Game of Thrones Recap ‘Hardhome’: The Long Night Begins

In the latest Game of Thrones recap, Daenerys figures out whether or not to trust Tyrion and Jon begins to see the real threat that lies north of the Wall….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Long before Westeros was a breeding ground for warlords and kings all vying to sit on a throne made of swords, there was a time in history known as ‘The Long Night’.

It was a period of darkness that lasted a generation and the stuff of legend that is still told throughout the Seven Kingdoms to this day. It’s the time when creatures from a place called The Land of Always Winter (aka North of the Wall) marched south, snuffing out everything with light and warmth that stood in their way. Life was their greatest enemy and they drove back the children of the forest (the people who helped Bran in season 4) and the First Men.

These undead creatures were known as The White Walkers — pale white skin, as cold as ice, with blue eyes and the ability to kill anything and everything living that they touched.

These events happened 8000 years before Aegon Targaryen conquered Westeros and built the Iron Throne so accounts are fable at best, but the story says that the White Walkers looked to turn The Long Night into forever if not for the efforts of the living fighting to push them back to the North. There are rumors that a great hero emerged to help fight back the armies of darkness along with the children of the forest and the First Men.

According to some stories, this is how the Night’s Watch came to be so that the North would always have an army ready to battle back the dead if they ever arose again. A 700-foot tall Wall was erected to keep the White Walkers far away from Westeros.

Of course so much of this tale of The Long Night is considered fiction at this point in history because no one currently residing in King’s Landing or Casterly Rock or even Winterfell truly believes that there are dead men walking with the power to bring darkness over the world. It’s a story to tell children before going to bed.

But as we saw in the latest episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ titled ‘HardHome’, the armies of the dead are all too real and their leader, The Night’s King, is charging south as winter begins to pick up steam. The storm clouds are gathering and the cold will soon be washing over lands that haven’t been touched by winter for several years and with that chill will come a great army that seeks to evaporate the light and create nothing but darkness again.

It’s a quest over 8000 years in the making and if the latest episode taught us anything, the dead won’t stop until the living join them.

With that, let’s recap the latest episode of Game of Thrones titled ‘Hardhome’:

Breaking the Wheel

Following a monumental first meeting last week between Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister, the queen holds court with her newest subject while also addressing Ser Jorah Mormont, who returned to the city of Meereen despite the warning that he would be killed if he ever set foot there again.

Daenerys first turns her attention to Tyrion by wondering if she should trust him as an advisor or kill him because as a Lannister his family is responsible for butchering her brothers, sisters and every other Targaryen across the Known World.

“You want revenge against the Lannisters? I killed my mother, Joanna Lannister, on the day I was born. I killed my father, Tywin Lannister, with a bolt to the heart. I am the greatest Lannister killer of our time.”

~ Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion is smart enough to know his counsel is absolutely necessary if Daenerys really wants to conquer the Seven Kingdoms and sit on the Iron Throne so as a test she asks him what she should do about Ser Jorah. After all despite his best intentions of late, he betrayed her for most of her natural life while reporting her every movement back to King Robert Baratheon and his successor while plots were launched with the intention of taking her life and at one point the life of her child.

Tyrion tells the queen that Jorah is clearly devoted to her now and probably loves her as well, but his kind of betrayal can never be forgiven. Then again, killing a loyal subject in front of her kingdom of followers isn’t exactly sending the right message either.

“A ruler who kills those devoted to her is not a ruler who inspires devotion. You are going to need to inspire devotion and a lot of it if you’re ever going to rule across the Narrow Sea. But you cannot have him by your side when you do.”

~ Tyrion

So Daenerys listens to Tyrion for the first time and decide to banish Jorah from the city (again) instead of killing him on the spot.

Since he couldn’t gain Daenerys’ trust by delivering Tyrion to her front doorstep, Jorah decides to return to his former ‘master’ where he will participate in the Great Games where he will try to impress the queen by fighting in her honor. He also notices that the greyscale he contracted on his arm is spreading so no matter what happens, Jorah is dying and he’s probably not long for this world.

Meanwhile, Daenerys invites Tyrion into her meeting room inside the great pyramid where they converse over his role in her queendom. She says she’s still contemplating killing him after he reveals that he came to her service by way of Varys — the same master of whisperers who Jorah reported to for years.

Tyrion counters with the fact that Varys spied on her because it was the best way he could stay alive while he was also probably responsible for Daenerys and her brother escaping Westeros in the first place.

“I had given up on life until Varys convinced me you might be worth living for. If you chop off my head, well my final days were interesting.”

~ Tyrion

Daenerys opts to bring Tyrion into her employ because while she has a great army at her back, the truth is the dragon queen has no knowledge of the inner workings of Westerosi politics or what it will take to actually rule once she’s conquered the Seven Kingdoms.

Tyrion wonders if she wouldn’t be better served just ruling the land she’s already conquered, but Daenerys reminds him that Meereen, Yunkai, Astapor and all of Slaver’s Bay is free because of her, but this is still not her home. Westeros is home. The Iron Throne is home. And she plans to retake it.

Unfortunately, Tyrion has to serve up a harsh dose of reality of the hardships she might face upon landing on the shores of Westeros from the Narrow Sea.

“House Targaryen is gone. Not a single person who shares your blood is alive to support you. The Starks are gone as well. Our two terrible fathers saw to that. The remaining members of House Lannister will never back you, not ever. Stannis Baratheon won’t back you either. His entire claim to the throne rests on the illegitimacy of yours. That leaves the Tyrells. Not impossible. Not enough.”

~ Tyrion

Daenerys has heard all about the great houses of Westeros ever since she was a child and in the time she’s been quietly building her empire halfway across the world, she’s seen or been told about all of the infighting, betrayal and disloyalty shown by this family or the next. She plans on putting an end to all of it when she sits down upon the Iron Throne.

Daenerys: “Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell. They are just spokes on a wheel. This one’s on top then that one’s on top and on and on it spins, crushing the ones on the ground.”

Tyrion: “It’s a beautiful dream, stopping the wheel. You’re not the first person who’s ever dreamt it.”

Daenerys: “I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.”

It’s clear Daenerys has ambitions that lie beyond the normal politics that have ruled Westeros for the past 20 years while the Targaryens have been away. She plans on burning them to the ground and rebuilding her kingdom on the ashes.

Assassin’s Creed

In Braavos, Arya is beginning to master the art of lying as she’s given her first assignment to serve the Many Faced God of the Faceless Men. Arya’s story is that she’s posing as a girl with an oyster cart who travels around the streets of Braavos selling her seafood to anyone with a few coins to spare.

Her job is to watch and gather information on a man who gambles on the lives of captains and their ships and when they don’t make it home, he stiffs the women and children they leave behind despite owing them a lot of money. In other words, this guy is an insurance salesman who refuses to pay after it’s time to collect.

Well, the women and children of these dead sea captains are fed up and they’ve prayed to the Many Faced God for help. Enter the Faceless Men.

Arya has been charged with finding out this man’s every movement so when it’s finally time to strike, she knows exactly when and where the job will get done. This is Arya’s test to join the league of assassins as her first kill. The other apprentice from the House of Black and White says that Arya is not ready to which Jaqen H’ghar responds (more or less) if she dies, she dies. The Many Faced God doesn’t feel remorse.

Not Alone

To the North, Sansa Stark is still locked away in her chambers where she has food brought to her daily by Theon Greyjoy aka a constant reminder of the man who burned her brothers alive after betraying her family and sacking Winterfell.

Sansa is even more pissed right now because Theon betrayed her confidence a week ago and told Ramsay about her plans to escape. She finally snaps and says that if she could, she would do the same things Ramsay did to Theon except only worse. Not only is a shell of his former self, but now he’s a coward and weakling to boot. Theon is after all the man who killed her brothers.

Except he didn’t.

Theon finally comes clean to someone other than Ramsay and Roose that he didn’t crisp Bran and Rickon Stark after capturing Winterfell.

“They weren’t Bran and Rickon! I couldn’t find them. It was two farm boys. I killed them and burned them so no one would know.”

~ Theon

A wave of relief washes over Sansa because now she knows her little brothers are alive, but even better she knows for sure that she’s no longer the only Stark left alive in this world. Sansa has been alone ever since Joffrey beheaded her father in front of the Great Sept of Baelor. While she’s no closer to actually reclaiming her family, Sansa at least knows her brothers are out there somewhere and that gives her some sense of comfort.

She tries to find out if Theon knows where the boys have gone, but he finally freaks out and goes back into Reek mode and runs away back to his master.

Meanwhile, Roose Bolton is preparing for the oncoming war that’s headed his way in the form of Stannis Baratheon and his army. Stannis apparently has 6,000 men and he’s charging towards Winterfell. Roose’s plan is to allow the rebuilt walls around Winterfell to protect them and after winter hits, Stannis’ army will either revolt against him or wither away and die from starvation and cold. Inside the walls, Roose has saved enough supplies to survive for at least six months.

Ramsay has another plan in mind.

He wants to take the fight to Stannis right now before he lands at their gates to show the people of the North that the Boltons mean business. Roose is wary to send Ramsay anywhere with a huge garrison of troops, especially considering the snow that’s so deep right now, no army could dredge through it.

Ramsay has another plan in mind all together.

“I don’t need an army. I need 20 good men.”

~ Ramsay Bolton

It appears Ramsay has a strategy where he goes after Stannis directly and once the king is dead, his troops will soon disperse and the threat to the Warden of the North dies with him.

Confessional

Back in King’s Landing, Cersei remains a prisoner of the High Sparrow and the Faith Militant. Her only recourse in this situation (much like Margaery and Loras) is to confess her sins and beg for mercy. She, of course, refuses to bow down and scrape before some peasant commoner who she brought into power in the first place.

Cersei makes plenty of idle threats, but she’s learning in quick order that her demands hold no power over these people of faith.

Her friend Qyburn pays her a visit to share some rather disturbing news. Cersei will be tried on several counts including incest and plotting to have King Robert killed. She denies the charges but Qyburn reminds her that this trial isn’t like the kind she would have in front of the king and his advisors. Her best bet might be to confess and plead for mercy, but once again Cersei declines with great prejudice.

Meanwhile, Qyburn also tells her that King Tommen hasn’t seen anybody for days and he’s not even eating much right now out of protest that his mother and his wife are currently being held captive. With Cersei in prison, Grand Maester Pycelle contacted her uncle Kevan Lannister to return to the capital where he will serve as Hand of the King.

Cersei quickly demands to see Kevan, but he has also declined to pay her a visit and as of now there’s still no word from Jamie in Dorne either. Things are looking rather bleak for Cersei right now although Qyburn reminds her ‘the work continues’, which means his random black magic experimentations (remember he was ‘saving’ The Mountain after his battle with Oberyn last season). Does Qyburn have something cooking to save Cersei?

Only time will tell, but while Cersei’s will refuses to be broken, her thirst finally requires her to drop to her knees and lick water off the ground. I guess we have now seen what happens when Queen Cersei has her finery stripped away.

The Quick and the Dead

At Castle Black, Gilly is tending to Sam’s wounds after he defended her from his brothers in the Night’s Watch and little Ollie comes to pay him a visit while bringing some food. Ollie is still troubled by Jon’s decision to travel north to try and team up with the Wildlings after they killed 50 men under his command not to mention slaughter entire villages including his parents. The man Jon trusts to take him north, Tormund Giantsbane, is the same person who led the charge that ended with his parents being cooked up as dinner for some fucking Thenn.

Sam re-assures Ollie that Jon knows what he’s doing, even if neither of them agree with him. It’s the job of a leader to decide what’s best and Jon wouldn’t take this course of action unless he was positive it was necessary.

“Sometimes a man has to make hard choices. Choices that might look wrong to others, but you know are right in the long run.”

~ Samwell

Ollie still doesn’t seem to trust the decision so keep an eye on him as the final two episodes unfold in the coming weeks.

While Sam is trying to mentor Ollie, Jon has officially arrived at Hardhome where the remaining Free Folk are stationed after Stannis Baratheon’s army defeated Mance Rayder and sent them packing. When they arrive on shore, Jon and Tormund are greeted by the Lord of Bones, who clearly wants nothing to do with any kind of truce or deal that would see him shake hands with a Crow.

Tormund kills the Lord of Bones and requests everybody else at least listens to what Jon Snow has to say.

Inside, Jon meets with the elders of the Free Folk where he tells them about the dangers that lie to the north. The kind of danger that’s far greater than any thousand year war with the Night’s Watch or the infighting they’ve suffered through as one clan tries to kill another clan over hunting or tribalism or any other number of reasons.

The threat that looms nearby is the kind that could wipe out the Free Folk and the Night’s Watch in one fell swoop. He explains that they can be enemies again once this is all said and done, but for now they need to move south, through the Wall, and onto the farms and lands he’s set aside for them so they won’t become members of the undead army that marches closer and closer by the day.

Jon even presents them with a gift — a bag full of dragonglass spears, the kind of weapon that can kill a White Walker.

“The White Walkers don’t care if a man is Free Folk or Crow. We’re all the same to them. Meat for their army. But together we can beat them.

“The long night is coming and the dead come with it. No clan can stop them. The Free Folk can’t stop them. The Night’s Watch can’t stop them. And all the southern kings can’t stop them. Only together, all of us, and even then it may not be enough but at least we’ll give the fuckers a fight.”

~ Jon Snow

About 5,000 people decide to take Jon Snow up on his offer and get into boats that will take them south to the Wall and eventually into Westeros. While it’s not the number Jon had hoped for, Tormund explains that it took Mance over 20 years to gain the trust of all the clans before finally bringing them all together with a common goal of getting through the Wall and conquering the Night’s Watch. Tormund knows as winter gets colder and the hunting dries up, the people will come to their senses and ask to join the rest of the Free Folk in the south.

But just as the boats are rowing from the shore out to the ships, the dogs of the Free Folk start barking and a cold calm blows through the camp. In the distance, a mist begins to descend down upon Hardhome and behind the cold, damp cloud comes the stomping of thousands of feet.

It’s the army of the dead and they’ve come to collect new members.

As the gates at Hardhome begin to buckle and the Wights start to plow through the defenses, the Free Folk and the men of the Night’s Watch who came with Jon begin to fight back in an unwinnable war. Jon tries to get as many people on boats as he can while charging towards the front line where he joins Tormund in killing as many Wights as he can. The thing with Wights, unlike White Walkers, they are just mindless killing machines who don’t stop by having an arm or a leg cut off.

Jon’s fight continues until he makes a run for the hut where they left the dragonglass. Inside he’s joined by a Thenn and a full fledge member of the White Walker family. The Thenn leader tells Jon to get his dragonglass while he holds off the White Walker. Of course the battle lasts for all of 10 seconds until the White Walker plunges his spear through the Thenn.

Jon tries as best he can to fight back, but the White Walker tosses him around like a sack of potatoes and he never finds the dragonglass. Outside the hut just when it looks like the Night’s Watch will be voting in a new Lord Commander, Jon grabs his sword and makes one last attempt to stop the White Walker who is coming after him.

But unlike every other steel sword that met the weapon of a White Walker, Jon’s does not turn to ice and break. Instead the White Walker is admittedly shocked (or at least as much as their facial expressions can show shock) that Jon’s sword stopped its spear. Jon quickly spins away and swings his sword through the White Walker’s midsection as it shatters into a million pieces.

Jon already knew that dragonglass could kill a White Walker but he also learns that a Valyrian steel sword can apparently also do the trick. Remember Valyrian steel was forged in Valyria by dragonsfire (sounds similar to dragonsglass, no?).

Up on a hill over top of the battle, Jon spots a garrison of four soldiers sitting on dead horses. Call them the four horsemen of the apocalypse or just the leaders of The White Walkers. Jon doesn’t have much time to stare as the army of Wights have begun to climb and fall over the last defenses of the Free Folk.

Jon, Tormund and the rest of the living Free Folk make it to the boats to getaway, but as they look back on the shore, the Night King has arrived and he’s standing at the end of the dock looking out his prey. The Night King raises his arms and Jon looks on in horror as all the Free Folk who were left behind or slaughtered in the battle are all waking up with bright blue eyes and staring directly back at the boats currently rowing away from shore.

The army of the dead has grown exponentially from this lone battle and Jon Snow now knows the kind of enemy he’s facing. The dead can’t be reasoned with. They can’t be bargained with.

The dead want just one thing — to dash out the living and the light and they won’t stop until the Long Night has come again.

Only two episodes of ‘Game of Thrones’ left to go this season so make sure to tune in next Sunday night at 9pm ET to find out the fate of Jon Snow and the Free Folk as they arrive back at Castle Black.