Mance gets the party started
The episode does a great job of illustrating each stage of the battle. Tormund, Ygritte, and assorted Thenns wait for the warg Thenn to see Mance Rayder's fire so they can coordinate the attacks. Mance's giants, one riding a fucking wooly fucking mammoth, with puny wildlings carrying ropes alongside the wild beast approach the edge of the wood. Wildlings pour into the open space beyond the tree line. As the forces atop the wall engage, Tormund and the Thenns attack Castle Black from behind. With two forces assaulting Castle Black, it was almost guaranteed to fall. The Night's Watch beat back both wildling forces, but there's another 99,000 wildlings ready to attack at the next nightfall. So, when the Night's Watch manages to survive the night with both fronts intact, they're both elated and crestfallen.
Someone call for a tow truck?
Various characters talk about how it sucks they'll be dead. Sam regrets dying a virgin, and Jon's tongue-tied description of sexual intimacy is long on how you become something else with another person, while Sam is more interested in the size and shape of things. Maester Aemon tries to remind Sam to worry less about love and more about duty. Sam tries to tell Pyp how he kept his shit together facing a White Walker- don't overthink. In fact, don't think. When facing a horrible enemy, just concentrate on the knife in your hand and your opponent's weak spots. Silly mistakes plague the Night's Watch all night- dropping an oil barrel, not dropping an oil barrel and it explodes in their faces, drawing arrows when they only needed nocking. Alliser, like a drill sargent from a army movie, looks disgusted with his soldiers in their first battle, then screams at them, asking if they want to die tonight. What a relief! They don't! Alliser looks pleased that at least they can pretend to not be scared.
Okay, let's take some steps back
There are thrilling parts- a giant shoots an arrow so big and strong it takes out whole fortifications, and throws an unluckly brother over the south side of the wall. Giants pound into the gate and hook up tow hooks to their mammoth, and the Night's Watch pours flaming oil on the whole operation. The mammoth stomps off, ass aflame, as burning wildlings are dragged away. One of the giants goes down from an arrow, inflaming the other to lift up the gate to storm inside. Ser Alliser decides it's better to go down fighting the losing fight you chose, than let Jon fucking Snow question your leadership. He's all piss and vinegar, even when dragged away after losing a brawl to Tormund. I'll give him this- he looks for the biggest asshole and tries to kill it. Sam, on his way to the elevator, nonchalantly arrows a Thenn. A fucking Thenn. Even before that, Sam curses at Pyp until Gilly's let in, then stashes her in the fridge with a speech out of a Clint Eastwood movie and a passionate kiss. He spends a chunk of the night encouraging Pyp to shoot arrow after arrow, trying to make believe this is just a fun game. Dolorous Ed unleashes a huge chunk of metal wall death known as the Scythe, rising from broken ice like a monster breaking loose, and barrelling down on wildlings climbing the wall, shattering and scattering the horrified wildlings like ice shards. The Wall Defends Itself.
Look, I gotta go
Yeah, I got everything wrong, we would'a died anyway...
Like a tow truck that shits- notice the giants compared to the wildlings
There are flaming arrows, nocked, drawn, and loosed repeatedly, flames and slight wooshing sounds alongside steel and screaming. There's Ygritte spending most of the night angrily shooting crows, and seeming pissed that Jon's not below to kill. There's craven cowardice, as Janos Slynt loses his shit and starts babbling to himself. Grenn saves the fight atop by going away, and coming back from behind, to trick Slynt into going down.
Grenn's heroism doesn't end with getting Slynt out of the way; Jon sends him down with five other men to hold the inner gate, as the wildlings try breaching it. He stands with a bunch of other new recruits, all barely old enough to even be in an army, and together, they recite their vows as an angry giant literally bum-rushes the inner gate. Even if there were no vows, that thing is coming through the gate, and if they don't stop it, it will definitely kill them. So, they may as well shout a bit and bring it down if they can. Sure, it's a ten-foot giant running toward them, and he's pissed off. But they're Shields That Guard The Realms Of Men. Together. Turns out, they're literally human shieds, and Jon and Sam mourn them the next day, their bloody bodies strewn around the giant they brought down and the partially mangled inner gate.
As Alliser, then Janos, and then Jon go down to defend the south Castle, command is handed down again and again until good ol' Dolorous Ed, pessimist extraordinaire, is in charge. And he's decided that they should get some fun before they die. The episode comes off as an expression of how each character approaches violent death. Little Olly, the tween working the elevator for the evening, goes from paralyzing trauma to hardened warrior. Alliser curses the whole shitfest and tells his men to fight it, even after being knocked out of the fight himself. Slynt crawls away in fear. Pyp and Sam try to make a game of it, at least until Pyp dies in Sam's arms. Grenn looks death in the eye and tells it he's a shield, even if there's no glory in it for him. Ed stoically wants to take as many wildlings out with him. Jon strides confidently into battle, even while wishing the others had listened to him. This is also about teamwork. Sam and Pyp work together briefly, and Jon directs the action atop the wall for a while, with Grenn and Ed carrying them out. Grenn holds his little giant-fighting team together by reminding them that upholding their vows together is what makes them special, and brothers.
Defeating wildlings with his smoldering walk
While Ser Alliser's matchup with Tormund was a good brawl between old warriors, the climax fight of the night is Jon, who comes down when Ser Alliser is out of the fight to re-rally the men, give a key to Sam, and basically be a total bad-ass for about five minutes. Sam takes the key and releases Ghost, who was born for a fight like this- he gets right into it. The Thenn leader, Styr, is even more excited to see Jon than Ygritte is. Ygritte issued a warning at the beginning, that Jon is hers to kill, like a crazy ex-girlfriend. So Styr is ecstatic to do exactly what Ygritte told him not to, mostly because he seems to really hate Jon for having sex with Ygritte.
Can't we just talk this over?
Styr and Jon duke it out, Styr wielding a combination trident/club thing, and Jon using Longclaw until he loses it in the snow. Styr loses his club, and resorts to beating Jon senseless, shoving his face into an anvil, and tossing him through a fire. When Jon recovers from this, Styr shoves him into a wall, and begins choking him. Jon finds a lucky hammer, and slams it half-way through Styr's head. The leader of the Thenns collapses, his head half blood, and Jon turns around to find Ygritte with an arrow pointed right at him. Jon doesn't move. She doesn't kill him. Relieved, Jon smiles. Because Ygritte still loves him. Because he still loves her. There's a swooshing sound, and Ygritte is hit in the back. By little Olly, who only nods at Jon. Jon catches Ygritte before she can hit the ground, and they remind each other that they should never have left the magic cave/bath/spa of love. Ygritte gets in one last "You know nothing, Jon Snow," before dying. Like Tony and Maria in West Side Story.
There's....a....place....for.....us.....
Wildlings flee the wall near dawn, and it's not until the sky is lightening that Tormund Giantsbane, arrows sticking out all over him, is brought down, Jon ordering him taken prisoner for questioning. Despite the constant losses all night, the wildlings attacking from the South are all wiped out except Tormund. He's dragged away, screaming that he should have killed Jon. Jon, walking away, still numb with grief for his brothers and Ygritte, wishes Tormund had killed him, too. Sam, hurrying to tell Gilly that he's safe for now, finds Slynt whimpering and cowering in a corner of the fridge. Men are variously clearing away bodies, and Ed is telling the men at the top to get ready for the next night's party.
With Ser Alliser who knows where in what state, deliberations are left for Jon and Sam to make. Sam's hopeful, Jon says they've got maybe two days. His only plan is to march into the wildling army, somehow get close to Mance Rayder, and kill him. The Night's Watch was successful, even after Alliser was dragged away and Slynt hid away. The wildlings, however, will scatter without a leader. So, Jon will kill the leader, or at least die himself while trying. Sam hates this plan, but comes up empty with no alternative. So, they march slowly together through the tunnel, to the outer gate. They stop along the way to mourn Grenn and his men, and for Jon to promise to come back as hands Sam Longclaw for safe-keeping. The gate rises, and Jon steps out into the light of a new day, not expecting to see another.
Off to see the wizard
No comments:
Post a Comment