Beyond the Wall (episode)

"Beyond the Wall" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixty-sixth episode of the series overall. It premiered on August 20, 2017 on HBO. It was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by Alan Taylor.
==Premise==
== Synopsis ==
===At Winterfell===
At Winterfell, Arya Stark talks to her sister Sansa Stark about borrowing Bran Stark's bow and arrow. She tells Sansa that she practiced several times until she finally hit the bullseye. Arya recalls that their father Eddard Stark had been watching and clapped his hands in praise of her accomplishments. Arya reasons that their father knew that the rules were wrong but that his daughter was in the right. She then confronts Sansa about her alleged role in their father's death.
Arya presents the letter that Sansa had written to their late brother Robb Stark urging him to come and bend the knee to King Joffrey Baratheon. Sansa replies that the Queen Mother Cersei Lannister forced her to do it under duress. Arya counters that she was not tortured and that she saw Sansa at Ned's execution; Sansa retorts that Arya did nothing to stop their father's execution either. Arya chastises Sansa for betraying their family but Sansa responds that they have only returned to Winterfell because of her, while Arya travelled the world in pursuit of her own agenda. Sansa adds that their half-brother Jon Snow was saved from defeat when Petyr Baelish and the Knights of the Vale came to their rescue and insists Arya would not have survived the torments she endured at the hands of Joffrey and Ramsay.
Sansa demands to know where Arya found the letter and chides her younger sister that Cersei would be pleased to see them fighting but Arya is still bitter towards Sansa. She realizes that while Jon would understand the difficult circumstances Sansa was under when she wrote the letter, Sansa is afraid the Northern lords will discover it and turn on her, including Lyanna Mormont. Arya adds that Lyanna is younger than Sansa was when she wrote this letter but argues Lyanna wouldn't agree with Sansa's defense that she was a child at the time. While recognizing that Sansa wrote the letter out of fear, a bitter Arya says that she prefers to embrace anger over fear.
Later, Sansa asks Petyr Baelish about where Arya got the letter from, unaware that Baelish orchestrated the entire incident. Sansa tells Petyr that she is commanding 20,000 men who answer to Jon but not to her. Petyr tells Sansa that the men will trust her because she can rule. Sansa does not trust the loyalty of the Northern lords, citing their history of switching sides. She counters that the discovery of the letter will turn her liege lords and men against her. Sansa confides in Petyr about her strained relations with Arya. Petyr suggests that Sansa talk to Brienne of Tarth because she has sworn to protect both of Lady Catelyn Stark's daughters from harm's way. Trusting Baelish, Sansa accepts his advice.
The following morning, Maester Wolkan informs Sansa that they have received a letter from Queen Cersei. Sansa meets with Brienne, who advises her not to leave Winterfell. Instead, Sansa decides to send Brienne as her representative since she could reason with Jaime Lannister. Brienne warns that it is too dangerous for her to leave Sansa alone at Winterfell with Petyr. Sansa insists that her guards and men are loyal to her but Brienne warns that Petyr might be bribing them behind her back. Brienne offers to leave her squire Podrick Payne, whose swordsmanship has improved, but Sansa insists that she can take care of herself.
Following the events of the wight hunt, Sansa enters Arya's quarters and opens a leather case containing several "faces", including the literally late Walder Frey's face. Arya catches her sister pilfering through her personal effects. When Sansa tells Arya that her men are loyal to her, Arya mockingly retorts that they are not here. Arya tells Sansa that she obtained the faces from the Faceless Men of Braavos and admits she spent time training to be a Faceless Man. She forces Sansa to play the lying game and begins by asking if she thinks that Jon is the rightful King. Sansa demands that Arya tell her what the "faces" are.
Arya replies that they always wanted to pretend to be other people. Sansa wanted to be a queen while Arya herself wanted to be a knight. In the end, neither of them got what they wanted. Arya says that the faces allow her to become someone else and toys with the idea of assuming Sansa's face and status. Arya approaches Sansa with her dagger and muses as the possibility of becoming the Lady of Winterfell. However, Arya relents and leaves a disturbed Sansa alone with the dagger.
===The wight hunt===
At Dragonstone, Queen Daenerys Targaryen and her Hand Tyrion Lannister chat in the Chamber of the Painted Table. Daenerys tells Tyrion that she appreciates the fact that he is not a hero because they have a tendency of risking their lives to do dangerous things. She compares Tyrion favorably to "heroes" such as Khal Drogo, Ser Jorah Mormont, Daario Naharis and Jon Snow, most of whom "do stupid things, trying to outdo the others". Tyrion, slightly amused, notes that all of those individuals fell in love with Daenerys, but she dismisses the obvious implication that Jon Snow is in love with her – to which Tyrion sarcastically quips that Jon must be staring so longingly at her because he is so eager for a military alliance. Daenerys remarks that Jon is too little for her tastes, but immediately apologizes when she realizes she's accidentally insulted Tyrion's height. Daenerys also recognizes that Tyrion is no coward. The two then turn their attention to the topic of their impending meeting with Queen Cersei in King's Landing. Tyrion admits that Cersei cannot be trusted and could be setting a trap for them, but that Daenerys will have the Unsullied, the Dothraki and her dragons at hand; if anyone tries to harm her, King's Landing will be leveled in response.
Daenerys wonders whether, given that Cersei will almost certainly be attempting to double-cross them, they should be planning something similar. Tyrion is firmly against any deceit, counseling Daenerys that while she needs a healthy degree of fear to instill respect, she cannot rule through fear alone, as leaders who rule through fear alone like Cersei, Tywin, and Joffrey are hated by their people and forever vulnerable to being overthrown. Tyrion reminds Daenerys about her vision of creating a new society by "breaking the wheel" rather than merely imitating prior rulers like Aegon Targaryen, and cautions her about her temper and impulsiveness, citing the fiery executions of Lord Randyll Tarly and his son Dickon. Daenerys asserts that such an action was necessary, but Tyrion still believes she should have attempted more merciful means of dealing with the problem the Tarlys posed, or at least left them alive long enough to consider her other options rather than having them summarily executed. As Daenerys becomes increasingly agitated in the face of Tyrion's blunt but reasonable remarks, he reassures Daenerys that he supports her vision and ideals. Tyrion also proposes that Daenerys consider a succession plan in the event of a disaster, given that by her own admission, she believes she is incapable of bearing children. She refuses to consider this plan until she has donned the crown, also coldly blaming Tyrion's policy of caution for causing her the loss of Highgarden, Ellaria Sand, and Yara Greyjoy.
Jon Snow and his ranging party travel through the lands beyond the wall on their mission to capture a wight. Gendry complains about the bitter cold and asks Tormund about life as a wildling. Tormund later confides with Jon about the foolhardy nature of their mission, while Jon discusses his difficult negotiations with Daenerys. Tormund points out that the pride of the Northmen may cost them too many lives, citing Mance Rayder and the Wildlings as an example. While walking, Gendry also confronts the Brotherhood Without Banners about selling him off as a sacrifice to Melisandre. Sandor Clegane sneers that Gendry should be grateful that he is still alive and points out that Beric Dondarrion has been killed six times (not mentioning one of those was by Sandor himself) "and you don't hear him bitching about it". Not entirely sure what to think of that particular revelation, Gendry accepts a drink from Thoros's wineskin.
While walking, Jon and Jorah Mormont also chat about their relationships with their fathers Eddard Stark and Jeor Mormont respectively. They say that their fathers were good and honorable men and did not deserve their deaths. Jon tells Jorah about the brutal death of Jeor at the hands of the Mutineers and that Eddard was beheaded. Jon tries to return to Jorah his father's Valyrian sword Longclaw but Jorah tells him that he is not worthy to bear his father's sword, having forfeited any claim to it when he brought shame into his House. His father gave the sword to Jon, and gives his blessing for Jon and his future children to keep it.
Later, Sandor and Tormund trade jabs about sex. Sandor takes offense when Tormund asks about how he burnt his face. Tormund then confides in Sandor about his infatuation for Brienne of Tarth, who is nearly as tall as Sandor. He jokes about having "monstrous" babies with her, to Sandor's utter bewilderment. Beric and Jon talk about Eddard Stark and how they have both been resurrected by worshipers of the Lord of Light. Beric tells Jon that he is fighting for life because death is the first and last enemy; it is inevitable, but it is human nature to fight it for as long as you can. He warns Jon that they have to work together to fight death and defend those who cannot defend themselves. Jon reflects on his Night's Watch oath about being the "shield that guards the realms of men" and agrees. Sandor sees the mountain from his vision lying ahead and steers the group in that direction.
While trudging through a snowstorm, Jon and his party sight a massive snow bear with blue eyes approaching them. The snow bear turns out to have been resurrected by a White Walker. The monstrous creature mauls and kills three of their company. Beric and Thoros manage to set the snow bear alight with his flaming sword but it continues to attack, forcing Thoros to get in its' way when it attacks Sandor, who is too terrified of the flames engulfing the beast even to defend himself. Thoros is unable to break free of its jaws until Jorah kills it with a dragonglass dagger. Beric cauterizes Thoros' wounds with his flaming sword.
Jorah asks the wounded Thoros about his experience charging with a flaming sword during the Siege of Pyke, and commends his old comrade for his drunken bravery. While navigating through the mountain, they see a White Walker leading a column of Wights marching through the canyon below. The ranging party plants a fire and then ambushes them when the White Walker stops to investigate. Jon manages to kill the White Walker with Longclaw, causing most of the Wights associated with it to disintegrate, while the rest of the group manages to capture the only unaffected wight. The creature unexpectedly screeches for help; Sandor slaps his gloved hand over its mouth, but it wrenches its face away when its mouth skin tears off into the glove, to Sandor and Jorah's disgust. As Jorah pulls out a bag from his jacket and secures it over its head, Sandor and Tormund bind the creature with a coil of rope. In the middle of this, they realize their captive's howls have drawn the attention of a massive host of wights now heading their way, hastening their work.
As the noise of the horde approaches, Jon sends Gendry, over his protest, back to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to bring news to Daenerys as he's the fastest. Gendry gives his war hammer to Tormund, who hands it to Sandor who has the wight slung over his shoulder. The wights pursue the group over a lake of weak ice, as they flee toward a large stone island jutting out in the middle. One of the party trips and falls behind; a few of the horde tackles him, the combined weight breaks the ice, and they fall through. This causes a chain reaction of breaking ice all around the rock until the horde slows to a stop to avoid the water. Throughout the night, Jon and his comrades wait in the middle of the ice while encircled by the army of the undead. Meanwhile, Gendry reaches Eastwatch's outer gates but collapses from exhaustion. Davos Seaworth and several guards attend to him. When Davos asks what happened, Gendry tells him to prepare a raven; Davos orders to bring the maester.
In the morning, Jon and his company awake to find that Thoros has died from his wounds. Beric and Sandor pay their last respects, with the former praying for the Lord of Light to guard them as the latter assures him freezing to death is said to be one of the better ways to die. At Jon's insistence, they burn the body with Beric's flaming sword so Thoros can't be reanimated. The wights watch while their captive Wight struggles under its hood and restraints. Jorah proposes killing the wight but Jon counters that they need to keep it as evidence. Beric suggests that Jon kill the Night King, who has just arrived on horseback; given that they've seen killing a Walker destroyed the wights it controlled, killing the Night King might destroy them all. He then adds that the Lord of Light has not resurrected Jon for no reason, but Sandor reminds him that they have just lost their priest, and Beric is now down to his last life.
After receiving Gendry's message from Eastwatch, Tyrion implores Queen Daenerys, who has donned a cold-weather version of her Targaryen garb, not to leave for the North because it is too risky, insisting that Jon and his companions knew the risks of their mission and that if Daenerys dies beyond the Wall, everything they've done will be for nothing. Daenerys counters that he told her to do nothing before and she lost. Dissatisfied with his advice, Dany leaves with all three dragons to the lands beyond the Wall to aid Jon Snow and his ranging party.
Bored, Sandor hurls two rocks at one of the undead minions, knocking its jaw off. The second however, skids across the ice, and both the party and the undead quickly realize the ice, which has hardened overnight, is strong enough to support their weight, and in ever-increasing numbers, the horde attacks the group's position. Sandor holds them back with Gendry's hammer while Jon and the other members of the ranging party join in, wielding weapons of fire, dragonglass or Valyrian steel. Beric manages to set several of the wights alight with his flaming sword. The ranging party hack and slash at the wights with their blades but are unable to stem the tide. With the group overwhelmed, Jon orders them to fall back to the highest part of the island. Tormund is overwhelmed by several wights and is nearly dragged under the ice, but is saved by Sandor, who drags him back onto the island. The group continues fighting against the wights. One of the Wildlings falls off a ledge and is ripped apart by the creatures, who begin to scramble up the ledge towards the living.
When all seems lost, Queen Daenerys arrives with her dragons, who attack the wights with dragonfire. Hundreds of wights are burned to ashes while others collapse under the ice, which is melted by dragonfire. Jon and his party rush to Daenerys and her dragon Drogon, dragging their captive wight with them, while Viserion and Rhaegal provide covering fire from above. Meanwhile, the Night King obtains an icy javelin from one of his lieutenants and hurls it at Viserion, scoring a direct hit. Viserion is struck in the neck and plunges helplessly into freefall, shrieking in agony as blood and fire pour from the fatal wound. Drogon and Rhaegal cry out for their brother, but are powerless to help him as Daenerys watches in horror and sorrow. Viserion crashes onto the frozen lake, shattering the ice, and slowly sinks beneath it.
As the Night King readies another spear, Jon hollers at Daenerys and company to leave with her remaining dragons before being dragged under the ice by two wights. Daenerys and the survivors of Jon's ranging expedition flee with Drogon and Rhaegal before the Night King can kill them. He hurls the second javelin, but Drogon narrowly dodges it. With the dragons gone, the Night King and his army leave the scene. Later, Jon Snow climbs out of the ice and regains Longclaw. Jon is quickly spotted and pursued by a large horde. Before the wights can finish the King in the North, his long-lost uncle Benjen Stark appears on horseback with his flaming flail. Benjen tells Jon to flee on his horse while he stays behind to buy time for Jon to escape. While riding away on horseback, Jon watches his uncle being overwhelmed by the undead.
At Eastwatch, Sandor carries the struggling Wight into a boat. Tormund and Beric tell him they will meet again but Sandor retorts he hopes not. Daenerys sends Drogon and Rhaegal to scour the surrounding mountains for Jon. Jorah tells Daenerys that it is time to leave but she insists on waiting a bit longer. Before she can leave, they hear a horn blowing signaling a rider approaching. Looking down from the battlements, Dany sees a wounded Jon Snow approaching on horseback. Aboard their ship, Davos and Gendry remove the frozen-stiff garments and tend to Jon Snow, who has suffered severe hypothermia and several minor injuries. Daenerys also notes the massive scars on his chest from his previous fatal wounds.
In the Narrow Sea, Jon Snow wakes to find Daenerys watching over him in his chambers. Jon apologizes for the disastrous ranging party and the fact it caused Viserion's death, but Daenerys tells him not to apologize because she now knows that the army of the dead is real. Overcome with emotion, she tells Jon that the dragons are the only children she will ever have, and vows that she and Jon will together destroy the Night King. Jon thanks her for her support, addressing her as "Dany", and Daenerys realizes that the last person to address her by that name was her older brother Viserys Targaryen, who Daenerys remembers as not being a good person. Jon apologizes and asks if "My Queen" would be more appropriate; realizing he is agreeing to bend the knee, Daenerys asks Jon what the Northern lords loyal to him will make of this. Jon assures her they will come to see her for the good person she is, as he already has. Touched by his statement, Daenerys gently takes Jon's hand in her own for a moment. They gaze into each other's eye for a moment – a long moment – but Daenerys suddenly pulls away and tells him to get some rest and leaves him alone.
Later, hundreds of Wights use several large chains to drag Viserion's corpse out of the frozen lake as the Night King and one of his lieutenants watch. When the dragon's corpse is dragged far enough out of the lake, the Night King walks over and places his hand upon Viserion's snout. All is quiet for a moment... and then Viserion's eyes snap open, shining a depthless, icy blue.
==Appearances==
===Firsts===
* White Walker 1
* Captured wight
* White Walker 2
===Deaths===
* Thoros
* Viserion
* Benjen Stark
* A White Walker
* 6 wildlings and Night's Watchmen
* Many wights
==Cast==
===Starring===
* Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
* Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen
* Kit Harington as Jon Snow
* Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish
* Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth
* Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
* Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
* Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
* Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
* Kristofer Hivju as Tormund
* Joe Dempsie as Gendry
* with Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont
===Guest starring===
*Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion
*Paul Kaye as Thoros
*Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark
*Richard Rycroft as Wolkan
*Vladimír Furdík as the Night King
===Uncredited===
*Michael Byrch as the captured wight
*Dan Euston as a wildling
*Juan Carlos Martínez Antuña as a Meereen guard
===Notes===
*12 of 22 starring cast members appear in this episode.
*Starring cast members Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Carice van Houten (Melisandre), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), Conleth Hill (Varys), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), and Hannah Murray (Gilly) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.
*Boian Anev, Mark Archer, Adam Basil, Ferenc Berecz, Aaron Blackman, Richard Bradshaw, Michael Byrch, David Collom, Christopher Cox, David Cronnelly, Jason Curle, Dan Euston, Pete Ford, Vladimír Furdík, David Grant, Lawrence Hansen, Bobby Holland Hanton, Rob Hayns, Lyndon S. Hellewell, Paul Howell, Radoslav Ignatov, Rowley Irlam, Erol Ismail, Orsányi Iván, Troy Kenchington, Paul Lowe, Leigh Maddern, Leona McCarron, Kim McGarrity, Trayan Milenov-Troy, Sian Milne, Camilla Naprous, Jason Oettlé, Radoslav Parvanov, Ian Pead, Velizar Peev, Oleg Podobin, Marc Redmond, Andrej Riabokon, Fabio Santos, Stanislav Satko, Paul Shapcott, C.C. Smiff, Jonny Stockwell, Ryan Stuart, Teodor Tzolov, Heron White, Annabel Elizabeth Wood and Leo Woodruff were stunt performers in this episode.
==Quotes==
Beric Dondarrion: "Death is the enemy. The first enemy and the last. The enemy always wins and we still need to fight him."
Arya Stark: "You're scared, aren't you? What are you scared of?"
Sandor Clegane (upon realizing that Tormund Giantsbane is talking about Brienne of Tarth): Brienne of Tarth...you're with Brienne of fucking Tarth.
==Behind the scenes==
===General===
*King's Landing and its associated storylines do not appear in this episode. Samwell Tarly's storyline does not appear in this episode (though he left Oldtown in the preceding episode and is heading to other storylines). Most of this episode focuses on the wight hunt beyond the Wall.
*This is only the eighth episode in the TV series in which King's Landing is not featured in any scene. The previous seven were Season 1's "The Kingsroad" (because King Robert and Cersei were with the Starks on the road and had not yet reached the city), Season 3's "The Rains of Castamere" (which focused mostly on the Red Wedding), Season 4's "The Watchers on the Wall" (which focused entirely on the battle for the Wall), Season 5's "Kill the Boy" (which didn't feature any scene in the Seven Kingdoms not counting the North), and "The Dance of Dragons", and Season 6's "The Door" and "Battle of the Bastards" (both of which focused on major battle sequences outside of southern Westeros, but beyond the Wall, in the North, and in Meereen, respectively).
*With a runtime of 71 minutes, this episode was the longest episode in the television series, until the following episode and Season 7 finale, "The Dragon and the Wolf".
*This episode's Nielson ratings tied with "The Spoils of War" (the episode before the last one) for the second highest live viewership of all time on the TV series (but not counting streaming and DVR figures), at 10.2 million - down very slightly from the all-time record high set by the immediately preceding episode "Eastwatch", with a live viewership of 10.72 million.
**The episode continued, however, the trend of day-after site-visits for Game of Thrones Wiki to increase to new highs with each new episode of Season 7. Prior to Season 7, the second-highest traffic day was for Season 6's "The Door" (the episode that Hodor died) with 4.8 million, and a major jump to 9.1 million after the Season 6 finale (possibly due to the reveal about Jon Snow's real parentage). The preceding episode "Eastwatch" had 5.1 million site visits, up from 4.6 million for the preceding battle episode "The Spoils of War" and surpassing "The Door". "Beyond the Wall" broke this record yet again, with 5.3 million day-after site visits, becoming the new second-highest wiki traffic day of all time.
*It is not made clear what Thoros did to his and Beric's swords to make them flame. In the books, he uses wildfire, which wrecks the steel. That their swords are still in good condition in the show suggests that Thoros used his newfound powers to actually enchant the blades.
===At Winterfell===
*It is not made clear why Arya Stark is behaving the way she does in her scenes with her sister Sansa Stark: she refuses to listen to any of her valid counter-arguments that she wrote the letter to Robb under duress. Arya then outright threatens to kill Sansa and take her face: after launching into a long and uncharacteristically dark threat against Sansa, Arya then simply hands her the Valyrian steel dagger she had been brandishing. If she's worried that Sansa will turn on Jon, threatening her will only exacerbate the problem. Their interactions are rationalized in the next episode, "The Dragon and the Wolf", where it is revealed to have been a ruse to trick Littlefinger, but the subplot was received poorly by some critics.
*It might not have been clear why Sansa sent Brienne of Tarth away from Winterfell, right after Littlefinger said she would try to prevent any strife between the Stark sisters. It's possible that Littlefinger wasn't urging that Brienne would prevent Arya from harming Sansa, but that Brienne would protect Arya from Sansa. Thus Sansa sent Brienne away (and burned the letter so no one will know about it) because this is the first step in moving against Arya, before Arya can turn the Northern lords against her. Another possibility is that Sansa was sincere in saying that it was unsafe for Brienne to be in Winterfell with Littlefinger, distrusting Littlefinger when he brought up Brienne and sending her away so that she doesn't serve as another one of his pawns. However, there is a good chance that this was the result Littlefinger hoped for, as it means that the Stark sisters are even more isolated than before.
**This is consistent with Petyr Baelish's personality. He manuevers people into doing what he wants by relying on lies and half-truths that are combined with vague wording. That allows Petyr to find loopholes if a scheme fails. He claims that the other person misinterpeted his words and phrases.
*Sansa says she fears the Northern lords would think her suspect for marrying into enemy Houses twice – even though her marriage to Tyrion Lannister in Season 3 was blatantly made under duress while she was a prisoner and hostage of the Lannisters in King's Landing. Meanwhile, her marriage to Ramsay Bolton was, according to Littlefinger, part a scheme to "undermine the Boltons from within". Sansa, when she later confronted Littlefinger in Season 6's "The Door", berated Littlefinger that his plot to marry her to Ramsay didn't really make sense. This plot has been changed from the novels, where the character who marries Ramsey is explicitly stated to be impersonating a Stark to give the Boltons legitimacy.
**Sansa's concern seems to stem from how quickly the Northern lords rallied to and then abandoned Jon. It seems that she is afraid that if the letter is made public, then at least some of the lords could accuse Sansa of being House Lannister puppet – not entirely a stretch given how disgruntled some of them are getting, and problematic even if Sansa isn't making a power grab for herself. Sansa's response to Petyr Baelish's analysis of the situation was that she considered his views without becoming emotional.
*Arya reveals to Sansa for the first time that she was actually watching their father's execution, in Season 1's "Baelor", as she was hiding in the crowd in front of the Great Sept. Though it might seem bizarre that Arya accuses Sansa of being there willingly given that Sansa broke into screaming when Joffrey declared he would kill Ned, and then outright fainted when he was beheaded, Arya – who wasn't even a teenager yet – didn't actually see Sansa faint: Yoren was holding her tight and she had already abandoned the vantage point that let her see above the crowd.
*Arya recalls their father Eddard Stark watching from the catwalk while the boys practiced archery in the courtyard, then she practiced when the boys left but had to try many times to hit the target. While this is similar to the Stark family's first scene in the Season 1 premiere "Winter Is Coming", it must be describing something that happened earlier: in that episode, Arya fired one arrow and hit the target, while her parents and the boys were still there.
**Arya says that Sansa didn't really watch the archery practice sessions because she was at the sewing circle with Septa Mordane, whom Joffrey executed along with the rest of Ned's household servants in King's Landing at the end of Season 1. In the Season 1 premiere, Arya snuck away from the sewing circle with Sansa and Mordane to watch the archery practice.
**In the novels, Arya actually isn't skilled at archery; in fact, she has not shot even one arrow in the novels. This episode establishes that she isn't a preternaturally skilled archer with no training, explaining that she was simply practicing in secret for some time before that.
*One of the faces Arya has created as magic Faceless Men shapeshifter masks is clearly the face of Walder Frey. It is unknown who the other faces are from.
*The Inside the Episode video points out an additional reason for Sansa's shock when Arya starts speaking behind her, after she discovers her bag of faces: notice the camera clearly showed Sansa closing the only door into the room, but when the camera pulls back to reveal Arya, the door is still shut. Arya entered the room, and then closed the door behind her, so silently that Sansa didn't even notice despite only being a few feet away.
*Sansa makes the only comment adressing the passage of time in Season 7 itself, but only by vaguely saying that it has been "weeks" since Jon left Winterfell for Dragonstone. Given that months are composed of weeks, this could refer to anything from four weeks to four months.
*Sansa says that they're asking "20,000 men" to fight for them. This doesn't seem to match prior numbers, and is likely a hyperbolic remark or miscalculation on Sansa's part: earlier this season ("The Spoils of War"), Jon said there were fewer than 10,000 soldiers left in the North – though he was possibly referring to just the soldiers raised in the North itself, and not the large army from the Vale that came to Winterfell. Given that the Vale stayed neutral for most of the War of the Five Kings, until heading to Winterfell to help defeat the Boltons, it should have a full strength army.
*Arya suggests Sansa to play the game of faces - the game she used to play with the Waif ("Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken").
===The wight hunt===
====Jon's group heading north, and back====
*Gendry may be making a meta-narrative joke when he complains that the Brotherhood Without Banners sold him to Melisandre ("The Climb") and he nearly died as a result ("Second Sons"), when he wanted to stay and join the Brotherhood: this is what Gendry did in the novels, and leaving with Melisandre was a condensation of the TV series (merging him with the story of another of Robert's bastards from the novels, Edric Storm, who doesn't exist in the TV show). Sandor gruffly tells him to quit his bickering, however, because he's alive now and came to no lasting harm, the Brotherhood has the same goal as him now, so they should work together. Gendry seems on the way to reconciling with them when he briskly accepts Thoros's offer of a swig of ale from his flask.
*Gendry mentions that he never saw snow before – which makes sense, given that he grew up in King's Landing to the south. He is roughly the same age as Jon Snow or Samwell Tarly, and most of the younger characters can't remember the last winter (the previous summer, that ended at the beginning of Season 2, lasted a full ten years, and there was a spring before that too). Samwell, who is from even farther south in the Reach, states in the books that he never saw snow before he came to the Wall.
*Tormund now regrets Mance Rayder's "pride" not to bend the knee which got a lot of the wildlings killed – actually, the wildlings couldn't get through the Wall for years because the Night's Watch wouldn't let them even if they asked. If Tormund is referring to when Mance refused to surrender to Stannis and was burned alive for it (in the Season 5 premiere "The Wars To Come"), at the time, Mance actually said "fuck my pride" to Jon, and explained he wouldn't surrender because if he did, his men would lose respect for him and simply refuse to accept such an order, abandoning him as their leader.
*When conversing with The Hound, Tormund comments that the Hound doesn't like him because he is a ginger, who are dubbed as being "kissed by fire", which the Hound is afraid of. In the novels, Tormund isn't a redhead at all: his hair and beard are described as being "white as snow."
*The Hound mentions to Tormund his encounter with Brienne ("The Children"), without being too specific. Apparently he does not like to rememeber the duel that nearly cost his life.
*Jon Snow and Jorah Mormont recount Jorah's father Jeor Mormont, former leader of the Night's Watch, how Jon was proud to serve under him. He also recounts how he died ("And Now His Watch Is Ended") but assures Jorah that he managed to avenge his death ("First of His Name").
*Jon recounts his (adoptive) father's execution ("Baelor"). Jorah then recounts his backstory with Eddard, and how Eddard was entirely right to want to execute him for the crime he committed; Jorah admits, though, he still didn't like Eddard for it, even knowing Eddard was just carrying out the law.
**In the novels, Jorah is more hateful of Eddard, commenting bitterly to Daenerys that "He took from me all I loved, for the sake of a few lice-ridden poachers and his precious honor".
*Jon tells Jorah how he was given Longclaw, the ancestral Valyrian steel sword of House Mormont ("Baelor"). He offers to return it, but Jorah declines, citing that he gave up the right to it long ago. Jeor left the sword behind when he joined the Night's Watch and passed it to Jorah, but then Jorah left it behind at Bear Island when he fled into exile (and it was returned to his father at the Wall).
*In the books, Jeor Mormont's dying words to Samwell Tarly are actually that he should find his son Jorah, and tell him to redeem his honor by going to the Wall (and joining the Night's Watch). In this episode, Jorah indeed goes to the Wall and helps fight the monsters beyond it, in a way fulfilling his father's wish.
*Beric Dondarrion recounts to Jon that it was actually Eddard Stark himself who sent out Beric and several knights to the Riverlands, in order to bring Gregor Clegane to justice. These men became the core of the Brotherhood Without Banners, who continue to fight in the name of King Robert to fulfil Eddard's directive to restore peace to the realm and defend the commoners. Eddard was actually shown sending Beric on this mission in Season 1's "A Golden Crown" (though it wasn't the same actor, a stand-in was used with minimal dialogue, for such a brief scene, knowing they would recast the role by Season 3).
*Given that Beric met Eddard, he remarks that Jon Snow doesn't look very much like him, and he must take after his mother – an in-joke to the viewers who now know that that he isn't really Eddard's son, but son of Ned's sister Lyanna. In the books, Jon is actually said to strongly resemble Ned, to the point that no one questions he must be Ned's son – though a hint that this is actually because he's Jon's uncle is a parallel situation with Arya: Arya is said to strongly resemble her aunt Lyanna, more than her mother Catelyn. In contrast, Ned's other children with Catelyn took more after her Tully features of auburn hair and blue eyes (i.e. Catelyn's own firstborn son with Ned, Robb Stark).
*Thoros and Jorah Mormont recount how they both fought together at the Siege of Pyke, at which Thoros charged headlong through the breach in the castle wall with his flaming sword, with Jorah the second in behind him. This has been recounted by several characters since Season 1. Thoros now admits that he was so drunk at the time that he doesn't really remember doing it.
*A ferocious wight-snow bear appears in this episode – a reminder that the White Walkers can resurrect any animal as a wight. This was already established in prior seasons showing they can resurrect wight-horses, and this season that they can resurrect wight-giants. This was introduced a bit earlier in the novels than the TV series, probably due to budget constraints (though the undead horses appeared in Season 2). In the books, a wight-snow bear attacked the Night's Watch during the fight at the Fist (which occurred off-screen between Seasons 2 and 3). Thoren Smallwood rushed ahead and nearly hacked its head off (but this didn't stop it); then with a single mighty swipe from its paw, the wight-bear tore Smallwood's head clean off from his shoulders.
**Snow bears are not the same thing as regular polar bears from real-life. They are comparable to the difference in size between direwolves and regular wolves: a polar bear, while being the largest living species of bear in real life, is only 5 feet tall at the shoulder – while snow bears are described as being a massive 13 feet tall at the shoulder. This wight-bear is clearly much taller than a grown man like Sandor at the shoulder, so it is a snow bear.
**The wight-snow bear is finally brought down, despite being on fire, when it is stabbed with a dragonglass dagger. As explained in prior episodes this season, dragonglass doesn't work on wights in the books, only on their masters, but writer Dave Hill confirmed in an interview that they didn't forget this, rather, it is an official thought-out change from books to TV series. It was apparently made so that fight scenes could be filmed more practically – the stuntwork involved with having numerous extras set on fire in close quarters combat is always difficult.
*Tyrion advises Daenerys to let Jon and his companions die rather than risk her own life to try and save them. In the fifth book, Jon's subordinates advise him similarly twice: when he consults with them in respect of the wildlings in Hardhome, and when he receives Cotter Pyke's distress message. On both occasions, Jon rejects the advice and acts to save those people, like Daenerys does in the show.
*As Daenerys Targaryen points out, the only person who actually called her "Dany" was her abusive brother Viserys Targaryen who died in Season 1. No one called her "Dany" since, in the books or TV series. Nonetheless, a large number of fans of both the books and TV series have come to call her that for short, because "Daenerys" is a complex name and difficult to pronounce (Martin said he made it complex on purpose, to show how much more refined the royal Targaryens were). Jon apparently calls her "Dany" here as well because he isn't used to pronouncing "Daenerys" – but she urges that she really doesn't like that name due to reminding her of Viserys.
**Throughout Daenerys's POV book chapters, however, she is consistently referred to as "Dany" by the writer.
**Viserys is the only character who addresses Daenerys by that name in the novels, and only once - when he begs her in vain to stop Drogo from killing him. He calls her "Dany" also in the parallel show scene ("A Golden Crown"); no one else used that name ever since till the recent episode.
*The wight that Jon's search party captures is wearing simple scale-armor made out of big copper plates sewn together, which seems to indicate that it used to be a Thenn.
*The arrowhead-shaped mountain where the Hound's vision ("Dragonstone") led the search party in this episode was previously also seen in Bran's vision about the creation of the first White Walker, in Season 6's "The Door".
====On Dragonstone====
*That Daenerys Targaryen cannot have children was previously established in "The Prince of Winterfell", where she tells Jorah she must retrieve her dragons, and in "The Red Woman", when Khal Moro says he will lie with her that night and "if the Great Stallion is kind, you will give me a son." and Daenerys replies that "I will bear no children, for you, or anyone else. Not until the sun rises in the west, and sets in the east." In the books, it is hinted that Daenerys only believes that she can no longer have children, as she starts "passing blood" while stranded by Drogon in the Dothraki Sea (corresponding to the Season 5 finale "Mother's Mercy").
**Tyrion brings up that if Daenerys think she cannot have children, she will need to plan for the future of the crown after her eventual death. He brings up that the Night's Watch and the Ironborn have their own methods for selecting new rulers without inheritance (elections, a choosing and a kingsmoot, respectively). Both methods are essentially the same, where the leaders who receives tha majority of the votes wins. Tyrion's plans for an election are fulfilled in the Season 8 finale, "The Iron Throne".
*As in the preceding episode, Daenerys and Tyrion heavily reference her intention to "break the wheel" of one tyrant replacing another on the Iron Throne, be it Targaryen, Baratheon, or Lannister. Daenerys's intention to "break the wheel" only appears in the TV series, in the books Daenerys sees the Iron Throne as her stolen birthright and wants to reclaim it for House Targaryen and be a good, benevolent monarch, but by the measure of their existing value system, not by radically re-inventing the system.
*Tyrion Lannister recalls that, while not a particularly capable or brave physical warrior, he did lead a charge out the Mud Gate – which was during the Battle of the Blackwater.
====Dragons traveling to the Wall====
*It is impossible that a raven could be sent to Dragonstone, and then Daenerys could ride her dragons back to the Wall, in the only one or two days, at most, that Jon's group was trapped by the White Walkers. The distance from the Wall to Dragonstone is half a continent. Earlier character movements in Season 7, also criticized by some viewers as "too fast" when compared to movements in earlier seasons, were defended by writer and staff loremaster Bryan Cogman as still being plausible given that it is never mentioned how much time passes between scenes or episodes (i.e. for all we know, it took Grey Worm months to reach Casterly Rock from Dragonstone, and ships travel faster than land armies). Cogman closed his Twitter account before "Beyond the Wall" aired, leaving questions related to this specific instance unanswered.
*Director Alan Taylor responded in an interview with The New York Times, "I've only looked at one review online, and it was very much concerned with the speed of the ravens. I thought, that's funny — you don't seem troubled by the lizard as big as a 747, but you’re really concerned about the speed of a raven. It is true there are time issues, and I'm not exactly sure how many kilometers there are between Eastwatch and Dragonstone. But it was a bit dreary to hear somebody who said, "I cannot enjoy this episode because, you know, that speed of that raven...'" He suggested that more time may have passed on the island than was implied, "since it's always sort of an eternal twilight north of the Wall." Taylor went on to insist, "They seemed to be very concerned about how fast a raven can fly but there’s a thing called plausible impossibilities, which is what you try to achieve, rather than impossible plausibilities. So I think we were straining plausibility a little bit, but I hope the story’s momentum carries over some of that stuff." He insists that a raven flying from the Wall to Dragonstone in this short of an amount of time, while unlikely, is still within the realm of physical possibility.‘Game of Thrones’ Director on Jon Snow and Daenerys Romance, Dragons and Speedy Ravens
*The travel times involved in Daenerys's rescue action was widely criticized in major media reviews of the episode.
====The battle====
*The initial skirmish with a scouting party explicitly reveals that the White Walkers and their undead horde are a keystone army: if a White Walker dies, any wights that it has personally reanimated will drop dead, the White Walker's magic no longer animating them. Assuming this effect filters throughout all ranks of the army, it would mean that if the Night King were to be killed, all the White Walkers he turned, and all subsequent Wights, would be killed, effectively annihilating the entire horde of the undead with a single blow.
*The showrunners stated in the Inside the Episode video for the preceding episode that the wight hunt is "an idea we came up with" – in a context that almost assuredly means it won't actually happen in the next novel, but is an invention of the TV series. Similarly, in the Inside the Episode video for this episode itself, producer D.B. Weiss remarks on how they came up with the idea that Jon's search party gets trapped in the middle of a frozen lake - that they had to come up with this idea, it isn't based on something Martin told them about what happens in the next novel.
*Similarly, the climaxes for Seasons 5 and 6 – "Hardhome" and "Battle of the Bastards" – are large action sequences heavily featuring Kit Harington, but which probably won't actually happen in the novels. "Hardhome" certainly won't happen: Jon doesn't go to Hardhome in the current novels, and while an expedition was sent there, it won't involve him and will apparently happen off-screen. There is no guarantee that Jon will actually fight Ramsay Bolton in a future novel (anymore than it seemed that Robb Stark would face off against Joffrey Baratheon, but then didn't). It is entirely possible that Stannis Baratheon will defeat the Boltons in his upcoming battle against him.
*Benjen Stark dies for the last time, torn apart by wights, holding them off so his nephew Jon could escape on his horse. It is still unclear in the books what happened to Benjen, as he has not returned yet: the TV producers refer to him now as "Coldhands Benjen". In the books, "Coldhands" is a character who has similarly been reanimated but kept his own mind and free will due to the magic of the Children of the Forest, who helps Samwell Tarly and Bran Stark; he is definitely not a wight, since he can talk and his eyes are not glowing blue. There are three possibilities: either "Coldhands" really is Benjen, or perhaps Coldhands is a separate character setting up that Benjen will be reanimated in similar fashion, or this is just a pure invention of the TV series – it is currently unknown. When asked by his editor if Coldhands was Benjen, George R.R. Martin simply answered with a written message: "NO".
*The wights' apparent aversion to water appears for the second time in this episode, the first being "Hardhome", where none of the Wights would chase Jon Snow or the Wildlings into the water. This is repeated again in this episode, when none of the Wights would initially chase the party into the lake after the ice cracks. In the novels, the Wights have no aversion to water: one of Cottor Pyke's letters to Jon Snow from the expedition to Hardhome states that there are "dead things in the water." This episode, however, shows that water doesn't kill wights: when Tormund is swarmed by wights, two wights burst out of the frozen lake and try to drag Tormund under. One possibility that could simply be that wights can in fact operate in water, they simply cannot float or swim in it: when the dragons attack the wights and melt the ice, there is a shot that depicts dozens of wights sinking to the bottom of the lake. Furthermore, given the ending shot depicting the wights dragging Viserion's corpse out of the lake, it can be presumed some wights entered the water in order to attach the chains to the dragon's corpse.
*This episode of course marks the first time that a dragon has died on-screen, Viserion the golden dragon. Dragons are nearly impervious to conventional weapons – but even in the backstory of the books, they have never been tested against Magic powers and weapons, like those of the White Walkers.
*It is unclear why the Night King decided to throw an ice spear at Viserion, as opposed to Drogon, who was far closer and not airborne - and also evacuating the humans whose escape he was trying to prevent.
**It's possible he considered Viserion the more immediate threat because he was still actively attacking the White Walkers' army. He may also have considered that Drogon would have taken some time to take off anyway, making him still a potential target after killing Viserion, while Viserion and Rhaegal could have immediately left should Drogon had been killed first, being already in flight.
*The weapons that the White Walkers wield, such as the ice-spear that the Night King uses to kill Viserion, are crystal swords (they don't have a formal name). The books describe them as razor-thin shards of ice crystals, sharper than any human blade could ever be. George R.R. Martin has stated that they are made of "ice" - though only in the same sense that Valyrian steel is technically "made out of iron". Both are infused with spells that give them magical powers far beyond that: as Martin said, the White Walkers "can do things with ice we can't imagine".
*In a subsequent interview, Emilia Clarke herself points out the irony that out of the three dragons, Viserion was the dragon who was killed and turned into a wight - given that he was named after Viserys, Daenerys's cruel brother who was brutally killed in Season 1 by Khal Drogo.
==In the books==
==Gallery==
===Videos===
Game of Thrones: Season 7 Episode 6 Preview (HBO)
Game of Thrones: Season 7 Episode 6: Inside the Episode (HBO)
Game of Thrones: Season 7 Episode 6: The Night King and Viserion (HBO)
Game of Thrones: Cast Commentary on Brothers Beyond the Wall (HBO)
Game of Thrones: The Frozen Lake (HBO)
Tormund Giantsbane Is In Love / Game of Thrones / HBO
===Images===
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A Game of Thrones with Danerys at Jon's Bedside, Episode 6 of Season 7, 'Beyond the Wall'.jpg
==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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Category:Episodes directed by Alan Taylor
 06
8.20
Category:Episodes written by D.B. Weiss
Category:Episodes written by David Benioff
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