Game of Thrones Recap: Watchers on the Wall

I’m back after a brief hiatus, life can get crazy. While not much from last episode affects this one, we should mention how Sansa learned something in King’s Landing and lied for Littlefinger. Our dear favorite Prince Oberyn was killed by The Mountain :(.  (Should warn that this recap with contain violent/graphic images).

What happened in this episode, the Wildlings attacked the Wall. That was pretty much the entire episode. The early part of the episode was both sides prepping for the battle and then the battle. I am going to leave some pics and videos to tell what happened with the occasional comment.

The episode starts with Jon and Sam having a bromance moment about the women in their lives:http://youtu.be/cMdHYRmPnFk (sorry they wouldn’t allow me to embed this one).

Gilly comes back, which is huge for Sam because he thought she was dead and blamed himself.  Also because well now he realizes that he has feelings for her.

While preparing for the attack Ygritte makes sure everyone knows that Jon Snow is hers if he is still alive.

Styr had all the comments to make about Ygritte without knowing her.  I have to give the girl credit she holds her own in male dominated society.

Sam knew that something might happen to Gilly and that he might die so he was smart and hid Gilly away.  Gilly tried to make Sam stay with her but he couldn’t he was a man of the Nights Watch.  Sam did promise Gilly that he would come back, unfortunately that usually means death in horror movies and Game of Thrones.  Before Sam left he finally did something that we have all been waiting for:

Sam and Gilly kiss

Yay, about damn time for something to happen between those two.

Both sides prepare for the upcoming battle:

Look at me I am a badass

Unfortunately the fight was not fair between both sides and as we all know Alliser Throne hates Jon Snow and never listens to him.

Now the Wildings don’t play fair because they brought Giants and Mammoths:

Can someone please tell me where the Wildings got the mammoths from?  Do that have a Mother of Dinosaurs because last time I checked this was Medieval England and dinosaurs were extinct.  I guess if you can have dragons you can have an extinct animal as well.  Also for anyone wondering wonder where Janos Slynt went well he ran into the room where Gilly was and later he is found dead.  We can only assume that Gilly did it.

Speaking of the mammoths the Wildings where using them to pull down the gate:

The Nights Watch did a really smart move by cracking part of the Wall making it harder for the Wildlings to climb it:

The episode came with some really great speeches:

The episode also had some really great fighting scenes:

Jon Snow enters the battle:

More importantly Ghost enters the fray:

Granted we should have probably told Ghost not to spend so much time on one person but his help was greatly appreciated.  I will admit Jon didn’t need to be a dick to Sam about Ghost.  Jon might have told Sam that Ghost was more useful to Jon right now than Sam.  In the same situation I would probably say the same thing but is was kind of a dick thing to say because Sam was useful he let Ghost out.

Unfortunately the episode did have some losses like Pyp, Sam really tried to make the end peaceful for Pyp.  Pyp was not the only loss:

Ygritte was killed by the little boy who’s father she killed earlier in the season.  The Night’s Watch lost many of their brothers during the fight.

Jon does the only thing that he can think of he leaves Castle Black to go talk with Mance Rayder because the Night’s Watch cannot withstand night after night of attack.  Also Sam lived, he did not succumb to the horror movie/ GoT death just because he promised to come back.

As someone who read the books and knew what was going to happen, I found the episode lacking something. I have never said that before about a battle episode, the Battle of Blackwater blew me away. It might have something to do with the fact that George R. R. Martin did not write this episode like he did the Battle of Blackwater. Martin decided to use his one episode write on the Purple Wedding, I’ll give that one to him. Back to the episode I just found it anti-climatic, I was expecting more from it. It was a lot quicker in the book and mainly told from Jon’s perspective. In the book Jon does not hold Ygritte while she dies he finds her shot with arrow already dead.

At the same time I cannot put my finger on what about this episode, it was a good battle. Maybe because I had been waiting for it, I had thought it was going to happen earlier as it did in the book. It just did not live up to my expectations but it was a great battle that I have to say. Jon Snow was a serious badass during the battle and Sam made some rather smart choices. It was great seeing Ghost get into the fray.  Also Jon showed some amazing leadership during this episode, he took the lead when he needed to.  Which was the right thing to do because most of those men need someone to follow.  Then again I already knew about Jon’s amazing leadership skills, it is one of the things I love about him.  I do like the moment between Jon and Ygritte it was much better than him just finding her already dead.  The episode was not horrible, it just lacked something.

Until next week when we watch the season finale, I do wish these seasons were longer.