In the penultimate episode of season 7, Game of Thrones has managed to cram a whole lot into a single episode. Many viewers believe things have been rushed, and are upset by various plot holes. However, I think “Beyond the Wall” is my favourite episode yet.
The episode starts off beyond the wall with our rag-tag team of misfits out hunting for a white walker. Lots of banter is had. Gendry and the Brotherhood without Banners catch up, The Hound and Tormond talk about Brianne. Jon and Jorah have a heartfelt moment talking about Jorah’s dead dad and their family sword, which Jon gets to keep. It’s all very touching with a dash of humour.
Things go fairly well until they hit a blizzard, out of which a white walker bear pops out and kills some extra characters and mortally wounds Thoros. Which we should have expected because he had a great conversation with The Hound earlier. Why else would we be given a cool backstory to a character if they not going to get fatally mauled by a zombie bar later?
The team find some white walkers and manage to defeat the and tie one up. However, they’re unable to stop it from screaming murder and entire White Walker army shows up and surrounds them in a half frozen lake. Gendry manages to escape and runs a marathon back to Winterfell to send a raven to Daenerys informing her of what happens.
Thoros dies. The rest of the team slowly turn to icepops. The Hound wants to hit a walker with a rock and in doing so ruins everything because it shows the White Walkers that the lake is once again frozen enough to walk on and they all surge onto our heroes.
Winterfell scheming
Back in Winterfell Sansa and Arya meet and Arya confronts Sansa about her treacherous note. It seems trouble is brewing between the sisters, exactly what Littlefinger wants.
Sansa sends Brianne down south to Kingslanding which has confused a lot of people. It seems like a good move to make though, as Littlefinger’s cryptic talks about Brianne’s oath sounds like he wants to manipulate Brianne somehow. Well, how are you going to manipulate her if she’s in Kingslanding? Sansa is a schemer.
But Arya is too! Arya once again confronts Sansa, this time in her chambers. Sansa has just found Arya’s bag of faces and is understandably creeped out. Arya tells her about what she can do. She invites Sansa to play a game with her, one that involves lying.
Arya monologues for a while about how she could easily cut Sansa’s face and wear it and pretend to be her so she can see what it’s like to wear pretty dresses. It sounds very threatening, especially when she take’s out Littlefinger’s blade. She gives it to Sansa though and doesn’t cut off her face.
How is this scheming? Well, Arya probably knows that Littlefinger has spies everywhere and is watching everything that they do. She hints to Sansa that she’s lying when she invites her to play the lying game. When she talks about the fact she could be Sansa to see what it’s like to wear pretty dresses, it’s a big clue that it’s a lie. Sansa knows that Arya would never be interested in pretty dresses. Her giving Sansa the dagger is probably Arya’s way of telling her it was Littlefinger that produced the treacherous note.
The great rescue mission
Back beyond the wall, our team are dearly screwed. White Walkers coming from every side, they just can’t fight them off. There’s too many. Tormond almost gets killed and dragged into the lake, a moment my breathing stopped. However his new best mate The Hound saves him. A few extras on the trip get killed, but no one major does.
Then, when we think all is lost and maybe someone important will die, in comes Daenerys and her dragons. Dragon fire everywhere! The budget for this fight scene alone but have cost a whole 2 episodes worth from previous seasons.
There’s White Walkers, dragons, fire, lots of stabbings. It’s really quite fantastic. I might be biased towards any scene that features dragons breathing fire though.
Daenerys sets down with Drogon and our team climb up. The Night King, however, is totally chilled out, takes out a frozen ice spear and just casually kills a dragon. It’s a really terrible moment. Blood gushes from the poor creature, his brother tries to fly down and rescue him but it’s too late. He falls into the lake, dead. Luc
Daenerys shows a lot of emotion, which is really great acting from Emilia Clarke. I was very impressed. They fly off, leaving Jon who’s still fighting White Walkers. The Night King throws the second spear but misses Drogon as he flies off.
Love is in the air
Jon falls into the lake after being overwhelmed by White Walkers. He comes out the lake and is ready to fight unsteady death when who else but his apprently still not dead uncle comes in ex-machina on a horse and sends him off to the wall whilst he stays and gets overwhelmed by White Walkers.
He makes it back to the wall before Daenerys and the team sail back to Dragonstone. On the boat, he lies in bed. Daenerys comes in and sees his sexy scar covered body. Sure he’s got giant bruises, but he’s also topless and she gets to see his wicket abs. They have a really tender moment, hold hands, he apologises then announces that she’s his queen.
She promises that she will fight the Night King, now fully onboard with his mission. She then promptly leaves before she pounces of the wounded sexy man.
Blue Eyes White Dragon
Oh and the Night King gets his undead army to pull Viserys the dead dragon out of the lake using chains. Some viewers are upset at the idea that a thousand-year old undead king with a giant undead army can somehow have found giant chains to use in his many years of undead living. It’s a tiny plot point and it’s stupid to worry too much about it.
The Night King reanimates Viserys and he is now an undead dragon. He’ll probably breathe ice or something. But I’m calling it now, he’ll get killed by his brother Drogon. Because Viserys who he’s named after was killed by Drogon who Drogon is named after back in season 1… we’ll come full circle!
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