Sorry about the late and short recap but a weekend of Governors Ball left me more fatigued than I thought it would. Anyways, for the 9th episode of the 4th season of Game of Thrones, what did HBO give us? A whole episode that was based on the characters at Castle Black and the Wildlings that were about to wage a battle for it. Does that sound like any episode that we may have seen on this show before? If you guessed “The Battle of Blackwater”, pin a blue ribbon on yourself. If you also guessed that the episode would be focused mainly on Jon Snow and Ygritte, you were partially right….
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We got a healthy dose of Samwell Tarly in this episode. The beginning of this episode started off with Sam and Jon Snow keeping watch at the top of the wall. Apparently, Sam’s pops wasn’t much of a father because he asks Jon about the birds and the bees and Jon realizes real quick that he’s not built for this.
It takes a talk with Maester Aemon Targaryen for Sam to realize that he’s in love and he just needs to do whatever it takes to protect her. What a coincidence! She happens to show up to his doorstep with the baby in tow. Gilly has some pretty sick timing. At that very moment, horns start blaring like it’s a James Brown song. Sam gets Gilly to safety in a locked room but Gilly doesn’t want him to leave. She tells him to tell her that he won’t die. Of course, he says that he won’t. Meanwhile, my reaction would have been:
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So he heads back outside and into the frying pan.
Meanwhile, Jon Snow is at the top of the wall with his asshole boss, Ser Alliser, when they both find out that Castle Black is under attack from the inside as well. Giants and woolly mammoths attacking the wall while gingers and cannibals attack the castle. Hell of a game plan? Who’s leading these guys? Al Davis?
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Ser Alliser leaves some wuss in charge who has no idea what he’s doing. Meanwhile, Ser Alliser reaches the castle through some weak ass elevator that a 9 year old boy operates (ew guys. What’s good with the child labor laws here?). Ser Alliser immediately goes into gangster mode and gets into a good fight with Tormund. Tormund almost kills Alliser though when Alliser catches a break and retreats. Simultaneously, Ygritte is accumulating headshot after headshot and sniping crows left and right. She would have been really nasty at Goldeneye for N64.
While all that is happening, Jon Snow is leading the troops on the wall and getting good results when Jon gets the message that the sitch in Castle Black looks weak and he might be needed down there. So he takes the elevator down and enters the fray. He almost gets killed by a cannibal when he finds a hammer and smashes it through his head. Impressive.
He turns around and finds Ygritte with an arrow pointed at his heart. He flashes one of those “I’m bringing sexy back, girrrrrrrl” grins and she hesitates for a second. That second was all it took for the random elevator boy to shoot an arrow through her. Jon Snow gives a half assed attempt at trying to make believe he cares about the ho. You don’t believe me? I mean, the next day he’s like “Nah. I got work to do”. At least, Ygritte gets the last laugh.
By the way, random elevator boy is a major cockblock. I got no love for him. Meanwhile, a Giant gets through into the tunnel and is about to run over the inside gate. The camera pans a bunch of the Night’s Watch that seem thrilled to defend it. They all die but they stop the monstrosity. Also, the dudes at the top of the wall release a scythe that chop off a bunch of wildlings that were trying to scale the wall in what is one of the most bad ass scenes of the episode.
So the Night’s Watch win the first battle and have captured Tormund for questioning (even though the situation still looks bleak for them) and Jon looks like he’s the logical choice for leader because no one knows where the hell Ser Alliser is. Jon realizes right away that they can’t win this war so he decides he’s going to try to kill Mance Rayder, the leader of the Wildling army. It’s the whole “cut off the head and the body will fall” theory.
Honestly, there isn’t much to talk about in this episode in terms of intrigue and drama but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t awesome, bloody, and filled with action. What did you guys think of the episode?
Tumblrs, Tweets, and Observations:
– Even though the scythe scene was pretty bad ass scene, the part where a giant shoots a huge arrow through a dude and into the air FOR THE WIN:
– Vulture interviewed Medieval weapons experts about the legitimacy of how the weapons are used on the show.
– Oh, Peter Dinklage. You think you’re funny, huh?
