That Was Cold

"Beyond The Wall," was a very enjoyable episode of Game Of Thrones, though some of the plot points may not satisfy fans.

Of course, it starts out with the cockamamie plot carryover from last week.  A group of guys are going beyond the Wall to capture a wight so they can bring it back to convince everyone in King's Landing that the war with the Night King is what counts.  This is too dangerous a task for something that barely seems worth it.

But off they go. And we start with Jon, Jorah, Tormund, the Hound, Gendry, Thoros and Beric on their journey. (As always, for no good reason, they're men without hats.)  I thought it might be a bit dull--the action beyond the Wall has never been my favorite stuff (I prefer all the smart talk down south), but the dialogue was tremendously entertaining, often quite funny.  It helped that we had different combinations of people who had never spoken to each other before.

Now we cut to Winterfell, where Arya confronts Sansa about the message she sent asking her family to bend the knee to Joffrey.  This is another tricky plot issue.  It's necessary for Arya and Sansa to have problems, I guess, but do we really buy this? They haven 't seen each other for years, and now they're at each others' throats.  However, the writing is well done and the two make the best arguments they can to keep the fight going.  Sansa was a frightened young girl, but Arya doesn't think she'd betray her family under any circumstance (and, she asks, would Lyanna Mormont?).  And Sansa can't shake it off--if the message gets out, it could hurt her standing with the Northern families, whose loyalty is already shaky. (And she so wants to be queen.) In any case, it looks like Littlefinger's plan to split them apart is working.

At Dragonstone, Dany and Tyrion have a nice talk. At first, she seems to be complimenting him, even apologizing when she tangentially notes he's short. (That may be why she likes him.  He's the only one in Westeros she can look down on.)  But when he starts questioning how she acts--including his recent burning of the Tarlys--she turns on him, questioning his loyalty and ability.  Is the show setting her up as a potential tyrant.  Or even a termagant?

Beyond the Wall, the doughty band run into a giant zombie bear. (I'm not entirely clear on how it works, but I guess every living thing that dies now becomes part of the army of the dead?  Or just those touched by someone who can turn them?)  The blizzard is so thick you can't really tell who's fighting.  A few seem to be taken out, but if so I assume they're red shirts.

We also get to see the Brotherhood guys turn on their fire swords. (Let's call them what they really are--lightsabers.)  Cool.  Thoros gets into the fight and is bit by the bear.  Is he a goner?

Back at Winterfell, Littlefinger talks to Sansa, who now seems willing to listen (though it's a pretty fast turnaround for her).  He creates doubt in her mind about Arya and Brienne and Jon and whomever.  I'm not clear, actually, on what his plan is, but we know he's got something up his sleeve.  Just where does he want things to end up?

Now we're back in the North.  The North North.  Thoros is still around, but he's been better.  They run into a pack of wights--lucky it's a small group, and not thousands.  So here's where they'll pick up one of them in their pointless plan.  They attack, and when Jon swings his Valyrian sword at one of them, the whole gang (except one lucky guy) fall to pieces.  I thought they were zombies, but isn't this what vampires do?

So they pack up the one living-dead wight, ready to take him back.  But no mission is that easy.  Now they realize those thousands they thought they avoided are coming.  So they have Gendry run back to send a raven to Daenerys.

Let me get this straight.  They're worried about imminent death, and their plan is to have a guy run back to the Wall and tell the maester to send a message to Dany explaining that they've captured a wight but are surrounded by the dead army?  Then, after the raven gets there, Dany will quickly read it and...what?  Come save them?  Even assuming she won't be too late by several days, the whole point of their mission is to pick up a wight to prove to her she should help them.  Now a raven message will convince her to put herself and her dragons in danger to save them?

They're soon on a rock, surrounded by thousands of wights, who for some reason hold off. (Don't tell me the ice broke so there's water in some places--why would that stop them?  Last time we saw them they were jumping off cliffs to get into the fight).  The wight the good guys have got tied up is snarling like it's an episode of The Walking Dead. Thoros finally dies, so that's a major death.  No more priest around to save Beric.

At Wintefell, Sansa gets a message to attend the big powwow at King's Landing.  She decides to send Brienne instead.  Brienne protests, not for her safety, but Sansa's.  The Lady can't trust Littlefinger, and needs someone to look out for her.  I don't get at all what Sansa is doing.  Not personally going to King's Landing I understand, but why is she worried about Brienne? Even if Sansa wants to deal with Arya in some way, how is Brienne--sworn to protect them both, but easy to order around--a hindrance? (Though it'll be nice too see a reunion of Brienne and Jaime.)

At Dragonstone, Dany, against Tyrion's advice, is flying away.  At first I thought she was going to the conference, but no, she's going beyond the Wall. (Maybe she got a taste for battle after destroying the Lannister forces.)

Speaking of beyond the Wall, the group is still surrounded, with the Night King watching. (Is this his entire army, or just a branch where he happened to be?)  The guys throw some rocks at the zombies.  This is enough to finally get them to attack. It must be no fun the hang out with Jon, since he's always getting involved in battles that seem hopeless.

The small band falls back (to where?) and fights as well as they can, but they're overwhelmed.  For a while it looks like Tormund is a goner, but they pull him back. (He earlier announced Brienne was his lady love, so he could die now if they choose.) I thought one of the guys died, but by the end I wasn't sure.

Then, sure enough, comes Dany and her dragons. She wipes out most of the wights pretty easily.  She calls on the guys to climb aboard, though Jon seems too busy fighting.  (Or is he just afraid of appearing like a wimp.) Now the Night King, quite calmly, throws a spear at one of the secondary dragons and brings him down.  It's that simple?  I know he's the Night King, but I didn't know he was ready for dragons.  I should add a dragon death is a big deal--certainly bigger than, say, the death of Thoros.  In fact, very few characters rate as high as a dragon.

Most of the band climb on Drogon (is it that easy to fly on a dragon--certainly no one has any experience flying on a dragon, or flying at all) and as the Night King seems to be winding up, Jon tells Dany to go without him.  They fly away and the spear narrowly misses them.  Dany can see Jon dragged into the frozen water by some wights.

Unlike a couple weeks ago, they're not going to leave us hanging.  Jon gets out of the water, but is still surrounded by thousands of zombies.  Then Uncle Benjen, whom he hasn't seen since the start of the show, comes riding in, warding off the wights and giving Jon his horse to ride to the gate.  Benjen has saved the day like this before, but as Jon rides away, it looks like it was Benjen's last round-up.

Back on the safe side of the Wall, the Hound carries the wight back to their ship and says goodbye to Tormund and Beric.  So let me get this straight.  After Dany flies over the wall, seeing the dead army and fighting them, there'll still going through with their plan to bring back one measly zombie.  Who will this impress?  Certainly Dany, with her armies and dragons, has seen all she needs to see.

Meanwhile, Dany waits at the Wall. I thought she was mourning her dragon, but actually she's hoping against hope Jon will return.  The two seem pretty lovey-dovey--will that work, now that we know they're related?

Sure enough, Jon returns, and Davos (who stayed back--smart man) helps Jon get on the ship, and Dany watches over him. She also sees he did get stabbed in the heart.

At Winterfell, Sansa snoops around in Arya's room.  (For this she sent away Brienne?  Why not tell Brienne to go fight with Arya in the courtyard to get them both out of the way?)  She's presumably looking for the message, so she can burn it or something. Instead, she finds...faces. Wasn't expecting that. Arya has been watching and the two exchange some bitter words.  Arya picks up her dagger and explains she could take Sansa's face and live her life if she chose.  No one could possibly think Arya is so far gone she'd do that, and sure enough, she offers Sansa the hilt and then walks out.

Jon wakes up on the ship and sees Dany. Not a bad face to see. (He even calls her "Dany," which no one does any more except people like me who get tired of spelling Daenerys.) He apologizes to her for what happened.  She explains her dragons are like her children, but no need to apologize.  She had to see what was going on and now pledges to fight with him to destroy this army.  And he bends the knee.  Could have saved a lot of trouble if he'd done that earlier, perhaps.

One final scene.  The army of the dead pull the dragon left behind out of the freezing water.  The Night King comes over and wakes him up.  So now the Night King has his own zombie dragon.  Didn't quite see that coming, but it sure changes the equations. Was that the plan all along?

Hard to believe, but only one more episode left this season. It went way too fast.