Something Wicked This Way Comes

The third episode of Game of Thrones’ final season is almost upon us, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most epic episodes in the fantasy drama’s eight year run. In this piece, we’ll take a look at images from the coming episode, watch the trailer, and speculate on what may befall our surviving heroes as the Night King begins his horrible assault on Winterfell.

What We Know

We don’t know much, that’s for sure. HBO is being as tight-lipped as possible, not even releasing the title of each Season 8 episode until they air (or sometimes until after they’ve aired). Last week’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms title wasn’t revealed by the time I’d written my review. And that wasn’t even much of a spoiler, considering there are many knights in the Seven Kingdoms and people likely would have attributed it to Jaime, not Brienne. So while it’s like “The Battle of Winterfell” we’ll just call it Season 8, Episode 3.

We do have a blurb, however:

“The Night King and his army have arrived at Winterfell and the great battle begins.”

This doesn’t tell us much more than we already know—last week’s incredible episode ended with the White Walkers and their zombie army arriving at Winterfell’s doorstep—but it does mention that the Night King and his army show up, going against the grain of some fan theories we’ve heard which I will discuss at greater length in a post tomorrow.

We also know that the defenders of Winterfell have been making various preparations to stave off the Night King’s forces:

Bran has positioned himself in the Godswood as bait for the Night King, who knows the Three-Eyed Raven’s every move and wants to kill him to snuff out the memory of humankind once and for all. Theon and his Iron Born have accompanied Bran as his personal guard.

Brienne is leading the defensive forces and has been, with help from Pod, training farmers and peasants to be fighters. Gendry and his smiths have been forging Dragonglass weapons, as these can kill White Walkers. Valyrian steel can also kill them. Here’s who has Valyrian steel:

• Jon Snow has Longclaw, given to him by the Old Bear;
• Arya Stark as Littlefinger’s old dagger;
• Jaime Lannister has Widow’s Wail;
• Brienne of Tarth has Oathkeeper (it and Widow’s Wail were made after Tywin melted down Ned Stark’s greatsword, Ice);
• and Jorah Mormont has Heartsbane, the Tarly family sword given to him by Sam.
• Beric Dondarrion has a sword that can light on fire magically, so it should be effective against wights but probably not against White Walkers.

Our heroes have two dragons to the Night King’s zombie dragon. Their forces, however, are almost certainly tiny in comparison to the army of the dead, which has been collecting new recruits ever since it marched south of the Wall.

The forces of good include Dany’s Unsullied, the Dothraki, armies from the North, the Vale, a small force of Iron Born, and an assortment of rag-tag fighters like the Hound, some Night’s Watch and so forth. The plan to bring the forces of Sunspear to their aid fell through when Yara was magically intercepted by her uncle Euron on her way to Dorne. I guess they just gave up on them after that?

And finally, many of the weakest—from the elderly to children to the sick or disabled—have been taken down to the crypts which they believe is the safest place to hide during the fighting. Here’s why they might be terribly, terribly wrong.

Okay, let’s watch the trailer (which I’ve written a bit about already in this post):

(Via YouTube)

Things look pretty grim for our heroes. The episode is directed by veteran Game of Thrones director and Emmy-winner Miguel Sapochnik, who has previously directed “Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards,” and “The Winds of Winter”, some of the show’s best episodes.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sapchnik described the episode as “survival horror” which should be a pretty new take on a massive battle. An excerpt:

“This is survival horror. That’s the whole episode for me. What we realized is you look at like Assault on Precinct 13 — movies where a group is under siege — usually there’s an ensemble cast and a central theme in there. So I’ve been trying to work out whose story this is. That’s different than the stuff I’ve done previously which was generally from Jon’s perspective. Here I’ve got 20-some cast members and everyone would like it to be their scene.”

Indeed, simply cobbling this episode together sounds like a Herculean task. It took 11 weeks to film, with 750 people working on the shoot—at night—in freezing cold temperatures in rural Ireland. Grueling does not even begin to describe it. The episode itself runs 82 minutes. That’s not only the longest episode of Season 8, it’s the longest episode of Game of Thrones, period.

Let’s take a look at the six photos HBO has released for Episode 3.

Here we have Daenerys (Emilia Clark) and Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) no longer at Winterfell at all. They have flown off, it appears, to view the battle from afar. Perhaps they intend to wait until just the right moment to fly Drogon and Rhaegal in to battle the Night King. We’re left with Jon’s admission of his true bloodline to Dany echoing in our thoughts, and Dany’s perturbing reaction. I still think it’s possible that she will break bad and turn on the Starks.

Here we have Varys (Conleth Hill) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) sitting around chatting it up in the crypts. I always enjoy these two when they’re together, and I hope that even amidst this massive battle we get a few snippets of great dialogue. Tyrion better not die, though.

Outside the walls of Winterfell, we have Ser Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Ser Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) lining up for battle. I’m not sure lining up outside is a great idea. Shouldn’t everyone be inside the castle at least to begin with, safer behind the walls, fighting a more defensive battle against the army of the dead?

At least Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya (Maissie Williams) are in the castle, safe for the time being. Arya is an assassin so I’m not sure how her training will translate to straight up warfare. Too bad there isn’t some way for her to put on a White Walker mask and sneak up close to the Night King. Maybe feed him some White Walker pie.

Arya looks decidedly less safe in this image. She’s running from something and she’s very much within the castle walls, perhaps even down in the crypts. This would suggest that the dead have breached the defenses or that other unforeseen enemies were inside the castle all along.

Not much to say about this one other than Sansa Stark has become a strong, ferocious and deeply loyal leader and I would be quite happy if she became Queen in the North after the dust settles. If there is a North to be queen of, that is.

Finally we have Jon Snow, aka Aegon Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne, looking very, very afraid. What is it he’s staring at with such a frightened expression? He’s no longer on his hill above the fray with Daenerys. Now he’s in the thick of it, and something appears to be going very, very wrong. But what?

We’ll find out tomorrow night when Game of Thrones returns at 9 pm ET on HBO and HBO Now. Look for my review after the episode airs, a little later than usual given the movie-length run-time. I am equal parts excited and terrified. I’m sure the battle will be epic, but I’m afraid of who we’ll lose. It seems the right time for some serious winnowing of the cast.

Read my review of last week’s episode here.

Read my predictions for Season 8 here.