March 10, 2019

Dany and Jon fight for the living and for each other.

43.

EXT. SKY - DANY/NK MOMENT

Having gained elevation, Dany wheels Drogon around for a dive. Her face is etched with grief and a cold, unstoppable fury. She is a terrible avatar of vengeance.

Drogon power-dives and seizes Viserion violently around the neck with his teeth. The two dragons wheel around wildly, locked together.

Dany clings desperately to Drogon's back as they spin. She looks up--

The Night King is gazing at her, only a few feet away on Viserion's back. Behind him, the world is a blur as the dragons carousel through the air, but the Night King himself is still and clear, full of otherworldly composure.

Slowly, he raises an ice blade and points it directly at Dany's heart.

She stares up at him, face to face with her impending death, unable to do anything to stop it.

The Night King pulls back his arm for the strike.

There's a sudden violent impact, and the Night King disappears off Viserion's back in a sudden blur of motion. A furious roar splits the air.

Dany had ducked, reflexively. Now she looks up and sees:

Rhaegal, wheeling around for another attack. He banks sharply, and as his wings drop on the downstroke we see:

Jon Motherfucking Snow, riding high on his shoulders, sword drawn. Rhaegal cuts in underneath Viserion, and as he does, Jon rises up in heroic slow motion, and slices through Viserion's wing bone.

Viserion shrieks and begins to fall. He is still locked together with Drogon, and his weight jerks them into a heart-stopping drop. Drogon lets go and pulls up as Viserion plummets toward earth, pinwheeling in circles, one wing stretched taut while the other streams limp and broken and useless in the wind. He disappears out of sight, down into the swirling snowstorm below.

Dany watches him fall, then looks up to see Jon looking down at her from Rhaegal's back. She gazes up at him in awe.

For a moment, they just cruise through the sky together, looking at each other. Their relief on seeing each other alive is exquisite.

44.

Then Dany's expression shifts. She looks down toward the ground, toward where Viserion had disappeared. Anger clouds her bloodied face -- anger and deadly determination. She has unfinished business.

She looks up at Jon. A wordless communication passes between them.

Dany tilts away into a sloping descent, her eyes scanning below as she searches. Rhaegal follows after his mother, with Jon along for the ride.

ext. SnowY GROUND - viserion moment

Viserion hisses up at us from the snow-covered ground, his wings sticking out at ungainly angles like a broken umbrella.

As Rhaegal descends toward him, Viserion spits a column of blue fire up into the air. Jon flinches, Rhaegal dodges away, and Dany comes pounding straight down through the flame like the fireproof mofo that she is. Viserion shrieks as Drogon pins his head and neck to the ground with his feet.

Rhaegal lands beside them, and Jon dismounts, half-climbing and half-falling his way to the ground. He lands on his hands and knees, grimacing in pain as Viserion writhes violently beneath Drogon's talons.

Jon puts the point of his sword on the ground and pushes himself heroically to his feet. He staggers over to Viserion's head and plunges Longclaw deep into his eye. Viserion screams and--

A violent vibrating shiver travels up Longclaw's blade to the hilt. A high-pitched otherworldly metallic ringing splits the air. Jon cries out and lets go in surprise and pain.

Viserion slumps dead and goes quiet. Dany stares down at him, her fight suddenly gone to grief.

Jon grasps Longclaw and wrenches it free. He holds it out at arm's length as the blade smokes in a strange and unnatural way. Jon stares at it with confused foreboding.

Jon's POV: A darkness seems to bloom from within the blade, until it gleams a molten black, as though forged from dragonglass. Spider cracks appear and run all up and down its length until it is more gray than black. Then it crumbles and falls away like ash, leaving only the hilt, smoking darkly where the blade once was.

We push focus from the smoking hilt, out to a dim humanoid silhouette, approaching slowly through the blowing snowstorm.

45.

An "oh shit" look comes over Jon's face.

JON

(to Dany)

Go, go! Fly away, now!

Jon turns and stumbles frantically back toward Rhaegal, as Dany looks up and sees the Night King walking toward them. He reaches back over his shoulder, his hand closing around the shaft of his ice blade.

Dany gasps and urges Drogon forward into takeoff. Jon scrambles up Rhaegal's shoulder as Drogon beats the air with his wings.

The Night King pulls his arm back, aiming for his throw. Drogon is climbing for altitude, as Rhaegal labors for takeoff.

With a great kick of his legs, Rhaegal leaps up into the air, with Jon clinging to his back.

The Night King's arm comes arcing forward.

With a terrifying hurtling sound, the ice blade flies at Rhaegal, straight as an arrow, closer and closer and--

SMASH CUT TO:

EXT. GODSWOOD - MAIN CASTLE WALL - WIGHTS MOMENT

The godswood is once again swarming with wights. A makeshift ramp has been laid against the wall to the main castle, formed from trees ripped whole from the godswood itself. DEANIMATED WIGHT GIANTS lay sprawled beside the ramp, pierced by arrows and scorpion bolts.

ext. WINTERFELL BATTLEMENTS - jaime/grey worm moment

The fighting is dense and desperate atop the walls, as wight foot soldiers scrabble up the ramp like spiders. Jaime is right in the thick of it, fighting alongside his soldiers with a courage that will forever rehabilitate his reputation in the North. Grey Worm and his Unsullied are likewise distinguishing themselves, as they always do, no matter that today they happen to be fighting mythical undead horrors.

Suddenly, the wights all stop, simultaneously. The defenders fight on for half a beat, then they too stop, confused by the sudden respite.

46.

The wights are motionless for a moment. Then they turn en masse and begin retreating down the ramp.

ext. GodSWOOD - WALL BREACH - wights moment

The wights bottleneck at the breach as they crowd their way out of the godswood, swarming thickly over each other.

ext. WinTERFELL LANDSCAPE - wights moment

All around the walls of Winterfell, wights turn tail and run, heading toward the cover of the wolfswood.

EXT. WINTERFELL BATTLEMENTS - JAIME/GREY WORM MOMENT

Jaime meets Grey Worm's eyes in confusion. What the hell is going on?

That's when Dany bursts on the scene like a motherfucker.

EXT. GODSWOOD - MAIN CASTLE WALL - DANY MOMENT

The ramp explodes into flame as Drogon incinerates the godswood wights.

The fire rolls on through the godswood, consuming the deanimated wights from earlier, and the bodies of fallen Unsullied and Northerners. The heart tree shimmers in the heat haze as they burn.

ext. WinTERFELL LANDSCAPE - dany moment

Dany strafes the wights repeatedly as they flee away from the castle and into the forest, burning huge dark scorch marks into the landscape.

Ext. WINTERFELL COURTYARD - concurrent

The courtyard is full of awestruck onlookers, staring up at Dany as she soars overhead, laying waste to the retreating monsters.

We see it on face after face. These once-skeptical Westerosi are converting, hard. Long live the fucking queen.

Sansa and Arya rush out into the courtyard from the Great Keep, with Pod on their heels. The sisters swivel anxiously until they find Dany flying overhead. As she banks, they see for themselves what Bran had told them:

Jon is not with her.

47.

Sansa's face collapses. She puts her arms around Arya, who is standing frozen in place as she stares up into the sky.

A dragon's cry rings out.

And Jon Snow descends majestically out of the clouds on Rhaegal's back.

Ext. WinterfELL COURTYARD - moments later

Drogon has landed. Dany is gingerly making her way down. She is violently cold, her clothing scorched and tattered, her face bruised and bloodied.

Sansa comes over with a thick Stark cloak and drapes it over her. Dany clutches the warm fur to herself, frostbitten and shaking. Her lips are blue, her hair encrusted with ice.

Rhaegal flaps down for a landing, sending people scurrying for cover. He lets out a screech, and then an awed silence prevails.

Everyone is staring at Jon. Sansa and Arya. DAVOS SEAWORTH and SAMWELL TARLY. Lyanna Mormont. All the lords bannermen. Tyrion's expression is bittersweet -- part vicarious triumph, part mournful envy.

Jon sits atop Rhaegal's shoulders, clinging weakly, too injured and exhausted to really register all the eyes that are on him.

He looks around. The castle is standing. His friends and family are alive. He closes his eyes in relief. Then opens them, finds Dany, and locks eyes with her.

Slowly, she walks toward him, her eyes never leaving his face. She speaks no command, yet everyone knows to hang back. Drogon and Rhaegal rumble to each other, punctuating what is otherwise a profound silence.

Jon dismounts, with difficulty.

The two come together, stiff from cold and from injury, and embrace. Everyone is watching, but Jon and Dany don't seem to care.

They stand together quietly, leaning against each other for support in their exhaustion. They're battle-soiled, beaten and bleeding, relieved to be alive.