Game of Thrones Episode 66: Beyond the Wall

The episode follows Jon Snow and a small band of fighters as they travel **beyond the Wall** to capture a wight and bring proof of the dead back south. In Winterfell, the tension between Sansa and Arya continues to simmer in the background.

At Winterfell, Sansa receives a letter from King’s Landing and meets with Brienne, who warns her not to leave the North. Sansa instead decides to send Brienne away as her representative, so Brienne can go south in her place.

North of the Wall, Jon leads the ranging party in brutal cold and snow. The group includes Tormund, Jorah Mormont, the Hound, Beric, Thoros, and Gendry, along with several Wildlings. Jon offers Longclaw to Jorah, but Jorah insists Jon keep the sword. As the party travels, they are attacked by a blue-eyed undead bear, and several men are killed before the group pushes onward.

The party later spots a White Walker leading a column of wights through a canyon and sets an ambush. Jon kills the White Walker with Longclaw, causing the wights tied to it to collapse, and the group manages to capture one surviving wight to prove the threat exists. After the battle, Thoros dies from his wounds overnight.

Meanwhile, Gendry makes it back to Eastwatch and sends a raven to Daenerys asking for help. Tyrion urges Daenerys not to go north because the mission is too dangerous, but Daenerys rejects his advice and flies north with her dragons to rescue Jon and the others.

Daenerys arrives in time to attack the wights from the air, burning many of them and giving the trapped men a chance to escape. The rescue is chaotic, and the group tries to flee on Drogon while the dead keep pressing forward. During the battle, the Night King throws an ice spear that kills Viserion, one of Daenerys’s dragons, and the dragon falls. The loss forces Daenerys and the others to retreat.

Jon stays behind to cover the escape, but he falls into the freezing water during the fighting. Benjen Stark appears and saves Jon, giving him a horse so he can ride back to Eastwatch while Benjen remains behind to hold off the wights. Benjen is overwhelmed as Jon escapes.

Back at Eastwatch, Jon apologizes to Daenerys for the loss of Viserion, and she accepts the sacrifice as the cost of learning the truth about the threat beyond the Wall. Jon calls her **“my Queen,”** and she agrees to stand with him against the Night King. Beyond the Wall, the Night King raises Viserion as a wight dragon.