Game Of Thrones: The chilling theory about the Winterfell crypts
Warning! This piece contains mild spoilers - and fan theories - for Game Of Thrones season eight, episode two.
Tuesday 23 April 2019 15:11, UK
We're already almost a third of the way through the final season of Game Of Thrones and so far, so alive, despite much hype about the series going straight for the Westeros jugular and killing off fan favourites right from the start.
Which can only mean… well, it's not going to be good, is it? This is the calm before one almighty storm.
We know this is Game Of Thrones. Valar morghulis, and all that.
Death, and plenty of it, is inevitable in the final battle against the Night King and the White Walkers. But of all the gazillion fan theories doing the rounds on social media following the first two episodes of season eight, there is one that is truly chilling.
In the official trailer, we saw Arya Stark running through the crypts of Winterfell, seemingly terrified.
Arya is a trained assassin, lest we forget; a woman with a Kill List, who slit the neck of Walder Frey after serving him his sons baked in a pie, all without breaking sweat. Whatever's down there, you've got to assume it's something truly awful.
In the second episode, which aired on Monday, there was much talk about the crypts of Winterfell.
When battle commences, the crypts will be safe, said Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and pretty much anyone with screen time.
If you can't fight, the crypts will be safe! Children, stay in the crypts! Settle in the crypts, with a nice book, perhaps, and wait for all the bloodshed and gore and death above ground to be over!
Except… except, the Night King is all about resurrecting the dead. It's his forte, his raison d'etre, his thing. Remember, he made quick work of acquiring his zombie ice dragon and putting it to use.
And the crypts, being crypts, are full of the dead. Dead Starks, to be precise.
You can see where this is going.
What Game Of Thrones fan hasn't wanted to see Ned Stark magically brought back to life? (Stranger things have happened - just ask Jon Snow.)
His execution in the first series, as Sansa Stark screamed and little Arya watched on in despair, is up there with the most heartbreaking TV moments ever. Not Sean Bean!, came the world's collective cry as the sword thwacked down.
A zombie Ned Stark? We always knew this was never going to have a happy ending. But seeing Arya, Jon and co forced to fight a headless Ned corpse would be too much to take.
And Jon has only just found out Lyanna Stark was his real mother. Would creators David Benioff and DB Weiss really be cruel enough to have Jon Snow having to plunge his dragon glass into his newly discovered zombie dead mum?
Gah. Of course they would.
:: The final series of Game Of Thrones airs on Sky Atlantic on Mondays at 2am and 9pm.
:: Want to recap on the story so far? All episodes of Game Of Thrones from series 1-7 are now available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.