Behind the wall

In Winterfell

Arya ( Macy Williams ) accuses Sansu ( Sophie Turner ) of betraying her family when she wrote a letter calling for swearing in favor of King Joffrey . Sansa explains that she was still a child then and she was threatened by Cersei , but Arya refuses to accept her arguments. They blame each other for the fact that none of them saved Ned . Arya observes that Sansu is most worried about how the northern lords will react to her if the letter is made public.

Sansa asks for advice from the Little Finger ( Aidan Gillen ), who suggests that Brienne , who vowed to serve both sisters, would have to intervene if Arya went against Sansa. After receiving a letter from Cersei with an invitation to the Royal Harbor, Sansa sends Brienna ( Gwendolyn Christie ) as his representative, including for reasons that Baelish threw to her. All the objections of Brienne and even her proposal to leave at Winterfell at least Podrica stumble upon the severe refusal of Sansa.

Sanz searches Arya’s room and finds strangers in her baggage. Arya discovers Sansu and tells her about her training at the Faceless. Arya says that she could have taken Sansa's face, threateningly instructing her with a dagger of Valyrian steel, but then gives her the dagger and leaves.

On the Dragonstone

Tyrion ( Peter Dinklage ) suspects Cersei will set a trap when he and Daenerys meet. He asks how Daenerys ( Emilia Clark ), who is barren , will be able to inherit power and who will be the heir. She refuses to discuss the laws of succession before sitting on the Iron Throne. Tyrion claims that John, at this stage, is the last “hero” who fell in love with Daenerys.

Behind the Wall

John ( Keith Harington ), Dog ( Rory McCann ), Jorah ( Iain Glen ), Berwick ( Richard Dormer ), Toros ( Paul Kay ) and Gendry ( Joe Dempsey ) go north beyond Sten with Tormund ( Christopher Hivju ) and other Wild . They have various personal and philosophical conversations. Gior gave John his family sword, the Long Claw; John offers it to Jorah, but he insists that John keep it in his possession. The group is attacked by a polar bear-ghoul, killing the Wild and injuring Toros, who pushed the Dog away from danger, before killing the bear; Toros's wounds are burned and the group continues on its way. The group stumbles upon a squad of ghouls led by White Walker and ambushes it. John destroys the White Walker with the help of the Long Claw, and all but one of the ghouls instantly crumbles. They capture the remaining ghoul. A horde of ghouls is approaching; Gendry is sending one to Eastwatch to send the crow to Daenerys, while the rest are trapped on a small island, and the only thing that separates them from the ghouls is the thin ice cracked under the weight of the horde. Thoros dies from his wounds. In a conversation with Berik, John said that in order to defeat the White Walkers, he needed dragons Deinerys, to which Berik replied that it was enough to kill the King of Night, who at that moment was watching the group.

Jendry has a hard time getting to Eastern Watch. Daenerys, having received a raven, flies north on Drogon, along with Reigal and Viserion, rejecting Tirion's advice to "do nothing."

At the scene of the confrontation, the water freezes again and the ghouls attack, killing several Wild and almost destroying the whole group. Daenerys arrives and the dragons burn many ghouls. People try to evacuate on Drogon, but the ghouls continue to attack; The King of the Night kills Viserion ^[3] with the help of an ice spear, and John remains on the ground and urges the others to fly away with the captured ghoul. After John’s allies are gone, Benjen ( Joseph Mole ) arrives and gives John his horse, while the ghouls attack Benjen in numbers and kill him, while John escapes into the Eastwatch.

John recovers aboard the ship. He apologizes to Daenerys for the death of Vizerion; she accepts loss as a payment for knowing the truth, and she vows to fight the King of Night. John calls her "his Queen" and believes that the northern lords recognize her leadership. Daenerys hopes that she will be worthy of that trust.

In the final scene, the ghouls pull Vizerion out of the frozen water, and the King of Night brings the dragon back to life as a ghoul, adding it to his army.

Scenario

The script for “Behind the Wall” was written by the creators of the series David Benioff and D. B. Weiss . In the “Inside the Episode” segment published by HBO after the episode was aired, David Benioff noted that the death of the dragon Viserion was something that he and the writers had been working for a long time, and added: “The whole way the show somehow tried mark all the end points of the episodes, and in this episode the point was the dragon opening his blue eye, and the realization that the King of the Night finally got his own weapon of mass destruction. " ^[4] Weiss also stated that the most pleasant part in writing the scene was make it seem as though everyone's Rosie guys "were going to" get on the other side more or less with impunity, "and knew that the subsequent killing of the dragon will have a" huge emotional impact "because it is important for Daenerys. ^[4] He continued, saying that they knew that it would be important for the King of Night to use the dragon slaying opportunity, and that they intended to make the scene seem like a “double blow”, allowing viewers to witness “horror” when they had to see how “one of the three amazing creatures in the world, like these, goes under the water and doesn't get out of there, and process this information in my head”, but also “process something that is even worse” when the dragon is pulled out of the water and make it part of the King's Army of the Night. ^[four]

Regarding the inclusion of the attack of the polar bear-ghoul, Benioff and Weiss stated that they wanted the polar bear-ghoul in the TV show “already about four seasons”, but never showed it on the screen due to objections from the special effects department. Weiss remembered that they were told that they could not afford such a special effect, but he felt that his appearance was "very logical, and we finally rested and said damn it, we want a zombie polar bear," and therefore we wrote it in episode. ^[five]

Weiss also spoke about the final scene of Winterfell, saying that as soon as Sansa finds a collection of Arya's faces and she confronts her, Sansa should have begun to see Arye “physical danger for her” and that they wanted to transfer this fear into the next episode, “ Dragon and the Wolf . ^[6]

Shooting

The director of "Behind the Wall" was Alan Taylor . It was the seventh episode of Taylor in the series, but it was the first episode since the second season , where he filmed the final episode of this season, " Valar Morgulis ." ^[7] He also directed two episodes of the first season , “ Beyelor ” and “ Flame and Blood ”, as well as three other episodes of the second season. After his break from the series, Taylor directed several high-budget Hollywood films, including Thor 2: The Kingdom of Darkness and Terminator: Genesis . ^[7] In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , Taylor spoke about the differences between his early work on the series and his return in the seventh season of the show, saying that he had been told not to use the green screen and, therefore, the special effects restrictions that the series had in its early seasons. ^[7] However, with “Behind the Wall,” he was able to make full use of the visual effects to create a larger environment, dragons and armies by increasing the budget. ^[7] He also described the experience of “full cycle”, witnessing the evolution of such characters as Sophie Turner in the role of Sansa and Macy Williams in the role of Arya, whom he shot when they were children, and what they have grown since . ^[eight]

Many scenes leading up to the battle with the White Walkers army were filmed in Iceland , but most of the scenes of the episode battle were filmed in a career in Belfast , Northern Ireland . ^[7] Taylor expected to shoot the scene completely in Iceland, but quickly realized that this was not feasible due to the required production volume. ^[7] Regarding the shooting of a polar bear-ghoul attack, Taylor noted that the design of the bear was created by the Weta Workshop studio in New Zealand, which had previously worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. ^[7] Richard Dormer , who plays Berik Dondarrion, described the filming of the scene in a separate interview, saying: “She was very cold, wet and physical. It was also hot, I had to run around an imaginary 12-foot flaming polar bear. It was rather strange, but it was fun. ” ^[9] Dormer also noted the difficulty of shooting a blazing sword, saying that the sword could burn only two minutes at a time and they could not wave too fast, due to which Dormer had to slow down his movement. He also said that the sword he used was three times heavier than an ordinary sword. ^[9] Although the actors were warmly dressed for the scenes behind the Wall, their costumes contained a “pipe system through which cold water could be distributed between shots using a portable pump to protect the actors from overheating” due to the real heat from shooting at Northern Ireland. ^[7] This was also important, as the makeup of Rory McCann , who plays Sandora “Psa” Clegan, could melt on his face. ^[7]

In another interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Taylor also spoke about the process of interacting with the lake and water, saying: “Every moment of interaction with water was a step-by-step process, where we filmed an action on our 360-degree landscape, and then re-shot it against the background of a green screen with elements that we shot in a container with water, and then all these elements were combined to get something simple, like a guy falling under the ice and sinking in water. ” ^[8] It took four or five different frames to capture this part of the battle. ^[8] Taylor described the work with Vladimir Fourdick, who plays the King of the Night, noting that Furdick was completely disguised and said: “He’s just amazing. There is nothing that he can not do. He is a full-fledged actor in this role, in addition to his ability to do all the actions and work with horses. He has a beautiful face — although you can't fully see him under the King of Night makeup. ” ^[8] Taylor revealed that he had previously worked with Furdick, since Furdick was a stuntman in the movie“ Top 2: The Kingdom of Darkness ”. ^[eight]

To remove the death of the dragon Viserion, Taylor said that he “provided cadres where we knew that the dragon would be pierced with a spear and he would fall” for the head of the special effects department Joe Bauer for further use. But Taylor also shot footage “on the way” while the dragon fell to death, using a tennis ball on a stick, so that the actors understand where the dragon was in this scene, as well as “previewing” and storyboards, so that they understand how the final product will look . ^[8] Taylor praised Emilia Clark as Daenerys Targaryen in this scene, and he was also grateful for choosing to shoot the dragon’s death, due to the self-proclaimed past, when he filmed key death scenes on several TV shows, including Ned’s death Stark in the first season, as well as major deaths in the TV series " Rome ", " Deadwood " and " Clan Soprano ". ^[eight]

Taylor also talked about the amount of time that was needed between the White Walkers army approaching and Daenerys arrival, saying that it was deliberately made uncertain: “We did a few things, for example, deliberately blurred the timeframe on how much time passed, because it was very dark by the frozen lake and you do not know how many days and nights you could see. We tried to make it a bit ambiguous and give it some space to maneuver at the end. We knew that we were asking for the cognitive alienation of people - what we were aiming at was a possible impossibility. " ^[8]

Ratings

“Behind the Wall” was watched by 10.24 million viewers during the original show on HBO, which is lower than the rating of 10.72 million viewers from last week’s episode East Watch . ^{[10] [11] The} rating in the age category 18-49 was 4.7, which makes it the highest rating show on cable television on the night of the show. ^[ten]

Critical Reaction

“Behind the Wall” received mostly positive reviews from critics who considered the epic scale and the special effects of the battle between the White Walkers and dragons, the interaction between the group members in the north, and John’s oath of allegiance to Daenerys as the best moments of the episode, ^[2] although some reviewers criticized the episode for that he was “[contrary to] logic,” ^[12] for his quick narration, as well as for the conflict between Arya and Sansa. He received a 81% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1 out of 10. ^[12] The site’s consensus reads: ““ Behind the Wall ”delivers epic battles and plot twists that are expected in the penultimate episode of the season“ Game of Thrones ” “Although sometimes and contrary to all logic.” ^[12]

Terry Schwartz of IGN wrote in her episode review: “The Game of Thrones has long established a precedent that its penultimate episodes of the seasons will be the largest in terms of scale and, often, in losses, from everything from Beyelor to Rein from Castamer. ” . Thus, “Behind the Wall” is no different, since it probably had the biggest loss the series has faced today: the dragon killed by the King of Night, and even worse, has been resurrected by him. ” ^[13] However, Schwartz also criticized the episode, saying that he suffered “more than any other episode so far from the fast, truncated narrative in season 7.” ^[13] Schwarz also praised the interaction between the group members in the north during their journey to find Whites Walkers, and ultimately gave the episode a rating of 6.9 out of 10 ^[13] Daniel D'Addario from Time Magazine wrote in his episode review: “This episode, which occupied the last but one cell of the season, which historically was the place where the biggest ones happened, was slightly smaller than, for example, the excitement of the past season, " Battle of the Bastards ." But this is partly due to the growing obviousness of the stakes. ” ^[14] Miles McNutt from The AV Club likewise compared the episode with the penultimate episode of the previous season, questioning some of the reasons for the battle, writing:“ We have a situation where a series of events, designed for action and suspense, effectively selling out all the involved characters. capturing guide intuitive battle faced by seven people and the Red Shirts during their travels. И я был очарован серией „прогулок и бесед“, которая перемежает их путешествия, краткие виньетки персонажей, как Сандор и Тормунд, которые впервые взаимодействуют друг с другом, идя навстречу своей потенциальной смерти.» ^[15] Он дал эпизоду оценку B. ^[15] Стив Грин из «IndieWire» написал в своём обзоре: «„За Стеной“, возможно, не лучший эпизод сезона, но, более уверенно, самый важный. Вернув долгожданное в сезоне обещание ужаса и торжество в быстрой последовательности, сериал превратил важный эпизод в запоминающуюся историю ужасов.» ^[16]

Как и с четвёртым эпизодом сезона, « Трофеи войны », этот эпизод просочился в интернет до намеченной даты показа 20 августа 2017 года. За четыре дня до его официального показа, HBO Spain и HBO Nordic случайно показали «За Стеной» для просмотра по запросу на один час, прежде чем удалить его. ^[17]

• «За Стеной» на HBO.com
• " За Стеной» (англ.) на сайте Internet Movie Database
• «За Стеной» (англ.) на TV.com