There’s just two episodes left in this shortened season of Game of Thrones, and if past seasons are anything to go by, the episode before the last episode is always the biggest and craziest of the season. Previous penultimate shows have featured the Battle of the Bastards, the Wildling attack on Castle Black, the Red Wedding, and the Battle of the Blackwater. This season it looks like we’re getting a showdown with the undead beyond the Wall.
Let’s take a closer look at what the trailer reveals. As always, we’re just making educated guesses along with the rest of you but we wouldn’t recommend you keep reading if you want to remain completely spoiler free.
The trailer opens with scenes of Jon Snow and his party travelling and travelling through the endless wasteland of the North. That’s right, not only is everyone probably going to die, they have to freeze their butts off before they get killed too.
Well that’s a beautiful scenic view. Wait a second… That mountain looks a bit familiar. Where have we seen it before?
It’s the same mountain from season six, episode five where the Children of the Forest create the first White Walker. Well that can’t be good.
“Death is the enemy. The first enemy and the last. The enemy always wins. And we still need to fight him.”
Visibility is kinda crappy north of the Wall, what with all the snowstorms and everything. But I believe what we’re seeing here is a huge swarm of undead wights emerging from a mountain crevasse.
The “pooping my fur-lined pantaloons” look on Jon Snow’s face right here confirms it: the dead have arrived, and his band of men do not seem as prepared for them as they should be.
Later in the preview we get another look at the undead as they charge through the mountain pass. Note Jon and his band running for their lives in the background.
You know what they say: you don’t have to run faster than a bear, you just have to run faster than your friend. Unfortunately, in this analogy there are thousands of bears.
At some point, Jon’s group stops running and forms a circle in preparation for a fight.
The army of the dead includes some fleshier skeleton creatures than Jason and the Argonauts-looking monsters we’ve encountered in the past…
…and at least one White Walker joining the fray to take on Jon Snow. You might note that whatever weapon Jon uses here doesn’t explode through the Other’s sword like Longclaw did at Hardhome. That may mean dragonglass is effective, but not quite as effective as Valyrian steel when it comes to kicking White Walker butt. I suppose the only way to learn stuff like this is on the fly, but it sure seems like an inopportune time to learn your secret weapon is kind of weaksauce.
Fortunately, they’ve got Beric Dondarrion and his magic sword* of fire!
*not Valyrian steel OR dragonglass so fingers crossed it works against White Walkers at all.
There’s Gendry making his father proud with some excellent warhammer swinging.
And the Hound with a warhammer of his own? Is that Gendry’s warhammer he’s holding? That certainly doesn’t bode well for the Bull.
No Game of Thrones trailer would be complete without a shot of the Night’s King looking intensely down on something from afar. Let’s hope for Jon’s sake it’s from afar.
I have no idea what I’m looking at here. Is it Jon and his survivors arriving back at the Wall? Wildlings and Night’s Watch leaving the gate at Eastwatch? A completely unrelated castle gate? Your guess is as good as mine.
Meanwhile at Dragonstone, the war for Westeros continues. I wonder how it’s going for Daenerys and Tyrion?
That is not the face of a queen whose conquest is going according to plan.
And in Winterfell, Littlefinger’s plan to turn Arya and Sansa against each other seems to be working.
“You’re scared, aren’t you? What are you scared of?”
Would “My psycho assassin little sister” be considered an appropriate response?
From the glimpses we’ve just gotten from this trailer, it looks like episode six is going to be pretty epic. And long, too: the running time for next week’s show is 71 minutes.
