‘Game of Thrones,’ “The Dragon and the Wolf”: Everything You Need To Know About The Season 7 Finale

That’s the question, isn’t it? After last week’s very swoon-y Jon/Daenerys scenes, most people are making the natural leap that we’re going to see their alliance solidified in some way. House Targaryen’s sigil is obviously a dragon and House Starks is a wolf.

However, there’s another meaning to the phrase. “The Dragon and the Wolf” can also be read as a reference to Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Through Bran’s visions, we got the very strong suggestion — if not total confirmation — that Jon Snow is not Ned Stark’s bastard, but the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. All season long, Game of Thrones has given us additional hints to Jon’s true parentage. There’s the moment where Gilly seemed to stumble upon a note from a High Septon that Rhaegar annulled his marriage to Elia Martell to marry Lyanna Stark in Dorne. Then there’s the fun moment where Drogon swoops down to “greet” Jon Snow at Dragonstone the moment Jon declares, “I’m not a Stark.” And of course, there’s the scene where Daenerys’s dragon literally bonds with Jon (and all the moments she, uh, bonds with him). The idea is that Jon himself could be both the “Dragon” and the “Wolf.” Oh! And there’s the rumor that Game of Thrones is indeed readying a another flashback scene – one that features both Rhaegar and Lyanna. A lot of internet sleuths say that Welsh actor Wilf Scolding (what a great name!) is set to play the fallen Targaryen prince.

Of course, we could be over-thinking this. We’re wont to do that.

If you carefully studied HBO’s 47 second preview for next week’s episode — as I meticulously did right here — you would have noticed that just about every single living person still in Westeros is rendezvous-ing in Kings Landing next week. Oh, and an undead person will be there, too.

Jon’s big plan is that they will convince Cersei to join their cause against the Night King by showing her a wight. It’s a dumb plan, but Daenerys is smartly prepping for the worst. She’s anticipating a trap, and as Tyrion outlined to Daenerys last week: “[I]f we go to the capital, we’ll go with two armies. We’ll go with three dragons. Anyone touches you, Kings Landing burns down to the foundation stones.” Fun, right? Cersei, for her part, invited Sansa Stark to come down as well, but Sansa chose Brienne of Tarth to go as her proxy.

So here’s who will know for sure be there:

Team Lannister
Queen Cersei Lannister, and her unborn incest baby
Jaime Lannister
Bronn
The remnants of the Lannister army
Maester Qyburn (we assume)
Ser Robert Strong, aka Ser Gregor Clegane (we also assume)
The Iron Fleet

Team Stark
Jon Snow, King in the North
Davos Seaworthy
Brienne of Tarth, representing Sansa Stark
Podrick Payne

Team Targaryen
Tyrion Lannister
Theon Greyjoy
Lord Varys
Ser Jorah Mormont
The Dothraki army (outside the gates)
The Unsullied army (outside the gates)
The rest of the Targaryen fleet
Daenerys Targaryen, and Drogon & Rhaegal (We assume based on Tyrion’s plan last week, but we don’t have visual on her in the preview.)

Just There…Just Because
The Hound, aka Sandor Clegane
A wight, who doesn’t want to be there

That’s a lot of people. It’s practically the entire Game of Thrones cast. So we’re guessing that something big is going to happen.

Since Season One, Game of Thrones has been teasing an epic duel between two terrifying brothers: Sandor “The Hound” Clegane and his vicious elder brother Gregor “The Ser Formerly Known as The Mountain” Clegane. Fans have coined this showdown “Cleganebowl,” and the expectation is that it might just finally happen next week.

Will it? Gosh, I don’t know! My name isn’t D.B. Weiss or David Benioff. I’m not in charge of writing Game of Thrones. That said, I do know this is the first time we’ve seen the two pugnacious brawlers cross paths in years. Logic states that if the detente between the Lannisters and the Targaryen/Stark forces goes south, the Clegane bros will be the first brawlers charging into the fray.

If you’ve been following our coverage of Season 7, you’ll know that we at Decider are NERVOUS for the current Lady of Winterfell, Sansa Stark. Last week, Arya confronted Sansa about the message she wrote swearing fealty to Joffrey and it seemed like Littlefinger had successfully planted a wedge between the two siblings. So will it come to blows next week?

We’re cautiously optimistic that the Stark siblings will band together. One of the main trailers promoting Season Seven included Sansa in voice over, loosely quoting her father: “When the snows fall, when the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” It’s one of the only major parts in either main Season Seven trailer that we haven’t seen used onscreen yet. We’re guessing it’s a clue that next week the Starks close ranks and put their differences aside.

That said — and this is my own personal conviction — I can’t help but feel that we’re going to see some big move from the Night King this week. While all eyes are on Kings Landing, Sansa is alone at Winterfell with a scant army, a sister carrying a satchel full of dead men’s faces, a brother too busy being the Three-Eyed Raven, and Littlefinger. Basically, she’s got her hands full. It’s the perfect time for an evil lord of the undead to fly over the Wall on the back of his new ice dragon. (I’m just speculating here!)

All guesswork aside, we know that Game of Thrones is due to give us a game-changing reveal this weekend and that’s because director Alan Taylor said so. Frequent Decider contributor Sean T. Collins interviewed Taylor about last week’s episode, “Beyond the Wall,” for Vulture this week and the director said this:

“Everything’s moving faster and faster, the wheels are spinning faster, and the story’s getting tighter and tighter, which was always the intention of the big arc of the show. Obviously, there’s a game-changing moment in my episode. I can say that this process of tightening, this amping-up and this barreling towards the final outcome, gets bigger and faster next week. There’s a plot point next week that’s the biggest one yet.”

The emphasis is all ours, but that’s a bold statement for Taylor to make! So what could it be?

• Since the title is “The Dragon and the Wolf,” the show’s main cast of characters may finally discover that Jon Snow is indeed the rightful Targaryen heir. (Note: if what Gilly read is true, he is Prince Rhaegar’s trueborn and legitimate son, which would put him ahead of his father’s younger sister Daenerys in the line of succession.)
• Something involving the Night King, his history or his past. Either Bran will discover something pertinent to the Night King’s history or we’ll see him make a deadly move against the people of Westeros…such as…
• The Wall could fall. Hey, it’s been staring at us for Seven Seasons: the one thing protecting the living from the dead is that big ‘ole wall of ice. We’ve postulated in the past that Bran could have weakened the magical wards on it and that would give the Night King and his army the power to cross it.
• Something even the biggest fans never saw coming.

The Season Seven finale of Game of Thrones debuts on HBO this Sunday, August 27 at 9 PM ET.

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