Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 7 brought back Sandor “The Hound” Clegane in spectacular fashion, dramatizing his brief attempt at reform, only to end with him hoisting the tools of slaughter once more. The preview for Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 8, “No One,” offers a brief look at The Hound (about to land an ax in someone’s face), but focuses far more on his undead brother, Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. But with only three episodes remaining in Season 6, it now seems more and more unlikely that fans will get the “Cleganebowl” they want.
It is widely assumed in both George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series and Game of Thrones the Clegane brothers will get a chance to butt heads before Westeros falls to White Walkers and/or dragons on horseback. The two brothers despise each other, Sandor because Gregor burnt his face and Gregor because he despises everyone. The mechanism for their reunion is obvious: Cersei keeps mentioning that her trial before the Faith Militant will be a trial by combat, with The Mountain as her champion. All the High Sparrow has to do is find and name The Hound their champion and Cleganebowl is a go.
The chess pieces are nearly in place, but will we get the mother of all Game of Thrones sword fights in Season 6? The preview for episode 8, “No One,” suggests not (watch it above). The next episode will have Gregor killing some Sparrows and Sandor getting some revenge (probably against the Brotherhood without Banners), but there isn’t yet a plausible mechanism for the High Sparrow to learn that Sandor Clegane is still alive.
With Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 9 taken up with the biggest battle ever shown on television, that leaves only the last episode for Cleganebowl. Our best guess? Cleganebowl will be fully set up by the end of this season, but we won’t actually see The Hound and The Mountain cross swords until next year.
