We’re nearing the end of 2018, and when the sun rises on the new year, we’ll have just three months and change to wait for the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones! As is our custom here at WiCnet (since season 5, anyway) we like to try and predict the title of each forthcoming episode in the forthcoming season. We got a few right for season 5, one in season 6, and we completely struck out for season 7. But that was then. This year: 100% accuracy. There are only six episodes of Game of Thrones left, and there are only so many Westerosi placenames and catch phrases they haven’t used.
Before we start, I should warn you that I’m basing the titles on speculation, and if the speculation turns out to be true, it could kinda-sorta mean it’s a SPOILER. To be clear, we have no concrete evidence of plot points, characters who live or die, or who will sit the Iron Throne in the end…assuming it’s still there. Still, better safe than sorry, so consider this your POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING!
Still here? Great. Let’s do this.
Episode 801, “Winterfell”
Season 7 opened with Arya Stark murdering most of the members of House Frey at the Twins. “When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers,” Arya said to Walder Frey’s widow. “Tell them winter came for House Frey.” This episode could easily have been titled “Winter” or something, but showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss chose “Dragonstone,” naming it after the ancient Targaryen stronghold where Daenerys and her party arrived at the end of the episode.
I think the first episode of season 8 will strike a similar tone, with the Mother of Dragons arriving at a different famous castle: Winterfell. It’s already been revealed that the season 8 premiere will harken back to the series premiere, “Winter Is Coming,” with Daenerys and her retinue taking the place of Robert Baratheon and his court, who arrived at Winterfell years ago. Given the show’s recent fondness for naming episodes after castles — in addition to “Dragonstone,” we also got “Eastwatch” in season 7 — and with so many characters meeting for the first time at the Stark home base, I can think of no more appropriate title.
Episode 802, “We Do Not Sow”
For Theon Greyjoy, season 7 ended on what in his life passes for a high note, as he proved to the few Ironborn soldiers still with him that he had what it took to lead them in an attempt to rescue his sister Yara — their rightful ruler — from the clutches of their evil uncle
white trash Jack Sparrow
Euron.
The words of House Greyjoy are, “We Do Not Sow.” Instead of working the land for food, the Ironborn have always taken what they need from the mainland. It’s time Theon and company teach Euron the meaning of those words and take back rulership of the Iron Islands. I don’t know quite how they’re going to do it, but I think it’ll happen early in the season, while the pieces for a climactic battle at Winterfell are still being moved into place.
I think this is the episode where we’ll see Euron arrive back in King’s Landing from across the Narrow Sea with the Golden Company in tow, in accordance with the deal he cut with Cersei in season 7. I thought about naming this episode after the Golden Company — “Beneath the Gold, the Bitter Steel,” perhaps — but that would distract from the Greyjoy family drama, which we’ve been following a lot longer.
This wouldn’t be the first time the show has used House words for an episode title; other examples include “Winter Is Coming,” “Fire and Blood,” and “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.” The Greyjoys have earned one more spotlight before the lights go out for good.
Episode 803, “Ice and Fire”
We don’t know exactly when or where the Night King and his army of the undead will attack the living, but we know the production worked overtime filming a spectacular battle scene, and given where most of the characters are heading, Winterfell seems like the natural place for it to happen. I believe it will happen in Episode 3.
And what is this a battle between? On the one side, you have the living, beings with warmth in their veins: Fire. On the other, you have dead things that feel only the cold: Ice. The living have a champion in Daenerys Targaryen, who rides a fire-breathing dragon. The dead have the Night King, who rides a dragon that breathes cold death. Even apart from the fact that the show is based on a series of novels called A Song of Ice and Fire, “Ice and Fire” makes a lot of sense for an episode title.
And then there’s Jon Snow. I think that by Episode 803, Bran and Sam will have told Jon who he is: the trueborn son of the families Targaryen, long associated with Fire, and Stark, long associated with Ice. I think this episode is where he’ll accept that mantle and lead his forces into battle.
So we have two sides of a battle who represent a conflict between Ice and Fire, and one character — Jon — who represents their union. It works on so many levels!
Episode 804, “The Long Night”
“The Long Night” is actually the title George R.R. Martin has unofficially bestowed on HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series, which is set during the Age of Heroes, thousands of years before our current conflict. Why has he given it that name in particular? Because the prequel show will deal with the first time the White Walkers came calling, a tragic span known as the Long Night.
I think the White Walkers are going to win the battle in Episode 3. They pretty much have to; we still have three episodes to go. Episode 4 will deal with the aftermath, and with the undead tearing through Westeros as of old, things will be looking pretty bleak for the armies of the living. I don’t know exactly which characters will be dead by this point, but there’s no way the Battle of Ice and Fire passes without a few casualties. Jon and Dany may be safe for the moment, but characters like Tormund, Brienne and Beric Dondarrion — characters sure to be on the front lines of the battle — are skating on thin ice.
For the characters and the audience, Episode 4 will be the darkest part of the path. It’s going to feel like the Long Night all over again, so why not name the episode after it?
Episode 805, “King’s Landing”
At this point in the season, the armies of the living will have almost nowhere to hide from the undead menace…except maybe King’s Landing, where the last armed bastions of humanity, led by the selfish Cersei Lannister, still reside. Because we’re obsessed, we know that HBO built an incredibly detailed King’s Landing set for use in season 8, and that it saw some major action. I think it’s here that humanity will make its last stand.
King’s Landing has been incredibly important to Game of Thrones over the years. From Ned’s execution to the Battle of Blackwater to the destruction of the Sept of Baelor, it’s been ground zero for many of the show’s biggest events, and yet it’s never had an episode named after it. I think this will be the city’s most vital hour. We’ll probably see the final resolution of the long-simmering drama between Jaime and Cersei, in addition to the final battle between the living and the dead, which should be spectacular; no wall is keeping out Zombie Viserion, after all. For all that King’s Landing has meant to the series, and with no more opportunities ahead, the least Benioff and Weiss can do is name an episode after the place.
Episode 806, “A Dream of Spring”
And now we come to the end. I’m getting all misty-eyed just thinking about it, but here we are.
A Song of Ice and Fire fans are still waiting on the sixth book in Martin’s series, The Winds of Winter. Assuming they get it, the seventh and final book is due to be called A Dream of Spring. Benioff and Weiss named the season 6 finale after the unreleased sixth book, and that ended up being one of the best episodes of the show. We think they’ll name the series finale after the seventh.
It’s hard to know what will happen in this episode. Of course, not all of our favorite characters will live to see the final credits, but those that do can help rebuild Westeros after the army of the dead is, hopefully, defeated. We expect a “bittersweet” tone, a word that Martin has often used to describe the ending, with Game of Thrones cast members following suit. “A Dream of Spring” is a title that acknowledges hard times survived but still hopes for better days ahead. It sounds plenty bittersweet to us.
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