There are no books to work from on Game of Thrones this season — even George R.R. Martin might be surprised with what’s happening on the HBO series — and things could get confusing. To help you out, after every new episode, two resident Thrones experts will answer your five most pressing questions.
1. Was that the most casual bombshell in Game of Thrones history?
Josh: For the last 26 years, since the first installment in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series was released, Game of Thrones readers (and as of 2011, viewers) have argued about Jon Snow’s lineage. Who are his real parents? Is he a Targaryen? If so, and his mom’s Lyanna Stark and his dad’s Rhaegar Targaryen, did he abduct her, as the story goes, or were they secretly wed, as many fans believe? In last night’s episode, “Eastwatch,” not only did we get further confirmation that Jon has Targaryen blood within him (“The King of the North was my old title — you may now call me the Dragon Whisperer”), but Gilly casually dropped this bombshell: “Maynard says here that he issued an annulment for Prince Rhaegar and re-married him to someone else at the same time in a secret ceremony in Dorne.” Meaning, Lyanna and Rhaegar were married, meaning Jon isn’t a bastard, meaning he’s a Stark-Targaryen, meaning he’s the rightful heir to the Iron Throne over Daenerys and everyone else. (We wrote about why in great detail here.)
If only Samwell was paying attention to Gilly. Ugh, men, right?
Imagine if, back in season one, the buildup to Ned Stark getting his head chopped was 30 seconds long. Like, one scene, he’s hanging out with his kids, playing with an adorable direwolf, and talking to his wife Catelyn. The next, boom, he’s dead, without warning. That’s basically what happened here. Gilly (sorry) discovered who truly belongs on the Iron Throne, but Sam yelled at her about poop, or whatever. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are trolling us, right? Also, let’s say a dragon or, I dunno, a zombie-giant were to eat Daenerys and Jon Snow — who would be third in line of succession?
Ryan: Well, there’s always the Tyrion theory. But man, we are so far past details on rightful succession mattering at this point. The only time that stuff is important is immediately after the last ruler dies. After a couple of decades worth of Baratheon rule, it’s safe to say that the next rightful ruler is whoever conquers Westeros. At this point, we’d give that advantage to Dany and her three dragons over Jon and his direwolf (who is living up to his name of Ghost this season), no matter how much stronger his claim may technically be.
That being said, this knowledge could swing some important people over to supporting Jon as the rightful ruler. People like Varys, who seems like he’s getting a bit iffy about the current Targaryen administration he’s decided to back. But it’s just as likely that this information was nothing more than a wink and a nod to us viewers. Hardcore fans get a new bit of juicy news in the confirmation that Rhaegar married Lyanna, making their relationship sound a lot more consensual than Robert Baratheon’s take on it was. Casual fans are reminded that Rhaegar existed and Jon is his son, which is info they’ll need at the front of their minds as this whole story rapidly speeds towards an end. It’s a very cool detail, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it never comes up again.
Come on Bran, prove me wrong!
2. What is Littlefinger’s long-term plan?
R: He’s doing what a lot of abusive creeps tend to do, which is isolate their victims from friends and family. In this case that means sowing mistrust between Sansa and Arya. While Littlefinger doesn’t know how deeply she’s changed during her long journey back to Winterfell, he’s enough of a pro at this “game of thrones” stuff to know she doesn’t trust him. He also knows Sansa is a bit creeped out by this new bloodthirsty Arya, so now it’s time to, in Joker speak, introduce a little anarchy and upset the established order.
Then everything becomes chaos.
That’s why he dug up that old letter in Maester Luwin’s archives that Sansa wrote — while a prisoner of Cersei — asking Robb to bend the knee. At the time, the Starks dismissed it as Sansa’s writing but Cersei’s words. But with Arya suspecting Sansa of trying to usurp Jon, we imagine she won’t see things as clearly. And as an added bonus, the more time Arya spends eyeballing Sansa, the less time she’ll spend on whatever Littlefinger is up to.
As for what that is? Well, I can tell you what it isn’t: going north to fight the armies of the dead. That doesn’t sound at all like something Littlefinger would be into, which is bad news for everyone relying on there being soldiers waiting at Eastwatch when the undead show up in an episode or two.
J: On Game of Thrones: Inside the Episode, Weiss talked a bit about the scroll and how Arya got “roped into spying on somebody who’s actually leading her by the nose to something that he wants her to have.” He continued, “He’s looking for a way to prevent this sister bond from developing further because the tighter they are, the more definitively he is caught on the outside of it.”
It’s not a bad plan, but Weiss forgot to mention an extra detail in Littlefinger’s favor: imagine how bored Arya must be. She’s been traveling the world, learning to become an assassin and making people pies and eating chicken with the Hound, but now she’s stuck in her hometown, like a recent college graduate moving back in with her parents because she can’t afford her own apartment yet. Sansa is busy ruling, Bran (he’s the former-friend who’s now a philosophical stoner) is the Three-Eyed Raven, Jon is absent, Robb and Rickon are dead — there’s not much for Arya to do other than fight Brienne, and even that gets old after awhile, I imagine. Littlefinger is using what’s being presented to him — a restless, naturally curious Stark — and using it well.
Someone stomp on that cockroach soon, please.
3. What devious plot twist awaits us with Cersei’s pregnancy?
R: There’s so many ways this could go, and most of them are south. Game of Thrones has never exactly been kind to pregnant women (or married couple, or anyone really), and why should this be any different? Viewers who are big into prophecy will remember that Maggy the Frog told Cersei she’d only have three children during a flashback in season 5. That’s recent enough that you gotta figure it’s notable, and it could mean two things: either this baby isn’t going to make it to birth, or there is no baby and Cersei is lying.
Cersei might have some experience in that regard. Way back in the second episode of season one, she revealed to Catelyn Stark that she’d had a “black-haired beauty” of a boy that died of fever shortly after birth. It was a complete creation of Weiss and Benioff’s, the first notable change to George R.R. Martin’s literary canon, and the scene has had fans asking questions for years. Was Cersei lying? Or did HBO goof up five seasons later when they forgot about this fourth baby? I’d tend to give Benioff and Weiss the benefit of the doubt considering their mostly solid track record, which would mean Cersei isn’t shy about inventing a baby when she thinks it will benefit her.
And in this case, she obviously thinks she needs something to bind Jaime to her and steel his resolve. The Jaime that came back from the Fields of Fire 2.0 was one more dragon sighting away from surrendering unconditionally. I don’t know how committed he still is to fighting alongside his sister to the bitter end, but the pregnancy lie (if that’s what it is) is a pretty good attempt at keeping him loyal. And isn’t it so Cersei that she ruined the whole thing by telling Jaime immediately after to never “betray” her again?
J: That’s so Three-Eyed Raven, er, Cersei. As is knowing everything that’s happening in King’s Landing, including Jaime and Tyrion’s secret meeting. What a missed opportunity for Cersei to slickly interrupt the conversation by walking out of the dead dragon’s skull. Now that’s an entrance.
Anyway, the optimistic interpretation of the Queen’s news to the Kingslayer is that she isn’t lying and having another child will make her less tyrannical (Benioff once asked, “What is Cersei without her children? What prevents her from being a monster? The answer is nothing.”) But this is Cersei we’re talking about. It’s never glass-half-full with her. She’s totally lying, which, honestly, is probably the “better” option. (Also, if Jaime was to kill Cersei, as the prophecy claims, while she was pregnant, he would, in a sense, be slaying a potential king.) Let’s say Cersei were to lose another child. She’s already grief-stricken enough as is — drawing, then erasing, another branch on the Lannister family tree might be too much for her (or any parent) to take.
4. Who’s going North of the Wall, and how stupid is their plan?
J: To answer the first question: The Lord of the Rings has the Fellowship of the Ring. Game of Thrones has… the Eastwatch Boyz? The Magnificent Six and Also Jorah? The Suicide Squad? (I don’t think that one’s taken.) They might not have a catchy name yet, but the group — Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion, the Hound, Gendry, Jorah Mormont, Tormund, and Jon Snow — has a mission: to go north of the Wall and capture a White Walker. (WIGHT HEIST.) Why on the Lord of Light’s red Earth would anyone do that? Because, according to Tyrion, the only way to maybe, just maybe, convince Cersei that this silly fight over the Seven Kingdoms means nothing if the Night King and his not-so-merry frozen men kill everyone first is to bring one to her doorstep.
I get that Tyrion’s been away from King’s Landing for some time, but has he met his sister? Cersei could see the Night King do his “come at me, bro” pose right in front of her, and she’d still take a relaxed sip of wine. She’s hellbent on her mission, and not even hell freezing over, so to speak, will stop her.
So, to answer the second question: very. Is there any way you see the plan working, or will a dragon ex machina have to save everyone?
R: It does seem pointless, but we do have an advantage as television show watchers of seeing everything that’s going on. Cersei doesn’t sound very impressed by the news of the undead coming to kill everyone. If anything, she sounds almost hopeful they are real so all these dragons and dead men can wipe each other out, leaving her laughing on the Iron Throne. That wouldn’t be how any of this works, but try telling that to Cersei.
J: Nah, I’m good.
R: So we know the plan kinda sucks (even if it involves Lightbringer), but it’s the best idea they managed to come up with. That’s an answer that could apply to both the Targaryen/Stark think tank and the Game of Thrones writer’s room. Hey, if wrapping this whole saga up in a completely believable way was easy, it wouldn’t take George R.R. Martin 7+ years to write each book.
5. There are only two episodes left this season — what do you want to see?
J: If “Eastwatch” felt like a particularly packed episode, that’s because it was: 18 of the show’s 22 regular cast members made an appearance. That’s tied for the most all season, and the number doesn’t even include Beric Dondarrion, or Qyburn, or Dickon (heh, Dickon). Luckily, most of the characters are coming together, unlike in previous seasons, where everyone (Arya, for instance) was off doing their own thing. But we still haven’t gotten an all-out brawl, a battle between good and evil (or because this is Game of Thrones, good-but-morally-conflicted vs. evil-but-sympathetic).
Cersei hasn’t faced Daenerys, for instance (in fact, outside of her brief trip to Winterfell, we’ve never seen Cersei outside King’s Landing), and Jon Snow and Arya haven’t reunited yet. That’s what I want to see: a literal royal rumble. It could look like the airport scene from Captain America: Civil War, or be set in a pit like Petranaki Arena from Attack of the Clones — as long as one side (Daenerys, Jon, the Starks, etc.) is fighting the other (Lannisters, Greyjoys, etc.), I’m good. Gotta trim the cast before the extra-abbreviated season eight somehow, and Cersei can’t blow up another sept. Probably…
R: I’m certainly getting a little concerned about the cast trimming that’s about to take place. We’ve got a pretty significant number of fan favorites headed beyond the Wall to face the Others, and a number of them clearly don’t have much left to contribute to the greater story. Beric, Thoros, Tormund, and Jorah, I’m looking at you. I’m also worried for Bronn’s safety in King’s Landing after Cersei branded his actions a betrayal, too. And how tragic would that be, to survive a dragon attack only to be murdered by a snake?
In short, I’m not looking forward to any of the inevitable death that’s coming. But I do loves me a good White Walker rampage like we saw at the end of season five with “Hardhome.” So give me another raging battle or two that last 30 minutes and I’ll be satisfied. Even if they kill Gendry (don’t kill Gendry).
J: I also hope Davos makes millions from his fermented crab Viagra.
