The White Walkers have arrived at Winterfell to cause carnage, and the bloodshed causes a change of plans that sees the characters struggling to survive.
A terrified Sam receives Dragonglass daggers before heading to Winterfell's courtyard. A grim setting awaits as people rush around dragonglass traps to get into position.
Tyrion observes Theon wheeling Bran to the Weirwood, while on the wall Davos and the Stark sisters look at the frozen field and Jon and Daenerys fly the dragons. Outside the wall, the enormous Unsullied army stands behind the catapults and trebuchets, which are stationed behind the fearsome Dothraki. Everyone files into position, including the still-nervous Sam, though they see nothing in the dark distance, and Jon joins a silent Dany atop a hill. The only sounds in the eerie night are wind, horses, and crackling fire, and Davos is surprised to see Lady Melisandre ride from the woods toward Jorah. She asks the knight if he speaks Dothraki, then tells him to have his puzzled men raise their swords. Confused, he complies, and she says a prayer in High Valyrian while grasping one rider's arakh, causing every Dothraki sword to spout fire. With everyone amazed at the bright display, Melisandra passes the Unsullied, giving Grey Worm the typical "Valar Morghulis" interaction, and Davos has the gates opened. She rides in as the gate's bar is removed, and Davos storms down to meet her. She calmly says there is no need to execute her, as she'll be dead before morning. Arya and Melisandre exchange a long, quite stare, but the Stark is pulled away when she hears the Dothraki begin their battle cries and ride into the distance. From above, Jon and Dany watch a sea of flames riding toward the trees as the Dothraki hoop and holler, joined by Ghost, and the Unsullied launch flaming boulders. We get a glimpse of the wight army, including an undead giant, and the Unsullied stop firing as the lights in the distance begin to quickly flicker out. Silence again pierces the night until the few remaining forces return, some on foot and some riderless horses, and Jorah shoots Tormund a grim look. Horrified, Dany decides she can't sit by despite Jon objecting, and takes off on Drogon, forcing Jon to follow on Rhaegal.
Everyone tenses as howling wind and snarling fill the void, and the true battle begins as the wight army slams into the Unsullied spearmen.
As everyone struggles with the undead forces, Dany and Jon provide air support by scorching parts of the battlefield, to everyone's amazement. Jon spots the White Walker generals and goes for an attack, but a sudden wall of ice and wind forced Rhaegal away and begins flooding the warzone. Arya orders Sansa to get to the crypts, providing a dragonglass dagger and giving her Jon's classic advice to "stick 'em with the pointy end." The storm washes over everyone, even those at the Weirwood, and everyone struggles to fight blind as wights come at them from all sides. Edd saves Sam from one, only to go down himself when another stabs him as he helps his dazed friend, who runs in fear. Down in the crypts, everyone looks at Sansa seemingly wanting words of comfort as she enters, but she has none to give. Outside, the storm is so thick Jon and Dany run into each other, but they steady themselves as the main front forces retreat through the gate. Having lost sight of Dany, Jon lands on the wall beside the Weirwood, and the screaming continues as people retreat and the wights reach the defenses. Arya, sniping from above, saves the Hound with a flaming arrow, and with the first line of Unsullied forced to retreat, Grey Worm gives the word to light the trench. Davos waves a pair of torches as Grey Worm destroys their trench bridge, but the Onion Knight realizes Daenerys can't see their signal through the storm. The archers and some foot soldiers fail to light the trench, but a group of Unsullied lead Melisandre to the spiked area, and she begins another prayer. With the soldiers defending her, Melisandre is eventually able to light the entire trench, which goes up just as the wights reach it and lights the battlefield. Horrified at the burning sight, the Hound retreats.
Down in the crypts, Varys begins to lose hope, and though Tyrion feels they could see something the others missed, like at Blackwater, Sansa says he'd die.
He reminds her how hard he works to not die, but she says they're down there because they can't help, and admitting so is the most heroic thing they can do. They joke about their past marriage, and Sansa claims it couldn't work between them because his divided loyalties to her and Daenerys would become a problem. Missandei steps in to remind them that without the "dragon queen," there'd be no problem because they'd all be dead already. At the Weirwood, Theon realizes the trench has been lit and tries to apologize to Bran, who stops him like he did Jaime to say what he did brought him here, home. Bran then wargs into a congress of ravens and flies to the Night King, who is riding Viserion. The wights, trapped at the trench, suddenly start walking into the flames, and Davos, realizing they're creating paths out of their bodies, calls for soldiers. Though arrows fly, the wights make it to the walls, and Jon spies the Night King above and gives chase. The undead begin climbing the walls, occasionally clambering over each other, soon reaching the top as the living struggle to knock them back. Continuing their carnage, the wights begin to overpower the living and make it to the courtyard where the Hound is frozen in fear. Dondarrion calls out to him while above, Arya massacres her enemies with her dragonglass spear, which can split into two weapons. Things get bleaker, however, as the wight giant busts through the gate and knocks Lyanna Mormont aside, and after tumbling over a group in a stairwell, Arya sustains a nasty blow to the head that disorientates her. Below, Clegane finally snaps at Dondarrion they can't beat death, but Dondarrion gets him back in the fight by pointing out Arya, who is still going and sneaks inside. Lyanna, though heavily injured rushes the giant with a battle cry. It easily lifts and begins crushing her, but as her last action she kills it by stabbing it in the eye.
Outside, Jon and Dany fly above the storm to clearer skies, but the Night King soon rockets after Dany, launching a stream of Viserion's blue flames. He disappears moments later, and Jon and Dany divebomb back to Winterfell.
In the castle, Arya finds a dragonglass blade and creeps to the library. At first relieved to find it empty, she soon finds herself hiding as wights fill and search the room. She sneaks from shelf to shelf as they get close to her, and eventually finds herself safe under a table, but the blood dripping from her forehead alerts a nearby wight. Retreating to more bookshelves, Arya distracts them by tossing a book, and as she escapes, she stabs a straggler just in time to stop it from notifying the others. She finds herself safe once outside, but is soon forced to sprint down the dark castle halls after wights nearby bust down a door and attract the ones from the library. A sudden crash outside the crypts breaks the gloomy silence, and the people are left listening helplessly as men outside beg them to open the door while wights slaughter them, and the silence returns, eerier than ever. Dondarrion and Clegane creep through the halls and see Arya crash through a door. As a wight is overpowering the girl, Dondarrion hurls his flaming sword to save her. Though he and Clegane manage to lead Arya to a large room, the wights stab him repeatedly on the way, and he succumbs to his injuries after dragging himself in. To Arya's surprise, Melisandre is there, and they talk about her predictions from their last encounter. Arya mentions the many eyes she's supposed to shut, and Melisandre seems emphasize how some will be blue. They all back away from the door, and Melisandre brings up the phrase for what we say to the god of death. Arya, having a realization, turns and runs out of the room. Above everyone, Jon and Dany grapple with the Night King, but as they take a fall and the wights, now reinvigorated with fresh corpses, invade the Godswood, things are looking bleak for the folks at Winterfell.
Weeks ago, the writers at Game of Thrones revealed there would be an enormous, episode-spanning battle this season, and it came sooner that I'd expected.
Considering what a big deal the White Walkers, and especially the Night King, are, I'd thought their battle would come later as a way to finish the series. Instead, it seems we'll be seeing the North face Cersei as the series closes out, and this doesn't really bother me. What I will say bothers me is how little we really see of the White Walkers this episode, as even now they're just sitting on the sidelines. We've seen a Walker easily toss around a Thenn and Jon without breaking a sweat, only dying when Jon catches it off-guard with Longclaw. The episode this happens, Hardhome, has one of my favorite scenes in the whole series, as it's just terrifying how helpless all the characters are. Especially chilling is a moment after the massacre, where the Night King raises all the Freefolk who just died as he stares down Jon. All these seasons have been building the White Walkers up as a tremendous force, but the majority of the fighting here involves wights, and even the Night King, the only one doing battle, is really having Viserion fight. Of the fighting that did occur, I loved the flaming charge at the start, despite it being a poor tactical move, and Arya's choreography was excellent. In a way I was glad she ended up injured this episode, as it led to the tense library scene and kept her from seeming invincible. Many complained there wasn't enough main-character death this time around, which I found odd since a few do die, but I do agree a few of the survivors were odd. Since her training, Arya has become a force to be reckoned with, a fact some seem to hate, but she sustains a head injury that essentially put her out of commissions. I don't exactly understand why so many can't stand that not everyone died during this battle. Though you should expect death from this show, plenty of characters have done and survived pretty intense things. Barristan Selmy famously saved the captive King Aerys II, in the process killing numerous men and taking an arrow to the chest. Why is it therefore so unbelievable that a group of skilled characters, watching out for each other despite the opposing numbers, could survive? The main characters who died this episode felt impactful to me, with everyone having gone down fighting for a just cause and going down fighting for others. Another area of controversy for this episode was about the lighting, with a large number of people complaining everything was too dark. I didn't get this feeling while I was watching, and in fact liked how dark things were because the unknown helped me feel like a character. In fact, the reason for having things dark and including the scenes inside the castle reminded me of Hardhome, which I loved for feeling horrifying. As opposed to the raging battlegrounds, inside the castle is quiet and cramped, and in particular, Arya is wounded and surrounded by enemies. Along with needing to be quiet, she would have to be able to spot any wandering wights in a darkened room, with the final one getting in her face before she kills it. Admittedly, there were some moments the screen seemed strange in dark areas, and the thing that made me realize how dark things were was this post. You'll notice I've marked each photo as "edited," because I realized all my screenshots were difficult to see, and I had to up the brightness and contrast on them. Particularly rough were the shot of Jon and Dany on the hill and Lyanna Mormont stabbing the giant's eye, with both losing some imagery to the darkness. I know and like to a degree that the lighting was intentional, but I can see how some would feel frustrated if they had a hard time understanding scenes. Despite wanting more from the Night King, the dragon scenes were brutal and impressive, as until now we haven't really seen dragons fighting. Rather than easily swooping in raining fire, the beasts are going at it literally tooth and nail, chomping at each others throats and clawing exposed areas. I also liked how characters were still struggling to even keep fighting, wondering if there was any hope to their cause. First comes Sam after he is knocked down and sees his friend die, then Grey Worm, who has to watch as his Unsullied brothers fall to the wights. Melisandre has been shaken with her faith since Stannis died, and when she lights the trenches she seems to have a hard time and her eyes are afraid. The biggest moment of doubt, however, comes from the Hound, who grows terrified after the trenches are lit and is certain they can't win. The one thing that keeps him going is Arya, whom he has developed a kind of bond with, showing a kind of self-sacrificial nature as he no longer cares about himself, but wants to keep her safe. It's telling for each of these characters that they keep going, as there seems to be no chance but they can't just sit back and die. Now as many have noted, our heroes didn't have the best strategy in this fight, with the Dothraki charging into darkness and even starting the fight outside the walls seeming strange to some. Really, I don't know what more could be expected from Jon Snow, though I'm surprised none of the others advised to change more of the plan. Of course Daenerys is really the one who changes the plan and sort of causes things, as in her anger at Jon, her inability to stand by draws the Night King and his storm. Jon is still partially to blame however, which didn't surprise me, considering that tactically we've seen he's not the best. Previously we've heard and seen planning from people like Tywin and Ramsay, the latter being able to goad Jon into a trap, and of course the tactical genius of Robb that surprised even Tywin (despite his ignorance leading to the Red Wedding). Jon is certainly a great fighter, holding his own against skilled fighters and White Walkers, but he's not the brightest torch in the castle. The White Walkers have devastated Winterfell and its forces, but there are still episodes left in this season, and there's no rest anytime soon for our heroes.
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