While the sacrifice of Stannis Baratheon’s daughter in episode nine set the internet ablaze, that will be nothing compared to the outcry the final scenes of episode ten are sure to inspire. While this season’s finale provided plenty of death and mayhem, along with an excruciating walk of shame for Lena Headley’s Cersei Lannister, the assassination of Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) by mutinous members of the Night’s Watch left the audience stunned; Or, at least shocked those who haven’t been reading George R. R. Martin’s series.
Although Harrington and series producers Dan Weiss and David Benioff have emphatically stated Jon Snow is dead, viewers should be reassured that surely won’t be the case. This is where readers of Martin’s novels have a real leg up on those who only watch the show. While readers have known about Jon Snow’s death for years (following the publication of the fourth book of the series, A Dance with Dragons) they’ve also had an opportunity to delve deeply into the mythology dealt with in the books. Understandably, HBO only has ten hours each season to bring hundreds of pages to the screen so much of the overall backstory can be lost or glossed over.
Rather than go into the minutia revolving around many of the hints to Snow’s eventual return to the tale Martin has foreshadowed in the novels, it’s important to keep in mind the series is called A Song of Ice and Fire. It goes without saying most of us believe the fire is represented by Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons. The ice, on the other hand, is most likely one of Ned Stark’s children with the odds on favorite Jon Snow. In A Dance with Dragons, Snow’s final utterance is “Ghost.” We’ve been lead to believe all the Stark children have the ability to “skin change” and send their consciousness into the bodies of animals or, in Bran’s case, another human being. It’s more than likely Jon Snow possessed his direwolf Ghost at the moment of his death.
We already know that in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire dead doesn’t necessarily mean dead and, even though Martin has shown he has no issues with killing off major characters throughout the series, it’s highly unlikely the author would dispose of such a central figure. Martin even told Entertainment Weekly, “Oh, you think he’s dead, do you? My readers should know better than to take anything as gospel,” in a 2011 interview. A few months back Martin said, “If there’s one thing we know in A Song of Ice and Fire is that death is not necessarily permanent.”
There are plenty of theories about how the Snow character could return but I’m guessing we’ll see Melisandre (Carice van Houten) resurrect Jon Snow. We’ve already seen this sort of thing takes place in Game of Thrones with the introduction of the Red Priest Thoros of Myr who’s resurrected his friend Beric Dondarrion several times. Plus it’s mighty convenient Melisandre returns to the Wall just in time to be present when Snow is assassinated.
Sorry to say we might not see Harrington next season. It’s possible the character won’t even be in the next installment of the series. Hell, the sixth book – The Winds of Winter- hasn’t been published yet so the show will be entering into unexplored territory when season six filming begins in July; Martin will release a preview of the book this August so it’s very likely the book will be in print prior to the show’s return next spring.
Yet have no fear gentle reader. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts we haven’t seen the last of Jon Snow.
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WRT wargs and skin-changing, A Dance with Dragons starts with a prologue detailing someone dying and then almost automatically warging into his favourite wolf. The very first chapter afterwards features Jon Snow ‘dreaming’ about being Ghost. I think it’s pretty well foreshadowed that Snow will Warg into Ghost upon his death.