Game of Thrones’ season seven finale is tonight. Before we hear its theme song for the last time this year, these are the questions it needs to address.
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones’ seventh season.]
This season has provided viewers with many firsts: first meetings, first reunions, first realizations, but few answers. That makes this upcoming episode critical, because it won’t be a satisfying end unless we get a couple of “a-ha!” moments before the credits roll.
We could list an exorbitant amount of questions — like how long Gendry train for a long distance run after rowing that boat for so long? — but that doesn’t help anyone. Here are the 10 that need answers the most.
What will an undead Viserion breathe?
The White Walkers have resurrected Viserion as an ice dragon with steely blue eyes and, one imagines, a heart that doesn’t beat. Will the dragon remember his true mother, Daenerys? Maybe, but considering Viserion is under the Night King’s thumb, it doesn’t matter. Most important, what kind of attack will Viserion unleash on his targets?
In A World of Ice and Fire, the encyclopedic companion to his A Song of Ice and Fire series, author George R.R. Martin answers that:
These colossal beasts, many times larger than the dragons of Valyria, are said to be made of living ice, with eyes of pale blue crystal and vast translucent wings through which the moon and stars can be glimpsed as they wheel across the sky. Whereas common dragons (if any dragon can truly be said to be common) breathe flame, ice dragons supposedly breathe cold, a chill so terrible that it can freeze a man solid in half a heartbeat. ... As ice dragons supposedly melt when slain, no actual proof of their existence has ever been found.
In The Ice Dragon, another one of Martin’s books, Martin explains how this attack came to be.
Warmth fled. Fires guttered and went out, shriven by the chill,” Martin wrote. “Trees froze through to their slow secret souls, and their limbs turned brittle and cracked from their own weight. Animals turned blue and whimpered and died, their eyes bulging and their skin covered over with frost. The ice dragon breathed death into the world; death and quiet and cold.
If Viserion is catapulted into battle during tonight’s episode by the White Walkers — maybe even ridden by the Night King himself — he’ll spew a torrent of blue ice on the unsuspecting citizens south of the Wall.
Is Cersei’s pregnancy real?
Two weeks ago, Cersei told Jaime she was pregnant. It may be the only reason she agreed to meet Daenerys to discuss an armistice with a White Walker apocalypse threatening from the North.
“I’ve come to believe that an accommodation with the dragon queen may be in our immediate interest,” Cersei tells Jaime after her brother has an impromptu visit with Tyrion. “Whatever stands in our way, we will defeat it. For ourselves, for our house ... for this.”
According to a prophecy Cersei heard when she was younger, she wouldn’t have more than three children, which she already has. A fourth child doesn’t make any sense. She could very well be pregnant and suffer a miscarriage, which seems to be the consensus among fans, but there is a chance that Cersei isn’t pregnant at all.
I’m hoping this episode will give us some kind of clue as to which is the correct assumption, even if that doesn’t come full circle until the eighth season.
Will Jon finally find out he’s a Targaryen?
This needs to happen.
We’ve sat through far too many wink-wink-nudge-nudge moments of dialogue for showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss not to give us this anxiety-relieving moment. We know Jon Snow is a Tagaryen. You know Jon is a Targaryen. HBO knows that Jon is a Tagaryen. The only people left to find out that Jon is a Targaryen is Jon and Daenerys.
Speaking of whom ...
Will Jon and Dany hook up?
By now, this looks inevitable. But Jon and Daenerys would need to profess their undying love for one another — and obvious magnetic sexual attraction — before they find out Daenerys is his paternal aunt.
There are a number of reasons that Jon and Daenerys shouldn’t consummate their newfound feelings. Aside from the incest, they’re boring to watch as a couple. The “will they, won’t they” dance these two play with each other was interesting for about half-a-second. Now, it’s eye-roll inducing and huffing-in-annoyance worthy.
Personal feelings aside, the question remains whether they’ll have a scene where they profess their feelings. I think they will — and then Jon will have a conversation with Bran, which leads to an uncomfortable conversation with Daenerys. There is almost no doubt in my mind that their much-shipped relationship won’t come to fruition this episode. The GIFs speak for themselves!
Will we see Tyene Sand die?
Remember the kiss of death Cersei vindictively placed on Tyene Sand’s lips in the third episode? We know Tyene would have eventually died from the attack while her mother, Ellaria Sand, watched helplessly from across the room, chained to the wall, but we never saw Tyene die.
Game of Thrones does this sometimes and there are mixed results. Someone could still save the Sands and that’s why it’s vital we see Tyene die. Unlike Olenna Tyrell, who we know died even without seeing her body hit the ground, Tyene’s fate isn’t as crystal clear.
Cersei delivering the “Long Farewell” poison — the same poison she used to kill her daughter, Myrcella — through a tainted kiss carries more weight than initially realized. This was one of Cersei’s cruelest acts as Queen and raised the question: Was Cersei becoming as sadistic and tyrannical as the Mad King?
It’s a facet of her character that Jaime is coming to realize and one Tyrion was aware of since they were young. The death of Tyene Sand is something we need to see happen as Cersei continues her terrifying reign.
Will Varys remain loyal to Daenerys?
Where do Varys’ true allegiances lie?
We’ve been asking this question for years and it’s become a point of contention between Daenerys and Varys as they prepare for the great war. In the season’s second episode, Daenerys grills Varys over his political siding, demanding that he confess his true thoughts to her. Daenerys reminds Varys that after her father, King Aerys II Targaryen (also known as the Mad King), was killed, Varys served Aerys’ usurper, King Robert Baratheon.
The back and forth that follows was one of the season’s best scenes. It’s not until Varys, letting his guard down, confesses that “incompetence should not be rewarded with blind loyalty.” Varys is a smart, thoughtful, insightful man. He believes in Daenerys, her dragons and their vision for the future, but he isn’t going to follow her around like a starving puppy aching for scraps of food.
At the time, Daenerys seemed OK with the answer, asking Varys to swear that if she ever began to fail the people she wants to help, he wouldn’t conspire behind her back. Varys agrees and everyone moves past the moment. Still, that doesn’t erase the unease that comes from Varys’ cliffside meeting with Melisandre. The Red Woman confesses her guilt over her past deeds, including burning Shireen at the stake, and ends her conversation with Varys on this ominous message: both would eventually return to Westeros to die.
Both Varys and Melisandre are deeply invested in who rules the kingdom, making their decision of whom to back all the more important. The meeting between Daenerys, Cersei and Jon Snow should help clarify where Varys’ allegiances really lie. Remember, Varys told Daenerys that if she strayed away from the vision of justice they set out, if she started to morph into the malevolent leader her father became, he would retaliate in turn.
What happened to Euron Greyjoy?
Remember everyone’s favorite Joy Division stan? The man who swashbuckled onto the scene, thrusting his hips and smacking his lips after each encounter with Cersei? The wannabe prog-rocker, who unleashed an incredible attack on the Sand Snakes ship in an attempt to give Cersei the best gift he could muster, became an international obsession among fans.
So where is he?
We haven’t really seen Euron in action since then and I find myself missing Westeros’ best-dressed man. Book readers are well aware that Euron plays a much bigger role on the page than on the screen, but still! Cersei isn’t giving him the time of day and, aside from the annoyance that comes from watching a man try to bed his sister (whom he’s also sleeping with), Jaime couldn’t care less about Euron either.
Euron Greyjoy has become a nothing player this season and I have to wonder if that’s going to change in the finale. If there was ever a time to make another grand entrance — preferably to the tune of a Depeche Mode song — it’s this episode. I have to hope that Euron will get his last chance to shine in glittery black clothing and an abundance of eyeliner before he’s probably killed.
If he’s not, at least we can always remember Euron at his finest: dressed in his best, as if he was preparing to accompany Joy Division’s Ian Curtis to a London club after a raucous gig.
Game of Thrones’ season seven finale airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET. It will run for almost 80 minutes.