The Winds of Winter

"The Winds of Winter" is the tenth episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixtieth episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 26, 2016. It was written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.

Plot
Cersei stands trial for her crimes, while Jaime celebrates victory with Walder Frey at The Twins. Davos confronts Jon about Melisandre's actions, and Littlefinger reveals his intentions to Sansa. Meanwhile, Bran continues his quest for knowledge in the far North as "winter" finally arrives.

In King's Landing
In King's Landing, everyone is getting ready for the trial of Ser Loras Tyrell and Cersei Lannister. The small folk enter the sept, along with Queen Margaery Tyrell, Mace Tyrell, and Kevan Lannister. As Grand Maester Pycelle heads to the sept, a small child stops him and whispers something into his ear.

The sparrows bring Loras into first, as the High Sparrow awaits. Instead of having a trial, Loras confesses to his crimes and tells the High Sparrow that he wishes to devote his life to the Faith. The High Sparrow tells him that this would mean that he renounces his family name and his future lordship of Highgarden, but Loras agrees and the sparrows carve a seven-pointed star into his forehead. Margaery is unhappy with the High Sparrow for mutilating her brother, but the High Sparrow says he only promised to allow Loras to leave after trial.

Tommen prepares to leave the Red Keep for the trial of his mother, but Ser Gregor Clegane prevents him from leaving. Lancel tells the High Sparrow that Cersei has yet to leave the Red Keep, so the High Sparrow tells him to go retrieve her. As Lancel is walking out, another small child lures him away into the area below the Sept. Meanwhile, Pycelle follows the small child from earlier into a room where Qyburn awaits him. Qyburn apologizes to Pycelle for the inconvenience and then multiple children surround Pycelle and begin stabbing him repeatedly to his death.

Margaery, realizing something is very wrong with the fact that neither Cersei nor Tommen are at the trial confronts the High Sparrow. She tells him that it's a trap, but he does not listen. Below the Sept, Lancel continues to follow the child and the child stabs him in the leg after Lancel picks up the torch the child was carrying. In pain, Lancel discovers a bunch of barrels of wildfire about to be set off, and slowly starts crawling towards the end of the hall to attempt to put the candle out. Margaery tells everyone in the Sept that it's a trap and they need to leave immediately, but the sparrows prevent anyone from leaving the trial. Lancel does not make it to the wildfire in time, and the Sept explodes killing everyone inside of it.

Cersei smiles at the explosion, while Tommen, who is in a different room, is in disbelief. Tommen eventually sets his crown down and jumps out of the window to his death. After finding Tommen's body, Qyburn asks Cersei what she wants to do about funeral arrangements. She tells him to burn the body and dump the ashes where the Great Sept of Baelor once stood with her father and daughter.

Jaime arrives back in King's Landing to see the ruin of the city. He walks into the throne room just in time to see Cersei coronated as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

At the Twins
Jaime Lannister and Bronn arrive at The Twins to celebrate the regained control of Riverrun and the allegiance between the Freys and the Lannisters. However upon seeing as how Jaime had to ride north from King's Landing in order to retake the Riverrun from Blackfish Tully with the persuasion of Edmure Tully, Jaime confronts Walder Frey and asks him why do they need House Frey on their side when they cannot keep the control of Riverlands.

Some time later Walder Frey is seen eating dinner in his hall, when one of the servants serves him pie, he upon unrecognizing the servant immediately questions who she is. The servant exclaims that she is new and also implies to Lord Walder that the pie was extremely difficult to make upon which she peels the piece of the pie off to reveal to Walder Frey the remains of two of his sons Black Walder and Lothar Frey. Realizing that Walder is eating his own sons, he feels disgusted and looks at the servant who removes her face, revealing to Walder that she is Arya Stark of Winterfell. Lord Walder shocked tries to escape, but Arya manages to hold him and then slits his throat and smiles as she watches Walder Frey bleed to death.

First

 * Lord Cley Cerwyn
 * Lord Wyman Manderly

Deaths

 * Grand Maester Pycelle
 * Brother Lancel
 * The High Sparrow
 * Ser Loras Tyrell
 * Queen Margaery Tyrell
 * Lord Mace Tyrell
 * Ser Kevan Lannister
 * King Tommen Baratheon
 * Ser Walder Rivers
 * Lothar Frey
 * Lord Walder Frey

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Mother Cersei Lannister
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Natalie Dormer as Queen Margaery Tyrell
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Sophie Turner as Lady Sansa Stark
 * Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish
 * Carice van Houten as Melisandre
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow
 * Conleth Hill as Varys
 * Dean-Charles Chapman as King Tommen Baratheon
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
 * Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn
 * Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy
 * Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly

Guest Starring
 * Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell
 * David Bradley as Lord Walder Frey
 * Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle
 * Anton Lesser as Qyburn
 * Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark
 * Finn Jones as Ser Loras Tyrell
 * Ian Gelder as Ser Kevan Lannister
 * Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lord Mace Tyrell
 * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm
 * Gemma Whelan as Princess Yara Greyjoy
 * Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed
 * Eugene Simon as Lancel
 * Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand
 * Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand
 * Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand
 * Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce
 * Tim McInnerny as Lord Robett Glover
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella
 * Daniel Tuite as Lothar Frey
 * Tim Plester as Walder Rivers
 * Robert Aramayo as Lord Eddard Stark
 * Aisling Franciosi
 * Frank Hvam
 * Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Josephine Gillan as Marei
 * Sara Dylan as handmaiden
 * Sabrina Bartlett
 * Dermot Ward
 * Aron Hegarty as Cley Cerwyn
 * Sean Blowers as Wyman Manderly
 * Tom Yarey
 * Nathanael Saleh as Arthur
 * Annette Hannah as Frances
 * Jesse Magee as a little bird
 * Lucy Gallagher as a little bird
 * Fionn Kernan as a little bird
 * Michael Nevin as a little bird
 * Iona Clarke as a little bird

Cast notes

 * 23 of 27 starring cast members appear in this episode.
 * Starring cast members Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar), and Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.
 * This episode is the final appearance of starring cast members Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Jonathan Pryce (High Sparrow), and Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon) due to the death of their characters.

General

 * The episode title is a reference to the name of the unpublished sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter.
 * At 69 minutes running time, this episode is the longest episode in the entire television series so far.
 * In the Title sequence, House Stark's direwolf sigil is restored to Winterfell. The Bolton sigil replaced it from Season 4 onwards, and in Season 3 the animation showed Winterfell burning (after it was burned at the end of Season 2 - at the end of Season 3 it was revealed that Ramsay and the Boltons burned it). Thus this is the first time that Winterfell has appeared restored, with the Stark sigil, and not a burning ruin since the Season 2 opening credits.
 * All storylines in the TV series will have surpassed the books as of this episode. The TV series adapted certain subplots out of synch with each other, thus while Jon Snow's storyline surpassed the books starting in the Season 6 premiere, other major subplots this season such as the Greyjoy subplot and Tully/Frey subplot were holdovers from other novels. Now even these remaining subplots have caught up. The Slaver's Bay storyline surpassed the novels in the preceding episode.
 * Two subplots were omitted from the TV show but won't be introduced now: when Tyrion flees east to get to Meereen it introduces a major new political shakeup happening in the Free Cities, while the Dorne subplot in Season 5 was drastically condensed, then outright abandoned at the beginning of Season 6. Because Dorne is close to the Free Cities, preview chapters for the next novel reveal that the Dorne and Free Cities subplots are going to combine with each other into one big subplot -- all of this was removed in the TV version.
 * Jaime and Brienne each had about another chapter's worth of material involving running into the Brotherhood Without Banners in the Riverlands, but this subplot has also been omitted entirely thus far.
 * With the death of Mace Tyrell, all heads of Westeros' great houses at the beginning of the series are now dead. The heads of Houses Arryn, Targaryen, Baratheon, and Stark died in Season 1, the head of House Tully in Season 3, the head of House Lannister in Season 4, and the heads of Houses Martell, Greyjoy, and Tyrell in Season 6.
 * House Tyrell is also the last of the great houses to suffer the death of one of its members during the show's run.
 * Arya feeding Walder Frey a pie containing his sons is a reference to the legend told by Bran in season three about the Rat Cook. Like Walder Frey, the Rat Cook broke Guest right and was punished by the gods to eat his young.
 * It might also be a reference to a long-running fan theory that the pies served by Lord Wyman Manderly to Roose Bolton are made from missing Freys.
 * The Twins returns to the Title sequence for the first time since Season 3. The Wall appears in the title sequence but not in the episode itself. Oldtown appears in the episode but not in the title sequence.
 * There has been some inconsistency as to the pronunciation of "Cerwyn." Previous episodes have pronounced it as "Ser-win" while Lyanna Mormont pronounces it as "Ker-win."

Beyond the Wall

 * This episode confirms the longstanding theory hinted at in the novels that Jon Snow is actually the secret child of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. It is also heavily implied, but not outright confirmed just yet, that Rhaegar didn't abduct and rape Lyanna, but instead she ran off with him, and Jon was their secret love child (although the possibility remains that her pregnancy was the product of rape). Given that Rhaegar was Daenerys's older brother, and Jon is his male heir, if Rhaegar married Lyanna in secret, then by all the different inheritance laws of Westeros Jon Snow technically ranks ahead of Daenerys Targaryen in line of succession to the Iron Throne.
 * Complicating matters is if Jon was a Stark bastard, but a Targaryen bastard or not. Daenerys would still rank ahead of Jon if he was merely Rhaegar's bastard son, and Rhaegar was already married to Elia Martell. On the other hand, the Targaryens were known to practice polygamy in past centuries when they thought they could get away with it - always a contentious issue with the Faith of the Seven which forced them to abandon it. Nonetheless it is possible that Rhaegar entered into a second marriage to Lyanna in secret, making Jon his legitimate son. Of course, as Renly Baratheon pointed out in Season 1, the "line of succession" is often just a legal fiction decided at the point of a sword: Robert Baratheon claimed the Iron Throne on the token pretext that he was Rhaegar's second cousin (his grandmother was a Targaryen), but it was ultimately decided on the battlefield.
 * As implied in their brief dialogue, Lyanna Stark feared that Robert Baratheon would kill her baby if he found out that Jon was actually Rhaegar Targaryen's son, and she made Ned promise to protect him. As a result, when Ned Stark returned north to Winterfell from the war, he passed off Jon as his own bastard son, when he was in fact his nephew. The only thing he'd ever say about Jon's mother was a vaguely concocted explanation that he fathered her on a servant girl named "Wylla". Ned came very close to telling Jon the truth about his mother when they last saw each other at the beginning of Season 1, but ended by emphatically saying that "you might not have my name, but you have my blood".
 * It was mentioned multiple times in both the books and TV series that it would have been out of character for Ned Stark to father Jon on some camp-follower prostitute as he claimed - Robert Baratheon enjoyed whores, but Ned was very restrained and honorable and didn't, particularly because he had just married Catelyn Tully and felt their vows were binding. In Season 5, Stannis Baratheon remarked to his wife that he doubted Jon was just some random whore's son because he knew Eddard for years and that really wasn't his way.
 * Recall the scene in Season 1 episode 2 "The Kingsroad", closely following the books, when King Robert absent-mindedly asked Ned what the name of his bastard son's mother was, and he got a hesitant look on his face and said "Wylla". Even Robert joked that she must have been quite a woman to make Ned break his marriage vows - not the most observant of characters, it didn't occur to Robert that Ned's story was therefore outright implausible.
 * In the first novel alone, several different rumors are given about who Jon's mother is, and Ned himself even gives somewhat conflicting accounts about it, hinting early on that he was lying about it. Some said he was the product of an affair Ned had not just with some random servant, but with Lady Ashara Dayne - sister of Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, others that "Wylla" was a maid in service to Ashara, along with other rumors. It's possible that "Wylla" was the name of one of the midwives who attended Lyanna in childbirth.
 * In the books, no one doubts that Jon is related to Ned because he looks just like Ned in his youth: Jon inherited the very strong Stark physical features of dark hair and a long face. Indeed, Ned's other children with Catelyn Tully mostly took after her Tully features of auburn hair and blue eyes. In Catelyn's first POV chapter at the beginning of the first book, she even pointed out how painful it was that Jon Snow actually looks more like his "father" Ned than her own son Robb Stark. Arya was the only one of their children to inherit dark Stark features, and Ned said she looked like her aunt Lyanna when she was young - which could have been a hint that just as Arya took after her aunt in appearance, Jon took after his uncle, not his real father, in appearance. The TV show apparently also made some effort to match this: TV-Robb had somewhat brown/auburn hair like Catelyn, while TV-Jon also closely resembles Ned.
 * Given that Jon Snow is actually the son Lyanna Stark, this means that his believed siblings Sansa, Arya, and Bran are actually his first cousins. Jon's future political career as King in the North may hint on marriage-alliances: first cousins marriages are not considered Incest in Westeros and are actually fairly common among the nobility. Tywin Lannister married his own first-cousin Joanna Lannister (her maiden name was already "Lannister" before they married). Indeed, in the novels, even the Starks have had first cousin marriages in recent times: Ned Stark's own parents Rickard Stark and Lyarra Stark were first cousins once removed (her name was already "Lyarra Stark" before they married). Thus it is not implausible that if this revelation came to light, Jon could legally marry Sansa to cement his claim over the North.
 * Another potential marriage-alliance for political goals by Jon Snow may of course be with Daenerys Targaryen herself. Due to Jon Snow actually being the son of Daenerys's eldest brother Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys is actually Jon's aunt. Nonetheless, the Targaryens were known to practice uncle-niece or aunt-nephew marriages in the past (which aren't quite as incestuous as brother-sister marriages). Rhaenyra Targaryen married her own uncle, Daemon Targaryen. Thus according to Targaryen laws and customs it would also be perfectly legal for Jon Snow to marry his aunt Daenerys Targaryen to secure a political alliance.
 * Given that the legality of Jon's birth hinges on if his father Rhaegar Targaryen entered into a polygamous marriage, it isn't even outside the realm of possibility that Jon might invoke Targaryen custom to marry both Sansa and Daenerys.
 * It remains unclear if Benjen Stark actually is the character "Coldhands" from the novels, or a similar revenant, or if the TV series is condensing the two characters together. Coldhands in the novels similarly appears to be a dead human who was being turned into an undead wight, but the Children of the Forest intervened, so that he retains his consciousness and free will. Whatever the case, Coldhands in the novels gives the same explanation that Benjen does: the Children worked strong spells into the foundations of The Wall when it was constructed which prevent dead things animated by magic, such as himself, from passing through it.
 * Even in the novels, the corpses of Othor and Jafer Flowers reanimated as wights inside Castle Black - but they had to be brought through the Wall by the Night's Watch when they found their bodies. It's possible that even if Coldhands and/or Benjen were brought through the Wall by someone else, they might only reanimate as a mindless wight, which is why they avoid it.

In the North

 * WhiteRaven.jpg isn't a spoiler because it appears in the episode preview: a white [[Ravens|messenger-raven]] is seen flying north to Winterfell. White messenger-ravens are a special sub-breed kept by the Maesters from The Citadel in Oldtown, which are larger, stronger, and smarter than normal ravens: they are only sent out to carry the important official announcement across Westeros that the seasons have changed. The Citadel gathers reports about weather from maesters all over Westeros, and after much deliberation determines when one season can be considered to have officially ended and the next begun. A white raven previously appeared in the Season 2 premiere, "The North Remembers", when it was delivered to the Small Council to inform them that the ten year long summer had officially ended and turned to autumn (though the episode didn't explain in dialogue why the raven was white, this is a detail from the books). For six seasons, the TV series has been promising the Stark words that "Winter is Coming". The white ravens in this episode officially announce that winter has come.
 * In the books, the white ravens announcing the arrival of winter are sent out soon after Cersei's Walk of atonement. The TV series adapted several storylines out of synch with each other, thus the white ravens only arrive at the time of her trial.
 * Cersei previously mentioned to Littlefinger in Season 5 that they could tell autumn would be ending relatively soon, noting that the weather had started to turn. The length of the years-long seasons in Westeros can be unpredictable, but they can get a general sense when a season is drawing to a close, i.e. cold weather in early November/early December still technically isn't "winter", but people can observe the gradual shift.

In the Riverlands

 * In the books, Jaime Lannister's army doesn't advance all the way north to The Twins after the Second Siege of Riverrun, and thus he never personally met Walder Frey. After leaving Riverrun in the books, his army does advance north but only as far as Raventree Hall, the seat of House Blackwood (earlier episodes in Season 6 did mention in passing that the Blackwoods were also in revolt like the Tullys).
 * Instead of advancing to Raventree Hall as in the books, in the TV version Jaime travels all the way to the Twins, then returns back south to King's Landing. Given his comments to Lord Walder, and because Raventree Hall is between Riverrun and the Twins, it's possible that they're implying the other rebelling Riverlands Houses (Blackwood and Mallister) were subdued again off-screen.

In Dorne

 * Dorne's appearance in this episode marks the first time Dorne had returned to Season 6 since its long time absence after the season premiere.
 * Two episodes ago Varys was shown leaving Meereen in a ship to head back to Westeros, explaining he was going to woo potential allies there. In the novels, it wasn't really clear where Varys went after Tyrion killed Tywin Lannister: he didn't appear again when Tyrion was let out of his crate in Pentos, nor did he travel to Meereen. Varys does reappear later in Westeros, but it is unclear if he traveled east to the Free Cities and then returned, or if he was in hiding in Westeros the entire time, still orchestrating his spy network.

In the books

 * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Feast for Crows:
 * Chapter 40, The Princess in the Tower: The ruler of Dorne reveals he's aligned with House Targaryen and that its time for "Vengeance. Justice. Fire and blood."
 * Chapter 45, Samwell V: Samwell Tarly arrives at the Citadel and has to deal with a bureacrat of the Order of Maesters.


 * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Dance with Dragons:
 * Chapter 19, Davos III: Davos Seaworth and Lord Wyman Manderly witness a young northern noblewoman deliver a moving a speech about loyalty to House Stark.
 * Chapter 24: Davos IV: Lord Wyman Manderly confirms his loyalty to House Stark.
 * Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell: Meat pies made with missing Freys are served by a member of the northern nobility in revenge for the Red Wedding to other Freys.
 * Epilogue: Grand Maester Pycelle is killed. Varys's little birds stab a member of the Small Council to death. The master of the little birds tells their victims that he doesn't bear any will towards their victim and that he doesn't deserve to die alone. Ser Kevan Lannister is killed. Varys is back in Westeros to pave the way for the restoration of House Targaryen. White ravens sent by the Citadel arrive on a castle, confirming that winter has arrived.


 * The rest of the episode appears to draw material from what will come in the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter.

Memorable quotes
"House Mormont remembers, The North remembers." - Lyanna Mormont