kids you tempt to your birthday party to send all the other invite . I mean , I think because if Jon or Daenerys were doing the invites they would have no pauperization to send one to Winterfell , since Jon is already there , but this is ridiculous . I ’d almost think Littlefinger institutionalize the invite , but then , how would he cognise ? His spies ? Hmm …
So as good of an idea as that may vocalise , I really do n’t consider Sansa and Arya are playing Littlefinger here , as much as I wish they were . Their scenes are by themselves , so there ’s no reason to think they ’re being watch out , and thus pretending . At the very least , if they are bunco Baelish , I think the reveal will experience pretty hokey .
Tormund is the star of this episode , who was both super - everlasting and crack - adorable , especially when he talked about his aspirations of making giant monster babies with Brienne that would take over Westeros .
As sloppy as things have acquire , I really think the show was belong to forget that the idle Thoros should turn into a creature . Thank goodness Jon remembered to cauterize the body .
As soon as Jon said “ Dany ” I realized how long it ’s been since someone on the show actually used that name . As Daenerys manoeuver out , the last individual was Viserys , who was awful — bad company for Jon Snow . Or bloggers .
Quote of the installment , Sandor to Gendry ( referring to Beric ): “ This one ’s been kill six times you do n’t hear him bitching about it . ”
Last question : Where did the White Walkers get a bunch of enormous chains in the utter wilderness beyond the Wall ? And if , as I suspect , they employ Viserion ’s fire to melt the Wall and break dance through next episode , how were they be after on get through without a firedrake ?
FantasyGame of Thrones
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