‘Game of Thrones’ season 4, episode 9 review: Did Jon Snow, Ygritte survive Battle at the Wall?

We don’t even know why “Game of Thrones” bothered to name Sunday’s episode “The Watchers at the Wall.” It would have been so much more appropriate to go ahead and just name it “The Battle at the Wall,” since this is what this event is known as anyway.

This entire episode was geared around what was happening with Jon Snow, Sam, and the rest of the crew with the Night’s Watch as they tried to stop an influx of 100.000 Wildings arriving at the Wall in order to destroy them. Also, did we mention that there were giants?

Before we go any further, we should admit here that we were not as excited for this episode going in as “Blackwater” two seasons ago, mostly because the Wall has never been our favorite part of the show. Jon Snow is fairly one-note, and we’d barely see Ygritte throughout the season so far.

It was ultimately interesting that the real standout for much of this hour to us was the much-derided Samwell. John Bradley really played this well, in between his attempts to be an action hero and and even a little bit as a romantic. He finally kissed Gilly! That was a nice little sweet moment before chaos completely ensued.

The battle scenes were expertly-directed by Neil Marshall to the point where you almost forgot this was a TV show, even if the fight taking place at night meant that there were occasionally moments that were a little hard to see and figure out.

Eventually, though, you knew that the issue of Jon and Ygritte was going to be addressed, and this produced the night’s most tear-inducing moment. There was some poetry in seeing the little boy be the one to kill her just as she was distracting, and despite everything that she did and Jon did, her final words as she died in his arms tore us up. With that said, we wish there was more of her this season to make this moment more effective, just as we wish that her final line was “we should’ve stayed in that cave” rather than “you know nothing, Jon Snow.” That quote became a little too much of a punchline after the sex scene.

Usually with “Game of Thrones,” the bad guys manage to win, and we’re at least pleased that Jon, Sam, and the majority of the Night’s Watch survived … for now. Jon was aware that the group had no real chance in the end, and he went to go find Mance Rayder.

This episode, despite our concerns mentioned above, was still a pretty awesome 52 minutes that felt like around 30. It far exceeded most of our expectations, and the last qualm we really have is that there is only one more episode to tie together many of the other stories. Grade: A-.

What did you think about this episode, and are you going to miss Ygritte? Share below.

Photo: HBO