Can we please stop these leaks?!

This was a very North heavy episode.  Before we go, let’s check in with Daenerys at Dragonstone, where she’s talking to Tyrion about how she likes Tyrion because he’s not a hero.  She likes that he’s not a hero because all the men in her life, Drogo, Jorah, Dario, and now Jon Snow, they’re all trying to out do each other to see who can do the dumbest and bravest things.  Tyrion reminds her that they’ve all fallen in love with her, to which she replies Jon isn’t in love with her.  He says that Jon probably only stares longingly at her for her military alliance.  Daenerys says that Jon is too little for her, which, lol, and then she immediately tries to walk it back because hello!  Daenerys says that Tyrion is brave and that’s why she’s chosen him as her hand.  She quickly changes the subject to meeting with Cersei.  He assures her that if they go with two armies and three dragons, no one will touch her because they’ll burn the city to the ground.  Tyrion says that they need to install fear but more than just fear, because that’s all his family has ever had over people.  Daenerys says Aegon did plenty with just fear, and Tyrion says yes but he built the wheel she’s wanting to destroy.  He warns her that Cersei will try to goat her, and that she should keep her temper in check.  Also he tells her to see things from all sides, because if she doesn’t see it from their side, they won’t be able to see their next moves.  Tyrion also says that the empire she wants to create probably won’t be done in one lifetime, and discusses how to choose a successor since it’s believed Daenerys is unable to have children.  She’s not very pleased by this and says they’ll discuss it after she is crowned.  Tyrion tries to plea with her, but she’s not having it.

In Winterfell, Arya shares a memory about Ned watching her as she shot arrows after the boys were finished with their practice.  After a while she finally hit the bullseye, and she didn’t know he was watching her until he clapped.  He was proud of her, and now he’s dead, with Sansa’s help.  Arya confronts Sansa about the note she found.  Sansa tries to explain that she was forced to do it, and Arya is not having it.  When Sansa tried to say that she was a child, and Arya says she was too, and she was old enough to not betray her family.  Arya tells Sansa she remembers the way Sansa looked standing with the Lannisters, and Sansa is surprised because she didn’t know Arya was watching.  Sansa asks why she didn’t run up and save the day?  She then starts in saying Arya should be on her knees thankful that they’re back in Winterfell because she won it back, not Jon, the Knights of the Vale won it back for her, while she was off “training.”  Sansa also says that Arya wouldn’t have survived what she had.  Sansa wants to know what Arya is going to do with that letter, and Arya says she doesn’t know.  She threatens to show it to all the Northern lords so they would see that she sided with the Lannisters and would abandon her.  Sansa says Cersei would be pleased to see the two of them arguing.   Arya says that she was older than Lyanna Mormont is now, so her “I was just a child” excuse wouldn’t work with her. (Teddy Bear QUEEN!) Sansa begs Arya to please wait, that she’s angry and anger can make people do unfortunate things.  Arya says so does fear, and she chooses anger.  Later Sansa goes into Arya’s room to find that note.  She starts digging around, and eventually finds some of Arya’s faces.  Arya comes into the room and startles her, asking what she’s looking for.  Sansa says she has hundreds of men loyal to her, to which Arya says “they’re not here now.”  Sansa asks about the faces, and asks what it means to be a faceless man.  Arya wants to play “the game of faces” where she tries to tell if you’re lying.  She asks how Sansa feels about Jon being king, instead of her, and that’s what she wanted to be so long, married to a handsome young king.  Arya wanted to be a knight, picking up a sword and going to battle.  Girls don’t get to decide what they’re going to be, but Arya can because of the faces.  She said she could even become Sansa, who looks absolutely terrified.  Arya then hands Sansa the Cat’s Paw dagger and leaves.  (GIRL YOU SCARY!)  Later still, Sansa receives an invitation to meet Cersei in King’s Landing to pledge loyalty.  Sansa does not want to go, and instead sends Brianne.

North of the wall, we see the rag tag bunch of guys, marching along.  There is a scout walking far ahead of the group, and they all see a really big bear.  Gendry asks if bears have blue eyes (uh oh) and the scout starts running back towards the group, and is attacked by a wight polar bear.  They all have a go at this giant zombie like bear, and it’s finally killed, but not before he tears into the chest of one of our main guys, Thoros.  He has his wounds cauterized with Beric’s flaming sword, and he drinks a lot of booze to not feel as much as possible.  There are lots of discussions all along this trip, about how Tormund had never actually been south, but he says he has because he’s been to Winterfell, to which Jon says “that’s the North!”  There’s also a funny scene when Gendry asks Tormund how they stay warm up north.  Beric and Jon discuss being brought back to life by the Lord of Light, and they don’t know why they were but Beric says they have to fight death, even though death always wins.  Beric also says how Jon doesn’t look like his father, which, lol.  The Hound recognizes the mountain he saw in the flames and says they’re getting close.  There’s also a scene where Jon tries to give his sword to Jorah, since Jorah’s father gave it to Jon, and it used to belong to Jorah.  He declines, and tells Jon to keep it.  It’s hard to really tell how much time has gone by, since they’re seemingly traveling quite a long ways, and this season has been in fast forward, so it’s just hard to tell how long they’ve been traveling.  Jon sees a small group of wights and a White Walker below them, and they decide this is their chance to take one prisoner and head back.  They ambush the group and they’re all fighting with them, and suddenly, Jon kills the White Walker and all but one of the wights just crumbles to the ground!  They take the one who didn’t die, and have to muffle it at first because it screeches like a banshee, and they put a bag over it’s head and they’re going to take it back.

Before they can get up, Jon sees a hoard of wights coming, so he tells Gendry to get back to the wall and send a raven to Daenerys.  He takes off, and, I’m no athlete, but his form looks awful.  Obviously no Summer games in Westeros.  Anyhow, they all start running and they come to a frozen over lake with a little island in the middle.  They pause, but then decide to run out onto the ice.  The wights start falling in all the way around, and they all just stand there and wait.  The wights stand there all day and night, and by the next day we can see that the Night King has been watching over the group this entire time.  Being creepy.  We see Gendry has made it back to the wall and tells Davos they need a raven to Dragonstone.  Back on tiny ice island, they discover that Thoros has died in the night, and Jon says they need to burn his body.  The Hound throws a rock at one of the wights.  It breaks his jaw off, (rude) and then he tries to throw another, and it basically shows the wights that the lake has frozen back over.  They suddenly rush the island, and the group gears up for the worst case scenario game of King of the Mountain.  A few people that we can’t really tell who they are (let’s call them the red shirts of this mission) are killed, and things are starting to look hopeless, when Daenerys rides in on Drogo, lighting those wights up like it’s the 4th of July!  We also see her other two dragons, flying around, swooping in and burning up the army of the dead.  Things are starting to look up, and Drogo lands so that the group can climb onto the dragon’s back and fly back to safety.  Before they can take off, we see the Night King grab an ice spear from another White Walker, and he chucks that thing like a javelin towards Viserys, Daenerys’ golden colored dragon.  It strikes his throat and he screeches out, and dramatically falls into the ice.  Daenerys is mortified, and Jon tells her to go with the group she’s got because the Night King is grabbing another spear.  They fly off, and Jon stays behind fighting off a group of wights, and falls into the icy water.  He claws his way out, and before he knows it, who comes riding in but UNCLE BENJIN!  He rides in, slinging his weird, fire ball chain thing, and he tells Jon to take his horse and go back.  Benjin is already half wight, so he knows he can’t go back.  We see him being taken over by wights, fighting them off the whole time. 😥

We see Daenerys has made it back to the wall, and she’s waiting to see if Rhaegar or Jon make it back, and just as she turns away, Jon comes up on the horse, slumped over.  They take Jon in and start breaking his frozen clothes off of him, and Daenerys gets a glimpse of his scars.  She sees that him taking a knife to the heart is more than just a figure of speech like Jon told her.  She stays at his bedside until he wakes up, and as soon as he does, Jon apologizes for even going north of the wall, because all her dragons would be safe (stab me right in the heart omg my feels!).  She says she doesn’t regret them going, because now she’s seen the threat to the north.  She tells Jon that those dragons are the only children she will ever have, and vows that they will kill the Night King.  He also calls her Danny, which, she laughs, and tries to remember who last called her that.  Jon says what would you have me call you, my queen?  He says he would bend the knee, but, he can’t.  Daenerys asks if his people would follow her, and he said they would once they got to know who she really is…and they hold hands…and they love each other the end!  Just kidding, Daenerys sees that she’s letting her feelings show a little too much, drops his hand gently and says he should get some rest.

Back north of the wall, we see that somehow the wight army has obtained some really big chains.  I don’t know where they fashioned these chains from, have they had them all along?  I don’t remember seeing any carts of supplies, I digress.  They’re all working at pulling, and slowly but surely they pull Viserys out of the ice.  When he’s out of the water, the Night King walks up and puts his gross death hand on the dragon, and Viserys opens his bright blue eyes. 😮

I’m doing my best to avoid any spoilers for next week, but there is going to be a giant meeting in King’s Landing, and this episode will be the longest episode EVER!  Until next time, happy sewing!