Where to start with this episode. My wife said “Westeros is purgatory in a logging town”, a reference to the final episodes of both Lost and Dexter. I can’t say I disagree with her. I have said many times that I think people are going to look at this episode the same way they regard the final episode of those shows. So here we go, just going to get right into it and tear the band-aid off.

The first thing I want to say is that right now, at this moment, I don’t even care what happens in the show, and how it ends. For all I care it could end up being Bran’s coma dream and it’s revealed that nothing happened after he was shoved out the window by Jaime Lannister and everything we’ve seen was all just a side effect of the milk of the poppy he’s been given to dull his pain, similar to the “it was all a dream” trope.

Okay. We’re almost done with Game of Thrones, only two episodes left, and to me, it hasn’t lived up to expectations. Maybe it’s because we’ve been so spoiled with the stunning quality of the writing and acting and production and direction that these last two seasons have been rushed to get the story finished. Things that were built up repeatedly over six seasons have been either ignored or forgotten. This includes character motivations, prophecies, battle preparations, and even geography (see King’s Landing). As a result, these prediction articles are getting increasingly difficult to write. So, with that being said, I’m going to try and ignore logic and give you my five predictions for this week’s episode.

Okay, we’re halfway through the final season of this intense, often disturbing but never boring series. Many questions have been answered, but there are a lot that still remain. Most of these won’t be answered until the final episode, if ever. This episode is going to be nearly as long as The Long Night episode we just got, so there will be a lot that gets covered. I will say this and I’m so sure about this that I’m not considering it a prediction but a foregone conclusion – everyone who survived will engage in some post-battle lovin’. They’ll be happy to be alive, turned on, and ready to pair up. That aside, here are a few things that I think we just might learn in the next episode.

Okay, this is it. This big one. The one we’ve concurrently anticipated and dreaded. The dead have arrived at Winterfell. Winter is no longer coming, Winter is here. What will happen? What will we see? Most importantly, who will make it through the battle? Here are my thoughts on these topics and more.