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They’ve been telling us winter is coming. On last night’s “Game of Thrones,” winter arrived.

South of The Wall, everyone is squabbling over a metal chair. North of it, everyone is being turned into ice zombies. To this point in the series, the threat of White Walkers has spent a lot of time on the back burner. A creeping threat may not be as exciting as all the backstabbing and political intrigue of Westeros, but in “Hardhome,” the creeping threat got up and ran. It’s crazy that a threat so dangerous gets so little screen time, but the showrunners are obviously saving them for an epic series finale battle.

Jon Snow was at the center of the night’s biggest action moment. He arrives at the Freefolk haven of Hardhome and Tormund urges his people to exhibit, “the courage to make peace.” While some Wildlings take Snow up on his offer of sanctuary, others hold on to those old grudges. When a blizzard of zombies descends on the camp, only those smart enough to ditch the feud float to safety. Everyone left behind has to battle the combined casts of “The Walking Dead,” “World War Z” and “28 Days Later.” Bonus points for giving us a handful of feral child zombies and extended moments of angry-giant-versus-zombie-army glory. All those who get killed are almost immediately resurrected as part of the zombie horde. Spooky.

Also worth noting, Jon’s blade (“Longclaw”) is somehow impervious to the White Walkers’ sword-shattering ability. Jon even bashes one Walker into a million pieces with the sword. Maybe dragon glass isn’t the only thing that can kill those guys. Was it Jon’s Valyrian steel? Or was it Jon himself that somehow made that happen? We are spared the technical explanation while everyone swims for their lives.

The big question now is whether this attack will actually impact life beyond The Wall. It’s unlikely the High Sparrow, Roose Bolton, Daenerys or Stannis really cares about zombies on the other side of the world. They will care when the zombies are chewing their faces off, but that seems like a problem for another day, like global warming, the bankruptcy of Social Security or drafting the next Bears quarterback.

You are encouraged to rewatch “Hardhome” while muted as you play Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” on a loop. When leaders knew when to hold ’em, fold ’em and run, they improved their positions. Others, like stubborn Cersei, kept playing her hand too long, so now she’s left sucking dungeon water from a puddle.

In Meereen, Daenerys chooses wisely in selecting Tyrion as an advisor. Sure, his brother killed her dad. But the Dragon Queen realizes fairly quickly that Tyrion is a man of wit and wisdom. “You cannot build a better world on your own,” he says. Hatchet, consider yourself buried. As someone who’s made a lot of angry decrees, then regretted the aftermath, Dany finally seems to have her Jiminy Cricket. The powerful families of Westeros are the spokes on a wheel, she says. Ascending to the Iron Throne isn’t simply a matter of stopping the wheel while she’s on top. She wants to break the wheel entirely. A noble plan, but the wheel is only broken if everyone agrees it is. It only takes one unhinged leader to start the whole thing rolling again.

While Dany is enjoying some quality advice, Ser Jorah has been permanently banished to the Friend Zone. The man has a deadly dermatological problem. He risked his life to bring Tyrion to Meereen. Now he’s selling himself back into slavery so he can fight in front of Daenerys. Let it go, Jorah. She’s just not that into you. Go hang out with Brienne. You two would make a great couple. Instead, Jorah is one of the headstrong losers in this episode.

Cersei also refuses to take the easy way out. Qyburn takes a break from experimenting on The Mountain’s corpse to pay the former queen a visit. Cersei is stuck in a cell while awaiting trial by the kooky High Sparrow. Qyburn tells her to confess and she might beg her way to freedom. Instead, she refuses. This echoes Ned Stark’s predicament from the first season. Proud Ned eventually confessed to something he didn’t do, but he lost his head anyway. There’s no telling how a plea from Cersei would work, especially since she’s guilty of all her charges. Qyburn tells Cersei she’s basically out of options. Her son refuses to come out of his royal pouting chamber. Her uncle refuses to visit her. She’s all alone. Before he leaves, Qyburn drops the moral of this episode: “Belief is so often the death of reason.”

At Braavos Assassin School, Arya tells Jaqen her new fake identity: sole proprietor of an oyster delivery wheelbarrow. Jaquen tells Arya about a man who’s running some kind of impenetrable insurance scam on local sailors. (Long story, short: He’s a bad guy.) Jaqen gives her a vial of poison to kill the guy, but it seems like she could just as easily accomplish the feat by leaving the oysters in the sun for a few days. Arya’s training storyline is taking forever and nothing is happening. Can we get her to a point where all this “wax on, wax off” actually pays dividends this year?

In Winterfell, Sansa gets a rare bit of good news. Reek admits that he didn’t actually kill her brothers, Bran and Rickon. This doesn’t make up for the fact that she’s married to Ramsay, but it gives her some reason to hope. In another part of the castle, Roose Bolton advocates for a siege to wait out Stannis’ approaching army. His vile son, Ramsay, has something awful up his sleeve and he says he can take out Team Stannis with 20 men. Stay tuned on that one.

Season five has been a long, slow burn for “Game of Thrones.” It seems the show is saving most of its action for the end. With two episodes left, let’s home the zombie tidal wave was just the beginning of fun things to come.