featuring

JACOB ANDERSON as GREY WORM / GEMMA WHELAN as YARA GREYJOY / BELLA RAMSEY as LYANNA MORMONT / IAN WHYTE as WUN WUN

ART PARKINSON as RICKON STARK / ENZO CILENTI as YEZZAN ZO QAGGAZ / GEORGE GEORGIOU as RAZDAL MO ERAZ

PAUL RATTRAY as HARALD KARSTARK / DEAN JAGGER as SMALLJON UMBER and EDDIE JACKSON as BELICHO PAENYMION

winterfell

Outside of Winterfell, Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, Tormund Giantsbane, Davos Seaworth, Lyanna Mormont and other Northern lords that declared for House Stark have a parley with Ramsay Bolton, Harald Karstark and Smalljon Umber before they commence battle. Ramsay offers surrender terms, saying he will pardon Jon for deserting the Night's Watch and the Northerners in Jon's forces for rebelling against him if Jon hands over Sansa. Jon refuses and offers Ramsay a chance to settle their dispute in one-on-one combat. Ramsay rejects a one-on-one combat with Jon, noting that he doubts he can best Jon in a duel but he is confident his numerically superior forces will triumph in battle. Jon counters that Ramsay's men may not want to fight for him if he will not fight for them. In response, Ramsay then threatens the imprisoned Rickon Stark, whom which Jon and Sansa are still wary whether is in Ramsay’s captivity. Smalljon Umber then throws out Rickon’s direwolf Shaggydog's head as proof. Despite this, Sansa refuses the terms of surrender and tells Ramsay he will die the following day before riding off.

That evening, Jon discusses the battle plan with Tormund and Davos. After the meeting Sansa admonishes Jon for attacking too early, insisting that they should have gathered more men. Jon retorts that this is the largest army they could possibly gather. Sansa, knowing Ramsay the best, warns Jon of his cunning and cruel nature, but Jon assures her that he has faced worse. In the end, he promises to protect Sansa from Ramsay, to which she cynically replies that no one can keep anyone safe. Afterwards in the camp, Davos and Tormund discuss their time serving both Stannis Baratheon and Mance Rayder respectively, with both acknowledging that they may have been serving the wrong king. After parting ways, Tormund goes to drink and Davos takes a walk. As the sun rises, Davos comes across the same pyre on which Princess Shireen Baratheon was sacrificed, and in the remains, finds the wooden stag he carved and gave to her the last time they were together. He finally then realizes how she died. Meanwhile, Jon meets with Melisandre and orders her not to bring him back if he should fall in the battle. Melisandre contends that she will try anyway, and that it was not her gift that has brought Jon back but the Lord of Light's. She adds that only the Lord of Light can decide Jon's fate as she then ponders that R’hllor may have brought Jon back to only die in tomorrow’s battle.

The armies gather the following morning as Ramsay brings out a terrified Rickon Stark, who is bound at the wrists. After menacingly raising a knife, he cuts Rickon's bonds and tells him that they are to “play a game” and the only rule is to run towards his brother Jon. Although initially confused with Ramsay’s idea of a game, Rickon dashes down the field as fast he as he can, as Ramsay pulls out his bow and arrow, prompting Jon to urgently ride out on horseback to try to save Rickon as Ramsay starts firing arrows repeatedly at Rickon. Though Ramsay appears to have no intention of hitting Rickon with his first few shots, just as Jon approaches his brother, however, Rickon is struck in the back with an arrow and instantly killed. Devastated and enraged over his brother's murder, Jon charges at Ramsay and the Bolton forces alone. Without heistation, Davos tells the Stark cavalry to charge. The Bolton archers fire at Jon and strike his horse. With Jon now mountless in the middle of the battlefield, Ramsay orders the Bolton cavalry to charge straight at him. As Jon brandishes his sword Longclaw, he prepares to fight to the death as the calvary charge at him at full speed.

The Stark cavalry smashes into the Boltons, narrowly saving Jon from being trampled on. In the rear, Davos seizes an order to his archers to release arrows into the melee of infantry, as he announces that they would kill some of their men as well the enemy. He eventually sends the archers forward to be of more use in the middle of the battlefield. Ramsay, however, has no such compunction; he has twice the men to lose and little concern for killing his own. He repeatedly and purposefully orders arrow fusillades that kill all combatants in the middle of the field, apparently in an effort to create a strategic barrier of human death in the center of the battlefield. The Stark forces seem unaware of this strategy and developing trap as Bolton soldiers are ordered forward to create an impenetrable horseshoe formation of shields and spears that surround three sides of the Stark forces against the death mound and progressively compresses them into a helpless and dysfunctional mass. Umber then leads a group of soldiers across the mound of corpses to attack the Stark infantry from behind and complete the envelopment. While Wun Wun is able to kill a few Bolton soldiers, it is not enough to break their phalanx configuration. Panic sets in and Tormund, sensing futility, urges his wildlings backward towards the pile. Amidst all of this, Jon is trampled by his own forces, nearly suffocating under a group of men crawling on top of him, but is eventually able to get back to his feet. At this point, where the Stark forces face imminent destruction, a horn sounds out in the distance as Sansa and Littlefinger arrive with the knights of the Vale. On horseback, they begin to cut down the Bolton soldiers from behind to disrupt the encirclement. Umber, distracted by the arrival of the House Arryn forces, is caught off-guard by Tormund, who bites out his foe's throat and stabs him multiple times in the face. As Ramsay sees his soldiers cut down, he decides to retreat inside Winterfell, but Jon, Wun Wun and Tormund give chase. Wun Wun is able to break down the castle gates, allowing wildling archers to pour into the castle; the last vestiges of the Bolton garrison are then quickly slaughtered. The giant is nevertheless overwhelmed by arrows and finally killed by Ramsay's shot. Despite defeat, Ramsay taunts Jon, saying he has reconsidered one-on-one combat. As Jon approaches, Ramsay fires three arrows at him with his bow but Jon blocks them all with a shield. Before Ramsay can fire another, Jon gets close enough and smacks the bow out of Ramsay's hands before striking him with the shield in the chest and to the ground. Before Ramsay can stand up, Jon pounces on him and proceeds to savagely beat him with his fists, while Ramsay does not attempt to defend himself and fight back, merely grinning maniacally through the beating, convinced Jon won't kill him. Jon stops pulverizing Ramsay upon noticing Sansa, realizing she has more right for revenge than he does, and subsequently orders Ramsay locked up as a prisoner. The Bolton banners are then torn down and the Stark banners are raised in their place.

That evening, Sansa seeks out the imprisoned Ramsay, who is tied to a chair within the common area of the dog kennels. Ramsay, belligerent and sadistic to the end, goads her by telling her how she will never be rid of him because he is "part of her now." Sansa retorts that Ramsay's name, house and all memory of him will disappear. He then realizes that his own hounds are slowly approaching him, as Jon deliberately left the kennel doors open to where Ramsay is bound, still covered in his own blood. At first, Ramsay denies his peril, claiming that his dogs are loyal. Sansa coolly reminds him that he had been starving his dogs for a week. As they begin sniffing at him and licking their chops, Ramsay desperately orders them to heel, but they refuse to listen, and as Ramsay's smug confidence finally crumbles into panicking terror, the hounds attack and begin to tear him apart, beginning with his face. Sansa walks away, smirking with dark satisfaction, as the barking of the hounds mingles with Ramsay's screams.

*Episode descriptions from GOT Wiki