5 Things You Might Have Missed in Game of Thrones's "The Last of the Starks"
WARNING: Spoilers for the latest episode of Game of Thrones below!
We finally saw the great Battle of Winterfell in last week's Game of Thrones episode, "The Long Night," but now a seemingly larger fight looms: the fight for the Iron Throne. Daenerys Targaryen is still determined to take what she believes is hers, but finds herself increasingly isolated after losing many of the Dothraki and Unsullied, not to mention her loyal guard Jorah Mormont, in the Battle of Winterfell—and she's still struggling with the fact that Jon Snow, a.k.a. Aegon Targaryen, is the true heir to the throne (which he ended up revealing to Sansa and Arya by way of Bran, even after Daenerys begged him not to).
While we’re all still probably upset over the end of the episode—in which Rhaegal was killed and the loyal Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) was beheaded—other moments were more under the radar. Here are five things you might have missed in "The Last of the Starks," the fourth episode of Game of Thrones's final season.
1. The Night King was ignored.
Although we saw the Night King die in episode 3, "The Long Night," fans are still holding out hope that we'll learn more of his story. However, tonight proved he might just be forgotten after all: The recap before episode 4 started didn’t even show the pivotal scene in which Arya defeated the Night King in the final moments of the previous episode, though she did get a nice shout-out from Daenerys, who called her the "hero of Winterfell."
Meanwhile, when asked by Jimmy Kimmel if we were done with the White Walkers, Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff responded, "we're not gonna answer that," leaving some to wonder if we might see more of the White Walkers after all.
2. Arya Has Never Been a Lady.
A major moment in "The Last of the Starks" showed Gendry—the newly minted Lord Baratheon of Storm's End—boldly declaring his love for Arya, asking her to marry him and become "The Lady of Storm's End." Unfortunately for Gendry, the object of his affection wasn’t really having it. After politely denying Gendry’s proposal, Arya tells him, “That’s not me.” This was a callback to the first season, when Ned Stark tells his daughter that one day she’ll become a lady and get married. She tells her dad, “No, that’s not me.”
3. Cleganebowl is probably happening.
Fans have been rooting for Sandor and Gregor Clegane—The Hound and The Mountain, respectively—to face off for several seasons in what they've dubbed "Cleganebowl." In "The Last of the Starks," Arya catches up with The Hound on horseback as he's leaving Winterfell, questioning why he’s going to King’s Landing before everyone else. He tells her he has unfinished business at the capital, and we know exactly what that business entails. (Arya, meanwhile, mentions unfinished business in King's Landing, too—something tells us she's looking to cross another name off her list.)
4. Cersei might actually be pregnant.
The question of whether or not Cersei is actually pregnant has been an open one since she told Jaime she was expecting last season. Many fans, at that point, believed she was lying to manipulate her brother. Her pregnancy was also what convinced Tyrion that she would send the Lannister armies to help fight the dead at Winterfell. (A promise she never intended to keep.)
So when she drank wine after sleeping with Euron Greyjoy earlier this season, many fans took that as confirmation that she had been lying about the pregnancy all along; others thought she might have miscarried, while some believed that her pregnancy actually explained her willingness to hop into bed with Euron. In "The Last of the Starks," she essentially confirms that she's pregnant to Euron, and implies that the child is his.
At the end of the episode, when Daenerys and her troops confront Cersei and offer her the chance to surrender, Tyrion tries to reason with his sister to keep King's Landing from being destroyed. When he brings up Cersei’s unborn child, whom he argues should be reason enough to not start another war, the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms starts getting emotional—which could be confirmation that she is, in fact, pregnant. (But will Euron catch the fact that there's no way Tyrion could know about the pregnancy if the baby was actually his?)
5. Tyrion's message to Cersei might have been a message to Daenerys as well.
Reddit user Shaggylives pointed out that when Tyrion is talking to Cersei about her child, the shot frequently cuts back to Daenerys. "There was a reason why they kept cutting to Dany when Tyrion was pleading with Cersei for a peaceful resolution," Shaggylives wrote. "His advice about doing it for her child was for Dany as well. She can't have children, is down to one dragon, and that dragon will most certainly die while attacking the city. His final hope is that Dany's love for her dragon will outweigh her need for revenge." Of course, Missandei's final word—dracarys—was a clear message to Daenerys, so it seems likely that next week, things are going to burn.