It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. Weiss , and directed by Miguel Sapochnik. Critics described the battle in the North as "terrifying, gripping and exhilarating", while Harington's performance received high praise, [ 2 ] and Daenerys' reunion with her dragons at the beginning of the episode was deemed "thrilling". In the United States, the episode had a viewership of 7. Daenerys counters that the meeting was called to discuss the masters' surrender.
Grey Worm kills two masters, sparing Yezzan; Tyrion tells him to warn the other masters of Daenerys' power. Meanwhile, Daario and the Dothraki slaughter the Sons of the Harpy. Theon and Yara arrive in Meereen to ally with Daenerys. Jon, Sansa, Tormund and Davos meet with Ramsay and his bannermen. Ramsay gloats that he has starved his hounds in anticipation of feeding Jon and his advisors to them.
Sansa assures Ramsay that he will die the next day. At camp, Sansa insists the Starks' army is too small and warns Jon not to underestimate Ramsay. Davos and Tormund discuss Stannis and Mance and acknowledge they may have previously served the wrong men. Davos discovers where Shireen was burned, and realizes she was killed by Melisandre. The armies gather outside Winterfell the next morning. Ramsay releases Rickon and has him run to Jon while shooting arrows at him.
When Rickon is killed, an enraged Jon charges Ramsay's army, and the battle begins, leaving many dead and creating a wall of corpses. This wall allows the Bolton infantry to kettle the Stark forces while Smalljon prevents escape. Jon survives a trampling, but the Stark forces appear doomed.
Suddenly a horn sounds in the distance, as the Knights of the Vale arrive led by Littlefinger and Sansa. They smash the Bolton army, bringing victory to the Starks, while Tormund kills Smalljon in the chaos.
