Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4: Who will live and who will die?
(L to R)Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister-Photo:Helen Sloan-HBO
After being a bit gung-ho when it came to predicting who will die last week, Game of Thrones shocked us all by giving us a body count very much in the single figures. Just this once, it turns out, everybody lives.
(Unless you’re Beric Dondarrion or a Mormont, that is. Game of Thrones has some mercy.)
Indeed, after promised “beloved heroes” dying outside the gates, it turns out all that really meant was Theon Greyjoy, Jorah Mormont and Edd who doesn’t even have a memorable surname.
Look, I’m just going to say it: Cowards!
It may well turn out that there is something far more shocking and meaningful down the line, but for now, even Gilly is still alive. Gilly, who was in the crypts! Gilly, who was in an enclosed space with the undead and Baby Sam, who also survived despite being just a baby! And directly in the way of the said undead. The undead who famously love babies!
Make it make sense!
The stakes have never been so high, yet so weirdly low. It’s unsettling but we can only hope is what the showrunners planned for us to feel. Perhaps there are some things you can’t share without becoming important cross-border allies against Cersei Lannister and her exquisitely arched eyebrow, and fighting zombies is one of them. Perhaps the Night King is Agent Coulson to Jon and Dany’s Avengers Initiative. Who knows?
In any case, it leaves us with many, many more characters than we expected going into the third week of this death pool. So what are we waiting for?
Euron Greyjoy
Whilst we have no doubt Cersei won’t suffer his nonsense for long, the fact remains Cersei still needs Euron for the time being.
It also looks like he might be proposing to her again this episode, which, in terms of death warrants, means very little really. Cersei has never really taken the “in sickness and in health” thing very seriously.
Chance of survival: Cersei’s patience is wearing thin…but it’s not through just yet.
Jaime and Tyrion Lannister
We’re putting them together because they don’t actually appear in the trailer for this episode, and also because we fully expected Jaime to be wight meat by now. Not that we’re not hugely delighted he’s not (he’s still Westeros’ Next Top Model), but still.
Anyway, as we say, we have no clue at all what these two are getting up to in the upcoming episode — Tyrion appears to be standing dutifully beside his Targaryen Queen — but we do know that somewhere, there is a crossbow bolt with their names on it. Whether that will come into play this episode seems unlikely…but it could happen.
Chance of survival: Shot through the heart and you’re to blame. You give Bronn a bad name. (They’ll be fine.)
Sansa Stark
Sansa looks a bit overcast in the trailer, and the rights of the North are never far from her mind. Her friction with Dany seems unlikely to have dissipated in the aftermath of The Long Night, but with the Northerners looking more positive towards the Breaker of Chains, will Sansa have a harder battle to fight than usual?
In any case, a healthy distrust of Daenerys isn’t a death sentence yet. We think she’ll be fine.
Chance of survival: Long live the Queen of the North.