Directed By: Neil Marshall Written By: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss

Original Airdate: June 8, 2014

With the arrival of the vast wildling army at Castle Back, the battle at the Wall nears as Jon Snow urges his superiors to destroy the tunnel entrance. Before the battle begins, Samwell Tarly is pleased with the sudden re-appearance of Gilly and her baby and hides them in a storage room knowing that he may not survive the attack. When the battle starts, the Night’s Watch are beset on both sides of the Wall. From the north, Mance Rayder's army attacks sending men climbing up the Wall and others to attempt entry through the tunnel. From the south, they are attacked by the raiding party that includes Ygritte and Tormund Giantsbane. As the battle rages on, many lives are lost amidst the largest war the Night’s Watch has ever had to face.

main cast

the wall

Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly are standing watch atop the Wall, staring out into the darkness of what lies beyond and awaiting the imminent wildling invasion. Sam attempts to interrogate Jon about what it was like to be with a woman, stating that as their deaths are looming, it may be his last chance to find out. Sam brings up that the vows of the Night's Watch only explicitly forbid members from taking wives or producing children, and that other "activities" are open to interpretation. Jon replies glumly that Alliser Thorne most likely does not care about their interpretations. When further pressed by Sam to describe lying down with Ygritte, Jon attempts to explain but is unable to properly express it and offers to take the watch up alone so Sam can go below. As Samwell begins to descend the Wall, an owl lands on top of it and is revealed to be controlled by a Thenn warg who is a member of the garrison of wildlings under the command of Tormund Giantsbane and Styr, who have set up camp just outside of Castle Black. Ygritte tells the others that she only cares about getting as many arrows through the hearts of crows as possible. Styr mockingly replies that Ygritte has more words about killing than she has arrows. She defends herself by saying she killed just as many people at Mole's Town as he, but Styr further mocks her by saying that when she sees Jon, she'll likely just serve him a slice of "ginger minge”. Ygritte stares Styr down and warns the others that she has an arrow ready for anyone else who attempts to kill him.

​Meanwhile, Samwell is caught reading a book about wildlings by Maester Aemon, who correctly guesses that Sam is reading the book because he wants to know what kind of fate might have befallen Gilly if she fell into wildling hands during the sack of Mole's Town. He also surmises that Sam has shown such a keen interest in her fate because he is in love with her, despite Sam's protests to the contrary. Aemon muses about the girl he once loved, stating that he can still picture her as clear as day and that she is more real than Sam is. After being dismissed by Aemon, Sam leaves the maester's chambers only to hear Gilly at the gate begging to be allowed inside, revealing her survival. Pypar attempts to deny her passage into the castle, saying he is not allowed to open the gate under any circumstances. However, Sam roars at Pyp to allow her in, causing Pyp to relent. Sam promises Gilly wherever she goes next he will go too, but their reunion is cut short by two blows from the horn, indicating that Mance Rayder’s wildling army has finally begun their assault. Sam rushes to get Gilly safely inside the castle while other brothers of the Night's Watch prepare for attack.

On top of the Wall, Jon hears the horn blowing and looks north, witnessing a tremendous conflagration. South of the Wall, the Thenn’s owl also spots the fire and informs the time has come to attack. Jon approaches Alliser Thorne, who admits that they should have heeded Jon's advice and blocked the gates. Meanwhile, Samwell brings Gilly​ and her baby to a storage room where she can hide. Gilly wants Sam to stay with her as he promised, but he cannot as he swore to defend the Wall as a brother of the Night's Watch. Before he leaves her, Gilly begs Sam to promise her that he won't die and the two finally share a kiss. Then outside, along the battlements, Samwell and Pypar are preparing arrows at the southern gate, Pypar laments that he has never seen a real battle before or ever even held an edged blade. Pyp asks how Sam is not afraid, but Sam replies that he is, as there are thousands of wildlings about to overrun them. Pyp asks how he managed to kill a White Walker while being afraid, and Sam says that at that moment, he just had to do something or Gilly would have been killed and her baby would have been taken. Sam further explains that at that moment, he wasn't himself; he was nothing, and when you are nothing there is nothing to be afraid of. However, he explains the reason he is afraid now is because "I'm not nothing anymore."

Meanwhile, Ygritte spies on the castle to scout numbers of defenders. She reports to Tormund and Styr that most of the guards are at the top of the Wall and scaling over the fortress will be easy. The group immediately then take off towards Castle Black, though Ygritte seems to have second thoughts. North of the Wall, the massive wildling army emerges from the woods, their numbers including giants riding atop mammoths. Alliser orders the archers on the Wall to nock their arrows, but they draw instead while Grenn then accidentally drops a barrel down the Wall.  Thorne shouts at his men, asking them if they plan on dying tonight. Another horn then blows from down below, signalling the unanticipated appearance of Tormund's group. At the same time, Janos Slynt races to Thorne and Jon in order to report that the southern gate is under attack. Realizing the dire need for experienced men to defend the gate, Alliser quickly decides to abandon his post to join the men below in the courtyard. He orders a panicked Janos to assume command of the Wall's defenses in his stead. Below, Tormund and Styr's forces charge the gate while Ygritte, acting as a sniper, manages to pick off several men defending the gate with her bow. The band of wildlings manage to reach Castle Black's walls and begin scaling them using grappling hooks and ropes.

When Thorne reaches the courtyard and announces to the men of the Watch that one-hundred generations have defended Castle Black throughout it’s history. He declares that the fortress has never fallen before and it will not fall tonight. After the rousing speech, Thorne and his men race across the courtyard to the southern gate once the first few wildlings have successfully scaled over the castle. On the northern side, a wildling strike force led by two giants, one of which is riding a mammoth, charge towards Castle Black's outer gate. On top of the Wall, a terrified Janos, having no true leadership experience, breaks down at the sight of the massive  wildling army. In a state of shock, Janos mutters his disbelief of giants though he just witnessed their arrival moments ago. When he then begins fumbling his orders, Grenn tactically lies to Janos when declaring that Thorne has called for him down below. Once Janos departs, this has allowed for Jon to take proper command of the Wall's defenses. One giant, armed with a massive bow, manages to fire a huge arrow at one of the bunkers atop the Wall, obliterating it and killing the Black Brother manning it. The force of the giant's arrow carries the brother off the wall on to the other side where he is shoved into ground with a tremendous amount of force. Down below in the courtyard, chaos ensues as Styr quickly defeats the Night’s Watch one by one in melee battle while Ygritte precisely shoots with her bow from above. Young Olly watches the massacre unfold in front of him, but still assists in operating the lift.

As ordered, Janos has taken the lift to the fighting floor. Instead of assisting, however, Janos quickly finds a room to lock him self away in and out of danger, only to find Gilly and her baby already there in hiding. Outside, after several failed attempts, Pypar​ finally manages to kill a wildling with his crossbow. His triumphant moment is cut short, however, when he is then shot through the neck by Ygritte during his next strike. A shocked Samwell holds Pyp, who starts convulsing in his arms. Though Sam declares to get help, Pyp grabs him tightly and cries out for him not be abandoned. The devastated Sam tries to comfort Pyp and stays with him until he dies. At the outer gate, one giant ties several ropes around the gate as well as the large mammoth, who uses as much of it’s brute strength as possible to pull away from the gate, attempting to weaken it enough to infiltrate Castle Black through the tunnel. Atop the Wall, Jon commands Grenn and five other men to travel down the lift and hold the gate on the other side. Jon insinuates to Grenn that if the wildlings infiltrate through the tunnel, they are finished. Grenn firmly declares that they won’t get through.

Meanwhile, Alliser Thorne is locked in a vicious duel with Tormund on the catwalks of Castle Black, both seem evenly matched in skill. However, Thorne suffers a grievous wound and is forced to retreat, being dragged to safety as he continues to shout orders to his men. Meanwhile, up in the battlements, Samwell is forced to leave Pyp's body and as he heads to Castle Black's lift system, but he is spotted by the Thenn warg. The warg charges at Sam as he desperately attempts to load his crossbow, managing to do so and firing a bolt into the warg's head just before he reaches him. The Black Brothers defending the Wall manage to repel most of the wildlings attacking the outer gate, but one giant manages to make it through, greatly weakening the gate by repeatedly smashing it with his fists and managing to single-handedly begin lifting the gate. Samwell then arrives atop the Wall to ask Jon for more men to defend the castle down below. Jon grabs his sword Longclaw and heads towards the lift. Arriving at the inner gate, Hill cowers when faced by the giant charging at them, but Grenn bolsters the others courage by reciting the Night's Watch oath. The Black Brothers ready their weapons just as the giant slams himself into the inner gate.

As they travel below to the courtyard in the lift, Jon tasks Samwell with releasing his direwolf Ghost from his pen to assist in the fighting. When Samwell descends the Wall he makes a run for it to release Ghost while Jon himself finally enters the fray. Upon Ghost’s release, the direwolf immediately starts tearing into then wildlings while Jon quickly dispatches several of his own, proving his skill level is well beyond the majority of the wildings and Watchmen alike. He then catches the attention of Thenn leader Styr. The two meet in a brutal single combat where Styr eventually gets the upper hand by knocking Jon’s sword away and brutally assaulting him, smashing Jon’s face into an anvil and tossing him into the blacksmith's forge. Styr then picks Jon up and begins strangling him, but Jon spits blood in Styr's face and distracts him long enough for Jon to grab the blacksmith's hammer lying next to him and buries it in Styr's skull. Upon killing  Styr, Jon turns around to find Ygritte pointing her bow at him with an arrow drawn. After the initial shock in seeing her Jon smiles at her, causing Ygritte to hesitate with her attack. She stares back at him in conflict, however, before either can say anything to each other, Ygritte is shot near the heart by an arrow fired from young Olly, avenging the death of his father at Ygritte's hands during the wildling attack on his village in the Gift. Jon runs over to Ygritte and holds her collapsed body in his arms. She tells him that they should have never left the cave where they first made love. They lament the circumstances that prevented them from being together as she then succumbs to her wound and dies in his arms.

Atop the Wall, Eddison Tollett, who Jon left in command of the defenses, orders the men to drop the 'scythe.' A huge section of ice suddenly falls away from the wall revealing a massive anchor-like blade attached to a chain that swings along the Wall, mowing through the wildlings attempting to climb its frozen face. Eddison notices the wildling forces are beginning to withdraw into the Haunted Forest, proclaiming that they have stopped them for now, but that the wildlings still outnumber the Black Brothers 1,000 to 1 and that Mance Rayder was simply testing their defenses. Below, a heavily wounded and arrow-filled Tormund Giantsbane is surrounded in the courtyard but continues to fight despite being the only wildling alive inside the walls of Castle Black. He is finally subdued by Jon with a crossbow and taken prisoner by the Night's Watch for interrogation. Samwell then returns to Gilly’s hideout just as he promised and discovers Janos Slynt in the room with her, who hid in fear during the majority of the battle.  Against all odds, the Night's Watch have repelled Mance Rayder's forces for the time being, though knowing that they couldn’t survive another attack due to their diminished forces.

The following morning, what is left of Castle Black's garrison begin to regroup and prepare for the inevitable next attack by Mance Rayder. Jon discusses with Samwell that he has a suicidal solution to end the wildling threat as informs Sam that he plans to assassinate Mance himself. Jon notes that Mance is the only thing binding the disparate wildling clans that make up the army, and his death will rob them of that purpose and leadership. Samwell tries to talk sense into Jon, but to no avail, as Jon is resolute that this is their only option left to prevent a second attack. As Jon prepares to leave via Castle Black's tunnel, they discover the bodies of the fallen Black Brothers who held the inner gate against the large giant. Their close friend Grenn is among the casualties and Jon solemnly tells Sam that all of the bodies must be burned. Before Jon leaves, he remembers the promise he made to the late Lord Commander Jeor Mormont to never lose his sword again and decides to leave Longclaw with Samwell. Sam tells Jon to come back, and Jon looks at Sam and smiles dolefully before stepping out into the wilderness on the other side of the gate and towards the Haunted Forest.

*Episode descriptions from GOT Wiki