Jon Snow and his squad are marching beyond the Wall and have yet to encounter a single wight. Gendry is taken aback by the cold. He’s never been this north before! Tormund and Jon spend this time catching up. Tormund has heard that Jon is refusing to bend the knee to Daenerys and brings up Mance Rayder. He never bent the knee for anyone. “How many people had to die for his pride?” Tormund asks. The guy’s got a point. Gendry still has some major bad blood towards Beric and Thoros for selling him to Melisandre, but The Hound is tired of hearing him complain about it. Gendry is alive and that’s all that matters. Let bygones be bygones, Gendry!
Jon Snow and Jorah have a nice chat about Jorah’s father, Jeor. Jon Snow admits he wasn’t at Craster’s Keep when Jeor was killed by his own men, but he promises Jorah that Jeor’s death was avenged. “I hate that he died that way,” Jon says. Jon knows from experience what it’s like to be killed by your own men. Jorah and Jon start talking about Ned, who wanted to have Jorah killed once upon a time. Jon says he’s glad Ned never caught Jorah. Jon Snow gives Jorah back Longclaw, the ancestral sword of House Mormont. Jeor gave it to Jon. Jorah doesn’t think he’s worthy of Longclaw. He refuses to take the sword and gives it back to Jon.
Over at Winterfell, Arya looks back and remembers how Ned used to watch her teach herself how to shoot arrows, even though that was a boy’s sport “I was doing what I was meant to be doing and he knew it,” Arya tells Sansa. Ned never judged Arya for being different. He accepted her for who she was. Arya throws the shade and brings up the letter Sansa wrote to Robb. She reads the letter out loud to her sister. Sansa tries to explain that she was forced to write the letter, but Arya doesn’t buy her excuses. “I would have let them kill me before I betrayed my family,” Arya snaps at her sister. Raise your hand if you’re officially annoyed with Arya.
Sansa stresses that she believed writing that letter was the only way to help their father. Ayra calls Sansa stupid for believing anything Cersei said. She confesses she was in the crowd when their father was executed. Sansa asks Arya why she didn’t fight for their father and go after Joffrey that day. “You should be on your knees thanking me,” Sansa says to Arya, knocking her little sister down a few notches. “We’re standing in Winterfell again because of me. You didn’t win it back. Jon didn’t win it back. He lost the Battle of the Bastards. The Knights of the Vale won the battle and rode north for me while you were off where? Traveling the world?”
Arya calmly replies that she was off training and doesn’t buy Sansa’s suffering.”You never would have survived what I survived,” Sansa says. She’s right. Arya would have snapped and gotten herself killed. Sansa wants to stop the fighting. She knows this is exactly what Cersei wants. Arya threatens Sansa with the letter. She knows that if their supporters found out about that letter, the north will crumble.
Littlefinger plays dumb while Sansa freaks out over how Arya got the letter. Sansa has been ruling over Winterfell in Jon’s absence, but all it takes is one wrong move and their 20,000 men will go home. That letter going public could ruin everything for Jon. Littlefinger continues to egg on Sansa in his own manipulative way. Sansa has no idea what Arya is capable of now. Littlefinger wonders if Brienne could help. Brienne is sworn to protect both Sansa and Arya, so if one of them is planning to harm the other, Brienne will have to get involved. What the heck is Littlefinger planning? Sounds like he wants both Brienne AND Arya dead.
‘Death Is The Enemy’
Tormund attempts to strike up a friendship with The Hound on their journey, but The Hound just thinks Tormund is trying to make a pass at him. Tormund assures The Hound that he’s only got love for one person in his life. “I have a beauty waiting for me back at Winterfell,” Tormund tells The Hound, talking about Brienne. “I want to make babies with her,” Tormund reveals. He thinks their kids would “conquer the world.” He’s probably right. Once The Hound figures out Tormund is talking about Brienne, he’s noticeably a little spooked.
Beric notes that Jon Snow doesn’t look much like Ned. Well, of course he doesn’t! He’s not Ned’s son. Beric also brings up that Melisandre brought Jon back to life. Jon tells Beric that the Lord of Light never spoke to him. Beric notes the Lord of Light must want Jon alive for a reason. While no one truly understands what the Lord of Light wants, Beric knows what he’s fighting for: life, plain and simple. “Death is the enemy,” Beric says. “The first enemy and the last.” Death always wins in the end, but they still have to fight it. The Hound realizes they’re getting closer to the wights. He spots the mountain shaped like an arrowhead that he saw in the fire.
While Jon Snow and his squad are off freezing their butts off and trying to catch a wight, Daenerys is back at Dragonstone feeling restless. Everyone she’s ever cared about has been a hero — Drogo, Jorah, Daario and now Jon Snow. She’s glad Tyrion’s not a hero. Tyrion reminds her that all these men she’s talking about fell in love with her. Daenerys tries to deny that Jon Snow’s in love with her. “Oh, my mistake. I suppose he stares at you longingly because he’s hopeful for a successful military alliance,” Tyrion quips. Tyrion just hit Daenerys with a major truth bomb.
“He’s too little for me,” Daenerys snaps back, insulting Tyrion in the process. Daenerys quickly tries to make up for her fumble by telling Tyrion that he is brave in his own way. They decide to change subjects and talk about meeting with Cersei. If they go to King’s Landing, they’re bringing two armies and all three dragons. One wrong move and King’s Landing burns to the ground.
Daenerys wonders if they’re going to be setting any traps for Cersei. Tyrion doesn’t want to create this new world Dany is envisioning using deceit and mass murder. That is Cersei’s M.O. Fear is all Cersei has. At the end of the day, her power is weak because her people don’t truly believe in her. They just don’t want to die. Tyrion aspires for Daenerys to be a more noble leader than that. Both Tyrion and Jaime are trying to prevent Daenerys and Cersei from going at each other’s throats and killing everyone else in the process. Tyrion knows that Daenerys can be impulsive and lose her temper.
Daenerys accuses Tyrion of siding with his family. He stresses he’s only looking at the optics from his family’s side to anticipate their actions and respond effectively. He believes in Daenerys, but this world she wants to build isn’t going to happen immediately. Tyrion wants to make sure Daenerys’s vision for her new world lasts long after she’s gone. If what she says about not being able to have children is true, then she’ll have to choose a successor. Tyrion is planning for the long term, while Daenerys is looking at everything through a short term lens. She refuses to think about a successor until she gets the Iron Throne. Is the tension between these two about to combust or what?
Run, Gendry, Run
The crew finds themselves in the middle of a blizzard. One of the men who came along to fight is eaten by a polar bear! Everyone’s swords are up now. The polar bear comes back for more and is lit on fire by Beric. The monster still manages to attack Thoros, with The Hound just standing there terrified of the fire. Thankfully, Thoros survives. Jon and Tormund spot a White Walker leading a pack of wights in the distance. They decide to attack. Jon takes out the White Walker, causing multiple wights to die immediately. The crew grabs one of the wights to take back with them to Eastwatch. Jon knows that the fight is not over. He spots an army of wights from afar.
Jon Snow sends Gendry back to Eastwatch so a raven can be sent to Daenerys. The rest of the squad runs, and they find themselves in the middle of a frozen lake. Hundreds of wights descend upon them. Jon, Jorah, Beric, Thoros, Tormund, and The Hound are completely surrounded. They’re all just standing there waiting for someone to make a move.
Gendry makes it back to Eastwatch. Thoros freezes to death in the night, and Beric has to burn his body. No more coming back for Beric if he dies again! “Daenerys is our only chance,” Jon tells the others. But will the raven get to her in time? The Night King is off in the distance just waiting to strike.
Daenerys Is A Badass — Again
Sansa receives an invitation to King’s Landing and wants Brienne to go in her place. Brienne is hesitant about leaving Sansa with Littlefinger. She hints to Sansa that Littlefinger may be conspiring behind her back at Winterfell. Sansa tries to act like she doesn’t care about what Brienne is saying, but she secretly has a bad feeling about Littlefinger.
Daenerys receives the raven from Eastwatch and is determined to go help Jon, Jorah, and the others. Tyrion begs her not to go. If she dies, they’re all doomed. Daenerys refuses to just sit and do nothing in Dragonstone while brave men die. She boards Drogon and takes Viserion and Rhaegal with her.
Because The Hound is impatient and bored, he begins to taunt the wights by throwing a rock their way. All of the wights start walking towards the crew. The fighting begins. Jon and crew get attacked from all sides. Tormund is about to be killed when The Hound saves him. Just when Jon thinks they’re all about to meet their end, Daenerys arrives with her dragons!
Daenerys reaches out for Jon Snow’s hand to help him board Drogon, but he stops himself. He keeps on fighting off wights while the others get to safety. The Night King walks through the fire and throws an ice spear at Viserion. The bleeding dragon falls into the frozen sea. RIP, Viserion. Daenerys is forced to watch one of her children die right before her eyes. Jon Snow stares into the eyes of the Night King, who is ready to go after another dragon. Jon screams for Daenerys to go. Everyone is on board but him. Before he can say anything else, he’s pulled into the freezing water.
Jon Snow pulls himself out of the icy water. If he’s going to die, he’s going to go down fighting. Out of nowhere, BENJEN SHOWS UP. He puts an injured Jon on his horse back to Eastwatch. Benjen awaits to get swarmed by wights and dies valiantly. There goes another Stark…
Daenerys is looking beyond the Wall and waiting for Jon to appear. She doesn’t want to leave Eastwatch without him. Just when she’s about to give up, Jorah spots him in the distance.
The Ice Dragon Rises
Sansa finds Arya’s bag of faces. Sansa is now legitimately terrified of Arya, who is acting very strangely. She tells Sansa about playing the game of faces, but Sansa just keeps on pressing Arya for answers. “You want to do the asking? Are you sure? The game of faces didn’t turn out so well for the last person who asked me questions,” Arya seethes. She tells Sansa that she always wanted to be someone other than herself growing up. “With the faces, I can choose,” Arya continues. “I can become someone else. Speak in their voice. Live in their skin. I could even become you.” She grabs Littlefinger’s blade. “I wonder what it would feel like to wear those pretty dresses. To be the Lady of Winterfell. All I’d need to find out is your face,” she tells Sansa, before handing the blade to her sister and walking out of the room.
On a boat back to Dragonstone, Jon wakes up with Daenerys by his side. There is just so much emotion in their eyes when they look at each other. Can they just tell each other how they feel already? It’s more than obvious that they care about each other deeply. Jon apologizes for what happened to Viserion and grabs Daenerys’s hand. “I wish I could take it back. I wish we’d never gone,” he says. Despite her heartbreak, Daenerys doesn’t think Jon made the wrong decision. She needed to see the wights.
“The dragons are my children. They’re the only children I’ll ever have. Do you understand?” a teary Daenerys says. “We are going to destroy the Night King and his army, and we’ll do it together.” Wait, did she just hit at marriage between her and Jon? Jon thanks Daenerys and calls her Dany. The last person to call her Dany was Viserys, and he wasn’t exactly the best guy. “How about my queen?” Jon says to her. He wishes he could bend the knee, but he’s injured. Daenerys is shocked at Jon’s decision, and she’s worried his people won’t support her. “They’ll all come to see you for what you are,” he assures Daenerys. They hold hands again and don’t want to let go. Jonerys is so real!
Jon and Daenerys may be safe from the Night King for now, but NK has big plans for them. The wights pull a very dead Viserion from the water. The Night King touches the dragon and its eyes go blue. Viserion rises again as an ICE DRAGON!
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of tonight’s Game of Thrones? Let us know!