Well, the Long Night has been averted, and the Night King and his army are officially vanquished. Whether you were thrilled by the Battle of Winterfell or you’re one of the many who spent 90 minutes fiddling with the brightness settings on their TV in hopes of actually seeing some of the action, it’s now time to move on to the next conflict — the last war, as Daenerys calls it. And if Sunday’s episode didn’t do it for you, we have good news and some bad news: The good — with the longest battle sequence in TV history behind us, it’s back to the sex, wine, and political intrigue that set GoT apart in its earlier, less expensive seasons. The bad — at least some of the action will take place at Winterfell again this week … and there’s a whole lot of sword-slinging yet to come. Here are some-newly released photos from the episode, which we will now compulsively dissect in a frivolous search for useful information: Apparently, Jon Snow emerged from the Battle of Winterfell with just the slightest of scratches. The plot armor is strong with this one. We kid, of course. Killing off Jon while Melisandre was still around would’ve been a waste of time, and no one wants to see Aegon freakin’ Targaryen sidelined with an Ace bandage on his swording elbow during the war against Cersei. An unscathed Jon was always a foregone conclusion, and we’re okay with that. Of course, a lot of folks weren’t as lucky as our core group of heroes. Here, Arya and others pay their respects to the many who were cut down by the Night King’s army of the dead. They’d better get those final words in fast because even with the Night King gone, you can never be too careful when it comes to disposing of corpses. As many fans have already pointed out, the torchbearers here represent the various groups who fell in battle (Grey Worm for the Unsullied, Dany for the Dothraki, etc). And not that’s the only indication that a considerable amount of thought went into this funeral pyre ceremony. Dany’s dragons could’ve easily torched the whole lot with one deep breath. So it looks like we’re in for a tender moment before the bloodshed — of course, this is still Game of Thrones , so it’s a tender moment involving a pile of dead bodies. Speaking of Dany’s dragons — yes, the two that were still on the side of the living survived the Battle of Winterfell. Now, it’s time to go wreak some havoc and reign hellfire on King’s Landing! And if you’re anything like us, you’ve been waiting quite some time for Cersei, Euron, and the walking nightmare fuel that is the Mountain to get lit up like Christmas trees. Yes, waiting for Dany and company down south is the current occupant of the Iron Throne and her sidepiece of the moment. (She may not be on the greatest terms with Jaime right now, but you know Cersei is kicking Euron to the curb as soon as she sees her brother/boo.) No one gets serious with a dude named Euron. Especially when he looks like what would happen if Bam Margera got super into pirate cosplay. So there you have it — everything we know so far about the Game of Thrones S09E04 — title TBA because HBO is just messing with us this season. Feel free to come back to this spot on Sunday night and point out how wrong all our assumptions were. View Slideshow: Game of Thrones Photos: Bring It On, White Walkers!
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