May 31, 2019

The pack survives.

EXT. WINTERFELL LANDSCAPE - WOLFSWOOD - DAY

ARYA STARK emerges from the shadows of the wolfswood, with NYMERIA at her side.

Girl and wolf are both dirtied and bloodied and battle-damaged. Nymeria has a pronounced limp, favoring one of her forepaws heavily.

EXT. WINTERFELL - OUTSIDE MAIN GATE - DAY

As they approach Winterfell, the gates open, revealing SANSA STARK. She is pale and drawn with worry for Arya, her eyes puffy from recent crying.

12.

She sees Arya and rushes out to meet her. Nymeria growls low in her throat, freezing her in her tracks.

ARYA

(to Nymeria)

It's alright.

Nymeria's hackles go down as she looks up at Arya. She sits, eyeing Sansa warily.

Sansa hesitates a beat, then moves forward and pulls Arya into a tearful hug, with no heed to her usual ladylike composure. Arya stands quietly, letting Sansa hold her.

ARYA

Nymeria's hurt.

Sansa pulls away finally, to look Arya in the face.

SANSA

(tearful)

Don't do that again.

ARYA

We saved the people. Not all of them, but...

SANSA

You could have died.

Arya holds her gaze.

ARYA

Any of us could die.

Sansa's tears redouble. She squeezes Arya again, tighter.

Arya's pride cracks, just a bit. She hugs Sansa back.

INT. ARYA'S CHAMBER - DAY

A fire crackles soothingly in Arya's fireplace. Nymeria has been cleaned up and attended to. She gnaws at her forepaw, worrying at the bandages in frustration.

ARYA

Leave it alone, girl.

Arya has likewise been bathed and bandaged. Sansa sits on Arya's bed, watching as her sister tries to quiet her wolf.

SANSA

Why did you have to go alone?

13.

ARYA

People would have slowed me down.

SANSA

You should have come to say goodbye.

Arya avoids her eyes, a hint of guilt in her face.

ARYA

You would have stopped me.

SANSA

(with an edge)

Promise me you'll say goodbye, next time.

Arya is silent a moment. With an effort, she forces herself to meet her sister's eyes. Something softens, despite herself.

ARYA

I promise.

Sansa holds her gaze. She lets out a big tired breath, and nods.

Arya hesitates.

ARYA

I...

(beat)

I'm sorry for what I said.

SANSA

Me too.

They share a smile -- a fragile, heartbreaking little thing.

SANSA

What happened out there?

Arya looks into the fire, her eyes growing distant as she relives it.

ARYA

I rode deep into the wolfswood. Nymeria lost half her wolves defending me. But the wights retreated south, after a while.

Sansa absorbs that, gazing at her sister with concern and respect in equal measure.

14.

ARYA

Have you heard from Jon?

SANSA

Bran says he took King's Landing.

ARYA

What about Cersei?

SANSA

She's dead.

(beat)

Her and Ser Jaime both.

Simple words, and strangely anticlimactic. Arya broods on them. She ought to be happy, or perhaps angry at the kill-steal. But she finds herself feeling nothing at all for the late Cersei Lannister.

ARYA

Jon wanted to let her escape.

SANSA

And you wanted to kill her while wearing Ser Jaime's face.

Arya is surprised, and abashed.

ARYA

...he told you about that?

SANSA

He tells me everything.

Something deep inside Arya breaks. She blinks, suddenly fighting tears.

ARYA

(vulnerable)

Was he angry with me?

SANSA

(without hesitation)

No.

That does it. Arya's walls are crumbling in earnest. Her pain and grief and shame well up to the surface in a hot tide.

Sansa moves closer, and holds Arya as she cries.

15.

INT. DRAGONSTONE - MAP ROOM - DAY

Close on Winterfell, sitting in the middle of the carved and painted kingdom of the North.

Jon stands over Dragonstone's map table, reading a raven scroll.

Dany enters. She and Jon look at each other.

Jon looks back down at his scroll. There's a tension in the air: a giant, prophecy-shaped elephant in the room.

Dany walks up to stand beside Jon at the table. She glances sideways at him, then down at the table. Her eyes stare into the carved continent without seeing it.

She opens her mouth to say something, hesitates, then:

DANY

You received a raven?

Jon nods.

DANY

Where from?

JON

Winterfell.

Dany nods. Another silence.

DANY

How are they faring in the North?

JON

As well as can be expected.

He sets the scroll down and leans his hands forward onto the table. He stares at Winterfell in silence.

DANY

Your family?

JON

They're surviving.

DANY

That's good.

Jon's eyes haven't left Winterfell.

DANY

Jon.

16.

He keeps staring another beat, then finally shifts his eyes up to meet hers.

DANY

We don't know that it will be you.

A loaded silence. Jon holds Dany's gaze for a long moment, then straightens up from the table.

JON

You're the queen. And you're carrying our child. It can't be you.

DANY

Jon...

JON

You are needed after the war.

DANY

So are you.

Jon smiles sadly.

DANY

I need you beside me.

JON

Are we wishing death upon Tyrion then?

DANY

No.

JON

(with an edge)

We've killed thousands of people for the greater good. Why is it alright for them, and not for us?

Dany has no answer, only anguished silence. Jon pushes on: quiet and matter-of-fact.

JON

This is bigger than us. She told us so that we wouldn't try to stop it.

DANY

Listen to me. The first time I met her, she told me: "Prophecies are dangerous things." What she saw in the flames... maybe it doesn't mean what she thinks it means.

17.

Dany's expression is full of stubborn hope and desperation. Jon sees that, and keeps his own expression tightly controlled.

JON

The first time I saw the Night King was at Hardhome. There were tens of thousands of people there -- women, children. I watched them kill... almost everyone.

Jon's voice is quiet as he remembers them dying -- people he was supposed to save, their deaths too numerous to be more than a sad statistic.

JON

And when they were done killing, the Night King walked to the end of the dock. He looked at me. Right at me. As if he already knew. As if I were already his.

DANY

(fierce)

You are not his. You're mine.

That gets to him. Jon's composure starts to fray. He hangs onto it with desperate determination -- for Dany's sake, for everyone's sake.

JON

(with difficulty)

I'm not supposed to be here.

DANY

Jon...

JON

I've been asking why. Every day, ever since. No one could tell me. Not until now.

DANY

I won't let it happen to you again.

JON

You can't stop it. No one can stop it.

DANY

(bitter)

You're starting to sound like your sister. "No one can protect anyone."

18.

JON

She was wrong.

Dany looks at him, confused.

JON

You can protect people. You're the Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Realm. The realm , Dany. It's what you were made for. And this is what I was made for. It's alright.