Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
Well, that was no Battle of the Blackwater. Much like in the penultimate episode of Season 2, Game of Thrones put its kaleidoscope of perspectives on hold to focus in on a single, massive event: the Battle of Castle Black. But while this episode may boast the same director and some similar visual spectacle, it sadly lacked the heft that made “Blackwater” one of the finest episodes in the series.
Demanding a full hour for one storyline from a show like Game of Thrones—especially when there are so many other compelling plotlines to follow—can seem like an act of hubris, but in “Blackwater,” Peter Dinklage’s riveting performance as Tyrion pulled it off with aplomb. Sadly, we have no equivalent performance to anchor the long-awaited showdown between the Night’s Watch and the Wildlings: Jon is no Tyrion; Kit Harrington is no Peter Dinklage; and the supporting cast of Sam, Thorne, Pyp and Grenn are no Joffrey, Cersei, Sansa and the Hound. As necessary as the battle may be to the larger story, it comes across as “important” far more than “interesting,” a bit like mandatory history homework.
Yes, there were some stirring moments—from the falling of the scythe to Alliser Thorne’s surprising turn into an actual hero—but it never coalesced into anything larger than those moments. Rather than the overwhelming, Helm’s Deep-style siege of 100,000 men against 100 it promised, we got a big fight writ small—less an epic battle than a gritty, claustrophobic sortie hacked out in tunnels and courtyards. It’s also a fight with far less significance than we might have hoped. Unlike the crushing defeat of Stannis at the Blackwater, this battle ends with Jon’s buzz-killing observation that it was little more than a minor setback for a foe that is still overwhelmingly likely to kill them all—a rather disappointing payoff for an episode that was already Blackwater-lite.
HBO/Neil Fingleton
The Battle of Castle Black
Standing on the edge of the world at the probable end of their lives, Sam asks Jon to spill all the juicy details about Ygritte—specifically, “what it was like to love someone and have them love you back.” This is Sam’s version of locker room talk: a blow-by-blow account of exactly how it feels to not be hauntingly lonely. Jon’s no good at translating complex feelings into “words” (and still preoccupied with the idea that he might still have to kill her), so he sends Sam off to bed with no more info about their hot, hot emotional intimacy.
Elsewhere, in the Wildling camp, Tormund is in the midst of some braggadocio of his own, a seemingly oft-told yarn about the time he sexually conquered a bear. The men are amused, but Ygritte is far less interested in hearing about his fictional bear sex while she’s thinking about murdering her former lover. Styr, the leader of the Thenns—aka the guys that make the Wildlings look tame by comparison—accuses her of being soft, so Ygritte declares super-dibs on killing Jon! She swears that she wants to kill him so bad that she’ll have no choice but to straight-up kill anyone who tries to kill him first, which is definitely about wanting him to die and not the complete opposite.
Sam retreats to the library, and ends up having a conversation with Maester Aemon about sex and death, two subjects on the forefront of his mind now that he thinks Gilly is dead. Sam is shocked to hear that Aemon was a bit of a player back in the day—being an heir to the Targaryen throne has a way of attracting the ladies—and that he, too, loved a woman. He suggests they both go to bed and stop thinking about lost loves, but when Sam goes outside he hears a familiar voice: Gilly! After convincing Pyp to let her in, Sam promises never to leave her again because near-death has made Sam bold and full of declarations, but then the two horns sound the approach of Wildlings so they are probably all dead anyway!
As Jon stands heroically on the edge of the wall, watching the forest to the north burn at the hands of the Wildlings, Alliser Thorne admits that they probably should have sealed the tunnel. Jon generously suggests it was a difficult decision (and not Thorne’s ego dooming them all). Sam, meanwhile, locks Gilly and her baby in some sort of meat pantry to keep her safe, and while she doesn’t want him to go because she (quite reasonably) fears that he will die, he says he has to keep his vow “because that’s what men do.” Then he kisses her. Because that is also what men do.
Soon enough, there are mammoths and giants roaring their way, provoking “oh crap” reactions from Jon, Alliser and every other man on the Wall. Soon a second horn blows indicating that Ygritte and her group are approaching the Southern Gate, so Alliser heads down to give a legitimately inspirational speech before leaping into battle himself, proving that it is possible to be both an asshat and a good commander. He delegates command of the Wall to Slynt, who immediately proves that it is also possible to be neither. He’s so bad that the men convince him he’s needed elsewhere, and he immediately runs to hide in the pantry with Gilly while Jon takes charge.
Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
Tormund starts tearing through the castle, and has a pretty thrilling fight with Thorne where it’s hard to know for whom to cheer (Thorne loses). Outside, the giants and mammoths set to work on opening the main gate, the one with four inches of rolled steel. They’ve just about got it when a bolt from a ballista hits one of them in the back, sending the other into a Hulk-like rage that finally allows him to lift the gate. Per Jon’s orders, Grenn and several men are waiting for him, chanting their Night’s Watch vows and swearing to HOLD THE GATES!
After watching Ygritte shoot Pyp, Sam retreats to ask Jon for reinforcements, and much like Thorne he puts Dolorous Edd in charge of the Wall and descends to fight the battle himself. Edd ends up dropping the Scythe (good idea, Edd!), a giant blade that pendulums across the wall slicing off the climbers. When Jon returns to the fray, there’s a long, unbroken shot as the camera rings the interior of Castle Black in one circular sweep from character to character and battle to battle. It’s no True Detective six-minute hostage tracking shot, but it’s still a clever way to convey the small-scale carnage of castle fighting.
It finally settles back on Sam, who’s about to welcome an old friend to the fight: Ghost. Hey, know who else likes to eat the men they kill besides the Thenns? Direwolves. Jon finally gets his big battle with Styr and holds his own for a while, until the Thenn’s massive battleaxe sweeps his sword away and he gets his face smashed against an anvil. At the last moment he smashes his head in with a hammer, and turns, exhausted—to see Ygritte.
She has an arrow notched and aimed right at him, but she hesitates and there’s this moment where Jon can’t help but smile at her. He’s so happy to see her that for a second he doesn’t seem to care whether he lives or dies. It’s a sweet but ephemeral moment that lasts until Olly—the little boy whose parents were killed and probably eaten by Wildlings—puts an arrow through her chest… which I would characterize as a perfectly reasonable response, but Jon is devastated, holding Ygritte and swearing that she’ll be OK and that some day they’ll make it back to their awesome sex cave and everything will be fine. This, of course, sets up her up to say what you always knew were going to be her last words: “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
They manage to capture Tormund, despite his best attempts to die fighting, and while Sam is enthused about their great victory, Jon realizes that this was only round one. Mance was testing their defenses, and while they passed temporarily they’re still outnumbered 100 to one and the next onslaught will likely come that very night. Congratulations on winning the hopeless battle; your prize is another hopeless battle! Jon says he’s going to go find Mance and try to kill him, since it’s the only chance they have. He tells Sam to raise the gate and lower it after him, striding out North of the Wall as everything fades to white.
Photo: Helen Sloan
In the books: The Battle of Castle Black happened almost immediately after Jon’s return to the Night’s Watch, which took place way back in episode one. This battle was slated for episode nine, however, which it why this story took a long, unsatisfying loop that involved wandering to Craster’s Keep and back again, and sending Gilly away and bringing her back.
The tactics are a bit different as well: Mance launched a diversionary attack at another tower to draw out the Night’s Watch, which he followed by a surprise attack from the South by the forces of Tormund and Ygritte. It wasn’t until after their defeat that Mance’s primary army began their attack. There is no giant Wall scythe, unfortunately, and Ghost is not at Castle Black to join the battle.
Jon never learns exactly who shot Ygritte, though he does find her wounded and she does die in his arms. Rather than Alliser Thorne, the Watch is commanded by Donal Noye, and he officially delegates the Wall to Jon when he hears that the gate is failing. It is also he who ends up dying while defending the gate against a giant named Mag the Mighty; both Grenn and Pyp survive the battle. After Noye’s death Jon takes command, with encouragement from Master Aemon, and fends off the siege for several days.
Finally, Jon doesn’t set out to find Mance after the battle, or at least not under the same terms. Instead, Alliser Thorne and Janos Slynt—who missed the battle entirely—arrive with reinforcements and arrest Jon on charges of desertion for his time with the Wildlings (which he’s already faced on the show), proving yet again that they are the Energizer bunnies of being complete asshats. Eventually, they decide to send him out to treat with Mance, thinking it a suicide mission regardless.
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