This Week in Westeros: "Beyond the Wall" (Season 7, Episode 6)

WARNING: This Post is Dark and Full of SPOILERS

A.K.A. “The One That Got Leaked Early”

So as the title of the episode implies, this episode takes place mostly beyond the Wall with Jon and the rest of the Magnificent Seven on their quest to bring back a zombie for Cersei. So before I dive into that stuff, let’s check up and see what’s happening in the other parts of Westeros.

In Winterfell, Sansa and Arya have their big confrontation about Arya’s letter. I still don’t entirely get why this is such a big deal. Like I said last week, the stuff with Sansa asking Robb to swear fealty to Joffrey was a long time ago, and although Arya doesn’t believe her, she was forced by Cersei to do it. Arya does bring up the point that the Northern lords might not support Sansa if they found this out, and especially not Lyanna Mormont. The excuse “But I was just a child when I did that” won’t really fly for a literal ten-year-old who rules and entire island. But again, Sansa was a different person back then. This just feels like conflict for the sake of conflict.

Sansa also finds Arya’s stash of rubber Halloween masks – I mean, magic faces – and Arya goes full-on Hannibal Lector, calmly threatening to cut off her sister’s face. But she doesn’t and leaves Sansa with the valyrian steel knife. Um…creepy? Yeah, I don’t know what that scene was supposed to accomplish, but I’m definitely more afraid of Arya now and not in a good way.

And I guess Bran is just chilling out in a corner somewhere not intervening. Apparently after telling everyone about the Night King approaching Eastwatch, he said, “Well, that’s enough being useful for a while” and then took a nap.

At Dragonstone, Daenerys and Tyrion reach some ideological disagreements and I don’t really want to talk about this stuff anymore, I just want to talk about what’s going on beyond the Wall.

There’s a lot that happens here, so I’ll try to keep it brief and interject my opinions where necessary.

So the Magnificent Seven – and a few Random Extras ™ - are headed to find a wight to prove to Cersei that the dead are coming. They start the episode by bonding with one another over the places their pasts have overlapped and other tidbits to connect them. They pair off into characters we haven’t really seen interact before – like the Hound and Tormund, and Jon and Beric Dondarrion – and they all honestly have really good chemistry with one another. To the show’s benefit, these are all characters I really like. (Well, I wouldn’t say I like Beric and Thoros of Myr, but how can you hate an undead warrior and his magic priest who both wield flaming swords?)

*lightsaber noises*

The Suicide Squad encounter their first threat in the form of a polar bear. Oh I’m sorry, I understated that. They encounter a ZOMBIE POLAR BEAR who rips Thoros a new one and nearly kills him, and they burn the zombified Coca-Cola mascot alive (well, burn it dead). The inclusion of zombie animals is always cool to show the extension of the White Walkers’ powers and adds variety to the kinds of enemies faced by our heroes. A shame we never get to see creatures like this in the rest of the episode, but it was a cool, scary scene.

As a side note, we don’t get to see the zombie giants seen in the season premiere, so I’m assuming they’re saving that good stuff for later.

The Expendables ambush a group of wights and their White Walker leader. Jon kills the Walker, and they – as well as the audience – discover that whatever wights were raised by a White Walker die with that Walker. Only one wight remains of the group, and they take him prisoner. I’ve dubbed him Walter the Wight.

Well Walter won’t stop screaming, which leads to the Fellowship of the Wight being ambushed by the White Walkers’ army. Gendry rushes back to Eastwatch to get a raven to Daenerys before all is lost. A shame he’s gone for most of the fighting. I was looking forward to the return of Hammer Time. The remaining members of the group fight off the wights until they are forced to take refuge on a small island in the middle of a frozen lake. The lake is too brittle for the wights to cross without falling into the water, so the opposing forces are at a stalemate. Our heroes are stuck in the middle of a frozen wasteland, surrounded by zombies who can’t do anything but stare at them. I guess zombies can’t swim.

While everyone is waiting around, Thoros freezes to death, checking off one of my predicted deaths for this episode and solidifying that nobody can come back from the dead anymore. The Hound is bored just waiting around, so he passes the time by throwing rocks at one of the wights. And then the wights realize that the ice isn’t thin anymore when one of the heavy rocks lands on the ice and it doesn’t break. Clegane’s own boredom basically doomed everyone. One of the stupider character moments of the episode, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t laughing when I realized they were screwed.

So Westeros’ Dungeons & Dragons party continues to fight the undead, and just when all seems lost, Daenerys shows up with all three of her dragons to TORCH THOSE FREAKING ZOMBIES. This season is really spoiling us with awesome dragon stuff, but I love it for that.

But then the Night King picks up an ice javelin and hurls it at one of the dragons, Viserion. This time around, a giant, pointed projectile fired at a dragon is much more effective. Viserion falls through the ice, dead. And there it is. The big wham moment of the episode. After seasons of seeing them as indestructible killing machines that inspire fear everywhere they go, we finally see one of them taken down by a more powerful force. But then again, this dragon wasn’t Drogon – the “poster boy” dragon – so I feel that the emotional impact isn’t as strong as it should be considering we don’t know Viserion as well as we do our boy Big D.

Hope everyone's enjoying the Sunday barbeque.

Everyone else leaves on Drogon while Jon stays behind to fight zombies and kill the Night King…I think? I don’t know, he doesn’t really say why he wants everyone to leave without him (except for the show to create extra drama), but this is the answer that makes the most sense since earlier they were talking about how killing the Night King would probably end the wight army. He falls through the ice and seemingly drowns, but gets back up…somehow. He’s going to need rescuing fast if he’s to get out of here before he dies of hypothermia or is torn to shreds by wights. So who comes to save him? Is it the other dragon, Rhaegal, who will allow Jon to ride him like the Targaryen that he really is?

No, it’s Zombie Uncle Benjen Stark, who only has time to say two sentences to Jon before he puts him on his horse, sends him away, and sacrifices himself fighting wights. I really don’t see why he couldn’t have just hopped on the horse with Jon and gotten out of there with him. He just says “There’s no time”, and then tries to pull a “You Shall Not Pass” on the zombies, but only fights off maybe five before he dies. I guess maybe he realized that he wouldn’t be much use to Jon since the magic of the Wall won’t let him travel to the other side, but I still think this is a major waste in potential by not having Jon and Benjen have a little more time to get reacquainted, considering Benjen was the MAIN REASON JON JOINED THE NIGHT’S WATCH IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Jon arrives back in Daenreys’ care, and she finally sees that Ser Davos wasn’t exaggerating with that whole “he took a knife in the heart” spiel. Jon finally bends the knee to Daenerys (without actually physically bending the knee), and I’m starting to realize that some of the chemistry between Jon and Dany feels a little forced. I want these two to end up together, don’t get me wrong, but I want it to feel natural. I mean, as natural as a romance between a nephew and aunt can be. (Man, this show is weird.)

And so the episode ends with the army of the dead dragging Viserion out of the water (using some giant-ass chains that I guess were just lying around somewhere), and the Night King awakens the dragon, only his eyes are blue.

After last episode skimped out on the season’s White Walker battle, I’m glad that this one focused almost entirely on our murderous band of misfits off to find the Wonderful Wizard of Wight. The scenery is gorgeous with all the snow and frozen landscapes, as to be expected from scenes beyond the Wall. The fight scenes with the wights are well choreographed and exciting, and that final push with the dragons raining hellfire from above was exhilarating. And the fact that the White Walkers now have a zombie dragon in their rank has me really pumped for what’s to come.

The dragon’s death was tragic, but unfortunately, it was already spoiled for me after I accidentally saw something about it once the episode leaked. However, the spoiler never said what dragon died. I assumed it would be Drogon to bite the dust, so I was still surprised. Honestly, the scarce amount of casualties in the episode surprised me, too. The only named characters to die are Thoros and Viserion, with the majority of the casualties being the unnamed Random Extras ™. I was honestly expecting either Tormund, Jorah, or Beric to not make it out alive either, and it was touch-and-go with the Hound there at times. I’m guessing the season finale is going to take a cue from Season 6’s finale when it comes to killing characters left and right.

Benjen’s reappearance and sacrifice was ultimately pointless, and it felt like the writers brought the character back just to their could give him a conclusion of some sorts, regardless of how rushed and unsatisfying it was. Also, so far it’s proving kind of pointless that they brought back Gendry considering he didn’t even get to participate in most of the battle. The stuff with Arya and Sansa isn’t all that interesting by comparison, but I also can’t get fully behind their manufactured feud. Whenever it cut back to them at Winterfell, I was at the other end of the screen screaming “OH MY GOD, CUT BACK TO THE ZOMBIES.”

And now, representing the Land of Always Winter in the javelin throwing competition...

There’s a lot of plot holes to pick at in the episode, but most of them didn’t bother me too much. A lot of characters don’t make entirely logical decisions, but for the most part, I can come up with an explanation that satisfies me. (Except for why Dany didn’t have the dragons nuke the White Walkers before they flew off. I mean…they were just standing there.) But the episode was a satisfying battle overall. Good fight scenes, good drama, and a heartbreaking ending, with a lot of stupid mixed in.

Next week’s the season finale, so y’all better strap in for some balls-to-the-wall crazy crap to go down.

Final verdict: 7/10

So before the episode came out, there was some discrepancy as to whether the episode title was “Beyond the Wall” or “Death is the Enemy.” I saw many sources conflicted over the actual title before the episode aired and revealed it. Honestly, I thought “Death is the Enemy” to be the better title.