GoT Season 7, Episode 6: Beyond the Wall
Warning: thar be potential spoilers in these here waters; if you're not up to date with GoT, sail with caution.
GoT Season 7, Episode 6: Beyond the Wall
If I could stress purr I would; this whole episode flitted from one tense scene to another, interspersed with anxious moments and constant peril.
The penultimate episode of the season, oft so full of action and key turning points in our overarching plot is upon us. Nobody is safe here. We’ve known that since season one, when Ned was beheaded. In recent times, we have seen magnificent episodes focussing on one location only, working as a crescendo to the season. This time round, it’s a little different; the majority of our episode focuses on our Suicide Squad beyond the wall, but every other scene takes us to either Winterfell or Dragonstone. With tensions high in all three locations, there truly never is an opportunity to ever relax.
We all knew from the setup that all the action in the north was going to be stress inducing. Their plan was awful and their group was ragtag. My very first thought though was “Thank the Lord of Light, they’ve brought some spares”.
I
t’s never a bad idea to bring a few background characters with you, but it’s clear pretty much straight away that they were an essential. I’m going to just say it now, I was not anticipating an undead bear. It was pretty random. But Gendry’s ability to spot it at range, in close to zero visibility, either indicates he has powers that put Bran to shame, or simply borders on the ridiculous. I’m still undecided. Of course, they end up in a mighty scuffle with the bear, red coats are strewn across the tundra, and we get to see Thoros and Beric using their amazing flaming swords. Not the they were of too much use when Thoros was being mauled up by said bear, but awesome nonetheless. But this is where things got a bit silly for my liking. Rewind a couple of seasons and being mauled like Thoros would see you dead right away. I mean, Kahl Drogo died following a gammy shoulder way back when. Instead, a bit of booze and some cauterisation later and Thoros is good to crack wise about being bitten by a dead bear. Perhaps he is made of sterner stuff than most, or perhaps (more likely) the writers were trying to lull us into a false sense of security.
As our boys potter about the arctic wilderness, we are treated to some proper banter, the like Game of Thrones hasn’t seen before. Normally when we have a large group of characters together (especially manly men) there is a clear hierarchy. Out here though, the playing field is level, so insults and quips can fly freely, particularly between The Hound and Tormund, or The Hound and Gendry, or The Hound and anything he encounters. In fact, the only one who really provides any sense of sobriety is Jon. As ever he is full of angst and honour and has no qualms about sharing either. I’m glad he offered Jorah his ancestral sword, but I’m even gladder [yes, that’s a word] that Jorah rejected it. What I found most interesting though was Tormund offering Jon advice on bending the knee, that perhaps he should put his pride aside and bow to Dany, unlike Mance Rayder with Stannis. It’s a pleasant to see a character that has previously been all id, to be in a position to offer realistic and honest advice to our protagonists. It almost makes you feel like they're destined to meet a sticky end.
It’s not too long before our gang stumble across a White Walker and his minions. Naturally, there’s more scrapping and peril but, just as it looks like Jorah might be the first main character to bite the bullet today, Jon chops the Walker right up in half which, as it transpires, creates something of a daisy chain, killing the wights under his command. Well, most of them: conveniently, there’s just one left alive. Wight hog tied and bagged our boys are all set for an early night, save for one minor complication, they can’t get it to shut up, which promptly draws in all its pals. So, what to do? Well, the obvious thing is to split up, most of them running into the middle of a lake in the back end of nowhere, while Gendry (minus his warhammer) runs back to Eastwatch.
As our chilly gang stand surrounded, Gendry is off out on his own and things get even more special. Either his talents extend from bear spotting, to being a wintery Mo Farah, with an internal sat-nav. Clearly, this expedition has taken a good while to get good and properly in the middle of nothingness and far enough that they are all obviously fatigued. But it’s not far enough that Gendry can’t cover it in a matter of minutes. Also, how on earth did he find his way back?! I might not be a winter survivalist [frankly I could get myself lost in a two-street village, even with a map], but surely that was almost impossible. The tundra is renowned for looking like snowy nothingness. Snow had kept on falling, so there was no way he could retrace his steps. Madness.
Interlaced with this increasingly frustrating plot, we visit Winterfell and Dragonstone.
In the northern capital, things are still not all sunshine and rainbows (both literally and metaphorically). Arya spends an age trying to play it cool with Sansa, but ultimately, she can’t. She thinks she has evidence of Sansa berating the family and is rather irked. The sister’s confrontations leave Sansa obviously on the ropes, all but conceding to her little sister. Yet, Arya is all bluster, she doesn’t do anything to her sister, it’s all mind games. For now, at least. Much like in the wild, there’s a lot of talk and threat of something that might happen, without anything actually happening.
A rattled Sansa confides in Littlefinger of her concerns now that Arya has evidence of her “betrayal”. The fickle Northern Lords only answer to Sansa because Jon has told them to. They will gladly turn their back on her as they have before, if they catch wind of this. His advice is simple, to use Brienne as a buffer between the two. His intentions are obvious here, he knows there will be beef between the two sisters and when it does, Arya and Brienne will come to blows, only ending when one of them is killed. It will see one of the barricades between him and power removed.
But Sansa receives a call to King’s Landing from Cersei and, instead of heading there herself, sends Brienne in her stead. And she doesn’t do it very politely. I can’t help but feel that there’s more to this than meets the eye though. For Sansa to remove her protection is either very brave or very stupid and she’s been dealt enough lessons to know better. Her introspective glance as Brienne leaves suggests to me there’s more to this than face value. Perhaps removing her protection will mean that either Arya or Littlefinger will have to save her from the other.
Before all is over in Winterfell, a paranoid Sansa rummages for Arya’s letter, but find only a bag of disembodied faces. In one the episode’s more compelling scenes, Arya explains her training as a faceless man to her sister, detailing her skills and ordeals. And then, as Arya has Sansa effectively cornered and the Catspaw dagger in her hand, she stops. Instead of slicing and dicing, she hands the dagger to Sansa. Why? Was all of this just a power play to get under Sansa’s skin? Was passing the dagger to Sansa a sign that, even without any weapons, Arya can outbattle her sister? Or perhaps Arya is arming Sansa for a battle still to come. Time will tell I suppose.
Dragonstone is largely placid compared to everywhere else. It’s unlikely to be anything else, there’s only Dany and Tyrion there. They share many heavy and some light words, but Tyrion spoils it all by talking of succession. Dany doesn’t want to even consider this until she has the throne herself, but Tyrion has a point. She should really think about who’s going to take over from her when she snuffs it. Although, if Dany doesn’t make it as far as the throne, then it’s all a lot of hypothetical for the sake of it. Their chatter is cut short though as they are interrupted by a raven (which has flown almost as fast as Gendry can run) telling tales of the great peril in north of the wall. Against Tyrion’s advice (again, I mean really why has Dany made him her hand if she’s only going to ignore him?) Dany takes to the skies; nobody will be killing Jon Snow on her watch.
And lo, we conclude back beyond the wall. Our merry men aren’t looking all to merry truth be told and have lost a member of their crew between scenes. After almost an eternity, Thoros finally succumbed to his bear wounds. Stranded and surrounded, or bunch of heroes are forced to consider either their impending doom, or how they can fight their way out. As Jorah points out, they might have a chance if they can kill the Walkers. Before Jon can fully shoot this idea down, Beric posits that they need not kill all of the Walkers, but instead, just the Night King. If killing one Walker earlier finished off all his wights, it follows that killing the King would knacker the lot of them.
As debates quietly rumble along, The Hound (ever the thinking man) has other ideas, chucking rocks at wights. Unfortunately, this reveals that they can traverse the frozen lake and they quickly descend upon our gang.
As ever in these action scenes, we get a lovely encircling shot of everyone getting the gear ready for battle. What caught my eye though was Jorah’s choice. Yes, things will be up close and personal, so two daggers may be better than a big old sword, but were they made of dragonglass?! Where did he get those from? If Jon had been busy dishing out blades, surely Jorah wouldn’t have got two daggers before, say, Tormund. Has Jorah had these all along and what might these mean for his Walker killing skills? Of course, these questions will be rendered moot if he is mulched in the next few minutes, I thought.
So, this is it, the big battle of the season, five big characters, surrounded by the undead, with pretty much no way out, save for the dragons who are en route. Well, it isn’t as spectacular as The Battle of the Bastards, but then, could it ever have been? Instead, we get a lot of close ups of our characters in danger, saving themselves and one another, as they keep their cargo (the wight) in close proximity. Despite the frequent peril, I wasn’t too concerned during the sequence even when Tormund was screaming for help as he was almost dragged underwater. I wouldn’t have been enough of a Tormund-esque death. Not now. Even when all hope was gone, when our rabble was trapped and ready to accept their fate, I wasn’t worried. In fact, I had never been more assured of their safety. Because even though the dragons weren’t there and the odds were unsurmountable they all had the best protection of them all. Plot armour. There was no way that this many critical characters, especially Jon Snow, would be killed off like this.
When the dragons arrived to save them all, it wasn’t relief I felt, but expectation. They were always going to save the day. Hell, even if there hadn’t been a rave, they’d probably have popped up anyway. But, as the dragon dropships rock up and cause a mess, there was only one thing I could think: why don’t they simply direct Dany et al to kill the king? If he dies, everything dies and they don’t need the wight. If the army of the dead are defeated, then that’s that right? But nay, the dragons kill a bucket load of wights and move to rescue our men.
Then the twist. The death. The big one. The Night King, with his icy bastard javelin, turning Viserion into a lizardy kebab. This moment, the loss of one of the dragons, should have been utterly heart-breaking, but for me it fell flat. The whole build up had frustrated me with constant teasing that someone may die, that by the time he sank beneath the ice I was almost glad for it to be out of the way. If I’m honest, everything about this penultimate episode felt like pulled punches, Perhaps we have been spoiled this season, with grand battles as early as episode two, but the execution of this death (pun intended) was poor. If they hadn’t played up to the idea that someone could die for the preceding hour, it would have been much more shocking, it would have hit much harder. Instead, following an hour of “Could this be the end for Character X… probably not”, it was almost pleasant to finally have a good and proper killing.
As Viserion sinks to the depths, Drogon, with everyone bar Jon aboard rises to the skies, flying to safety. Again, a moment that sort of spoiled the dragons for me. Prior to this, just touching them was a huge thing. Now, utter strangers are riding them. Granted, they are glorified cargo, but still, it lessens the achievement a little. I’m still unsure why Jon didn’t get on Drogon, but this was (another) missed opportunity. Jon is quickly outnumbered and dragged underwater, in another moment of “Will he die>”. I was screaming at my screen for Rhaegal to swoop down and save him, all but confirming his true status and all the rest of it. But alas not.
As hope looks lost for him, Jon, weighed down by plot armour drags himself from the frozen depths and prepares to fight. It’s a battle he can’t win, so obviously, he’s going to be fine. As if on cue, a mysterious figure emerges from the darkness, riding a horse, and wielding a flaming flail. At least, they’re mysterious to Jon; we’re already fully aware that this is Benjen. Much as with the last episode, we are robbed of another reunion, as Benjen is too preoccupied with sacrificing himself for Jon to actually talk to him. It seems to be a case of too much crammed into too little time. If we only had another episode or two, we’d be able to dedicate energies to scenes such as this, but not today. In a moment reminiscent of his escape from Ygritte, a defeated Jon collapses onto a horse and is carried to safety.
What remains of the episode is effectively housework, tidying up one or two bits. Jon, now loaded onto Dany’s ship awakens in a pretty chipper mood and finally decides to bend his knee to her. It’s a tender moment, especially as Dany has just lot her child, and one laced heavily with saucy tensions. It won’t be too long now before these two hook up.
Lastly, but not leastly [again, that’s a word], we see a whole bunch of wights haul Visereon’s body from the ice with some hefty chains. With just a single touch, the Night King has himself an undead dragon and everything is different. No sooner has Dany gained the upper hand in the war for the throne, has she given an advantage to the army of the dead in what can only be described as the slightly more important was for being alive still.
But where did he get those chains from? Well, there looks to have been a big old ship, lost to the dead kicking about. Pretty convenient eh. Unless. What if this was all masterfully planned by the Night King? Could he have lured the dragons to this location, specifically to claim one for himself? It would take quite the power of foresight, but there is a rather compelling theory that the Night King and Bran might end up being one and the same (you can find it here).
Next week, The Dragon and The Wolf is our season finale. With a title like that, I have a few ideas about what might be coming, but surely it will be to the backdrop of the war for life and a meeting of pretty much all of our remaining characters. Although recent trends continue, they’ll probably skip that bit.
The penultimate episode of the season, oft so full of action and key turning points in our overarching plot is upon us. Nobody is safe here. We’ve known that since season one, when Ned was beheaded. In recent times, we have seen magnificent episodes focussing on one location only, working as a crescendo to the season. This time round, it’s a little different; the majority of our episode focuses on our Suicide Squad beyond the wall, but every other scene takes us to either Winterfell or Dragonstone. With tensions high in all three locations, there truly never is an opportunity to ever relax.
We all knew from the setup that all the action in the north was going to be stress inducing. Their plan was awful and their group was ragtag. My very first thought though was “Thank the Lord of Light, they’ve brought some spares”.
I
t’s never a bad idea to bring a few background characters with you, but it’s clear pretty much straight away that they were an essential. I’m going to just say it now, I was not anticipating an undead bear. It was pretty random. But Gendry’s ability to spot it at range, in close to zero visibility, either indicates he has powers that put Bran to shame, or simply borders on the ridiculous. I’m still undecided. Of course, they end up in a mighty scuffle with the bear, red coats are strewn across the tundra, and we get to see Thoros and Beric using their amazing flaming swords. Not the they were of too much use when Thoros was being mauled up by said bear, but awesome nonetheless. But this is where things got a bit silly for my liking. Rewind a couple of seasons and being mauled like Thoros would see you dead right away. I mean, Kahl Drogo died following a gammy shoulder way back when. Instead, a bit of booze and some cauterisation later and Thoros is good to crack wise about being bitten by a dead bear. Perhaps he is made of sterner stuff than most, or perhaps (more likely) the writers were trying to lull us into a false sense of security.It’s not too long before our gang stumble across a White Walker and his minions. Naturally, there’s more scrapping and peril but, just as it looks like Jorah might be the first main character to bite the bullet today, Jon chops the Walker right up in half which, as it transpires, creates something of a daisy chain, killing the wights under his command. Well, most of them: conveniently, there’s just one left alive. Wight hog tied and bagged our boys are all set for an early night, save for one minor complication, they can’t get it to shut up, which promptly draws in all its pals. So, what to do? Well, the obvious thing is to split up, most of them running into the middle of a lake in the back end of nowhere, while Gendry (minus his warhammer) runs back to Eastwatch.
As our chilly gang stand surrounded, Gendry is off out on his own and things get even more special. Either his talents extend from bear spotting, to being a wintery Mo Farah, with an internal sat-nav. Clearly, this expedition has taken a good while to get good and properly in the middle of nothingness and far enough that they are all obviously fatigued. But it’s not far enough that Gendry can’t cover it in a matter of minutes. Also, how on earth did he find his way back?! I might not be a winter survivalist [frankly I could get myself lost in a two-street village, even with a map], but surely that was almost impossible. The tundra is renowned for looking like snowy nothingness. Snow had kept on falling, so there was no way he could retrace his steps. Madness.
Interlaced with this increasingly frustrating plot, we visit Winterfell and Dragonstone.
A rattled Sansa confides in Littlefinger of her concerns now that Arya has evidence of her “betrayal”. The fickle Northern Lords only answer to Sansa because Jon has told them to. They will gladly turn their back on her as they have before, if they catch wind of this. His advice is simple, to use Brienne as a buffer between the two. His intentions are obvious here, he knows there will be beef between the two sisters and when it does, Arya and Brienne will come to blows, only ending when one of them is killed. It will see one of the barricades between him and power removed.
But Sansa receives a call to King’s Landing from Cersei and, instead of heading there herself, sends Brienne in her stead. And she doesn’t do it very politely. I can’t help but feel that there’s more to this than meets the eye though. For Sansa to remove her protection is either very brave or very stupid and she’s been dealt enough lessons to know better. Her introspective glance as Brienne leaves suggests to me there’s more to this than face value. Perhaps removing her protection will mean that either Arya or Littlefinger will have to save her from the other.
Dragonstone is largely placid compared to everywhere else. It’s unlikely to be anything else, there’s only Dany and Tyrion there. They share many heavy and some light words, but Tyrion spoils it all by talking of succession. Dany doesn’t want to even consider this until she has the throne herself, but Tyrion has a point. She should really think about who’s going to take over from her when she snuffs it. Although, if Dany doesn’t make it as far as the throne, then it’s all a lot of hypothetical for the sake of it. Their chatter is cut short though as they are interrupted by a raven (which has flown almost as fast as Gendry can run) telling tales of the great peril in north of the wall. Against Tyrion’s advice (again, I mean really why has Dany made him her hand if she’s only going to ignore him?) Dany takes to the skies; nobody will be killing Jon Snow on her watch.
And lo, we conclude back beyond the wall. Our merry men aren’t looking all to merry truth be told and have lost a member of their crew between scenes. After almost an eternity, Thoros finally succumbed to his bear wounds. Stranded and surrounded, or bunch of heroes are forced to consider either their impending doom, or how they can fight their way out. As Jorah points out, they might have a chance if they can kill the Walkers. Before Jon can fully shoot this idea down, Beric posits that they need not kill all of the Walkers, but instead, just the Night King. If killing one Walker earlier finished off all his wights, it follows that killing the King would knacker the lot of them.
As debates quietly rumble along, The Hound (ever the thinking man) has other ideas, chucking rocks at wights. Unfortunately, this reveals that they can traverse the frozen lake and they quickly descend upon our gang.
So, this is it, the big battle of the season, five big characters, surrounded by the undead, with pretty much no way out, save for the dragons who are en route. Well, it isn’t as spectacular as The Battle of the Bastards, but then, could it ever have been? Instead, we get a lot of close ups of our characters in danger, saving themselves and one another, as they keep their cargo (the wight) in close proximity. Despite the frequent peril, I wasn’t too concerned during the sequence even when Tormund was screaming for help as he was almost dragged underwater. I wouldn’t have been enough of a Tormund-esque death. Not now. Even when all hope was gone, when our rabble was trapped and ready to accept their fate, I wasn’t worried. In fact, I had never been more assured of their safety. Because even though the dragons weren’t there and the odds were unsurmountable they all had the best protection of them all. Plot armour. There was no way that this many critical characters, especially Jon Snow, would be killed off like this.
Then the twist. The death. The big one. The Night King, with his icy bastard javelin, turning Viserion into a lizardy kebab. This moment, the loss of one of the dragons, should have been utterly heart-breaking, but for me it fell flat. The whole build up had frustrated me with constant teasing that someone may die, that by the time he sank beneath the ice I was almost glad for it to be out of the way. If I’m honest, everything about this penultimate episode felt like pulled punches, Perhaps we have been spoiled this season, with grand battles as early as episode two, but the execution of this death (pun intended) was poor. If they hadn’t played up to the idea that someone could die for the preceding hour, it would have been much more shocking, it would have hit much harder. Instead, following an hour of “Could this be the end for Character X… probably not”, it was almost pleasant to finally have a good and proper killing.
As Viserion sinks to the depths, Drogon, with everyone bar Jon aboard rises to the skies, flying to safety. Again, a moment that sort of spoiled the dragons for me. Prior to this, just touching them was a huge thing. Now, utter strangers are riding them. Granted, they are glorified cargo, but still, it lessens the achievement a little. I’m still unsure why Jon didn’t get on Drogon, but this was (another) missed opportunity. Jon is quickly outnumbered and dragged underwater, in another moment of “Will he die>”. I was screaming at my screen for Rhaegal to swoop down and save him, all but confirming his true status and all the rest of it. But alas not.
As hope looks lost for him, Jon, weighed down by plot armour drags himself from the frozen depths and prepares to fight. It’s a battle he can’t win, so obviously, he’s going to be fine. As if on cue, a mysterious figure emerges from the darkness, riding a horse, and wielding a flaming flail. At least, they’re mysterious to Jon; we’re already fully aware that this is Benjen. Much as with the last episode, we are robbed of another reunion, as Benjen is too preoccupied with sacrificing himself for Jon to actually talk to him. It seems to be a case of too much crammed into too little time. If we only had another episode or two, we’d be able to dedicate energies to scenes such as this, but not today. In a moment reminiscent of his escape from Ygritte, a defeated Jon collapses onto a horse and is carried to safety.
Lastly, but not leastly [again, that’s a word], we see a whole bunch of wights haul Visereon’s body from the ice with some hefty chains. With just a single touch, the Night King has himself an undead dragon and everything is different. No sooner has Dany gained the upper hand in the war for the throne, has she given an advantage to the army of the dead in what can only be described as the slightly more important was for being alive still.
But where did he get those chains from? Well, there looks to have been a big old ship, lost to the dead kicking about. Pretty convenient eh. Unless. What if this was all masterfully planned by the Night King? Could he have lured the dragons to this location, specifically to claim one for himself? It would take quite the power of foresight, but there is a rather compelling theory that the Night King and Bran might end up being one and the same (you can find it here).
Next week, The Dragon and The Wolf is our season finale. With a title like that, I have a few ideas about what might be coming, but surely it will be to the backdrop of the war for life and a meeting of pretty much all of our remaining characters. Although recent trends continue, they’ll probably skip that bit.
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