The second episode of the final season of Game of Thrones was a tense, character driven exploration of the moments building up to the arrival of the Night King’s army of the dead and the impending Battle of Winterfell. Between a love scene that took viewers by complete surprise, a sorrowful song sung around the fire, a knighting that should have happened ages ago, and Jon Snow dropping the bombshell of all bombshells, fans are still buzzing.
But the thing that has people really talking is the plan to protect the castle’s most vulnerable residents by hiding them in the crypt below the castle.
On first blush, it seems to make perfect sense. There’s no area more secure in Winterfell than the crypts, after all. There are only a couple entry points, and any invading army would need to fight their way through the castle’s formidable defenses – and defenders – to reach it.
There’s one major problem, though: this isn’t just any army. It’s the army of the dead. Led by a guy whose source of power is the ability to raise the dead and control them.
And guess what the crypt is filled with?
Uh-oh.
Naturally, fans are freaking out about this seemingly obvious flaw in Jon’s plan.
One fan wrote on Twitter, “Everyone’s going to hide in the crypt with all the dead Starks while an army who can raise the dead approaches and no one forsees a problem with that?”
And another tweeted, “They keep mentioning how safe the crypt is going to be. After years of watching this show, I’m sure that means the opposite.”
Of course, this was hinted at in the promo clips for the final season, as the first teaser was called “The Crypts of Winterfell,” and it showed the icy grip of death coming for our characters in the crypts. And the episode three tease also hints at this with clips such as Arya Stark fleeing an unseen foe inside the castle, not to mention this foreboding line from Daenerys:
“The dead are already here.”
Perhaps most chilling is the fact that there could be some familiar faces among the Night King’s new minions. After all, this is the Stark family crypt, meaning Jon’s mom Lyanna is among those who could rise, as is Rickon, who died in the Battle of the B*******. And could we even see a headless Ned zombie? The mind shudders at the thought.
Though this horrifying theory may be a surprise to fans of the show, it’s no surprise to fans of the books. In fact, this scene was seemingly foreshadowed way back in the very first of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, where Jon Snow has a recurring nightmare about this exact thing happening:
“Last night he had dreamt the Winterfell dream again. He was wandering the empty castle, searching for his father, descending into the crypts… When he turned he saw that the vaults were opening, one after the other. As the dead kings came stumbling from their cold black graves…”
Of course, this being Game of Thrones, there’s really no way of knowing what will happen, or who will live or die. If luck is on the side of the living, perhaps Arya will use her specially made dragonglass-outfitted spear to slay wights and White Walkers galore, and the little girl who swore to defend the crypt will keep her promise.
With fan favorites like Tyrion set to be in the crypts, though, fans are worried that their worst fears will come to pass – and we may even see some of our most beloved characters then rise from the dead to fight for the Night King.
All we know for sure is that not everyone will survive the next episode of Game of Thrones – and if this show gets any more tense, we might not survive watching it ether.
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