In the books, Caetlyn Stark was resurrected after the Red Wedding (by the BWB’s Red Priest, whatshisname). Zombie Caetlyn, known as “Lady Stoneheart,” hooked up with the BWB and went on a revenge mission.
Book readers have been waiting for LS to show up for a loooong time. http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Catelyn_Stark
Too late to edit: the scene linked has a figure (female?) in black passing through the background. Theoretically, that might be Mrs. Stark.
PS: sorry I misspelled her name twice in a three-sentence post. 
Aw, we don’t worry too much about the spelling of the character names here.
She appears twice. Here to the left immediately when the camera angle changes (link to a few seconds before, but it’s about 2 minutes in)
Doesn’t appear to be Cat and unlikely to be plot related, but whether it’s a easter egg or just a random extra depends.
I think I mentioned earlier in this thread (or maybe last season’s spoiler thread) that Arya is taking Lady Stoneheart’s place. She wreaks blind revenge but in a much cuter package. That’s why the non spoiled people keep wondering if Arya is tipping toward the dark side. It’s because she’s LS, who is quite insane in the books.
Can’t see Lady Stoneheart appearing now, at least not in the same manner as the books. She was pulled out of the river a few days (weeks?) after the Red wedding by Nymeria, and then resurrected by Beric breathing the last of his Red God life into her. Her body at that time was already decaying giving her the zombie appearance; but in the show, we’ve seen Beric alive and (relatively) well already this season. Cat’s body by now is in a significant stage of decomposition if not already completely consumed by bottom feeder fish. Totally agree that LS is out of the show and that plot line given over to Arya, i mean, no one.
Interesting that the figure also appears in kind of a the same position earlier in the fight.
To me, it’s one of the big twists of the books, and they’ve not got a whole lot of them left. Hodor was the last one (while not written yet, will be a twist). So they didn’t have a role like in the books, the Riverlands and small scale Freys revenge is just too much time (got to fit in the shit/food sequences because they are so “hilarious” or eunoch sex) but she might have another role.
I think that role is killing Littlefinger. Only Tyrion knows about the dagger betrayal. and there will be an irony of LF being killed by a chaos that even he can’t forsee. The dagger might serve as a reminder of the problem, and a device for killing her (perhaps by Arya before she recognises her).
Beric does not have to be the one who resurrects her. She doesn’t have to have been dead two years when that’s done.
However, all in all, I think it’s a troll by the producers. The little way she even stoops in the middle almost flinching on the word “Mother” when spoken.
There’s also the ghost of Winterfell as a thing too. Could be something like that.
Ah! I have seen references to this but didn’t know the details and didn’t make the connection. Boy, that would be a hell of a late season twist. Thanks for filling me in!
It’s been a while since they’ve had a real WTF upended everything sort of twist. The Hodor thing was shocking but it didn’t particularly change the calculus. The Cersei blowing up the Great Sept with wildfire was badass, but it didn’t completely change the game (I mean it substantially did, but it’s not close to the Red Wedding or the Purple Wedding). They seem to be due for one, no?
I think…no. Too close to the end. They’d never have a chance to wrap up the twist before the show was over. Hell, they’re going to have to move like crazy just to handle what is already out there.
But that’s the thing, the twist would tie into the show’s end. Completely upend everyone’s idea of what the end game is - whether it’s something that makes Dany into a villain or a favorite gets killed well before the big Northern battle at the end… as of now the pathway to the end seems incredibly predictable… that doesn’t seem very GRRM. And if that’s how GRRM is thinking of ending his epic, then I’d be very disappointed with all that talk of upending fantasy cliches.
Cersei’s blowing up the sept was a huge twist, IMO. Consider all the plots that came to a sudden unexpected end: the Cersei/Margaery rivalry; the rise and power of the Sparrows and the barefoot Septon; Cersei’s religious trial and humiliation; King Tommen’s uncertain rule. Cersei’s power went from tenuous to absolute in an instant. It was basically King’s Landing’s own Red Wedding.
I don’t particularly see it as a massive twist as much of a Holy Shit moment - similar to the Targaryen-Lannister battle at the end of last episode. If it turns out Jamie and Bronn died (though it won’t likely happen) would people really consider that a big twist? Or when Euron surprised the Sand Snakes and Yara… a surprise, but not really that major of a twist. No where near the reactions of the “Weddings” or Ned’s death.
It was more clearing of the decks rather than a twist, IMO.
(to expand… if it was reversed and Cersei was killed, it’d be a shocking twist because the big twists usually result in a ‘main character’ getting axed. The folks in the Great Sept were really secondary characters, albeit, Jamie is also a main character)
Margaery was definitely a main character by that point. The sept was at least as big as Joffrey getting killed. And changed the situation way more - killed off significant players, changed the faction in power (from Kevan/Tyrells to Cersei who was almost powerless at that point), started a rebellion (Tyrells), and cemented a big turn for some major players. It was one of the biggest game changers in the series.
Not to me. Seemed absolutely predictable. Possibly the only way out for her. Only twist we got there is we didn’t get a trial by combat with the Mountain like expected.
I think you are thinking of a twist as something different to what I think. It’s a surprise to me, I didn’t see it coming.
I saw that coming a mile away. Or something similar. Even Cersei getting executed there wouldn’t be a twist, just a different plot progression.
It doesn’t mean a big event, which is what the Sept was. It cleared out a bunch of deadends and sped up the plotline. But Cersei had been trying to kill most of the contents of the Sept for about two seasons.
Two big twists (some base theories for one of these) which could come to the books are:
Mance is Rhaegar. I’ll skip the most of the justification (a bard, wants to save the world), but the mechanism of the books in which The Wall is ultimately an alternative to death/execution and in effect so isolated that you could disappear, is a wonderful tool at GRRM’s disposal. Clearly out in the series, Mance being dead and all…
Littlefinger is one of the remaining Raynes (of Castemere), bent on revenge
GRRM’s trick is to leave you clues floating straight in front of your face…
I agree with Smid, it was basically telegraphed. However, what I was thinking of involves more of a book perspective, is that the major twists in the series happen directly to POV characters and we see it with their eyes in their horror. So Ned’s death happened to a POV character (Ned) and we saw it (somewhat) through another POV character (Arya). The Red Wedding happened to a POV character (Catelyn). The Purple Wedding happened directly in front of a POV character (Tyrion).
Margaery has never been a POV character in the series (granted it could happen in Winds of Winter, but I doubt it), neither has anyone else in the sept. The closest POV character to it would be the one who started the whole thing - Cersei.
Basically - even though this is a book / show thread, I think we completely forget the book equation into this calculus too often.
Almost forgot, we saw Jon Snow getting stabbed through his POV eyes as well.
Biggest speculative twist i have (that isn’t well covered speculation) is that Arya will kill LF and use Ned’s face as one of the faces while she does it. Spurring a Sean Bean cameo of course.
Nothing else i have rolling around in my head is anything that everyone else hasn’t covered or isn’t a logical extrapolation of what we know is coming via previews.