Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: Jaime’s mission “changed again” when he saw Bran

While the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere, “Winterfell,” held plenty of surprises for fans, perhaps no moment was more shocking than the last, when Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) rode into the Stark stronghold only to find Bran Stark, the boy he pushed out a window to cover up his incestuous affair in the series premiere, waiting for him.

Cover blown.

Neither Jaime nor Bran said anything, but their minds were going a mile a minute. Coster-Waldau talked Entertainment Weekly through Jaime’s thoughts in that moment:

"First of all, I don’t think wheelchairs are a normal thing in Westeros. I think it’s like: ‘What the hell?’ and then, ‘Oh my god, that’s the kid.’ I think he knows Bran didn’t die, but he doesn’t expect to meet him."

Bran was widely believed to have been executed by Theon Greyjoy back during season 2, so Jaime’s surprise at his survival makes sense. But does it change anything for Jaime, who finally shed Cersei’s toxic influence at the end of season 7? “His mission changes once again,” Coster-Waldau said. “It goes from: ‘I know my brother Tyrion is there and I’m going to fight the good fight’ to ‘I’m in deep sh– now.’ Because this is the Lord of Winterfell that I tried to kill and I’m sure he wants revenge. That’s what Jaime expects.”

Since Bran has ascended to a higher plane now, it’s entirely possible he’ll shrug off Jaime’s transgressions. If you ask me, it’s everyone else who will be mad if they find out about Jaime tossing Bran from the Broken Tower. Arya would probably push Jaime out the nearest window before he could even react, and that’s just for starters. Jaime did also murder Daenerys’ father, the Mad King Aerys. Talk about riding into the lion’s dragon’s mouth.

Jaime won’t be entirely without friends however, as both his brother Tyrion and the honorable Brienne of Tarth are in Winterfell and can vouch for him. “For Jaime, he would assume she would be there,” Coster-Waldau said. “I don’t think that was the reason he went. They’ve both been very good at compartmentalizing whatever feelings they have for each other.”

As Bran would say, “we don’t have time for this.” Just tell the woman how you feel, Jaime!

Coster-Waldau also gave his thoughts on season 8 in general as the show ruses towards the endgame:

"I don’t think [showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] could have done it any better. It makes sense and there’s a logic to it without it being obvious at all. There are also great moments of surprise."

Hopefully none of those surprises involve Daenerys feeding Jaime to a dragon however. Season 8 continues this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. EST.

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