Everything You Need to Remember About the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 Finale

Cannot-Tell-A-Lie Aegon Targaryen (aka Jon Snow) screws up everything because he’s too honest.

Just when you think Jon Snow has made the dumbest decision he’s going to make all season with a dozen-person wight-hunting expedition that results in a dragon casualty, he suddenly decides that he can’t tell a lie. So he absolutely must tell Cersei — who will eventually lie to his face — that he’s bent the knee to Daenerys, whom he makes loving googly eyes at, therefore he can’t guarantee Cersei will remain on the throne when all is said and done. It is a really hard morality line to take for a guy who met his last love while pretending to join her migrant uprising north of The Wall, then got her killed while fighting against those forces in Castle Black. Maybe the whole idea of truth-telling is only appealing to resurrected Jon Snow. Maybe Cersei would’ve abandoned them anyway, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt to promise that she’d stay queen after the White Walkers were defeated.

Jon looks uncomfortable in the sunlight. Maybe because he’s chosen regal Northern wardrobe for the sweltering Southern weather. Maybe because he’s once again in a leadership position, thanks to being Ned Stark’s “son” when nobody gave him the benefit of being anything but Ned Stark’s bastard. Jon brings this up during his conversation with Theon as a double-meaning read so we’ll know that Jon Snow is Ned Stark’s son in spirit even when he eventually learns of his true parentage.

“The Dragon and the Wolf” makes it clear that Jon Snow is the hero of this narrative, in case that wasn’t already clear throughout the preceding six seasons. That doesn’t mean he’s going to live up to the title in an instant, but the show reminds viewers that Jon comes from a line of deceased Game of Thrones heroes. Not only has he returned from the dead, but he’s survived two gigantic conflicts since then, pretty remarkable considering one of his favorite battle tactics is charging headlong into an army by himself. It’s called “plot armor,” and Jon wears it. While it only keeps him safe into Season 8 — I still believe anyone can die in the end — everything that has happened to Jon so far suggests he’ll at least be alive until the final showdown with the Night King.