#GameOfThrones finale prediction: Arya already killed Petyr Baelish

Game of Thrones opened season seven with misdirection. Walder Frey, fresh off being fed his children and killed at the end of season six, stood to welcome “every Frey who means a damn thing” to his second feast of the fortnight. We were confused. Didn’t we just see Arya open his throat?

We did. But this was not Walder Frey. It was no one. It was the lone wolf. It was Arya Stark in Walder Frey’s dead face.

“When they ask you what happened here, tell them the north remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey.”

This show is too good to open a season with that scene and not call back to it. Seasons have their own arc, and I believe the arc of season seven will be Arya Stark revealing herself as the killer of Petyr Baelish.

And I think he’s already dead.

Here’s why:

1.  This budding feud between Sansa and Arya makes no sense. Arya is too smart to fall for Petyr’s crap. Sansa is more than onto his manipulations. It’s wholly unbelievable that they would be so fooled…

…unless he’s not fooling anyone because Arya already slit his throat with the Valryian steel dagger he gave to Bran.

2.  Sansa saw the dagger when she snuck into Arya’s room during “Beyond The Wall.” She then, because she’s such a great snoop, found Arya’s bag of faces under the bed. Arya Stark is not so careless as to leave a valuable weapon and a bag of faces sitting around…

…unless the show needs to lay the groundwork for a big reveal in the season finale.

3.  Arya ends their chilly conversation by putting the dagger in Sansa’s hands, and that’s where I think her intentions are revealed. She’s not trying to frame Sansa for Petyr’s death to get her in trouble; she’s doing it to bolster her position with the lords of the north.

4.  When Petyr arranged for Arya to find Sansa’s note from King’s Landing he meant for it to drive a wedge between the two sisters, and that’s exactly what the show is making Arya pretend it did. My prediction is she saw through it immediately, recognized the way it could damage Sansa and determined then that the only way out was to take his life now and set up Sansa as the one who saved the north from his treachery.

The biggest missing piece here is for the show to create a reason why the lords of the north would hate Petyr. I’m sure they don’t like him, but I’m also not sure they want him dead. I think Game of Thrones will use the 79-minute season seven finale titled “The Dragon and the Wolf” to reveal Petyr as the man behind the attempt on Bran’s life, who turned on Ned Stark an murdered Lysa Tully.

What better way to reinforce Sansa’s position than to frame her as the hero who killed the traitorous Littlefinger?

They wouldn’t show us the scene with Arya as Walder at the beginning of the season and then forget the entire thing. They wouldn’t reveal Arya’s secret to Sansa in the penultimate episode if they didn’t intend it to be a BIG part of the finale. They wouldn’t include Petyr’s dagger in the scene without reason.

I think it will be the bookend to Arya’s story in season seven. It starts with pretending to be Walder Frey to avenge her mother and brother, it ends with pretending to be Petyr Baelish after she brings him winter.

[UPDATE] I had another thought here: What if Arya really is mad at her sister and will use Petyr’s face to humiliate Sansa and gain dominance in their relationship? If the jealousy and anger Arya has shown toward Sansa is real, what better way to turn it against her than use Littlefinger’s mask to convince Sansa to act against her then reveal her own face?

A ridiculous Arya-Sansa theory
This one is stupid, but I’m compelled to reveal it just in case. Arya has shown unusual envy toward Sansa since they reunited. “Your pretty handwriting.” “I remember the pretty dress you were wearing. I remember the fancy way you did your hair.” “You wanted to be a queen, to sit next to a handsome young king on the iron throne.” “I wonder what it would feel like to wear those pretty dresses. To be the Lady of Winterfell.”

My ridiculous Arya-Sansa theory is that Arya will become so consumed with jealousy and rage toward her sister that she kills the Lady of Winterfell and takes her face. It would be a fitting tragedy for the only family on the show that shows true familial love.

You’re on thin ice
Why is there thin ice north of the wall? If the land is so cold its inhabitants have to keep moving and having sex to stay warm then the ice should be thick enough to walk on.

How am I supposed to be afraid of winter if it’s not even going to get cold enough to freeze a lake?

WTF, Hound?
What’s wrong with The Hound? He appeared to be shellshocked during the fight with the zombie polar bear and then inexplicably goaded the dead army into attacking Jon’s team on their little rock. What’s his deal?

This is how you do it
Last week I ranted about the pace of season seven and this week’s director of “Beyond The Wall” admitted they threw the whole notion of geography out the window. But a line from Sansa to Petyr (or Arya if you believe my theory above) shows how simple it is to mark time in a story.

She told Petyr, simply, “I haven’t heard from Jon in weeks.” That’s all it takes. In fact that whole interview really makes me angry and pushes me more toward the thinking in this Screenrant column about how this season has gone off the rails.

And I wholeheartedly agree with the assertion in this piece from Esquire: “While things began to crack last season—its first without the guiding light of George R.R. Martin’s books—it has become clear that the writers don’t know how to complete the author’s vision.”

But all will be forgotten if the season finale delivers.