A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Samwell II
At Craster's Keep the Watch's discipline snaps: Craster is killed at his own board, the Old Bear is stabbed dying, and Sam flees with Gilly and her newborn son.
The chapter retold
At Craster's Keep, months of resentment over Craster's cruelty and the Watch's own hunger and cold finally detonate into open mutiny. Craster is killed at his own table, gutted mid-curse by men he has starved and humiliated once too often; Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, trying to stop the bloodshed before it consumes the whole camp, is stabbed by his own sworn brothers and dies urging Samwell Tarly, of all people, to get word of everything they have seen back to the Wall.
Sam does not join the mutiny ÔÇö he flees it, grabbing Gilly and her newborn son and running into the dark rather than staying to be swept up in whatever the mutineers become next. It is the Night's Watch's darkest hour in the entire series: an order already stretched to nothing by desertion and death now turns its own knives on itself, and the last order its dying commander gives is not vengeance but a message, because Mormont understands, even bleeding out, that what the Watch witnessed matters more than what happens to the men who witnessed it.
This movement: The Bear, the Wall, the Bath
- In Harrenhal's bathhouse Jaime tells Brienne the truth of the Mad King and faints in her arms; later he turns back for her and jumps into a bear pit.
- Jon climbs the Wall with the free folk and breaks from them at Queenscrown, arrows in his leg.
- Dany takes Yunkai by night; the Second Sons change sides for a captain named Daario.
- Sam kills his second impossible thing rumor-wise; the Watch's remnants choose a fat man's courage at Craster's.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- Craster ÔÇö Called the Watch guests and starved them; died at his own board with a mouth full of curses.
- Lord Commander Jeor Mormont ÔÇö Stabbed by his own sworn brothers; died urging Sam to send word.