Episode Report Card Montykins: A | 425 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Don't Lose the Hostages
By Montykins | Season 2 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2012.05.06
Oh well. Back to the snowy lands north of the Wall, where Snow is creeping around a rock outcropping. The other rangers do the same, although they do it around different outcroppings. Eventually, they decide they're in position and we see that they're surrounding a wildling camp. One of the rangers shoots a wildling with a bow and arrow. Time to attack! Wildlings get killed! One of them runs and Snow grabs her. But when he rolls his captive over and prepares to stab her to death, he discovers that it's a girl! So now he wants to question her. Qhorin says wildlings bite off their tongues rather than talk, so he thinks Snow should just kill her right now. In fact, she answers the first question right away: her name is Ygritte. And Snow tells her his name: Jon Snow. Qhorin looks on and I get the feeling he wants to be rolling his eyes. She recommends burning the bodies of the wildlings they just killed. Qhorin thinks that's a ploy to get them to build a big fire that will just draw more of them. She says she wants the dead bodies burned so they don't come back to life. Also, there are hundreds and thousands of "free folk" through the pass, so they better watch out. She won't say what's in the mountains that made all the wildlings (or "free folk" if you insist) move up there. Qhorin asks if they mean to march on the Wall and now she clams up. She unclams long enough to admit that she's heard of him. He asks, "If your people captured me, would they take me prisoner?" Nope! He'd get killed right away... or maybe slowly. He says they have no food for her and can't watch her. And they can't let her go because she'll go to Mance Rayder. Snow says he'll do it and Qhorin takes everyone but Snow off to the top of the mountain. So he's leaving Snow alone with this hostage that he's already shown reluctance to kill? Seems like an odd choice.
Now that they're alone, Ygritte tells Snow that she can tell he's never killed a woman. She offers to take him to Mance to join the free people, but he pokes her in the throat with the tip of his sword. She rolls over to expose her neck on the stone. She asks, "Will you burn me? After?" Snow: "Can't. Someone might see the smoke." She says, "Strike hard and true, Jon Snow. Or I'll come back and haunt ya." And then she lies there, stoically awaiting her death.
But he doesn't do it. She tells him to hurry up. So do I! Come on, man! Make with the choppy-choppy! Nope. He eventually swings his sword, but he hits the stone by her head. She kicks him in the leg and runs off. He chases after her in a very scenic sequence that looks very cold. She leaps crevasses and he slides down a slope and tackles her. His knife is to her throat. She says he obviously can't kill her, so it's not much of a threat. Yeah, if you don't kill a woman within five minutes of meeting her, she loses all respect for you. That's one of those Pickup Artist rules, like negging and dressing like an idiot. She says that the sun's going down and his friends are nowhere close. She dares him to call for them. Loudly. He looks around.