Callbacks and Easter Eggs in “Beyond the Wall”

As usual, the latest episode of Game of Thrones has its share of Easter Eggs and callbacks to earlier points in the series. Let’s go over some of the hidden nuggets in “Beyond the Wall.”

Let’s start with a line that’s getting a workout this season. Remember when Jon met with Mance Rayder back in season 5 and tried to convince him to bend the knee to Stannis Baratheon so the wildlings who followed him would have a better chance of living through the coming White Walker invasion. “Isn’t their survival more important than your pride?” Jon asked.

Well, that line came back later in “The Spoils of War” when Daenerys asked Jon the exact same thing about the northerners who follow him. And as HBO’s Making Game of Thrones blog pointed out, Tormund, talking about Mance, basically quoted it to Jon in “Beyond the Wall.”

So people are really pounding this in to Jon’s head. It must have gotten through, since he offers to bend the knee to Daenerys at the end of the episode.

Sticking with Jon’s journey north of the Wall, Redditor Pirate_Redbeard noticed something interesting about the bit after the Night King has taken down Viserion, right before Jon is knocked into the lake. The scene as it appeared in the season 7 trailer is different from what ended up on our TVs:

"[main spoilers] Thanks for this detail in the season 7 trailer from gameofthrones"

So they added in the Night King, either because they thought he needed to be in the shot or because they were always going to and just hadn’t gotten around to it by the time the trailer came out. Either way, an interesting catch.

Another thing about the White Walkers: some fans are wondering if they didn’t try harder to kill Jon and company on that island because they were waiting for Dany to show up with her dragons. As Redditor Sizzor19 points out, why else would they have all spears at the ready and not use them to pick off Jon and crew?

"[S7E6] I am now convinced it was a deliberate trap. from gameofthrones"

It’s been theorized that the Night King could have powers similar to Bran’s — if he knew Dany was coming, he would be content to wait for his opportunity.

Also: about those spears? They showed up in the first episode of the season — notice the Night King carrying one as he rides slowly towards the camera:

The White Walkers are well-equipped.

Let’s take a break from Jon’s adventures north of the Wall, and head to Winterfell, where Sansa found a bag full of faces under Arya’s bed. If one of them looked familiar, it should have.

Who knows when Arya might need to pretend to be a gross old man again?

Speaking of Arya and Sansa, the two of them have an argument over the day Ned Stark died. “I remember you standing on that platform with Joffrey and Cersei when they dragged father to the block,” Arya said. “I remember the pretty dress you were wearing. I remember the fancy way you did your hair.”

“Did you come running to the rescue to fight off the Lannisters and save father?” Sansa retorts. Arya says that she wanted, but Sansa points out that she didn’t, “just like me.”

Are the girls remembering the scene as it really happened, or are their feelings overcoming them? Let’s watch and compare.

Sansa was indeed standing there in a pretty dress and perfect hair, and even smiles when her “beloved Joffrey” talks about her plea for mercy. But after Joffrey orders that Ned be executed, Sansa immediately breaks down. Arya, however, may not have noticed that part, since she’s clearly in shock and jumps into the crowd to try and charge the platform, something that Sansa didn’t see. So both of their perspectives are a little skewed.

Moving on, “Beyond the Wall” has several visual references to past episodes, including some callbacks to “Battle of the Bastards.”

There’s also a nice parallel between Dany sitting by Jon’s bedside at the end of “Beyond the Wall” and by Khal Drogo’s bedside in “Fire and Blood,” both of which episodes were directed by Alan Taylor.

Finally, look closely at the moment when Jon pulls himself out of the frozen lake and grasps onto Longclaw. Fans have noticed that the wolf eyes on the pommel appear to open at the moment Jon emerges.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, director Alan Taylor denied doing this on purpose. “I had nothing to do with that!” he said. “Maybe Longclaw is actually magic and just doing something on its own now. I’ll have to go back and look now that you’ve highlighted that. I hadn’t even heard about it.” He got more specific with Insider:

"I’ll tell you my theory — I’m assuming that it was cold on set or in the simulated ice lake, and I thought that the pommel of Longclaw is just slightly frosted over and then Jon comes out of the water and splashes the sword which washes away any sort of frosty residue."

We prefer the sword being magic, thank you very much.

Next: We break down the trailer for 'The Dragon and the Wolf' shot by shot

What Easter Eggs did you guys notice? Let us know!

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