Last night’s Game of Thrones was the most action-packed episode in the HBO fantasy series’ four-year history, as Mance Rayder’s wildling army finally made their strike against the highly outnumbered Night’s Watch. The battle was so epic that it took up the entirety of the episode, forcing viewers to wait until next week’s season finale to see how the countless other storylines in the show play out.

“Mance is going to show up with his 100,000 men and, as he says, ‘Light the biggest fire the North has ever seen.’ He’s got giants, he’s got a mammoth, he’s kind of bringing out the big guns to tackle the Wall and … they have Jon Snow,” said director Neil Marshall.

While HBO has yet to release the official cost of Sunday’s episode, they have revealed that it was the most expensive episode to date and beat out the $8 million budget for season two’s “Battle of Blackwater.” The episode, which took an extra four months to plan before filming began, was made up of 100 actors and stunt men and 100,000 CGI extras. While this may seem like a bit much for one episode, the cost and complexity of the battle was more than justified since the episode brought about the conclusion of Jon Snow and fan-favorite Ygritte’s star-crossed and tragic love story.

Despite being abandoned by Snow last season and telling her fellow wildlings to leave his fate in her hands, Ygritte found herself unable to kill her former love when she had the opportunity. She was then shot with an arrow and died in Snow’s arms.

“She’s very much a scorned woman,” said Scottish actress Rose Leslie, who portrays Ygritte on the show. “But seeing him in the courtyard of Castle Black, it dawns on her that she can’t go through with what she wanted to do, because that is love. It’s pain. That minor hesitation was her final stroke.”

Leslie read George R.R. Martin’s books after landing the role, and had looked forward to filming her character’s memorable death scene ever since. She wasn’t the only Thrones actor eager to film the epic battle sequence – Jon Snow actor Kit Harington told the Daily News that last night’s “The Watchers on the Wall” was one of his favorite episodes to film as well.

“It was very special to film, because it was saying goodbye to a lot of actors on the show who I love and I’ve grown very close to over the four years we’ve been shooting. So it was very emotional,” said Harington. “When you’re shooting night after night after night, you get into this weird headspace. So by the time certain characters died, it was all quite teary and emotional.”

Leslie has been waiting for the episode to air ever since filming for it wrapped up, so she can give her character a proper farewell.

“I’m going to watch it with a friend and a bottle of Champagne, and it’s going to be very nice.”