Game of Thrones S.4 Episode 9 Review

Every episode nine in the previous three seasons of Game Of Thrones have been the stand out episode from that season, that probably isn’t the case this season because there have been so many big episodes in season four, The Lion and the Rose, The Laws of Gods and Men and of course The Mountain and the Viper, last week’s episode. This episode nine didn’t disappoint though, it was actually a very unique episode because it only focused on the battle at Castle Black, that has been built up right from the first season, rather than switching from character to character like all the other episodes.

Towards the start of the episode, Gilly returns to Castle Black to the delight of Sam who finds a safe place for her to hide in during the battle, before finally kissing her. It was a big episode for Sam, he finally seemed to find his courage and help his brothers during the battle rather than just hiding with Gilly like he probably would have done in the past. He even manages to remain calm after Pyp was killed next to him by Ygritte.

Just before the battle begins Alliser Thorne admits to Jon Snow that he was wrong when he ignored Jon’s advice to seal the tunnel, and when Thorne goes down below to fight and Janos Slynt shows his true colours as a coward, Jon inherits leadership at the top of the wall. With Thorne suffering a serious injury at the hands of Tormund Giantsbane, Jon could be looking at a more permanent leadership role, provided he survives the continuing onslaught from the Wildlings of course.

There were many highlights from the battle itself, one of the best moments has to be the giants riding the mammoths in to battle, I wasn’t sure if we would see the mammoths and giants but they were present and they didn’t disappoint. The giants and mammoths were used to take down the outer gate to the castle so Jon tells Grenn to take five men to defend the inner gate.  They get down to the gate to see a giant lift up the outer gate and head run towards them. When one of the five tries to run away Grenn grabs him and starts to recite the vows of the Night’s Watch, it cuts away before the giant reaches them but it was one of the best scenes from the episode. At the end of the episode Jon and Sam find all six of them and the giant dead, but they managed to defend the gate.

Another highlight was the incredible pan shot across the courtyard just after Jon reaches the courtyard after departing from the wall. The music during it was brilliant, it showed Jon fighting the Wildlings, Ygritte picking people out with her bow and Tormund tearing through men with ease before ending on Sam as he releases Ghost to help Jon. Words can’t do it justice so you should absolutely go back and watch that scene again, it's at around the 39 minute mark.

The standout moment from the battle was obviously the death of Jon’s former lover Ygritte, she was telling all her fellow Wildlings before the battle began that she would be the one that killed Jon Snow and she spots him while Jon is fighting the leader of the Thenns, and after Jon just about manages to kill said leader, he turns to see Ygritte with her bow aimed at him and he just smiled and for a moment it was like the battle wasn’t happening. That was only until an arrow fires through Ygritte’s chest though, Jon turns to see that it was the kid, Ollie who had shot her, it was inevitable that it would be him to kill her after Sam tells him to find a weapon and fight and the camera panned to a bow earlier in the battle. Ygritte died in Jon’s arms and her last words would be her most famous ones; “You know nothing Jon Snow...”

The episode ends relatively anti-climactically with Tormund being captured as the Watch manage to defeat the Wildlings that attacked on the first night, the Night’s Watch victory however made nothing more than a small dent in to the Wildling army with them still outnumbering the Watch a thousand men to one. Jon realizes that they may not be able survive another night so he heads out to attempt to meet with Mance Rayder.

The battle of Blackwater Bay in season two, also directed by Neil Marshall is the only real thing we can compare this to because battles tend to be few and far between on Game of Thrones and this battle certainly matched the quality of that one. It really did make for a brilliant spectacle.

The one disappointment from this episode however is only that it makes me worry about next week’s episode, the season four finale, because they have so much to wrap up, including quite a bit at Castle Black. I don’t believe they can give all the characters that require significant screen time the time they require in a 55-60 minute episode which may lead to certain things either being cut short or held back until season five.  I’m still hoping that they make the finale a 90+ minute episode but I don’t think the chances of that are too high. 

Next week’s episode is of course episode 10, the season four finale titled The Children. It will hit our screens Sunday on HBO in the States and one day later on Sky Atlantic in the UK, here is a preview of the finale thanks to the Game of Thrones YouTube channel.