The Watchers on the Wall

"The Watchers on the Wall" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 39th overall. The episode was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and directed by Neil Marshall. It first aired on June 8th, 2014.

Official synopsis

Jon Snow and the rest of the Night's Watch face the biggest challenge to the Wall yet.^[1]

Plot

The Wall

At the Wall, the Night's Watch prepares for battle against the imminent invasion of the army of unified wildling tribes under the King-Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder. Jon and Sam stand atop the Wall to await the coming conflict, with Sam discussing with Jon the experience of being with a woman, since their deaths could be looming, pointing out their vows reject only fatherhood and marriage, but Jon points out that Alliser Thorne won't be concerned about such matters and then he fails to explain his own experience with Ygritte, exasperatingly saying he's not a "bleeding poet".

After Sam leaves his post, an owl arrives and starts to hoot loudly, revealed to be a thrall of a Thenn warg, one among a garrison commanded by Tormund and Styr, having camped south of Castle Black. Tormund boasts about losing his virginity to a bear, which Ygritte openly doubts happened, and later tells about her own bloodlust for the black brothers.

Production

Writing

"The Watchers on the Wall" was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, based on the original series by George R. R. Martin.

The episode is adapted from the following chapters from the A Song of Ice and Fire series: Jon VII, Jon VIII and Jon X from A Storm of Swords.

Regular cast members

Five out of twenty-six members for the fourth season appeared in this episode. Alfie Allen (Reek), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister), Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark), Conleth Hill (Varys), Carice van Houten (Melisandre), Sibel Kekilli (Shae), Rory McCann as (Sandor Clegane), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.

Guest cast

References

External links

• "The Watchers on the Wall" at HBO
• "The Watchers on the Wall" on the Wiki of Westeros
• "The Watchers on the Wall" on IMDb
• "The Watchers on the Wall" on Wikipedia