Spoilers, spoilers, toil and trouble…
Recap of episode six:
The North: We got a lot of great dialogue between the fellowship of the wight, including some particularly funny moments between the Hound and Tormund, and Tormund and Gendry. We also learned that horses and people aren’t all Walkers can revive when a polar bear ruined Thoros’ buzz. This all led to the successful capture of a wight, and unsuccessful attempt to get back to Eastwatch unmolested: everyone except Gendry got trapped on some rock at the center of a frozen lake, waiting for rescue, having more talk.
All the redshirts died, and then Dany sweeps in and loses one of the three dragons (later revived). Didn’t see that coming, and I have a bit of a problem with the reanimation of the dragon given how everything anti-wight or anti-Walker has come from dragons.
I feel like Benjen deserved more build up before his death.
Dragonstone: We got a softer bit of Dany, and some back and forth with Tyrion. I do wonder what she meant by Jon being “too little” for her; height?
Winterfell: Just about all of this was garbage I’ll fast forward through on future viewings. The Arya/Sansa tension is ridiculous. Littlefinger is either trusted by Sansa or not — but the episodes seem to oscillate between the two.
Eastwatch: I don’t like Jon’s sudden jump to fealty for Dany; also, his “longing” gaze looked like he was pretending to be dead… her seeing his scars might have dispelled any notion she had that he wasn’t serious about fighting for his people.
Predictions, now:
North of the Wall: Do wight dragons shoot fire or ice? Can the NK just fly himself over the wall and start raising all of those dead bodies south? Because we’ve seen him do two things: revive any number of old corpses regardless of age, and bring cold weather with him. He could just jump on the dragon (which one is it again?) and fly-by a few battlefields or graveyards and not even worry with the wall.
I doubt he will; I assume he’ll use the dragon to somehow destroy the wall. Maybe just him flying over it will trigger the magic I swear I remember hearing was in the stone. Or maybe he just does a fly-by of every occupied castle and wrecks their defenses.
We may not even see him again this season though — it’s possible we’ll just get the Wight Moot next week the preview alluded to.
Winterfell: Bran is going to step in to prevent Arya and Sansa from killing each other. He’s got all that crazy vision and such, after all. And that might be the end of Littlefinger; Bran can see all his sins. I’m assuming they’re leaving this off until the last episode — and that it will come with a hell of a revelation of some sort. (Personally, I believe LF helped start Robert’s Rebellion by lying to Brandon Stark about Lyanna being kidnapped — maybe Bran will see that LF intentionally goaded Brandon into going after Rhaegar in order to get Catelyn Tully back on the market?)
Dragonstone: Not a prediction about the island so much as: several times the show has felt the need to remind us that Dany is barren now. I call bullshit. If she survives, she’s going to have an heir.
King’s Landing: Anyone who sees the wight and doesn’t agree to put aside hostilities for the winter is an idiot. Cersei is an idiot — so I can see her either not committing to the battle against the Night King at all, or trying some too-clever by half scheme. The latter might be enough to piss Jaime off to the point where he betrays her. Next episode I expect at least verbal falling in line with this plan.
Is Gendry going to be there?
Elsewhere: Where the hell is Theon? Euron? Sam and Gilly? Any other Dornish? With the new Kentucky Fried Tarly restaurant Dany opened, who controls Highgarden? There’s a lot of very small stories to wrap up between now and the end of S8E6. I expect all will, one way or another. Also: the Hound and Brienne are not going to just get along, however much he has changed she has not. The Hound is not going to like seeing the Mountain, but maybe he’ll let it go since his brother is a mute zombie monster.
Actually, what would the Brotherhood think of the Mountain and, by extension, Qyburn?
Does Sam have information Gendry can use to forge Valeryan steel?
Endgame: One of the eight different “younger sibling” characters will kill Cersei; Arya will return to Braavos after getting her fill of revenge; Jon kills the Night King and ends up on the throne, either beside or in place of Dany (though his claim is better); Brienne and Tormund name their firstborn Hodor; etc etc.