After a long, tense wait, the final season of Game of Thrones finally premiered on April
14, 2019, with the first episode coming in at just under an hour — despite being packed
full of revelations, reunions, and more.
The return of Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, the three living Lannisters, and a metric
ton more of the show's characters brought a few answers and even more questions with
them.
Questions like...did you catch when Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia showed up?
Here's everything else of importance that happened in the Game of Thrones season premiere
— and everything we still want to know for the remaining episodes of the series.
The trailers leading up to the premiere offered plenty of shots of Daenerys arriving at Winterfell,
and audiences didn't have to wait long — in the very first shot of the season premiere,
a Winterfell boy climbs a tree to see Daenerys' army arrive, with the Mother of Dragons and
her right-hand man, Jon Snow, flanked by dragons, Unsullied, and Dothraki as they arrive at
the stronghold of the North.
Appropriately for the chilly North, the welcome is less than warm, considering Northerners
are instinctively distrustful of any foreigners, especially a new Queen from the far South
with two enormous dragons.
It isn't just the townspeople who don't trust Daenerys.
Sansa, Jon's sister, immediately dislikes the Dragon Queen, who she considers at once
naive and arrogant for trusting Cersei to serve as an ally to the North.
Whatever Sansa's attitude might be, it's clear that Daenerys' assimilation into the Northern
way of life won't be simple, and will likely be a struggle for the rest of the season.
Cersei Lannister is always one of the toughest characters to read, and in the premiere, she's
just as inscrutable as ever.
Still astride the Iron Throne, she seems completely unperturbed by news that the White Walkers
have breached the Wall, especially considering that the Golden Company, an army of mercenaries
under Cersei's control, has just arrived at King's Landing thanks to her unlikely fiancé,
Euron Greyjoy.
After he delivers her new army, the two finally consummate their relationship, which leads
to probably one of the least sexy post-romance lines you'll hear all week:
"I'm going to put a prince in that belly."
As you might expect, the icy queen looks pretty uncomfortable, sipping a glass of wine as
he leaves the room.
Last season, audiences heard Cersei tell Jamie she was pregnant with Jaime's baby.
"Who will you say is the father?"
"You."
Meanwhile, Tyrion found out about his new niece or nephew a couple episodes later.
That unborn child still seems to be a secret.
So after she drove Jamie to abandon her at the end of season 7, Cersei may manipulate
Euron into being the next man to unwittingly claim one of Jaime and Cersei's kids as his
own.
Whether Cersei is creeped out by her new boyfriend — or if she's planning to pull a Maury and
tell Euron he's the father — we'll just have to wait for a future episode to find
out.
The most brutal reveal regarding Cersei ultimately comes from Qyburn, her resident mad scientist,
who shows up during one of Bronn's routine brothel visits to casually tell him that Cersei
would like both of her brothers dead, and the one to do it would be rewarded beyond
his wildest dreams.
Cersei obviously has a plan in place, but how it will unfold is still anyone's guess.
Ever since viewers found out the truth about Jon's parents — that he was actually born
to a legally married Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, making him an undisputed prince
— fans have been waiting for Jon to find out too, and this episode got right to the
point.
Aside from plenty of pointed comments about who Jon "is," there's one huge moment in this
episode hinting at Jon's true heritage, followed by the big reveal that finally puts one of
the show's biggest revelations in front of the person it'll affect the most.
Jon, still blissfully ignorant to the fact that he's been sleeping with his aunt —
— is having a lovely day-date with his new girlfriend until she suggests that they ride
her two remaining dragons.
With Daenerys riding Drogon, the dragon she always takes into battle, Jon is left with
Rhaegal, who is actually named for his father, Daenerys' brother Rhaegar.
In the moment, it feels especially significant that Rhaegal allows Jon to mount without protest.
However, at the end of the episode, the show does away with all pretense that it will keep
this secret, letting Sam tell Jon the entire truth about who he is, much to Jon's shock
— and naturally, it all happens right in front of Ned Stark's statue in the crypt.
Reunions between favorite characters rank among the most important and anticipated moments
in this season, and the premiere certainly didn't disappoint — even though some of
them weren't particularly happy.
Arya and Jon's reunion at the Godswood in Winterfell was certainly one of the episode's
most emotional moments, even giving the two a minute to compare their swords.
Meanwhile, another brother — Theon — showed up in the eleventh hour to rescue his sister
Yara, who eventually showed her gratitude in the most Greyjoy way possible:
Ser Jorah Mormont also got the chance to thank Sam Tarly, who once cured him of greyscale,
though their reunion took a pretty sour turn once Daenerys let Sam know what she did to
the rest of his family last season.
"Drakaris."
The reunion between Sansa and Tyrion was almost as tense, since Sansa doesn't believe in him
or his plans anymore.
Another tense reunion took place between Jon and Sam, especially since a hysterical Sam
holds the key to Jon's parentage and is fresh off the discovery that he's now the only Tarly
man left.
However, the most fraught was definitely between Jaime Lannister and Bran Stark once the former
arrives at Winterfell, considering that Jaime last saw Bran when he pushed him out a window
and tried to kill him in the very first episode.
Audiences haven't seen Tormund Giantsbane — everyone's favorite red-headed wildling
— since he was spotted at Eastwatch last season as the Wall melted around him, so fans
were likely thrilled to see both Tormund and Beric Dondarrion alive but not particularly
well at another Northern castle, trying to figure out how many dead they had to deal
with and whether or not the army was close by.
Ultimately, they find the body of young Ned Umber, the tiny leader of the House Umber,
pinned to the wall and surrounded by dismembered limbs in a spiral pattern, which Beric notes
is a "message" from the Night King.
Spiral patterns shouldn't surprise any loyal Game of Thrones viewers, especially not where
White Walkers are concerned — in the very first episode, the Walkers arranged the limbs
of their victims into a circular pattern somewhat reminiscent of the one that includes poor
dead Ned.
They can also be seen using dead horses to draw their spiral sign in season 3, when Jon
and the Wildlings go to the Fist of the First men.
"Always the artists"
So what does the spiral mean?
Well, it's pretty simple.
This is the Night King's way of telling the armies of Westeros:
"Hold onto your butts.”
The White Walkers are coming, and probably in the very next episode.
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