In its six-plus years on television, Game of Thrones has always made sure the second-to-last episode of each season is among the most pivotal of the season.
The penultimate episode usually contains either a shocking death or a fantastic battle. In the first season, Ned Stark is beheaded in the ultimate “anyone can be killed” moment; the third season features the legendary Red Wedding; and, in the fifth season, Shireen Baratheon was burned at the stake in one of the show’s most heart-wrenching scenes. As battles go, the second season features the explosive Battle of the Blackwater, the Night’s Watch defends the Wall from the wildings in the fourth season and, in the sixth season, Jon Snow meets and beats fellow bastard Ramsay Bolton.
The seventh season is no exception to this pattern — in fact, Sunday’s episode, “Beyond the Wall,” upped the ante with both a riveting battle and a stunning death.
Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and her sister, Sansa (Sophie Turner), bickered like children about Sansa’s non-existent role in their father’s death — just like Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen), who actually played a big part in Ned’s death, wants them to do. Littlefinger’s comeuppance is going to happen at some point, so there’s really no point to the bad soap opera unfolding in Winterfell right now.
The only important thing is north of the Wall. The dream team formed last episode pretty easily fights off a few wights, one White Walker and an undead bear — but when the Night King and the entire army of the dead come at them, the suicide squad could do nothing but run.
The concepts of time and space having been disregarded, Gendry sprints back to Eastwatch, where he sends Daenerys a raven pleading for help. Daenerys swoops in, and the dragons are finally unleashed on the army of the dead. Dragonflame easily destroys hordes of the wights, but the White Walkers don’t seem too bothered by it.
The Night King (Vladimir Furdik, previously Richard Blake) used to be best known for giving Jon an incredible “come at me bro” look at the end of “Hardhome” in the fifth season.
Photo via Game of Thrones Wiki
But after this week, the Night King ought to be remembered for doing the unthinkable: taking down one of Daenerys’ dragons.
With an incredible throw, the Night King put a javelin of ice through Viserion’s heart. And, as has been hinted at and theorized about, he resurrected Viserion as a wight dragon? An ice dragon?
Nomenclature aside, the Night King now has a powerful weapon that could counter Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons. For now, though, she is determined to destroy the army of the dead along her new ally Jon Snow.
After being saved by good ol’ Uncle Benjen (Joseph Mawle), Jon (Kit Harington) returns to Dany and takes responsibility for Viserion’s death — rightly, because his plan to capture a wight to show to Cersei was really, really dumb. He bends the knee — metaphorically, seeing as he’s in bed recovering from a fight he shouldn’t have survived — and acknowledges Dany as his queen.
Team Jon and Daenerys will be fully unleashed soon enough. While the penultimate episodes are always stunning, the last episode has been the best in recent seasons. Here’s hoping that next week’s episode is as good as “The Winds of Winter” was last season.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
