Game Of Thrones Season 8: 7 Last-Minute Predictions For Episode 4

4. The Red Wedding Mark 2?

There are currently some whispers going around of a Red Wedding style situation in the fourth episode as a horrible precursor to the Last War's culmination in episode 5. When this was first floated, my first thought was that Jon was walking into a trap in King's Landing, but that's been done before and by the look of the party he's going with (which will no doubt be bigger than we've seen), there wouldn't be enough devastation in that possibility.

Instead, it feels a lot more likely that we're going to see the second Red Wedding happen in Winterfell and there have been some ominous portents already. Why else would the trailer have ended with that "root and stem" line? That phrase has appeared twice before in Game Of Thrones and its positioning should send alarm bells ringing across the fandom.

The first time, Robb Stark used it as a threat to Jaime Lannister. He was rewarded for this threat against the Lannisters with the Red Wedding. And the second time it was uttered came from Arya Stark as she turned the Frey's banquet at the end of season 6 into a bloodbath. Both celebration occasions, both ending in mass murder, both by agents of the enemy hidden within. The exact events might not be clear, but if you're looking for a bad omen, the fact that Dany makes that threat against Cersei is remarkably telling.

Considering that this episode is being set up as a palate cleanser, to have something this major happen would fit. It would also hurt a lot too, but that's sort of the point now, isn't it?