‘Game of Thrones’ 2 Truths and a Lie Revisited: Lady Stoneheart or a Lannister Bloodbath?
Back before Season 6 aired, we asked some of the Game of Thrones cast to play Two Truths and a Lie with us. Isaac Hempstead-Wright and Dean-Charles Chapman both told stories of off-camera antics and disasters, and Liam Cunningham accidentally gave away a spoiler that we still can’t reveal. What’s most interesting, though, is that answers given by both Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams dovetailed in a way that points to a huge return for Season 7.
It wouldn’t be fair to rat out Cunningham, who didn’t realize that you’re not supposed to reveal which statements are truths and which are lies. “[A character] will be silenced — that’s a truth,” he said about a denizen of King’s Landing, before realizing his error. Few tears will be shed for this person’s fate — although is there anyone left in King’s Landing about which that couldn't be said?
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With only one episode left, we have a much clearer view of Maisie Williams’s statements:
“Arya goes to Westeros, back over the sea.”
“Arya is in the trailer more times than people have realized, because they don’t realize it’s her.”
“Arya doesn’t cross any more names off her list.”
Williams’s second statement probably refers to the shot of someone jumping from a balcony, which we saw in Episode 8 during her epic run from the T-1000-like mentor known as the Waif. If that’s true, then either Arya goes to Westeros and does cross a name or names off her list or Arya stays in Braavos and doesn’t kill any of her enemies.
The boring option is that she’s still stuck in Braavos. She has already said her goodbyes to Jaqen, so there’s really nothing left for her to do except get on a boat — which is how Season 4 ended, and it makes a nice bookend to her assassin training. The exciting option is that she appears out of nowhere and slits the throat of Cersei Lannister. Sure, there are plenty of other people on her list but that would nicely echo the death of Catelyn Stark at the Red Wedding.
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Which brings us to Sophie Turner, who makes things really interesting. Here are her statements:
“Ramsay dies.”
“Lady Stoneheart returns.”
“Arya checks three people off her list.”
Number one we know to be true; that means either two or three is true. It’s almost impossible for the last to be true, since she’d have to kill three people in the space of one episode. Walder Frey is in the Riverlands; Melisandre is with Jon Snow; and Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr are doing a terrible job of maintaining discipline within the Brotherhood Without Banners — they’re too spread out for Arya to reach. That means she would have to kill Cersei, Ilyn Payne, and The Mountain, which is very unlikely, though it would explain Tyrion’s recent mention of the Mad King’s plan to level King’s Landing with wildfire. Presumably, Tyrion used all the wildfire at the Battle of the Blackwater, to say nothing of the fact that destroying an entire city isn’t really in character for Arya.
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Which means we may finally see what fans of the books have been clamoring for all these years: the return of Catelyn Stark. In the books, Catelyn’s mangled body is dredged from the river by Nymeria — Arya’s lost direwolf — and is resurrected by Beric, who gives up the last of his life for hers. She takes command of the Brotherhood and begins to wreak bloody vengeance on every Frey, Bolton, and Lannister she finds. She’s a gruesome figure: The magic that repeatedly brought Beric back from the dead isn’t as strong in her; her skin is still gray from days in the river and she has to cover her unhealed, slit throat to talk.
Of all of the ways in which the show has departed from the books, Lady Stoneheart is the one fans have missed the most. Even if she doesn’t show, though, that means that Arya will be murdering Lannisters as if they were Starks at the Red Wedding. Either way — assuming both Turner and Williams played the game correctly — we’re in for a hell of a season finale.
The Season 6 finale of Game of Thrones airs Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
