Hello, fans of the Realm! This is a post about Game of Thrones that contains information (and wild speculation) some may consider to be minor spoilers. You’ve been warned!
With this Sunday’s new episode of Thrones, “The Door,” we’ve already reached the halfway point of the season. (I know; I can’t/refuse to believe it either.) Closing in on the finale now, HBO has sent out the synopses for episodes six and seven. And though they’ve somehow managed to make these synopses even shorter than the last few — evasiveness most impressive — it doesn’t leave us with nothing to discuss. In fact, what little we get from them is sounds really exciting. So let’s board the SS Speculation, shall we?
This season’s sixth episode, “Blood of My Blood” (which debuts on Sunday, May 29th, written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Jack Bender), teases the return of someone we’ve long not seen and the arrival of someone wholly new—the Tarlys!  Per the description:
An old foe comes back into the picture. Gilly (Hannah Murray) meets Sam’s (John Bradley) family. Arya (Maisie Williams) faces a difficult choice. Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) faces off against the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce).
Jeez, this war between the Sparrows and the Lannisters is really turning into something, isn’t it? Ironic that the people Cersei tried to manipulate into giving her increased power are the ones set to ruin everything for her, ain’t it? But perhaps more exciting a question is this: Who could this “old foe” the synopsis mentions be? There feels like two options here: the Freys or The Hound—both of whom are reported to show up on the scene this season (what goes around comes around, etc).
If we were a betting sort, our money would be on the Freys, mostly because we think they’re setting up a pretty big battle between the Freys and the Tullys for this season. But it could always end up being The Hound. He is the “blood” of Ser Robert Strong/The Mountain’s “blood” after all (yes, we know that’s a Dothraki saying). Really, we’re just thirsty for that Cleganebowl.
It would make more sense for The Hound to show up in episode seven, “The Broken Man” — last time we saw him he was in bad shape. And that tension between the Lannisters and the Sparrows? It looks to be rocketing skyward. Just look at this synopsis for the episode airing on Sunday, June 5:
The High Sparrow eyes another target. Jaime confronts a hero. Arya makes a plan. The North is reminded.
Another one written by Cogman — with director Mark Mylod — this is maybe the least amount of words ever written to describe Game of Thrones in the history of the show. We’d guess that means the episode will be really, really crazy and super-amazing-good. But look at how ominous this all is: the Sparrows have a new target, Jaime’s confronting “a hero” (Ser Robert Strong? Euron Greyjoy? Edmure Tully?), Arya’s likely making an escape (based on whatever terrifying information she learns in wake of episode six’s “difficult choice”), and The North? Well, that’s the most terrifying shit of all.
Episode seven could be the perfect time/place for either a Lady Stoneheart arrival (!!!), or the start of the epic, huge, biggest-of-all-time Battle for the North. After all, The North Remembers, and what better way to remind them of how terrible it’s gotten up there, especially for the Stark family,than to go to war with Ramsay Bolton? It wouldn’t surprise us if both things happened in the same episode. Things are just moving that fast on the series this go-around. Anything’s possible.
Of course it could be even more terrifying than all that. Our money is on whatever happens in “The Door” with Bran and the Night’s King changing the game for the show in ways we can’t possibly imagine. It just looked too ominous not to.
But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: HBO
Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist, co-host of Fangirling, and expert on all things Thrones here at Nerdist. Find her on Twitter (@alicialutes).
