If you watched the Game of Thrones season 8 trailer a few hundred times already, you're probably wondering why so much of it takes place in the Winterfell crypts. Most notably, the trailer opens with Arya running in terror from something in the depths of her home castle. Fans on Reddit have spent the last 24 hours debating what she's running from. At this point, it would take a lot for Arya, a trained assassin, to sprint away from something in fear like that. Is it the Wights? Is it a White Walker? Is it The Waif again?
It might actually be something much more horrifying.
What if the White Walkers somehow found a way to reanimate the dead Starks buried in the Winterfell crypts? Before you say that's too fucked up—even for Game of Thrones, consider the symbolism we've seen in the promotional material for this season so far. There was that teaser of Jon, Arya, and Sansa walking through the Winterfell crypts looking at all the faces of the dead buried there.
Nothing would freak Arya out more than seeing the reanimated corpses of her family who have died in this war. Old Nan, Maester Luwin, and—if their bodies were brought back to Winterfell after their deaths—Robb, Ned, Catelyn, and Rickon could be exactly what's frightening her.
More specifically, Catelyn returning as a wight would be some good fan service for another reason: It would be a nod to the books' Lady Stoneheart (an undead version of Catelyn who has not yet appeared in the show).
Consider this also from a strategic point of view for the Night King. He's laying siege to Winterfell, and what better way to attack from within the gates than creating a bunch of soldiers to take the living by surprise? That, some have speculated, is why we see Arya running like this—up from the crypts to warn everyone else.
In an extremely messed up way, this scenario would bring this series full circle. Death has defined Game of Thrones. The show is known for its killing of your heroes. From the moment Joffrey had Ned beheaded, anyone was expendable. Tragedy and death has followed the Starks from the very beginning. And being hunted by death from beyond the wall, it's only fitting that death would come back to haunt them again—this time in the literal forms of their dead loved ones.
Oh man, it's dark, but that's exactly what we have come to expect from this show. On the bright side, at least Jon is definitely going to ride a dragon.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
