January 27, 2019

A Northern village evacuates.

Ext. LonELY HILLS COUNTRYSIDE - day

Fire gives way to ice, and snow. We're back in the North.

EXT. LONELY HILLS VILLAGE - DAY

A wide shot establishes us in a large Northern village, situated in the Lonely Hills. The Dothraki and their horses can be seen moving amongst the villagers and their huts.

EXT. LONELY HILLS VILLAGE - EVACUATION LINES - DAY

A crowd of villagers stands in the snow, waiting to be evacuated. Jorah and the Hound move amongst them, organizing the crowd into a series of parallel lines. Jorah gestures and calls out in Dothraki, directing riders to take villagers from the head of each line. The riders pull frightened-looking villagers up onto their horses with them.

HOUND

(to a villager)

You can't bring all that.

The VILLAGER looks up with plaintive eyes. He's holding all his meager earthly possessions in a large pack, and now he's being asked to give up even these.

HOUND

Give it here.

The man hesitates, but the Hound is like a TSA agent from hell. He surrenders the pack. The Hound grabs it and chucks it into a growing heap off to one side.

HOUND

(shouting at the crowd)

Bring warm clothes, weapons, and food. Leave everything else behind.

The Hound moves among the lines, confiscating excess belongings.

He comes upon Jorah, who is handing a child up to one of the Dothraki riders. Then something in the far distance catches the Hound's eye. We can't see what he sees, but the Hound's expression tells us that it's not good.

26.

HOUND

Jorah...

Jorah looks up too. And now we see what they see: an approaching winter storm. They stare at it with foreboding.

JORAH

Go tell the Stark girl to ride for Winterfell.

HOUND

Don't stay too long yourself.

JORAH

Don't worry about me. Go.

The Hound looks at him, then goes to his horse, mounts up, and rides off without another word.

Jorah shouts in Dothraki, gesturing toward the coming storm. Everybody quickens their pace.

EXT. LONELY HILLS VILLAGE - ARYA MOMENT - DAY

Arya is on straggler duty, as per usual. She's on horseback, speaking with OLD MAN #2 and OLD WOMAN #2 -- not unlike the elderly couple she had intimidated earlier this season.

ARYA

You have to.

OLD WOMAN #2

Please, m'lady...

The Hound comes charging through the snow on his horse.

HOUND

Back to Winterfell, girl. Now.

Arya looks at him, then looks toward the horizon. She sees the coming storm.

She turns back to the old couple.

ARYA

Go with them, please. Don't pack anything. Just go.

HOUND

(impatient)

You promised your brother, girl.

27.

ARYA

(to the couple)

Get in line, now. Before it's too late.

The Hound is out of patience. He smacks the rump of Arya's horse with the flat of his sword. It whinnies and bolts. Arya curses, but manages to keep her seat as the horse gallops off with her. The Hound puts his heels to his own horse and follows.

EXT. LONELY HILLS VILLAGE - EVACUATION LINES - DAY

Villagers are starting to take notice of the approaching storm. As the fear mounts, discipline begins to fray. Villagers press forward, jostling the people ahead of them. Jorah paces the lines, sword drawn, doing his best to keep order.

JORAH

(shouting)

Stay in line! Stay in line!

HADORRO

(in Dothraki, subtitled)

You should get back on your horse, Jorah the Andal.

HADORRO is on horseback, holding Jorah's riderless horse by the reins, alongside his own. Jorah looks up at him. He hesitates a moment. Then a man breaks out of line and makes a dash for the riders. Jorah whirls around and cuts down the queue-jumper with his sword. The man falls to the ground, dying.

JORAH

STAY IN LINE!

[N.B.: Jorah is between the mass of villagers and the mass of Dothraki. The villagers are closer to the approaching storm.]

Intimidated by the slaying of the queue-jumper, the villagers stay in line. The Dothraki load villagers up onto their horses faster, and then faster still. The tension mounts and mounts.

Then, suddenly, the ARMY OF THE DEAD crests a hill. As one mass, they halt, staring sightlessly down into the village, as still as death. A WHITE WALKER rides up alongside them, blue eyes burning.

A shocked hush ripples through the crowd of villagers as they gradually become aware of the horror atop the hill. They turn and freeze in paralyzed incomprehension, staring up at this impossible spectacle.

28.

A beat.

The White Walker lifts his ice blade and lets out an ear-splitting shriek. A terrible growl goes up as the wights lurch forward and charge headlong down the hill.

With a panicked cry, the villagers turn en masse and stampede toward the Dothraki riders. Jorah is knocked to the ground. He struggles to rise but is trampled again and again.

Spooked by the sudden rush of people, Jorah's horse whinnies in fear and rears up, lashing out with its hooves. Hadorro manages to hold onto it, but just barely.

HADORRO

Zhey Jora Andahli!

(Jorah the Andal!)

Jorah struggles back to his feet, with difficulty. He looks around, wide-eyed and disoriented in the jostling crowd. He tries to fight his way through to the riders, but everyone else is trying to do the same, and he's on the wrong side of the crush. The sound of wights grows loud, and he turns his head to see the dead nearly upon them.

Jorah picks Hadorro out amongst the riders, locking eyes with him over the heads of the crowd. He calls out to him.

JORAH

(in Dothraki, subtitled)

Give my apologies to the khaleesi.

Slowly, he raises his sword and turns to face the coming onslaught.

With a terrible noise, the wights hit the lines in a tidal wave of death. Villagers scream and die, trying desperately to flee as wights attack them from behind.

Jorah alone is facing the opposite direction, meeting the end face-on. He makes a heroic stand, cutting down wights left and right, fighting like a berserker, refusing to go down easy.

Then, suddenly, Hadorro comes crashing through the fray on his horse, towing Jorah's mount alongside his own. He cuts mercilessly through the crowd, arakh swinging, and charges up to Jorah.

29.

HADORRO

(in Dothraki, subtitled)

Quickly!

Jorah scrambles onto his horse, as villagers pull at his clothes, begging for help. With anguish, Jorah fends them off with his sword, knowing he cannot save them. He rides out of the crush on Hadorro's heels, the two men slashing at wights and villagers alike as they cut their way free.

EXT. LONELY HILLS VILLAGE - SMALL GIRL MOMENT

A SMALL GIRL is running, stumbling through the snow, terrified and crying. Behind her, a HORDE OF WIGHTS bears down upon this single poor child.

Out of nowhere, Hadorro appears, hanging deeply out of his saddle to one side -- an impressive feat of Dothraki horsemanship of the sort that we previously saw in the Battle of the Goldroad. He snatches the girl up and gallops off with her.

Beside him, Jorah twists in his saddle, and fires dragonglass-tipped arrows from his Dothraki bow. The arrows find their marks, felling wights one after another. But there are far too many of them.

Jorah looks around, and it's red slaughter, everywhere.

Jorah watches as the crowd swarms one of the riders, pulling at his saddle and his clothes, begging to be saved. A woman tries to hand her infant up to him but is knocked sideways by the crowd. She disappears, falling to the ground with her baby.

The rider draws his arakh and slashes at the villagers indiscriminately, shouting, trying to cut his way free. People fall, bleeding from their faces and their throats. Then his horse stumbles, tripped up by the grasping hands. The horse goes down, and then a wave of wights overwhelms them all -- horse, rider, and villagers.

The old couple that Arya had been cajoling stand side-by-side, holding hands, watching the slaughter. They are a still point in the chaos. Their hands squeeze each other tight, then the dead are upon them too.

A chilling screech makes Jorah look up. High above, the NIGHT KING is circling above the mayhem like a vulture, cool and dispassionate on VISERION.

In Hadorro's arms, the small girl is sobbing.

30.

Jorah puts his heels to his horse and asks for more speed.