The scene with Jon and Jorah talking about Longclaw and the legacy of Jeor Mormont was particularly moving. The slow pacing of the walk toward the beginning of the episode allowed for welcome interactions between characters who typically don't get to speak with one another, and provided good context. For the record, here's the path of just the Jon/Dany storyline this week: It's a lot of physical ground for one storyline to cover even by Game of Thrones standards, and as a result, little weight could be given to many of the key moments. make it from just north of the Wall to the Night King's army, send Gendry back to Eastwatch, have him get a letter off to Daenerys, have her receive it and fly Drogon and her dragons up from Dragonstone, then get back to Eastwatch, have Jon get back and everyone depart. In no episode did that cause more whiplash than in "Beyond the Wall," which saw Jon & co. But, in the simplest of frustrations, it's also made it unclear just how much time is actually passing from episode to episode, and from even scene to scene. In many ways, this has been for the better, as the show has gained momentum with the end in sight and brought many storylines and characters together in exciting ways after they've been apart for seasons. (At least Jon acknowledged that the Suicide Squad plan north of the Wall wasn’t his smartest idea ever.) After seasons of slow, drawn out plotting, Game of Thrones has had a marked shift in the past couple of seasons toward more expedited storytelling. Play But all that rapid storytelling isn't necessarily a good thing, and I found myself increasingly frustrated by the whiplash pace of this episode. There are only seven more episodes left of Game of Thrones before the end, after all. For Daenerys and the Night King already to meet face-to-face on the battlefield is a hugely significant and exciting moment, and one that marks a major turning point for this show. (More on that in a bit.) In many ways, the biggest surprise of this episode wasn't even the death and resurrection of the now-undead Viserion, but rather that any of this even happened at this stage in the story.
These are pretty major developments for any season of Game of Thrones, let alone a single episode - and we haven't even gotten to the Sansa/Arya/Littlefinger storyline. No wonder he so readily bowed a knee to Daenerys. Presumably all one has to do is kill all the White Walkers in the army, and the rest of the creatures (or at least the majority of them) will come down after. "Beyond the Wall" also gave Jon Snow his first real glimpse of how he can defeat the Night King and his army: We seemingly learn that by killing a White Walker, you can knock out all the wights he created. We haven't seen Daenerys truly afraid in a while, but she deserves to be at this juncture. More significantly, Daenerys saw the threat of the undead herself and realized the Night King is the true enemy. Despite the major loss, Jon and his band of merry men did get the wight they needed to convince Cersei this threat is real. Heck, he might be able to fly over or around the Wall just like Daenerys did, though that wouldn’t help him get his army of wights into Westeros any faster. To lose Viserion is a major blow, but to have the Night King resurrect Viserion and add it to his ever-growing army of wights, giants and bears is an even bigger threat. Cersei Lannister might not have had the means to kill a dragon two episodes ago, but it turns out the Night King had a slightly more impactful Scorpion-like bolt in his arsenal (and slightly better aim than Bronn). It's something her Hand, Tyrion, has repeatedly criticized, and though he could have found a slightly more tactful way to bring up who would succeed her should she die, "Beyond the Wall" proved it was a prescient question. 36 Images That loss is one of the most game-changing moments in Game of Thrones to date, and hopefully will be a good wake up call for the dragon queen, who has, until now, been acting as though she’s invulnerable.
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