Who Is Bernadette on ‘Game of Thrones’?: Everything You Need To Know About Cersei’s Copycat Maid

Hey Game of Thrones fans! Think no one could ever love (or love to hate) Lena Headey‘s Cersei more than you? Meet Bernadette, the queen’s creepy copycat maid. She’s got a mild Single White Female vibe that only gets more hilariously creepy when you realize just for how long she’s been stanning for Queen Cersei.

Bernadette, played by Irish actress Sara Dylan, had a showy cameo in last week’s installment of Game of Thrones, “The Queen’s Justice.” After Cersei beds Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in a fit of passion brought on by the thrill of exacting vengeance on Ellaria Sand, she boldly lets her handmaid see her brother in their post-coital bed. She even makes a point to ask for fresh sheets. Bernadette’s appearance was striking not just because she’s the first person to catch Cersei and Jaime in the act and not get thrown out of a tower for it, but because she looks like Cersei’s doppelganger.

The thing is, we’ve seen Bernadette before. On several occasions. As Vanity Fair points out, Bernadette has been a loyal servant to Cersei since Season Two, Episode 7, “A Man Without Honor.” There she aimed to tattle on Sansa and Shae after they were caught trying to change (heh) Sansa’s period blood-soaked sheets. In Season Three, she’s still buzzing around Sansa’s bedchamber, acting as a sort of handmaid/spy. Bernadette also pops up again in the premiere and finale of Season 6 and helps dress Cersei ahead of her big wildfire attack.

Ironically, one of Bernadette’s biggest moments before now was barging in on Jaime and Cersei (who are just talking) in the Season Four premiere, “Two Swords.” Bernadette is there to tell Cersei that Shae is secretly Tyrion’s lover. Once more Jaime doesn’t want her to enter, but Cersei does. It makes for a funny sort of echo to last week’s episode, but it’s not the only time Game of Thrones does this in Season 7, Episode 3, “The Queen’s Justice.”

Not sure if you caught this, but Cersei quotes herself when she tells Ellaria Sand how she’ll watch her daughter Tyene’s “beautiful face collapse.” As she tells Jaime in Season 6, “I think about locking Myrcella in a crypt. I think about her beautiful little face starting to collapse.” Cersei’s vengeance wasn’t just designed to take Ellaria’s daughter’s life in the same way Ellaria took Myrcella’s — it was designed for Ellaria to feel Cersei’s exact despair.

Oh, and if “Bernadette” doesn’t sound like a Westerosi name, that’s because it’s not. Bernadette doesn’t show up anywhere in George R.R. Martin’s books, and some fans have speculated that her name may be an homage to Game of Thrones producer Bernadette Caulfield. Think we’ll meet Bernadette again?

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