Behind the Wall

Behind the Wall is the first episode of Season 7 (7.1), and the first episode of the Game of Thrones Rewrite. It is followed by Dragonstone (7.2).

Summary
Bran approaches Castle Black at a severe cost; Jon plans to advance on the Wall; Cersei consolidates her new reign; Arya navigates the wartorn Riverlands; Sam struggles with his duties at the Citadel; Daenerys' council plan a landing; Theon struggles to find a purpose; Jorah approaches Lyrio Mopatis for a Greyscale cure; the army of dead close on the Wall.

Plot
North of the Wall, with a ferocious and dark winter coming in. Ravens screech and cry and burst through the treeline. We see brief snippets of them darting clear, and a few of them dodge black spears hurled upwards. They come together at a weirwood tree and cluster on its top branches. Their screeching comes to an abrupt halt. They're silhouetted against the dying light of the day, a blistering orange. We see their POV as figures approach the weirwood tree. A dozen of them, too small to be soldiers of white walkers. We finally get a proper look at the Children of the Forest as they congregate before the weirwood and each place their hand to it. The ravens' eyes go white, and then as one they fly again, and in every direction. The Children hold their hands to the tree. Behind them, men appear. Some ride horses without saddles, and their clothes and weapons are primitive. They approach slowly with weapons raised. We see the massacre as black against the horizon, by the tree. The leader of the men looks at the tree and sees distinct patterns carved into the white bark. One is a spiral. Another resembles the Greek phi (φ). The man reaches out to touch them.

Bran snaps out of his vision and returns to the present, and takes his hand off the weirwood tree. He and Meera are still camped out just beyond the Wall. He is extremely agitated. He repeats over and over again “they're still alive, they're still alive, they're still alive.” Meera calms him. Later they huddle by a fire at an abandoned keep under the wall and talk about his visions. He tells her he saw Meera’s father fight with his all those years ago in Dorne, and what his father found in the tower. He tells her that Jon is now King in the North – but that his real name is Aegon Targaryen.

“It’s fitting,” he tells her. “A secret that only our fathers knew passes to us.”

When Meera asks what he saw that day, he is shaken. He wonders aloud whether it is wise to go beyond the Wall. He looks at his marked hand as he does.

“You won’t be able to help anyone if they kill you beyond the wall," she says. "We have to get behind the Wall."

He does not look convinced. He mumbles “that's how it all starts.”

They hear howling outside and Meera goes to a hole in the wall and looks out into the night. The howls rise and swell from a thousand throats. Then there's something else like a crunching of bones echoing. Bran shivers.

Winterfell. The winds rise and characters huddle by fires and in meagre shelter. The snow is falling and settling deep. Inside, Jon conducts his first small council, with Sansa, Davos, Lord Royce, Tormund, Lord Manderly, Lord Glover and Lady Mormont. Glover says he has heard that Euron Greyjoy now rules in the Iron Islands and is building a fleet. With Euron’s fearsome, terrible reputation, Glover says he fears for Deepwood Motte, relatively undefended. Manderly, meanwhile, says there are rumours of the death of Walder Frey and chaos at The Twins. Littlefinger enters, clearly uninvited. This draws protest from Manderly and Glover, and visible unhappiness from Sansa. Jon tells him he is not welcome, but Littlefinger insists on his value. To prove it, he informs them that Tommen Baratheon and the Tyrells are dead, and that Cersei has assumed the throne, which quietens the room.

Jon says nothing at first, then tells them none of that matters next to the Army of the Dead. He tells them he has forgiven House Umber and Karstark and that he wants all his bannermen to go north now, to the Wall. Sansa objects to abandoning Winterfell, potentially to the likes of Cersei or the Greyjoys. Jon dismisses this point and ends the meeting, much to Sansa's consternation.

As the council go their separate ways, Sansa asks to speak with Royce alone.

Jon and Davos discuss the quickest way to get to the Wall. Davos suggests that sea is the quickest method, but concedes that they do not have a navy large enough to ferry Jon's Northmen, the Vale Knights and the Wildlings. Jon notes that even then, they'll need enough ships to also carry all the allies they don't have. Littlefinger interrupts and suggests that, hard as he is trying to hide it, Lord Manderly has a sufficient navy. He then states that if Jon needs more allies and more ships, he can help. Jon is unimpressed and goes off on his own way. Littlefinger pursues to make his case, but Jon makes clear that he does not trust him. When Littlefinger points to the help he has afforded Sansa, Jon makes clear that he understands how inconsistent this help was. He then tells Littlefinger that he knows that he was supposed to counsel Ned, and that Ned ended up being murdered.

Littlefinger counters that he did counsel Ned, and still regrets that Ned did not take that counsel. This is what caused the War of the Five Kings. He praises Jon's honesty and honour, but bluntly states that this inheritance from his father could do the same damage if it wins out over reason.

“You said yourself that the war north is more important than anything. Is it more important than that honour, or your father's memory?”

Jon is shaken by this. He says that Littlefinger will be included in his council, but only if he fulfils his promise to bring allies and ships. Littlefinger makes his promise, saying he knows just the place to look.

King’s Landing, with the Reach now no longer in the Crown’s fold, new Queen Cersei is dealing with mass starvation and a burgeoning peasant’s revolt, led by the remaining Sparrows. Jaime confronts her, trying to make her understand how much danger she’s in. They have no allies. The City Watch can’t be trusted. Not even the Lannister army, now defending the Red Keep, can entirely be counted on, due to anger at the Queen over the Sept of Baelor and the deaths of Kevan Lannister, Tommen and Margaery. In many ways, Jaime is also talking about himself here. Cersei reacts accordingly. She informs him the Starks have retaken Winterfell, then tells him about Daenerys sailing for Westeros, with three dragons, with Tyrell and Martell backing – and with Tyrion as hand.

“It's like a prophecy,” she mutters.

Jaime challenges this notion, and so she tests Jaime's nerve on the last point, and when Jaime falters Cersei scoffs at his weakness.

“All of these enemies surrounding us,” she says, “and the one you cannot face is the monster who killed father.”

With more resolve and a stiffer jaw, Jaime says he will face Tyrion, that he will kill Tyrion, and that all of their enemies will fall in turn. Cersei is suitably impressed. However, when she leaves him, his doubt is very evident.

Arya rides from The Twins through the Riverlands, and sees Lannisters and Freys taking huge amounts of food and grain from farmers. One farmer tells Arya it’s all bound for King’s Landing, by the Queen’s decree – that they’re demanding triple the amount of grain than before, which is leaving the Riverlands smallfolk with nothing for themselves. Arya learns that Cersei is now Queen, and that all of the Tullys are gone, with Edmure and his family effectively captives at Casterly Rock. She also sees much of the Frey host at Riverrun leaving to go back to the Twins, with just a small, mostly Lannister garrison remaining.

That evening, she encounters a small group of Lannisters camped outside the city. They offer her food and wine and share war stories. They're young and tired men who simply want to go home. One of them, a Captain, admits that he hasn't even heard a word about his children in five years. Arya shows her sympathy, and when a song is sung, she laughs.

That night, the men fall asleep after too much wine. We see Arya going around the fire and slitting their throats one by one. Then she mounts her horse and moves off into the night.

Oldtown. Sam is shown going through his paces as an acolyte Maester, mostly through menial tasks like returning books in the library, cleaning up the facilities to an absurd degree and transcribing old and mundane texts for posterity. We also seem him in classes on a range of subjects like history, words and science. In the latter class, he is taught by MAESTER SEVERYN. They have a short and curt argument in front of the class on the subject of the real and the magical. Sam suggests that the extent of Severyn's knowledge and expertise stops at the Wall.

Severyn angrily dismisses Sam as superstitious and more concerned with stories than with truth.

“Everything that exists,” he says, “can be explained within our understanding of the world, even if that means adjusting that understanding. The world never changes.”

Sam is cowed and embarrassed. That night he eats dinner with Gilly and complains about his day. Gilly in turn complains that she and Little Sam have little to do but sit and wait for him. She is an outsider here, and does not feel welcome. Sam insists that he'll make a home for them all soon, once he has his purpose. Gilly points out that she doesn't have a purpose herself. Sam is troubled by this. The next day, he speaks with ARCHMAESTER PERESTAN – historian and chronicler – and asks if there's a role Gilly can fulfil in the Citadel. Perestan is distracted and snaps at Sam, but quickly apologises and admits that he's troubled by events elsewhere. As a chronicler, he is supposed to make sense of events in the world, but he can't with such madness abound. Sam agrees, and tells him about his experiences. This includes beyond the wall and slaying a White Walker. Perestan is more amused than shocked, and says he's read about all of this before. He then notes that if such stories are to be believed, Dragonstone is the seat of all real power in Westeros. Sam blinks, as if struck by deja vu, and asks Perestan to explain. Perestan says that Dragonstone has a cache of dragonglass, and that by Sam's word the dead are rising and dragonglass stops them.

“What ends the greatest threat,” he says, “is of the greatest value.”

Sam swallows and then politely asks if he might be allowed to send a letter.

North of the Wall. The weather has gotten worse. Though it's day, the sky is almost night in its darkness and the snows are whipped up into a blizzard by the harsh winds. Meera struggles desperately to pull a dead deer through the snow and back to the sanctuary she's picked. It's a ruined dwelling, decidedly smaller and less secure than the keep they'd previously inhabited. She gets inside to Bran and half-collapses. The blizzard has made her face bleed and she is deathly pale. Bran is stricken by cold and something else, half-bowed over by pain. Meera tells Bran they have to get to the wall.

Again, Bran is oblique. “I wonder if we should have ever left that cave,” he says.

Meera explodes at this and states that she's given up everything for Bran, and lost her brother and companions too. If they're to stay north of the wall, it means death. So she needs to know why she has to die. Bran looks at her and cries and says he's scared, that he knows a sequence of events will begin. He saw himself at Castle Black and then “heard the screams” that follow. He then expresses his remorse at Hodor's death. He now knows that he's right to be afraid, because of what he did, because he now knows what it means. Meera is stunned to hear that he can apparently see the future.

“There is no future,” Bran says, “and that's why I'm so afraid.”

Meera holds him and swears she'll protect her from whatever comes next. Bran smiles and shakes his head. She notes that if it's the future he sees, it has to happen, or it wouldn't be the future. He puffs himself up to travel.

They make it a short distance, but edge very close to the wall. Meera contemplates trying to build a signal to attract the Night's Watch, but is fearful that it will simply alert the dead to their presence. She asks what he sees them doing in the future, jokingly. Bran explains that he cannot see the full picture of what is to come; he can only see pieces, like torn scraps of paper from a letter. "I need a lot more pieces before I can read it."

Meera suggests that they ask her father, Howland Reed, who she says has a "magical gift" for solving such puzzles. They could go there, to Greywater Watch, as soon as they make it to the other side of the Wall. She suspects that they would have much to learn from him. Bran agrees, but asks that they go to the last weirwood before the Wall before then, near the entrance to Castle Black.

“Then home?” Meera asks.

“Yes,” Bran says. “Home.”

On the summer sea, Daenerys’ armada sails. She asks Tyrion whether there’s any need beyond sentiment to land at Dragonstone, rather than just sail past straight into Blackwater Bay and take King’s Landing. Tyrion says they can regroup with their Westerosi allies at Dragonstone, and they won’t be there long. He admits that after some of the things he's seen happen to ships at sea, he'd much rather they had a base on firm ground. Varys joins them on the bow and tells Daenerys that he expects they'll be inundated with information when they arrive at Dragonstone.

“My little birds cannot reach me out here,” he says.

Daenerys suggests that birds are no match for dragons, but Varys counters that all three of her dragons are male. They cannot mate or lay more eggs. The birds, meanwhile, will always sing their songs. Her children will give them her throne, but keeping it involves keeping the birds sweet, that their songs might be of praise. Missandei realises they are sailing past Naath – her first sight of home since before she was first enslaved. Grey Worm approaches her and they talk about the island, including the butterflies that kill all but the immunised inhabitants. She compares this to Daenerys and fire. But when Grey Worm asks if this is her home, Missandei admits she has none, not yet. Grey Worm agrees.

Aboard Yara's ship, Theon stands at the bow and looks out to sea. The shape of Westeros is faintly visible on the horizon. Yara approaches and summons Theon to a meeting. He looks lost and a little shaken, but goes along anyway. In her quarters, Yara briefs her Captains. She has only covered the basics, namely that any approaching ship must be treated as hostile and that sails and horns should be used to communicate danger to the Queen, who will swoop in with her dragons. Daenerys enters, and she and Yara have an exchange before Dany tells her to carry on. Yara instructs her Captains and gives them fixed tasks. Notably, there is no task for Theon. Daenerys leaves without looking at him, and when the briefing is done, Yara dismisses her captains. Theon stays behind. He tentatively says that there's no task for him. Yara shrugs. He has never commanded a reaving party, let alone a fleet. He has never fought a skirmish on sea or land, never mind a battle of the throne. He skulks around and lowers his head and is afraid of his own shadow. Yara struggles for a moment. She loves him and wants him to be a Greyjoy.

“I'm not a Greyjoy anymore,” Theon says.

“Then what are you, brother? What are you?”

Theon blinks, but then looks down. He says he'll serve her in whatever way he can, even if it's to clear horse dung out of the holds of ships. Yara is visibly affronted by this. She bites her tongue and marches out.

Pentos, and the luxurious villa of Illyrio Mopatis. The man himself is led by a servant to a seat in the garden outside. Here, Jorah waits and stares out across the Narrow Sea. Illyrio tells him that were his eyes stronger, he might be able to make out Dragonstone at the mouth of the Blackwater. Jorah says he'd be looking for the ships moving that way, to the new occupant of the ancestral home. They discuss Daenerys, and in particular Jorah's previous spying on her at Illyrio and Varys' behest. He reaffirms his loyalty and asks Illyrio who he would prefer to support for the crown of Westeros. He accepts his past misdeeds, and that he deserved his punishment for them. Jorah says that his life has taught him to quietly appreciate irony. One great twist in particular, he says, is that it was Illyrio who gave Daenerys the eggs that hatched the first dragons seen for centuries. The man who sought to control and even kill Daenerys, was the one who gave her an unstoppable power. Jorah then shows his greyscale to Illyrio.

“For a man who can bring dragons back into the world, curing disease must seem simple.”

Illyrio looks at the greyscale in some disgust and then, with some composure, replies “Simple, yes. Easy, not so much.” He asks what Jorah would do to see Daenerys again.

"Anything," Jorah says.

A short while later, Jorah has gathered his things and is dressed in fresh clothes, atop a new horse. Beside him rides a dark Pentoshi named Raq'in, who leads a small detachment of guards and a caravan of goods. Illyrio tells Raq'in to return with good favour, and wishes Jorah luck. He adds that he'll need it on the road he now travels.

Back in King’s Landing, at small council they discuss their various options against Daenerys. Qyburn says the extra bounty from the Riverlands is helping with the food shortages, but it’s not enough to offset how much they got from The Reach. Cersei says she has sent a raven to Euron Greyjoy. Jaime says his navy might be of use, but as per their words, they do not sow. They need an ally who can help feed the city, and there aren’t any available. Qyburn has a route forward, explaining how the sand snakes’ murder of Prince Doran has caused turmoil in Dorne. Only the Martell army stands with Ellaria, with almost all the other houses very unhappy about the coup. He suggests treating with Lord Cletus Yronwood, whose House commands the Boneway.

“What on earth could you offer a Dornishman to entice him to help a Lannister?” asks Jaime.

Later, Cersei shows him Qyburn’s prototype anti-dragon ballista.

North of the Wall, Meera is dragging Bran to the weirwood tree. It's been a slow and agonising trek through the dreadful conditions. At one stage they stop and hide and witness a group of wildlings making a break for the wall. They're chased by a dark shape that takes form. A giant spider, easily the size of a hippopotamus. The wildlings fight back but are easily killed. Bran and Meera continue and reach the tree. Meera begs for them to turn round and head for Castle Black, but Bran insists that there's one more thing he has to see. As she covers him, he puts him palm to the tree.

He sees a series of images. A frozen river below a flaming wooden bridge. An army of men crucified in a desert. A dark and shadowy figure on the battlements of a ruined castle. Then blood running through grass and forming a stream. Cries and the clatter of metal can be heard nearby. Finally, Bran stands outside of a ice henge, a cluster of ravens above him and screeching. He walks into the henge and to a black altar at its centre. In the frozen marble is the spiral, and below it the φ. White Walkers appear from the white mist and surround him. He turns and sees the Night King approach with a baby in his arms. Bran frowns. He hears another noise above the ravens and looks up. It's a low boom. An object flies overhead like an enormous spear. Flames spit out of its bottom. It flies beyond them and out of sight. The White Walkers don't react. Bran moves towards the altar where the baby has been set down and looks at the child. He reaches.

Bran wakes from his vision. Meera is crying out his name and trying to fend off the giant ice spider. It lunges at her and she thrusts back with a spear in one hand and a torch in the other. She sobs and tells him to get away. He blinks and then again and then begins to crawl through the snow. Ahead he sees more lights, more torches in the blizzard. He crawls towards it as Meera fights the spider. The lights grow closer and then become the shape of men on horseback. Dark cloaks hanging. Knight's Watch. Bran turns back and sees Meera struck down and impaled by the spider's leg. She vomits blood and expires in the snow. One of the Brothers hoists up Bran onto his horse and they gallop away, back towards the Wall. Bran blinks up at the giant fortification as the Rangers reach the gate and it rises for them. They move through the tunnel and into darkness. Bran scowls and gasps and clutching his arm. He looks at it. The mark burns an icy blue. He screams at the pain.

On a mountaintop, the Night King and a retinue of White Walkers stand on horseback looking towards the Wall, which now looms clearly in the distance. A vast legion of the dead are behind them, including bears and giants and spiders. The snowstorm intensifies even more and the land becomes nothing but white. Then they begin to move.