The Long Night (episode)

"The Long Night" is the third episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones. It is the seventieth episode of the series overall. It premiered on April 28, 2019. It was written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.

Plot
Winterfell fights the Army of the Dead.

At Winterfell
Night has fallen at Winterfell. Samwell Tarly is fearful and his nervous hands are filled with a pair of dragonglass daggers by an unseen benefactor. Tyrion Lannister takes several wine casks from the provisions, and joins two of the people chosen to guard the non-combatants, Davos Seaworth and Samwell Tarly, as they make their way down to the crypts where the non-combatants are hiding with their small group of armed protectors. Bran Stark is wheeled to the Godswood to wait as bait, accompanied by Theon Greyjoy and his detachment of Ironborn, as well as Alys Karstark. Sansa and Arya Stark oversee one section of the castle wall while Beric Dondarrion commands another. Atop the two turrets flanking the main gate, Gendry Baratheon and Edric operate their respective scorpions mounted on top of each tower. Lyanna Mormont commands defence of the main courtyard. Outside the gates, Brienne of Tarth commands the left flank, accompanied by Jaime Lannister. They are joined by Podrick Payne, Sandor Clegane and Eddison Tollett. Grey Worm leads the formations of Unsullied, while Jorah Mormont and Qhono ride along with the Dothraki cavalry - accompanied by the direwolf Ghost. Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow ride their two dragons away from the castle, to not alert the enemy to their presence.

The moonless darkness is impenetrable and eerily silent -- until a lone rider appears: Melisandre, the Red Priestess. She rides up to Jorah and asks him to command the Dothraki in their language to raise their arakhs. When they do, she starts praying to the Lord of Light in High Valyrian. The army's arakhs suddenly burst into flame, sweeping from one side of the field to the other. Melisandre enters Winterfell and is escorted to the crypts, but when Davos opens the doors leading down to the crypts and sees who is joining them, he implicitly threatens make good on his promise to kill her for Shireen, but she tells him not to bother, as she expects to be dead by dawn, before silently passing him and heading down the stairs.

Emboldened, the Dothraki cavalry charge ahead into the night, their fiery arakhs visible in the distance - until they crash into the seething undead horde of wights. The infantry around Winterfell can hear their shouts and watch, in the shadowy distance, as Dothraki war cries turn to screams of terror and the flames from their swords are quickly extinguished. A stray horse or rider manages to flee back through the castle, one of them a haggard-looking Jorah. The Army of the Dead advances in earnest.

The Unsullied form up into phalanxes, while catapults start shooting flaming barrels into the night. By the light of the fires, the true size of the undead horde can be seen. They rush down from the north and slam into the defenders around Winterfell. They are quickly overrun by the wights, who swarm over and on top of each other and infantry formations like a tidal wave. A savage melee sees most of them surrounded: they are killing wights with their dragonglass weapons, but not nearly enough, as the living dead drag down and overwhelm the defenders through sheer weight of numbers.

Viewing the battle from the west, Daenerys is upset at the slaughter of her Dothraki and wants to strafe the wights. Jon tries to stop her because the plan is to locate the Night King, riding Viserion, who is being lured by Bran into the godswood, at which point Jon and Daenerys can attack the Night King -- but the Night King won't appear if they reveal their two remaining dragons. Daenerys shakes off Jon's arm and tells him, "The dead are already here," and she takes off on Drogon. Jon follows Daenerys on Rhaegal.

The two dragon-riders make strafing runs on the undead army, just behind the faltering human forces. Thousands of wights are incinerated: for a short time this stems their tide, but more keep coming. The White Walkers themselves do not engage, instead staying in a mounted line far behind the front, content to throw wave after wave of pawns at the castle. Jon Snow sees the White Walkers and tries to make a bombing run at them: they might not be the Night King, but any of the hundreds of undead wights each of them has raised will instantly die again if he can kill them. Before Jon can even reach their line, however, a massive cold blast of air forces him back: the White Walkers have magically summoned a huge snowstorm. Both dragons can barely stay in the air, and nearly fly into each other during the whiteout.

As Jon and Daenerys struggle to find one another in the storm, Jon calls Daenerys's name and they eventually reunite above the storm clouds. As they try to get their bearings, the Night King appears riding Viserion and pursues Daenerys and Drogon. Jon tries to follow them but is knocked out of the way while Daenerys manages to evade the attack. When Daenerys and Jon find each other again above the clouds, the Night King is gone. The Night King makes his way to Winterfell.

The remaining infantry is badly affected. The only infantry still holding up reasonably well by this point are the lockstep legions of the Unsullied, horrifically trained to strip away all fear and robotically follow their battle formations. They hold in their phalanxes, but even these are slowly but steadily being consumed by the scrambling mass of wights. A full retreat into the castle is ordered, and Grey Worm commands the Unsullied to form up a rearguard to protect the withdrawal of their few remaining forces. Dolorous Edd is killed in the retread after being stabbed from behind. The wights gradually slaughter their way forward, even as new Unsullied step forward to take the place of each the falls.

The Unsullied are on the verge of being overwhelmed, when the last of the main host gets back through the gates. Desperately, Grey Worm orders that the entrenchments around the castle - which have been filled with flammable pitch - be set on fire. Grey Worm himself is with the last remaining rearguard, who cannot abandon the earthworks if they are not set aflame. Attempts by Arya and the other archers to shoot the pitch with flaming arrows are blown away by severe winds while the snowstorm prevents the dragonriders from seeing their signal to light it. Melisandre appears, laying her hands on the trenchworks and repeats her prayers to the Lord of Light, straining with the massive effort. At the last moment, the entire trench ringing Winterfell bursts into flames. Grey Worm and his few remaining men withdraw behind the castle gates, which close. Many wights burn, but then they all robotically halt - instead of mindlessly charging ahead to their destruction. The White Walkers can afford to wait them out.

Seeing the fight approaching, Arya tells Sansa to flee to the crypts, as she'll only get killed if she remains but Sansa protests she can't abandon her people. Arya gives her sister a dragonglass dagger to defend herself with and when Sansa says she doesn't know how to use it, Arya advises her to "stick them with the pointy end". In the crypts, Sansa meets other women, including Missandei, and children, the infirm and non-combatants (Tyrion and Varys), and some of the men chosen to guard them (Davos and Samwell). Tyrion laments that he should at least be up on the battlements, even if he can't fight well: just like at the Battle of the Blackwater, he and Varys could still use their great intellects as commanders, to try to see something other people wouldn't. Sansa chides that witty remarks won't make a difference, and the bravest thing they can do now is "look the truth in the face". Tyrion is moved and quips that maybe they should have stayed married - to which Sansa responds, "You were the best of them." Tyrion remarks that is a terrifying thought. Sansa continues a marriage wouldn't work out between them because of his loyalty to Daenerys and Tyrion being divided between herself and Daenerys would be a problem. Missandei defends her queen, saying that without the Dragon Queen, they'd all be dead by now.

In the godswood, Theon Greyjoy can also hear the approach of the undead army. He starts to apologize to Bran, but Bran politely cuts Theon off, saying that everything he did led him to where he is now: "Home". Theon is moved, but Bran must "leave" now - warging into flocks of ravens around Winterfell. Through the ravens' eyes, he sees the Night King on Viserion, and the Night King sees him through them. Bran is the last Three-eyed raven, mystical focus of all the powers of the Children of the Forest and memories of the entire world - the Night King's archenemy for thousands of years. The urge to finally end his enemy is too great, and as Bran hoped, the Night King is spurred into pressing his attack.

Instead of the hordes of wights rushing through the fiery trenches everywhere, the Night King psychically directs them into a concentrated charge across one spot: many hundreds burn, but eventually their sheer mass extinguishes the flames, breaching the outer defenses. Thousands of them start swarming around the base of Winterfell's great stone walls, then climb over each other in a mass, using their strength to grip into stone.

The Night King makes another run towards the godswood, but Jon and Daenerys knew where he was headed. Jon spots the Night King and pursues him. When the Night King approaches the castle walls directly and is just about to strafe Winterfell, Jon attacks him from atop Rhaegal. Rhaegal clashes with his undead brother and a battle between the two factions ensues in the skies above Winterfell.

Despite having lost so many men out in the field, the castle's walls are a major force multiplier for the defenders, and they kill many more hundreds of wights as they reach the tops of the battlements. Even so, more keep coming, as the snowstorm reduces the castle to a whiteout amidst the flames. Jaime Lannister is nearly overwhelmed by a dozen wights, but Brienne carves her way to him using her Valyrian steel sword and saves him. Arya manages to pick off many wights with flaming arrows. Sandor Clegane, with his severe fear of fire, is left frozen as Beric Dondarrion urges him to keep fighting. Sandor pleads that they can't beat death itself, to which Beric points to Arya and says, "Tell her that."

The tide of battle turns against the defenders again, and as Lyanna Mormont tries to organize the defense of the main courtyard, a large wight-giant bashes its way through the main gate of Winterfell. More wights flow in behind it, leading the advance, knocking Lyanna to the side and taking out any of her soldiers still standing. Recovering, young Lyanna grabs a dragonglass blade and charges the undead giant while letting out a battle cry. The wight-giant casually snatches her up in his hand, however, and holds her up to his one remaining blue eye. The wight-giant clenches his fist, crushing Lyanna's chest in as her bones snap. Yet her hand is still free, and with one last defiant cry, she stabs the dragonglass into the wight-giant's eye: it instantly dies and topples to the ground. Lyanna falls free of his grasp, but dies from her injuries.

The entire courtyard is overrun, and all remaining order to the siege collapses, as the wights spread to surround any remaining pockets of resistance here and there around the castle. Arya, who was knocked out against a stone wall, recovers some time later, stumbling into the Winterfell library. The fighting has moved away from this part of the castle, as wights shamble about looking for survivors to pick off. Using her stealth training from the Faceless Men, Arya slowly sneaks past all of them - only for the wights to burst through the door after her as soon as she leaves.

In the crypts, Sansa and the others can hear a handful of living men desperately pounding on the heavy doors to let them in. Davos and Samwell rush up the stairs to help but Sansa commands them to stob, knowing they cannot risk a flood of wights passing the barricade. They hear the men's cries which are quickly silenced.

Arya is eventually knocked to the ground by the pursuing wights, but Sandor and Beric save her and help fight them off. The trio make a running retreat through the narrow hallways of the castle's interior. Eventually, they find a room to retreat inside and bar the door, and the wights pursuing them run straight past them. Beric is slightly wounded, but still capable of fighting. The Hound angrily tells Beric that they still can't beat death, cursing the knight for emotionally manipulating him. Arya defuses the situation, indirectly telling them of Syrio Forrel's lessons to her about "the god of death", and that they aren't going to die tonight, even if Winterfell does fall. The Hound questions Arya how they can escape the castle if not on the back of Daenerys' dragons, and Arya responds that Maester Luwin once told her about a secret passage that opened out to south of Winterfell, on a tributary of the White Knife that leads to Castle Cerywn. The Hound is sceptical, but the two follow her as they slowly exit the room.

Meanwhile, Viserion successfully destroys a large part of the castle wall adjacent to the turret mounted with the scorpion operated by Gendry. As the dragon flies overhead, both Gendry and Edric take shots at Viserion but both shots miss. Before the Night King can turn around to deal with Gendry and Edic, Rhaegal appears out of the darkness, and soon enough, the dragons are locked in battle in the sky above Winterfell with Jon and the Night King fighting in a fierce close quarters mid-air brawl on their dragons. Viserion badly claws Rhaegal's belly, while the Night King readies another one of his dragon-killing ice javelins - but the dragons are swirling around so chaotically he can't get a clear shot from his mount. Despite his wounds, Rhaegal manages to land a bite on the other dragon, and tears the left half of his face off - but this is not enough to stop him. It is, however, enough to significantly distract the Night King, who doesn't notice Daenerys's approach on Drogon: they collide with Viserion with such impact that the Night King is spilled from his mount, while Drogon tears into Viserion. Rhaegal, however, is badly wounded enough that he needs to make a forced landing, dropping Jon on the ground again before fleeing.

Viserion manages to break free of Drogon's grip, but before the undead dragon can right itself, a scorpion bolt soars through the air and pierces Viserion straight through his neck, sending the now-lifeless dragon crashing into the ground beyond the castle walls. Jon regains himself on the ground, finding he is on the abandoned outer battlefield -- and not far from the Night King, who is proceeding on foot to the breach in the walls leading to the godswood and Bran. Daenerys reaches the Night King, and with a command of "Dracarys!" has Drogon blast him with dragonfire. When the smoke dissipates, however, Bran's warning is proven unfortunately correct: even dragonfire cannot kill the Night King, who is completely undamaged. He still has one ice javelin left and as he readies to throw it at Drogon, Daenerys flees and manages to narrowly dodge the shot.

Despite failing to kill the Night King, Daenerys' actions delay the Night King long enough for Jon to close the distance between them. Gendry Baratheon also emerges from the breach in the walls, effectively cornering the Night King between the two of them. Smirking, the Night King draws his own blade as Gendry and Jon charge towards the Night King with their own weapons raised, and a climactic duel ensues between the three of them.

At the main gates, several White Walkers make their way into Winterfell and begin raising the dead. All across Winterfell, the survivors still fighting watch on in terror as their fallen comrades, among them Lyanna Mormont and Eddison Tollett, slowly rise and turn against them with a wave of hand. Despite the overwhelming numbers of freshly made wights, Jaime Lannister, Jorah Mormont, and Brienne of Tarth manage to corner three of the White Walkers in a passageway and begin duelling them.

Drogon, afraid of the Walker's weapons and lost in the darkness of the winter storm engulfing the North, begins panicking and flies off in a random direction, and all efforts made by Daenerys to calm down her dragon prove to be ineffective. Daenerys slowly begins to lose consciousness due to Drogon's erratic flying coupled with the extremely cold weather, but is snapped awake by the sound of a crow flying alongside them. Daenerys watches as the crow's eyes upturn themselves, and almost simultaneously, the crow breaks formation with Drogon's flying, and Drogon seemingly composes himself and begins to fly back towards Winterfell.

During the ongoing duel between the White Walkers and Jaime, Jorah and Brienne, one of the Walkers lands a hit on Jaime's fake right hand, shattering the golden hand into fragments. The action startles and confuses his opponent long enough for Jaime to impale the Walker with Widow's Wail, instantly shattering it. Jaime's actions indirectly save both Theon and Bran, who were being on the brink of being overwhelmed by wights raised by that particular Walker. During his brief respite, Theon hears the sound of a dragon approaching overhead.

Meanwhile, in the crypts, many of the interred corpses of House Stark rise as wights and start clawing their way out of their tombs. They're fairly old and not in the best shape, but the women and children are totally unarmed, and many succumb to the wights. Among the corpses raised is that of the young Rickon Stark, who had been killed by Ramsay Bolton two years earlier. Rickon lunges for one of the little girls, standing frozen in fear in the middle of the crypts, but before Rickon can reach the little girl, Varys shoves her to the side, behind Lyanna Stark's statue. Rickon then tackles Varys to ground instead, and Sansa watches on in horror as her little brother mauls Varys to death, until Tyrion forces her to look away and hide behind Eddard Stark's statue with him. The two remain hiding, contemplating on helping the women and children and the handful of combatants in the fight against the newly made wights in the crypt, with the dragon glass that they were given.

Eventually, after untold numbers of non-combatants are killed in the crypts, a hidden door opens at the far end of the crypts, and Arya, Beric and the Hound emerge from the hidden passageway and begin killing wights while urging the surving women and children towards the safety of the passageway. Sansa and Tyrion quickly recognise Arya's voice and race to meet them, killing several wights on the way. After Sansa and Tyrion reach her, Arya tells Sansa to take the survivors down the passageway and south to Castle Cerwyn. Tyrion grabs a torch off the wall and the two of them begin leading the procession of survivors down the seemingly endless tunnel, while Arya, the Hound, Beric and Davos continue to hold of the relentless onslaught of wights.

Jon and Gendry continue to duel the Night King, but every single strike from both of them is effortlessly parried by the enigmatic figure, with the flow of the fight firmly in the hands of the leader of the White Walkers. At this point, the fight has moved to the small courtyard outside the entrance to the Godswood, to which both Jon and Gendry move to block, in an attempt to cut off the Night King's route to Bran. Gendry is then knocked out of the duel when the Night King seizes him by the upper arm and hurls him across the courtyard, leaving Jon to duel the Night King alone. Gendry, somewhat injured from being thrown, slides to a halt at the feet of Jaime Lannister, who along with Jorah, Brienne, and some other combatants, have managed to fight off their adversaries and make their way to the courtyard to assist in protecting Bran. Jorah and Brienne rush to assist Jon Snow in fighting the Night King, while Jaime helps Gendry up and together with the other combatants, they attempt hold off an incoming group of wights.

Despite appearing to get the upper hand on several occasions, Jon, Jorah and Brienne are continually forced to break off their duel with the Night King in order to kill attacking wights. Jaime and Gendry manage to close off one of the entrance gates into the courtyard, but it does little to stem the influx of wights into the courtyard, who by now are being accompanied by a handful of White Walkers. While Gendry manages to kill one of the walkers, and Brienne manages to kill another, it isn't long before everyone except Jon are forced to turn their attention towards holding off the onslaught of wights and White Walkers attempting to mob the Godswood.

Jon Snow courageously duels the Night King in a last desperate attempt to claw victory from the jaws of defeat. After dodging and parrying several strikes from the Walker, Jon Snow bellows defiance and unleashes an unbridled onslaught of strikes, and the Night King works to check every single swing... until he fails to parry Jon's final strike. Jon manages to knock the Night King's blade from his hand, before thrusting Longclaw deep into the Night King's chest, causing the icy tissue immediately surrounding the Valyrian blade to crack and flake, but while clearly injured, the Night King remains standing, smirks in triumph at a now horrified Jon Snow, and then proceeds to punch Jon square in the chest and launch him backwards into a wall.

The Night King removes Longclaw from his chest, before picking up his discarded blade, and turning to finish of Jon Snow. But before the Night King can reach Jon, a great roar of a dragon pierces the courtyard, and Drogon, still being controlled by Bran's consciousness, unleashes a torrent of dragonfire that washes over wights and castle keeps alike, with Bran no longer caring about preserving Winterfell (later deeming it's defence a lost cause by that point). Atop Drogon are three figures, Daenerys, Theon, and Bran's body, still catatonic due to his warging. After Drogon lands in the centre of the courtyard, the Night King lands a direct strike on Drogon's left wing, and Drogon reacts by catapulting the Night King across the courtyard and into a burning keep. Theon immediately vaults off the dragon and moves to retrieve Jon, who is bent over injured and coughing up blood from the Night King's strike. Theon picks up Longclaw and defends Jon from an incoming White Walker, yelling at him to climb on Drogon and escape while he remains behind to fend off the Army of the Dead. With help from Brienne and Gendry, Jon manages to struggle to Drogon, who continues to blast dragonflame at the wights as they slowly encircle and close in on the dragon. Ultimately, Drogon manages to get airborne, but is forced to leave both Theon and Jorah, who slowly retreat into the Godswood, wielding Longclaw and Heartsbane respectively, to make their last stand against the Night King.

In the crypts, among the last of the women and children to retreat into the passageway are Gilly, Sam, and Missandei, escorted to safety with help from Samwell Tarly. Beric is soon after fatally wounded while fighting the seemingly never-ending onslaught of wights attempting to kill the fleeing non-combatants, and Arya is forced to fight the wights alone while the Hound and Davos desperately attempts to close the heavy door. Melisandre, still hiding behind one of the statues several dozen feet from the door, and sensing the battle drawing to a close, resolves to sacrifice herself in order to allow the others to escape. Melisandre leans down and presses her hand to the ground, repeating prayers to the Lord of Light. The wights crawling the crypts quickly notice her presence and move in for the kill, but not before the floor beneath them bursts into flames, engulfing and killing the wights and Melisandre both. The fire quickly spreads down the length of the crypt, and Arya retreats behind the safety of the door just in time for the Hound to close it behind her.

In another part of the castle, a similar last stand is taking place, involving Rhaegal (who remains injured from his fight with Viserion), Tormund, Grey Worm, Podrick, Edric and Devan. Drogon soars overhead and burns away the wights besieging their position, before continuing to burn down keep after keep, aiming to destroy as many of the wights occupying Winterfell as possible. Drogon's actions buy the survivors enough time to climb atop Rhaegal and fly out of Winterfell. As Rhaegal slowly limps southward with his large compliment of riders, Grey Worm looks back to the north to see Drogon following behind... and the ancient castle of Winterfell completely engulfed in flames.

Some time later, after the fires ravaging Winterfell have all but burned out, and the victorious Night King walks around the desolate, deathly silent, and mostly destroyed castle. Eventually, the Night King reaches the Godswood and silently raises his arms, resurecting all of the battle's fallen who were not engulfed in flames... including Jorah Mormont and Theon Greyjoy. With a fresh army at his heels, the Night King exits the castle and approaches Viserion's still-lifeless corpse located several hundred feet beyond the ruins of Winterfell. The Night King rips out the dragon glass tipped scorpion bolt from Viserion's neck, and resurrects the dragon for a second time.

Soon after, the Night King leaves Winterfell behind, heading further southward.

Deaths

 * Lord Commander Eddison Tollett
 * Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Viserion
 * Lady Alys Karstark
 * Ko Qhono
 * Varys
 * Prince Theon Greyjoy
 * Ser Jorah Mormont
 * Beric Dondarrion
 * Melisandre
 * Several White Walkers
 * Many wights
 * Many wildlings
 * Many Dothraki
 * Many Unsullied
 * Many Stark soldiers
 * Many Arryn knights of the Vale
 * Many Greyjoy warriors
 * Many unarmed non-combatants

Events

 * Fall of Winterfell