Before modification by DomA at 10/06/2014 11:10:27 PM
The other thing they may do, though, is the opposite: not return to CB this year at all, keep all this for Jon's reintroduction in s5, in which case ep. 10 will end with him agreeing to let the Wildlings come south, and Stannis offering to Jon to legitimize him and give him the North, which would also make a good cliffhanger. When Jon re enters CB in s5x01 he gets accused of treason by Janos, who fears the influence Jon gained from his role in the battle and what will happen to him if Sam talks. As for Thorne.. we'll see where he stands.
I think even that's a lot, considering all the fan service they might feel the need to do for the finale. I can't imagine next week NOT showing Tyrion's escape and murder of Tywin (and Shae, oh, please, Shae too! ), and they might need to include Arya, and at least some sort of nod to Bran's arc.
You're right about those, in fact the preview for next week confirm all of it: there's a Bran segment, it appears to be a vision by Jojen, then there's an Arya segment in the mountains where they face someone and take battle stances, then there is a Dany segment and it seems to be the dead kid and chaining of the dragons stuff (it's probably the gist of the Dany segment).
I think there needs be quite a bit of KL stuff. I think they need among other things at least a bit of Ellaria, and something of the Tyrells. The preview shows a Tywin/Cirsei scene, and apparently another Jaime/Cirsei sex scene (could be their last...). As for Tyrion, the shot of Varys as "Rugen" says all there needs to be said to book readers. Of course Tyrion will kill Tywin and Shae in that episode.
I'm starting to wonder what they really intend to do about unCat. There's no sign of a Brienne scene as such, but whether it's in or not is one of the things they can manage to surprise the readers with, so of course they wouldn't show anything in advance. I still believe they will introduce LS this season, though I'm less sure now that it will be revealed by the capture of Brienne, since it would require a Brienne set up scene, the capture scene and finally the LS scene - and also there's been a distinct lack of set up for LS's action, with not a single clue of someone taking revenge on Freys.
I'm wondering if they don't plan instead to reveal that the BWB is exacting revenge on Freys for "Lady Stoneheart" but without confirming her identity. The non readers would most likely figure it out, and get even more convinced as reports of her actions are given again in s5, but that way they could keep the full reveal/confirmation for Brienne's capture in s5. With Jaime still in KL and likely to stay there for a few more episodes, it might be a bit early for Brienne's capture. OTOH, the Hot Pie/BWB link pretty much set up the BWB going after Brienne this season, and we still haven't seen the scene the actress talked about, in which she bites someone's ear off. So we'll see.
From the preview it appears we'll actually get the routing of the Wildlings witnessed by Jon while in Mance's camp (shots of cavalry slaughtering Wildlings in the woods are shown), and there seems to be a few scenes with Mance (one with Jon - from the voice over from the preview, but one that could be him outside his tent giving orders as Stannis's forces attack him. So I guess the Jon-Stannis meeting is in as well, unless they stop all this with something like Jon's and Mance's capture by Stannis forces or the like. We'll need some Jon set up/arrival, his conversation with Mance which we probably take the longest time of all, then a few minutes (2-3) for the attack and routing, and maybe another 2-3 minutes of aftermath. That's already a good 7-8 minutes out of 66, so I don't think they'll have time to go any further than that, or show anything from CB this season. They'll keep the surprise of Jon being arrested the min. he sets foot back to CB for his reintroduction next season.
I think probably not much at all, though they'll probably need her to be listening to be doing something when she'll learn of the killing of a child by her dragon, so I guess some bad reports about the other cities (Daario's return?) or hints of opposition in Meereen itself might be in. We might see her future fiancé again instead (reporting opposition in the city or some such?), there wasn't much point to casting him this season for the single scene he got, which casual viewers will completely have forgotten about by s5.
I guess that could work.
My guess is that they will end it with Arya bringing out her coin and saying "valar morghulis" (the season's title/promotional line) as she leaves the dying (or dead) Hound. I don't think they will reveal in full her intent this season, as I think they'll try to fool the non readers into believing that Ramsay's bride could be the real Arya first (season 5 opener for the reveal that Roose intends to marry off Ramsay?).
I'm curious to see who Arya and the Hound will "meet", though. It's someone wearing armor. I just hope they won't push the "missed reunion" to a new level by having it be Brienne and Pod. I wouldn't put it past them to do that... At this point, Arya wouldn't trust Brienne's story one bit, and the Hound knows too well that Pod is Tyrion's squire. Such an encounter would rapidly turn into a fight. Could Brienne bite a dog's ear? We'll see.
From the setting of the Arya scene, it's also not impossible that Arya and the Hound actually get attacked by Eyrie guards not long after leaving the Gate, which could well mean LF gave the order to kill the Hound and seize Arya, I guess. In any case, I guess this could mean they'll simply leave Arya stranded in the Vale and on her own this season. We might see her with her coin, but she might to be shown taking a ship before next season.
Too many possibilities...