Game Of Thrones Theories: 10 Epic Season 5 Moments Still To Come
Death, rebirth and the arrival of Winter?
After a relatively slow (and expositionally heavy) start, and a tumble of shocking moments crammed into relatively few episodes, season five of Game Of Thrones finally feels like it's on the verge of something massive.
Relationships are falling apart, betrayals are afoot, and double betrayals follow swiftly and Death feels like he's standing on the outskirts of the game sharpening his scythe for a bumper list of casualties in the next few episodes.
To a certain degree, we're now in uncharted territory: fans can't know entirely what to expect because of the divergence from the source, but as with all of the seasons to date, HBO have knitted in major hints of what is soon to come. And tying those threads together reveals a triumverate of episodes that should rock Westeros to the core.
Obviously expecting every plot thread to be resolved spectacularly is foolish: there will be no full-stop yet for Brienne, or Brann, or Rickon and Arya's development is only part-way complete (while some other threads have been left dangling in the air entirely). But a lot of very significant answers should be coming before Winter arrives.
Some facts are known, thanks to leaks, informed assumption (based on the source) and official pre-release media, but as the season winds to a presumably explosive climax, the fun is in connecting the dots...
10. The White Walker Attack
As the series heads into its final three episodes, Jon Snow is going to have a lot on his hands. Not only does he have to convince the Wildlings at Hardhome that he didn't kill Mance Rayder, he also has to face a mutinous Night's Watch when he gets back. Talk about out of the fire...
But how does he convince the Wildlings to join him? Well, he probably doesn't.
By the look of it, the Wildlings are compelled to put their concerns aside for the same reason Jon's sparse band of followers were at the Wall: because Winter Is Coming.
While that's meant little apart from a few wight cameos so far, that is about to change in Episode 8, as the mysterious undead attack Hardhome (presumably leading to the shot in the trailer that showed Wildlings taking to the water urgently).
The Evidence:
The IMDB cast list has both a Wight (Barrie Mann) and a White Walker (Ross Mullan) listed, which is definitely a big hint that they're going to attack. And it makes sense that such an extreme stimulus would convince the WIldlings to forgive the death of their leader.