What To Expect From Game Of Thrones Season 7 Finale, The Dragon And The Wolf

We are just a few hours away from the Game of Thrones Season 7 finale. We will all certainly be feeling the shortened season length after tonight when we would normally have three more episodes to look forward to. Either way, we have a finale to hypothesize about so without further ado, here’s what I think will happen in tonight's episode.

The Meeting in the Dragonpit

The expedition beyond the wall has achieved its goal, though arguably at a cost far higher than the gains of the mission. Nevertheless, they have the proof they desired to show Cersei the true threat in the north, and hopefully broker a ceasefire.

Here’s what we can gather from HBO’s preview:

From the preview, we see the meeting will take place in the old Dragonpit of King’s Landing. This was once the place where the Targaryen rulers housed their beasts, but has since fallen into ruin. Beyond looking cool, it is important to think about why it would happen in this area rather than the throne room, where we usually see such meetings.

Given that Dany knows about Cersei’s treachery, she will want a number of bargaining chips to ensure her side doesn’t get wildfired like most of Cersei’s enemies.

It appears that Grey Worm successfully marched his Unsullied across Westeros back to King’s Landing. They seemed to have been generally unharassed along the way and we see them outside the Red Keep, along with the Dothraki horde. This army will be the first of Dany’s protections. The next, I believe, will be Dany herself and one of her scaley children. In all the photos and videos of the episode, we see Jon and Tyrion at the meeting, but not Dany. I think she will either be making a grand entrance on dragonback, and/or staying with her dragon as a second bit of insurance that Cersei keeps the peace. This would also explain, from a writing standpoint, why the meeting is outside.

Beyond this, we have few hints as to how this interaction will go. We can guess that Cersei will have a few tricks up her sleeve, and team Dany will respond. Given that every episode this season had a large scale effects-driven action sequence, I find it hard to believe that the final episode will cool things off. We can assume that something big will go down here. I only hope that team Dany isn’t caught off guard. The Mother of Dragons and her counsel have generally been very reactive and flat-footed this season and they are aware of Cersei’s treachery. I’d be disappointed if they weren’t prepared for anything.

Possible Cersei traps could be using the zombie Mountain for something – he’s been very present in photos of Cersei this season and we know she relies on him. She may also stash Qyburn’s dragon-killing weapon nearby, but this is a little dull after the ballista failed in the loot train battle.

It’s also worth noting that the images show a tense moment between Jaime and Cersei. I have long argued that Jaime will break with Cersei, and eventually kill her, and I think that the gulf between them will grow in this episode.

At Winterfell

While the main event is at King’s Landing, we will also spend some time up in Winterfell. The growing tension between the Stark sisters and Littlefinger’s manipulation of both is a plotline that I doubt will carry on into next season. I think something has to give here. Either the two will have a more definitive break, or they will come together again. I’m a little confused as to why Bran hasn’t stepped in. He knows what’s up and you’d think he could act as a bridge between them and provide warnings against Littlefinger. I imagine one of the reasons we haven’t seen him in the Winterfell scenes is to keep him out of audiences’ minds as the situation up there deteriorates.

To be honest, it just doesn’t feel all that dire to me with an all-seeing Bran there to mediate.

The Wolf and The Lion

The episode title ‘The Wolf and the Lion,’ gives strong clues about what else to expect. The most obvious explanation is that we will finally see Jon and Dany’s simmering attraction blossom into romance. I think there is a pretty high chance of this, but I have a feeling the title also refers to something else.

The O.G. Wolf and Lion pairing is not Jon and Dany, but Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. It was their romance that sparked the War of the Usurper and led the Targaryens to be nearly wiped out. Though initially framed in Season 1 and in the books as a kidnapping and rape, all evidence since has pointed to it being an elopement, where Lyanna died from giving birth to Jon. I think the significance in the title is too large to just refer to Jon and Dany hooking up – I think there is a good chance we will get a Bran led flashback to see more about Rhaegar and Lyanna.

Finally, I also think we’ll get some development or resolution to Theon’s situation, judging by the photos for the episode, but we will have to wait and see what happens.

So there we have it, we will see tonight how far off I am. Either way, one thing is for sure – after tonight, we must begin the long wait of the off-season before we get more Game of Thrones.