Scripting Episode 9

Part nine of our ten-part “scripting” series is basically …

Well, it’s basically when the whole bloody story just goes to hell. This is one bitch of an episode. Any viewer who does not already know the story could very well throw him or herself off a bridge after this sucker rolls credits. It’s that awesome. Or horrible. You choose.

EPISODE NINE
40 scenes; 70 pages

½ of JON 7
CATELYN 8
½ of TYRION 7
½ of JON 8
CATELYN 9
½ of TYRION 7
½ of JON 8
DAENERYS 9
½ of EDDARD 15
ARYA 5

Our (very) rough Season One outline can be found HERE. Episodes 2 – 8 can be found here: Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8. PLEASE NOTE that none of these scripts are official. Episode 9 encompasses the following pages from “A Game of Thrones” (U.S. softcover): pages 632 – 664, 675 – 693, and 702 – 728. Pages 665 – 674 (Lhazareen Town) appeared in episode 8, and pages 694 – 701 (The Battle of Whispering Wood) have been moved to the finale.

Spoilers are everywhere, you dolts! Everywhere! Read ye no further if fear these things ye do!

Introductions: Lord Wyman Manderly and his sons, Ser Willis and Ser Wendel Manderly, Ser Helman Tallhart, Galbart Glover, Lord Leo Lefford, Shae, Podrick Payne (still hoping), Ser Stevron Frey, Lord Walder Frey, Ser Addam Marbrand, High Septon

Deaths: Othor (again), Jafer Flowers (again), Ser Jeremy Rykker, various Stark and Lannister forces as well as clansmen at the Battle of the Green Fork (including Ulf, Conn, and Lord Hornwood), Drogo’s Horse, Quaro, Qotho, Haggo, Cohollo … and Ned

Sex: Tyrion and Shae. And Tyrion and Shae.

INT. CASTLE BLACK – JON’S SLEEPING CELL – NIGHT [quarter page]

Jon wakes, freezing. Ghost is at the door, staring at it intently. Something is wrong; Jon opens the door and goes out.

INT. CASTLE BLACK – STAIRWAY HALL – CONTINUOUS [quarter page]

Jon finds the body of a guard in the hall; the man’s head has been twisted nearly all the way around. Jon hears someone moving up in the Lord Commander’s Tower, so he takes the dead guard’s sword and moves up the stairs quietly.

EXT. CASTLE BLACK – LORD COMMANDER’S ROOM – CONTINUOUS [1.5 pages]

Ghost catches the figure in the doorway, leaping on it. Jon follows and rips down the curtains for light: the moonlight reveals Ghost fighting with a very undead Othor! Jon and Ghost fight for their lives against the immensely powerful wight while Mormont’s raven screams. Mormont wakes and stumbles over with a lantern-– a lantern Jon then takes and smashes down at the fallen drapes. Jon takes a handful of burning cloth and whips it at Othor.

OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE [1 page]

EXT. MOAT CAILIN – GATES – DAY [quarter page]

Catelyn rides alongside the large SER WILLIS MANDERLY and his equally ponderous brother SER WENDEL MANDERLY. They lead an army of fifteen hundred men through a boggy mire and thick fog toward the distant gates.

FLASHBACK TO:

EXT. WHITE HARBOR – DOCKS – MORNING [half page]

Catelyn greets massive LORD WYMAN MANDERLY as she exits the ship she’d just traveled on, meeting him on the docks. “My boys will see you safe to your son, have no fear,” he says, indicating Willis and Wendel.

BACK TO PRESENT:

EXT. MOAT CAILIN – GATES – DAY [quarter page]

Catelyn is taken aback by the damage afflicting Moat Cailin as she and her companions ride in; it appears close to collapsing and in dire need of repair.

INT. MOAT CAILIN – DRAFTY HALL – DUSK [6 pages]

Catelyn is reunited with Robb. The other lords of the north come pay their respects to her; introduced is SER HELMAN TALLHART and GALBART GLOVER. Catelyn is asked if she still holds Tyrion; she confesses she does not. Catelyn bids the lords a moment that she might speak to her son alone. When they are gone, Catelyn voices her displeasure that Robb had to personally lead the host when so many other capable men could have been given the lead; “They are not Starks,” he answers. Robb shows Catelyn the letter Sansa wrote; he despairs that his father and sisters will be killed no matter what they do, but Catelyn reiterates the need to simply win. They agree the forces need be divided to have any chance; Robb will personally lead one, while the cagey Roose Bolton (rather than the fearless but aggressive Greatjon) will take the other; Robb decides one force must ride to bolster Riverrun, while the other will go south to challenge Tywin Lannister (at this point we do not know who will lead which). Catelyn says she will travel to Riverrun as well. When questioned, she says she would see her home once more … and that they will need her even before that– when dealing with Lord Frey.

EXT. LANNISTER CAMP – LORD TYWIN’S PAVILION – DUSK [3 pages]

Tyrion sits to dine with Lord Tywin and the Lannister bannermen on the hill overlooking the Kingsroad. LORD LEO LEFFORD gripes about having had to arm Tyrion’s “savages,” and Tyrion replies that Shagga is of the opinion that three axes are even better than two. Ser Kevan Lannister informs Tyrion they will be used as the vanguard. Tyrion balks, and Lord Tywin mocks his son’s courage. Tyrion grudgingly agrees to lead the van, to which Lord Tywin replies that Ser Gregor Clegane will have the command. Tyrion leaves the table, angry.

EXT. LANNISTER CAMP – TENT SPRAWL – NIGHT [quarter page]

Tyrion waddles through the mass of tents camped beside the Kingsroad.

EXT. LANNISTER CAMP – CLAN COOKFIRES – CONTINUOUS [3/4 page]

Tyrion passes the clansmen and their tents; the scene here is more chaotic, but friendlier to Tyrion than the Lannister tents. The Stone Crow leader Conn even calls out to invite Tyrion to dine on ox with him and his men. Tyrion says to call him back when it’s actually cooked.

EXT. LANNISTER CAMP – TYRION’S TENT – CONTINUOUS [1 page]

Tyrion arrives at his tent; Bronn is there, as well as Tyrion’s new squire PODRICK PAYNE. With them is SHAE, youthful and willing. “Men call me the Imp,” Tyrion says to her. “My mother named me Shae,” she replies. “Men call me … often.” Tyrion takes her into his tent almost immediately.

INT. TYRION’S TENT – CONTINUOUS [2 pages]

Tyrion explains to Shae how it will go: “I want more from you than what you’ve got between your legs, though I’ll want that too.” He tells her she is to take care of his every need and will not take another man to her bed so long as they are together. She agrees and they make love immediately. After, Tyrion lays with her in the dark and softly whistles the song he learned from Tysha so long ago.

EXT. LANNISTER CAMP – TYRION’S TENT – NIGHT [1 page]

Tyrion comes back out to speak with Bronn. He asks where he found Shae; “I took her from a knight,” Bronn replies. Tyrion tells Bronn that if he helps him survive the battle he can name his reward. “Who’d want to kill the likes o’ you?” Bronn asks. Tyrion replies, “My lord father, for one. He put me in the van.” Bronn says, “I’d do the same. A small man with a big shield. You’ll give the archers fits.”

INT. TYRION’S TENT – NIGHT [1 page]

Tyrion returns to the darkness of his tent and Shae. Tyrion asks her about the knight she was with; “I would not fear him, my lord. He was a small man,” she says. He asks, “What am I, pray? A giant?” “My giant of Lannister,” she answers with a purr. They make love again.

INT. CASTLE BLACK – KING’S TOWER – DAY [3 pages]

Lord Commander Mormont speaks with Jon of the attack by the undead Othor. Jon’s hand is bandaged from the burns he took in the fire that destroyed the wight. Mormont relates there is still no news of the missing Benjen. In thanks for saving his life, Mormont gives Jon the Valyrian sword Longclaw, once meant for his son Jorah. It was burned in the fire that gutted the Lord Commander’s Tower, and the hilt had to be remade; the pommel is now carved in the likeness of a wolf’s head (it used to have a bear’s). Mormont also mentions he sent Ser Alliser Thorne to King’s Landing to show them the detached hand of Jafer Flowers– and to separate him from Jon.

EXT. CASTLE BLACK – TURRET STAIR – DAY [half page]

Jon heads down the stair; two guards congratulate him on the new sword. (Are these the same two men who always talk to Jon when he comes up or down the stair? This is like a running gag. They never shut up.)

EXT. CASTLE BLACK – COURTYARD – CONTINUOUS [1.5 pages]

Jon is met by Pyp, Grenn, Halder, and Toad, who admire Longclaw. We learn Jafer Flowers had also come back to life in the night and it had taken a dozen swords to cut him to pieces; Ser Jaremy Rykker was killed in the melee, as well as four other men.

EXT. THE NECK – KINGSROAD – DAY [1 page]

Robb leads his host through black bogs en route to the Twins, and shares his worries with Catelyn: Lord Walder Frey has four thousand troops amassed yet has not committed any of them to their cause as yet, and worse has not given any inclination he will even let Robb’s men cross the river. To Catelyn this is familiar territory; she warns Robb how self-serving Walder Frey is, reminding him he has a son married to Lord Tywin’s sister.

EXT. BOGS – STARK CAMP – NIGHT [1 and a quarter page]

Theon Greyjoy arrives with bad news: Jaime Lannister has broken the Riverrun defenders and taken Edmure Tully captive, and Riverrun is now fully under siege. Robb seethes; they must cross the river. He considers putting the Twins under siege, but Catelyn rebukes him; she reminds him the Freys have held the crossing for six hundred years and has never failed to exact a toll on those who want to cross. Robb asks what Walder Frey wants; Catelyn says, “That is what we must discover.”

EXT. THE TWINS – CAUSEWAY – DAY [2 pages]

Catelyn, Robb, and their bannermen look upon the heavily fortified TWINS grimly. Lord Walder’s heir SER STEVRON FREY finally rides out to greet them. At first Robb says he will accompany Ser Stevron back inside the Twins, but Robb’s men talk him out of it. Catelyn decides she will go treat with Lord Walder alone. “Lord Walder is my father’s bannerman. I have known him since I was a girl. He would never offer me harm.”

INT. EAST CASTLE GREAT HALL – DAY [5.5 pages]

Catelyn meets with the ninety-year old LORD WALDER FREY; Lord Walder complains to Catelyn about his heir, his children, his grandchildren, his bastards … Lord Walder says he has his four thousand men assembled and ready, but since her brother Edmure already lost there would be no use in sending them. Catelyn says Robb’s host would like to cross the river; Lord Walder asks why he should let them. When Catelyn reminds him he swore an oath to her father, he says, “I swore an oath to the crown too. If I had half the sense the gods gave a fish, I’d help the Lannisters boil you all.” When she asks him why he does not do just that, Lord Walder reveals his disdain for the “proud and splendid” Lord Tywin Lannister, with his “gold this and gold that and lions here and lions there.” Catelyn finally asks for Lord Walder’s help humbly. Lord Walder complains some more about Catelyn’s father; Lord Hoster Tully never attended any of his weddings, wouldn’t allow Edmure to wed any of his daughters, etc. Eventually it just comes down to haggling.

EXT. THE TWINS – DRAWBRIDGE – DUSK [2 pages]

Catelyn rides back out of the Twins. She informs Robb that it is done; Lord Walder will let them pass, and the four thousand Frey men will now march with the Starks. She states Lord Walder’s terms: Two Frey children will foster at Winterfell, young Olyvar Frey will squire for Robb, Arya will marry Lord Walder’s youngest son Elmar (“Arya won’t like that one bit,” Robb replies) … and once the fighting is done, Robb must choose one of Lord Walder’s daughters to wed. Robb asks if he can refuse. “Not if you want to cross,” Catelyn replies. “I consent,” Robb says solemnly.

EXT. THE TWINS – WATER TOWER – DUSK [quarter page]

Robb and his host cross the river, tromping over the great bridge. Lord Walder Frey watches from high up in the tower.

INT. TYRION’S TENT – DAWN [half page]

The sound of trumpets awakens Tyrion and Shae.

EXT. LANNISTER CAMP – TYRION’S TENT – PRE-DAWN [1 page]

Tyrion stumbles out of the tent and into the morning mists. Bronn rides up with the news: the Stark forces stole up through the early morning and are less than a mile away. Both Shae and Podrick help Tyrion get into his armor. “If I die, weep for me,” Tyrion tells Shae. She asks, “How will you know? You’ll be dead.” “I’ll know,” he retorts.

EXT. KINGSROAD – DAWN [half page]

The forces of Lord Tywin Lannister march north. Ser Kevan leads the center, joined by Lord Lefford, as well as Lydden and Serrett bannermen. The right-side cavalry is led by SER ADDAM MARBRAND, joined by Flement, Crakehall, and Swyft bannermen. The left-side forces on the river are led by Ser Gregor Clegane, joined by Tyrion and his clansmen. Lord Tywin Lannister leads from the rear.

EXT. GREEN FORK RIVERBANK – DAY [2 pages]

Tyrion leads his clansmen along the riverbank, and they make “Halfman!” their battlecry. Over the top of the ridge come the Stark forces; Tyrion sees Hornwood banners, and Karstarks, and Cerwyns, and Glovers. Tyrion is able to hold his men only a moment before the clansmen howl and charge; what follows is pure chaos. Tyrion kills one man with the aid of his biting horse, but he is himself unhorsed, his elbow injured by a flail. A Winterfell man demands Tyrion yield, but Tyrion drives the spike of his helm into the belly of the man’s horse. They all fall together. “Yield,” the man says again to Tyrion, and it takes a moment for Tyrion to realize the man is trapped beneath his horse and yielding to him.

EXT. WOODED BATTLEGROUND – DUSK [1 page]

Bronn finds Tyrion staggering through the trees. He sees many of his clansmen; Ulf is dead and missing an arm; Shagga is alive but riddled with arrows, the head of Conn (very dead) in his lap. Chella and Timett collect ears and loot respectively.

EXT. GREEN FORK RIVERBANK – DUSK [3 pages]

Tyrion meets up with Ser Kevan and his father on the riverbank. Lord Tywin says he had expected Tyrion’s undisciplined clansmen to break, which, as planned, would have created a lure to suck the Stark forces in. “A pity my savages ruined your dance,” Tyrion says. Lord Addam Marbrand comes with grim news: Robb Stark was never even here– the “young wolf” was last glimpsed crossing the Twins and riding hard for Riverrun. Lord Roose Bolten had the command of this assault, and even he escaped. Lord Cerwyn, Wilis Manderly, Harrion Karstark, and four Freys were taken captive, and Lord Hornwood is dead. Lord Tywin is not happy; the Lion of Lannister has thus far been outsmarted by the young Robb Stark.

INT. JON’S CELL – DAY [1.5 pages]

Sam enters to speak with Jon. They talk about Valyrian swords; Sam relates the story of his father giving the ancestral Tarley sword Heartsbane to his youngest son Dickon instead of him. Sam finally blurts out that Maester Aemon wishes to see Jon.

INT. ROOKERY – DAY [3.5 pages]

Jon speaks to Maester Aemon; they talk of ravens, and eventually of Jon’s father. Jon admits he wants to go to war alongside his brother Robb. Maester Aemon says he understands Jon’s conflict, and tells his own story; “Three times the gods saw fit to test my vows,” Aemon says. Ravens would come bearing news of his house, and all the while he could do nothing because of his vows to the Night Watch. A stunned Jon finally realizes who he is speaking to: “Aemon … Targaryen?” “Once,” Aemon answers. “I will not tell you to stay or go. You must make that choice yourself, and live with it all the rest of your days,” he says softly. “As I have.”

EXT. LHAZAREEN HILLS – STONY TRAIL – DAY [2 pages]

Daenerys rides alongside a visibly ill Khal Drogo. Flies buzz incessantly about his wounds; some he kills, others he does not. Dany reaches out for him … and Drogo falls from his horse. Many of his riders notice and are shocked; a khal who falls from his horse is considered a dead man. Dany insists he did not fall; “We will camp here,” she says, implying it was Drogo’s choice. Dany calls for Mirri Maz Duur and orders Drogo’s tent erected.

INT. KHAL DROGO’S TENT – DAY [6 pages]

Dany and her maids strip Khal Drogo to bathe him. “He dies,” young Eroeh says fearfully, and Dany slaps her. Ser Jorah Mormont enters and says that word is spreading that Khal Drogo fell from his horse. Jorah helps Dany unwrap Drogo’s bandages; the wound is sickly and diseased. Jorah says Drogo is as good as dead, and that they must flee quickly. Dany is confused, saying Drogo’s son will be khal. Jorah says her son will be given to the dogs as other men fight for the title of khal. Mirri Maz Duur enters, and Dany begs her to save Drogo, but Mirri says all she can do now is ease the dark road before him. Dany pleads with her. Mirri finally admits she is a maegi, and there is a spell for such a thing, but “only death may pay for life.” Dany agrees. Mirri has Drogo’s horse brought in and it is slaughtered despite the protests of Dany’s khas, its blood drained into Drogo’s bath. Mirri orders braziers to be lit and then orders everyone out of the tent including Dany.

EXT. LHAZAREEN HILLS – DOTHRAKI CAMP – CONTINUOUS [3 pages]

Dany stumbles outside; a crowd has gathered at Drogo’s tent, and they stare at Dany with hard eyes. Old Haggo spits in her face. Qotho hears Mirri Maz Duur chanting from within the tent and he shoves Dany aside, drawing his arakh, intent on going in. Rakharo and Quaro try to stop him; Qotho kills Quaro, and then Ser Jorah steps in to fight. Qotho is winning, spitting curses at the knight, but a momentarily stuck blade (in his ribcage) gives Jorah the chance to kill him. The shock of events causes Dany to begin to go into labor; she doubles over in pain. Rakharo kills Haggo. Dany is struck by a thrown rock; she stumbles, and Cohollo tries to kill her. Aggo kills Cohollo instead with a well-shot arrow. Dany crawls toward Drogo’s tent, but she sees swirling shadows within and she hesitates. Jorah picks her up and carries her the rest of the way in.

INT. RED KEEP DUNGEON CELL – NIGHT [2 pages]

Ned is visited by Varys– disguised as a grizzled turnkey. Varys says he does not wish for Ned to die, but could do nothing to aid him that day in court. Varys says he will deliver any message Ned has, assuming its content best serves his own ends. Ned asks what that is; Varys answers, “Peace.” Varys says he tried to protect King Robert from himself, and blames Ned for forcing Cersei’s hand. “It was not the wine that killed the king. It was your mercy.” Varys also urges Ned to support King Joffrey. He says Cersei will likely allow him to take the black and live out the rest of his days on the Wall. Or, “The next visitor could bring you your daughter Sansa’s head. The choice, my dear Hand, is entirely yours.”

EXT. KING’S LANDING – STREET OF FLOUR – DAY [1 page]

Arya has been living in squalor for many days and is forced to survive by her wits. She downs a pigeon with a thrown stick, ignoring the look of a disapproving septon; Arya ties the pigeon to her belt and moves on. Arya approaches a tart-seller and tries to trade the pigeon for a tart with no success; she considers stealing one, but the tart-seller is already suspicious, and there are too many men of the City Watch about. She leaves.

EXT. KING’S LANDING – DOCKS – DAY [1 page]

Arya gazes upon the Wind Witch, the ship that had been tasked to take her and Sansa home. She watches three soldiers in grey Stark cloaks guarding the ship, but knows they are not her father’s men. The soldiers spot Arya and challenge her, mistaking her for a boy; she bluffs her way away from them and runs.

EXT. KING’S LANDING – FLEA BOTTOM – DAY [1 and a quarter page]

Arya returns to the squalor of her transit home in Flea Bottom. She goes to bring her pigeon to a bowl shop for cooking, but discovers she’d dropped it somehow. Distant bells ring out; some of the people around her think yet another king has died, but someone else says it’s a summoning: the City Watch is taking the Hand Eddard Stark to Baelor’s Sept in order to execute him.

EXT. KING’S LANDING – VISENYA’S HILL – DUSK [quarter page]

Arya follows the crowd that has formed as it begins to make its way up the street.

EXT. KING’S LANDING – GREAT SEPT OF BAELOR – DUSK [5.5 pages]

The bells ring loudly as Arya squeezes into the crowd gathering at the steps. She gets shoved against the plinth that holds the statue of Baelor the Blessed. The HIGH SEPTON is on the steps. King Joffrey is here, as is Queen Regent Cersei, Lord Varys, Ser Ilyn Payne, the Hound … and Sansa, who seems happy, smiling. Arya sees her father with his broken leg as he struggles to rise to answer the charges brought against him. Ned speaks to the crowd of the treason he has committed; he loudly claims to have betrayed the trust King Robert had placed in him, and confesses to plotting to depose and murder Joffrey. He ends by saying Joffrey is the one true heir of the Iron Throne. Stones are thrown from the crowd; Ned is soon bleeding. The High Septon speaks up and asks what mercy Joffrey is willing to give. Joffrey says that his mother and Sansa have both asked for leniency. And then Joffrey smiles at Sansa. “But they have the soft hearts of women. So long as I am your king, treason shall not go unpunished. Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!” The crowd roars as Ned is dragged to the floor and held down. Ser Ilyn takes up Ice-– Ned’s own greatsword-– lifting it high. Before the blow comes down, Arya is grabbed from behind. “Don’t look, boy,” hisses Yoren of the Night’s Watch. Yoren pulls Arya away from the crowd as the blow falls. As the crowd begins to filter away from the bloody steps, Yoren shoves Arya in a doorway and pulls a knife. Yoren begins hacking off her hair.

Fire And Blood: One more to go from here. This has gone fast, and what a season it’s been. This episode left us with a stunner of an ending, our hearts in our throats and our lunch on the floor. According to producer Vince Gerardis, the beheading is extremely graphic. Though I’m not sure if they’ll save the close-up hacking view for Sansa’s PoV (ah, the artistry of Ned’s twitching, kicking legs…) or her memories, which would likely be in episode 10. In this particular episode we may only get Arya’s “not-a-view” of her father’s end.

Either way, the effect should have the audience shaken and stunned, and leaning forward in their seats for the Next Week on: Game of Thrones preview. It’s why I think they’ll save Whispering Wood for the last episode; a preview of Jaime riding hard toward Robb will have our wanton audience screaming for Lannister blood– and fearing the absolute worst.