Without Jon Snow's close attention (and it's likely to be somewhat distracted in a big way pretty soon), life is bound to be increasingly difficult for tender Sam Tarly and his forbidden love. They're effectively the Romeo and Juliet of The Wall, which is nice for the romantic element, but not so good for the gigantic ominous foreshadowing flag spelling out doom. As literally everyone who has expressed even an ounce of love in Westeros has found, romance is a deadly distraction. Love interests can be used as a weapon against anyone foolish enough to develop any kind of bond to someone, or they just end up dying horribly for narrative impact. Given that they're already in the middle of an inescapably difficult situation, and have an eternally youthful child with them, one of the two isn't going to last very long. How He'll (Or She'll) Die If Sam dies, it will no doubt be to protect his lady love (who, you have to suspect, wouldn't last long on her own either), and if it's Gilly, it's probably going to be at the hands of one of the criminals in the service of The Night's Watch. Unfortunately for Gilly, Sam's arc will grow best if he goes through even more turmoil. The show is setting him up as another of Martin's unlikeliest heroes (along with Arya, Dany - at least back in the early seasons - Brann and Jon Snow): he likes his heroes ragged and wounded, and what domestic bliss Sam currently has is firmly in the way of that.
