The preview pics for last week’s episode of Game Of Thrones didn’t give us any hints that Jon Snow would be putting together a Suicide Squad to go beyond The Wall or that Gendry would (finally) be popping up as a hammer-swinging badass, but our predictions beyond that—everybody being gloomy and Jon Snow being angry/confused—were right on the money. The preview pics for the next episode are similarly gloomy, but they’re also significantly more action-oriented, thanks to a particular focus on the aforementioned Suicide Squad. In the spirit of the last few seasons of Game Of Thrones, though, let’s stop talking about going somewhere and just jump right to it.
Here’s the whole team, with Jon Snow leading Tormund, Jorah, Gendry, and the Brotherhood (none of whom are formally credited in HBO’s press release). Their place in the background suggests that they might be the Game Of Thrones equivalent of that guy who died almost immediately in the Suicide Squad movie, but hopefully a few them will make it out of this thing. (After all, the Hound needs to fight his brother at some point.)
Here’s Jorah, with the wind doing a weird thing to his hair. After his gradual brush with death over the last few seasons, he’s probably just happy to be doing something that doesn’t involve pining over his queen and waiting to die. Who knows, maybe she’ll love him if he makes it back alive.
Tormund, showing these southerners how a real northern man poses past the wall. Look at that proud, icy beard. Look at the way he puffs his chest out. How can you not like this man, Brienne?
Once again, Jon Snow has two faces: angry/confused and worried/confused. This is the latter, which probably doesn’t bode well for the Suicide Squad, but it could also mean nothing.
This is sort of a neutral Jon Snow, with his face still leaning closer toward worried/confused, having a word with Beric Dondarrion. Perhaps their bonding over the fact that they’ve both been resurrected by the Lord Of Light. That’s probably a fun and fairly exclusive club to be a part of.
Let’s warm up a bit by ominously reading some kind of letter with Sansa. Brienne is in the background, and she probably hasn’t spared Tormund a single thought since he left. Oh well.
Last week set the stage for some more conflict between Sansa and Arya, with the two of them possibly having another tense chat here. Maybe Sansa is asking her sister about her weird cape thing, which can’t possibly be as warm as a traditional fur-lined Stark coat.
Here’s Daenerys and Tyrion, chilling out and having some wine. Given the rest of Dany’s scenes this season, they’re probably once again talking about whether or not it’s a good idea to use dragons to burn people to death.
The Suicide Squad in another action pose. Picture this with a Queen song paying in the background.
It’s very rude to question how a mother handles her kids, but it really seems like Daenerys doesn’t spend a whole lot of time with her other two dragons. Maybe in this scene she’s preparing to take them to get ice cream while their brother is at soccer practice/eating Lannisters.
Tormund may have had a better pose, but Beric has the better accessories here. An eyepatch and a flaming sword? Pretty sick.
And we all know what’s happening here: Jon Snow is angry/confused. He’s looking down at something, so if we had to guess, we’d say he’s preparing to kill a White Walker, or a member of his team became a snow zombie and he’s mad about having to fight them. Either way, the episode already leaked so some people out there already know the answer.