- Maester Aemon: We could spend all night trading tales of lost loves. Nothing makes the past a sweeter place to visit than the prospect of imminent death.
- Samwell Tarly: Pyp, open the gate!
- Pypar: I can't!
- Gilly: Sam, is that you?
- Samwell Tarly: Yes!
- Pypar: Look, Thorne gave me strict orders to not open the gate.
- Samwell Tarly: Oh, Pyp, open the fucking gate!
- [pause, then Pyp starts opening the gate]
- Pypar: I never heard you curse before.
- Samwell Tarly: Yes, well, best get used to it.
- Janos Slynt: The bars of those gates are 4 inches of cold hard rolled steel.
- Jon Snow: Those are giants riding mammoths down there!
- Alliser Thorne: You can say it if you like. We should've sealed the tunnel while we had the chance. Like you suggested.
- Jon Snow: It was a difficult decision either way, ser.
- [pause]
- Alliser Thorne: Do you know what leadership means, Lord Snow? It means that the person in charge gets second-guessed by every clever little twat with a mouth. But if he starts second-guessing himself, that's the end. For him... for the clever little twats... for everyone. This is not the end, not for us. Not if you lot do your duty for however long it takes to beat them back. And then you get to go on hating me, and I get to go on wishing your wildling whore had finished the job.
- Pypar: I got one. Right through the heart. He's dead.
- Samwell Tarly: Oh, is it over?
- Pypar: No.
- [Sam hands Pypar another crossbow]
- Samwell Tarly: Well, then!
- [Maester Aemon surprises Sam at the library]
- Maester Aemon: And what is it that couldn't wait until morning, Tarly?
- Samwell Tarly: Maester Aemon. How did you know...
- Maester Aemon: That it was you? Who else but Samwell Tarly would be wasting candles to read in the middle of the night?
- Alliser Thorne: Brothers! A hundred generations have defended this castle! It's never fallen before, she will not fall tonight! Those are Thenns at our walls! They eat the flesh of the men they kill! Do you want to fill the belly of a Thenn, tonight? Tonight, we fight! And when the sun rises, I promise you, Castle Black will stand! The Night's Watch will stand! With me now! Now with me!
- Tormund Giantsbane: I should have thrown you from the top of the Wall, boy!
- Jon Snow: Aye. You should have.
- Pypar: You're not afraid?
- Samwell Tarly: Of course I'm afraid. There's a band of wildlings coming to kill us.
- Pypar: If you're afraid of a band of wildings how in seven hells did you manage to get a white walker?
- Samwell Tarly: I didn't know I was going to kill it. But I had to do something, I didn't have any choice. It was going to kill Gilly and take the baby. If someone had asked me my name, right there, I wouldn't have known. I wasn't Samwell Tarly anymore. I wasn't the steward of the Night's Watch, or son of Randyll Tarly, or any of that. I was nothing at all. When your nothing at all there's no more reason to be afraid.
- Pypar: But you're afraid now.
- Samwell Tarly: Yes, well, I'm not nothing anymore.
- The Night's Watch: Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.
- [the wildling army emerges from the trees beyond the Wall]
- Alliser Thorne: Archers, nock! Everyone else, hold!
- [the archers nock arrows to their bows. Grenn and Edd lose their grip on a frozen barrel, and it tumbles off the edge of the Wall. Thorne grimaces at the waste of ammunition]
- Alliser Thorne: I said "nock and hold," you cunts! Does "nock" mean "draw"?
- Men of the Night's Watch: No, ser!
- Alliser Thorne: Does fucking "hold" mean fucking "drop"?
- Men of the Night's Watch: No, ser!
- Alliser Thorne: You all plan to die here tonight?
- Men of the Night's Watch: No, ser!
- Alliser Thorne: That's very good to hear! Draw!
- Samwell Tarly: So, what's it like?
- Jon Snow: It's... there's this person, this whole other person. And you're wrapped up in them, and they're wrapped up in you. And you... for a little... for a little while, you're more than just you. You're... well, I don't know! I'm not a bleeding poet.
- Samwell Tarly: No, you're really not.
- Jon Snow: What did I get for it? An arrow six inches from my heart.
- Samwell Tarly: Where are we going?
- Jon Snow: Going to find Mance.
- Samwell Tarly: You can't do that. No one gave you any orders.
- Jon Snow: Who's left to give orders? The Wildling army's only an army because of Mance. He united 100 warring tribes. Without Mance, they lose their leader. They lose their purpose. They go back to fighting each other. Scatter back to their home.
- Samwell Tarly: Without Mance? You're going to kill him?
- Jon Snow: I'm gonna try.
- Samwell Tarly: They'll never let you within 100 yards of him. And even if they did, even if you managed to kill him...
- Jon Snow: They'll kill me? If I don't go, they'll kill me anyway. They'll kill the rest of us, too.
- Samwell Tarly: They won't just kill you. They'll boil you, they'll flay you, they'll make it last days.
- Jon Snow: You're right. It's a bad plan... What's your plan?
- [last lines]
- Jon Snow: [handing his sword to Sam] In case I don't come back.
- [the outer gate opens]
- Samwell Tarly: Jon.
- [Jon turns to Sam]
- Samwell Tarly: [concerning] Come back.
- [Jon smiles at Sam, then leaves to find Mance Rayder]
- Jon Snow: What do you want me to say?
- Samwell Tarly: I want you to tell me what it was like to have someone. To be with someone. To love someone and have them love you back. We're all gonna die a lot sooner than I'd planned. You're the closest I'll ever get to knowing.
- Jon Snow: So you and Gilly never...?
- Samwell Tarly: No. She just had a baby.
- [pause]
- Samwell Tarly: And she never offered.
- Jon Snow: But if she had, you would have? You'd have broken your vows?
- Samwell Tarly: The interesting thing is, our vows never specifically forbid intimate relations with women.
- Jon Snow: What?
- Samwell Tarly: "I shall take no wife." Yes, that's in there. There's no denying that. "I shall father no children." It's very specific. But what our vows have to say about other activities is open to interpretation.
- Jon Snow: I don't think Ser Alliser cares much for interpretation.