GoT 7.6: Beyond The Wall

Game of Thrones
Courtesy of HBO
Game of Thrones
Courtesy of HBO

GoT 7.6: Beyond The Wall

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As expected, Jon Snow’s Mission: Impossible turns into Mission: D’oh, Dany weighs in on her nickname, Arya tries to knock Bran down as the Stark family creep, and the Night King gets a new pet. Nerdette’s Greta Johnsen and Tricia Bobeda team up with Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! host Peter Sagal to recap all of that in more in this week’s podcast.

We also want to hear from you, the listener! You can join the conversation by using the hashtag #GOTNerdcaps or call us at 312-948-4687.

And we want to hear what you think of the podcast. Here’s a short survey and we hope you leave us plenty of comments.

(Courtesy of HBO)

If the Night King were an Olympic track and field athlete, what event would he specialize in?

“Sit and reach.”

Greta Johnsen, writer of Usain Bolt fan fiction

“Marathon walking. At a slow, ominous pace.”

Tricia Bobeda, recent recipient of flowers and a thank you card from more than one White Walker 

“The Cryptathlon, a multi-sport event including: the Evil Sneer, the 100 Meter Ponderous Walk, Ice Javelin, and Rhythmic Resurrections.”

Peter Sagal, wearer of medieval gear and a Casio watch

On bonding beyond the Wall

(Courtesy of HBO)

Greta: There were a lot of nice bro-bonding moments up north, beyond the Wall this week.

Peter: There were so many callbacks and references to things we knew, things we had seen, connections between them. It was like, “Everybody who’s been resurrected, you have a conversation.”

Tricia: If this was a long-running sitcom, this would be the episode where the whole episode would just be the walk to the White Walkers, and each of those conversations we’re talking about would have spurred a flashback clip because it would have been a clip show.

On whinging

(Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO)

Greta: I think now might be a good time to bring up how great the conversation around the word “whinging” is, which I just don’t think we use enough in American vernacular and is especially appropriate given Peter’s overall sentiments around these last couple of episodes.

On whatever is going on between Arya and Sansa

(Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO)

Peter: What is going on? And whatever is going on, why couldn’t it have happened already? Every time, I’m like, “OK, so they’re arguing?” Sansa finds the bag of faces, which she carries in a little valise. I thought that’s where she kept her homework.

But it didn’t seem to accomplish anything. You don’t know are they actually now opposed? There was that moment where they seemed to indicate that maybe Arya was going to kill Sansa, maybe by holding the dagger that way, but she didn’t. So where are we at the end of the episode that we weren’t at the beginning? We know they’re arguing, we know they’re upset with each other, we know they distrust each other, but that was pretty much true at the end of the last episode.

Tricia: But what Littlefinger seems to have done, successfully, is in part create chaos, right? We forget that Littlefinger’s plan is chaos, which isn’t really a plan so much as a life approach. He doesn’t know exactly how it’s going to play out, but he know that it is going to cause turmoil. And what he did was convince Sansa to send Brienne away.

Peter: Why did Sansa do that?

Tricia: It’s the dumbest.

Listener voicemail

(Courtesy of HBO)

Hi all, this is Peter in Edwardsville, Illinois, in my car and on my way to the totality. And thinking about this dragon and what it’s going to do. You know, zombie bears act like real bears, zombie horses act like real horses, so I think zombie dragons are going to act like real dragons. And this dragon is going to melt the Wall, and I think it’s going to happen on Sunday. Thanks for your podcast. Love you guys. Bye.

Greta: Is the zombie dragon going to breath ice or fire?

Peter: That’s a good question. I mean who knows, fire being bad for wights. As a larger point, I had a lot of minor complaints and one major prop, and the major prop is to the show runners for the zombie dragon. Because all this time, for two seasons now, we’ve been talking about why in the world doesn’t this show end tomorrow, i.e. Dany flies her dragons, burns all the wights, takes over the Seven Kingdoms, and it’s over? And you needed an obstacle.

I had not read the internet theories predicting the zombie dragon, so it was a surprise to me.

Greta: Did you like it, Tricia? Did you read the theories about this on the interwebs?

Tricia: I had heard the theories, and also George R.R. Martin wrote a children’s novella that was published in 1980 called The Ice Dragon that’s about a little girl who fights the bad dragons, who in that scenario are the fire-breathing dragons and she has an ice dragon, and the ice dragon is the good-guy dragon.

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the “play” button to listen to the entire conversation.

Justin Bull produced and edited audio of this podcast. Hunter Clauss adapted it for the web.