Warning! SPOILERS ahead for Game of Thrones season 8, episode 1.
Game of Thrones season 8 is here, premiering with an episode that makes several references to the season 1 premiere of Game of Thrones. Season 8 will in total only have six episodes, which isn’t a lot of time for how much story is in need of resolving before the finale. Still, it’s hard to knock the series too hard for taking a little time to reflect on what came before.
Of course, making callbacks to the season 1 premiere isn’t all that happens in Game of Thrones season 8’s premiere, “Winterfell”. The episode is primarily tasked with bringing much of the series’ enormous cast to one location, and in the process reuniting characters who haven’t seen each other for years. There’s also some setup for the coming battle with the Night King and his army of the dead, as well as Jon discovering what it’s like on the back of dragon in a greatly anticipated scene.
The moments in the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere that do make reference to season 1’s premiere, however, aren’t there simply to stoke fan’s nostalgia, but to highlight just how far the series and its character have come. Here’s every season 1 premiere callback we found in the season 8 premiere of Game of Thrones.
- This Page: The Queen’s Arrival & The Godswood Page 2: Lovers, Brothels, & White Walkers Page 3: The Winterfell Crypts & Old Friends
The Queen’s Arrival
The Game of Thrones season 8 premiere begins with some very strong ties to the season 1 premiere, “Winter is Coming”, heavily referencing King Robert’s arrival at Winterfell with that of Daenerys’. Even the music accompanying the scene - the season 1 track “The King’s Arrival”, which later becomes the musical theme for House Baratheon - is the very same. Both monarchs are coming with a large retinue, and in both episodes, a young boy is shown watching the massive column of people make their way to the castle. In season 1 it’s Bran, running along the parapets of Winterfell to get a better view; in season 8, it’s a young boy from the winter town.
Daenerys’ arrival also includes Arya watching the procession, which is something she did as a child when Robert came to Winterfell. In the season 1 premiere, Arya takes special note of The Hound, marveling at his fearsome dog head helm. In the season 8 premiere, Arya takes note of more people than just The Hound, but she does certainly notice that Sandor Clegane is alive and among the procession. Finally, once Daenerys makes her way within the castle and dismounts, she’s greeted by the assembled Starks in much the same manner as Robert was in season 1. Sansa even says to her, “Winterfell is yours, your grace,” just as her father did to Robert all those years ago.
The Godswood
Later on in “Winterfell”, there’s a scene set in the godswood (a wooded area found within the castle walls that’s home to a weirwood tree) that occurs at almost exactly the same moment in the episode’s runtime as the godswood scene from the season 1 premiere. That in itself is an uncanny similarity between the plot structure of the two premieres (and it’s not the only one), but the substance of the scenes are somewhat similar, too.
In the season 1 premiere, Catelyn comes to Ned in the godswood to inform him that his mentor and Hand of the King, Jon Arryn has died, and now the King is on his way to Winterfell to ask Ned to become his new Hand. The godswood scene in the season 8 premiere is that of the reunion between Jon and Arya, but it also has them discussing their latest monarch and what it is she might want. Just as Catelyn counseled Ned by telling him he could refuse the King’s request, Arya similarly reminds Jon that he can, if necessary, still choose his family over his queen.
Page 2 of 3: Lovers, Brothels, & White Walkers
Family & Lovers
Speaking of Jon’s family and his new queen, in the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere, he finally learns that they are one in the same. That reveal doesn’t come until late in the episode, leaving Jon and Daenerys to continue their courtship through much of “Winterfell” without knowing they are really nephew and aunt. In the season 8 premiere, Jon and Daenerys aren’t yet aware of the incestuousness nature of their relationship, but in the season 1 premiere, another incestual couple arriving at Winterfell absolutely are - Jaime and Cersei.
This isn’t the only parallel Jon and Daenerys’ relationship shares, either, because when they take their dragon ride, it somewhat mirrors the horseback ride Daenerys first took with her husband, Khal Drogo in the season 1 premiere. Thankfully, this magical dragon ride ends with only some PG-rated kissing and not implied rape. However, Jon and Daenerys do find themselves being watched during their tryst just as Jaime and Cersei were being watched by Bran, but hopefully, Jon doesn’t have any plans of pushing Drogon out a window.
Brothel Scene Interruptus
At another point during the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere, the action moves away from Winterfell to a brothel in King’s Landing. There, the sellsword Bronn is hoping to enjoy some of the establishment’s finest women when Qyburn, disgraced maester and Hand of the Queen, interrupts the proceedings with a request from Cersei. In the season 1 premiere, Tyrion finds himself similarly interrupted while enjoying the company of a Ros at brothel in the winter town when Jaime comes to hurry his brother along and get him to Winterfell - again at Cersei’s request.
The request Cersei has in the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere does also involve her two brothers. But rather than sending Bronn to merely fetch them, Cersei has asked Bronn to kill both Jaime and Tyrion - and with the crossbow Tyrion used to kill their father no less. Only the remainder of season 8 will reveal what Bronn chooses to do, but the different tones and potential outcomes of these scenes are telling of just how broken the Lannister family has become in seven seasons.
White Walker Spirals
Interestingly, the final season premiere of Game of Thrones does not have a cold open as every season (with the exception of season 2) has done before. And yet, the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere does still reference the cold open from season 1, drawing a direct connection between the first appearance of the White Walkers and the Night King’s march south.
In that first episode, “Winter is Coming”, it begins with a scene of three Night’s Watch men going north of The Wall where they discover a spiral arrangement of dead and mutilated bodies. Another of the dead bodies, a young girl, is nailed to a nearby tree. It’s an ominous and disturbing scene which, along with the White Walker attack that follows soon after, sets up the White Walkers as the menacing evil they’ve been throughout all of Game of Thrones. Now that menace is on the march, and when Tormund, Beric Dondarrian, and Eddison Tollet come upon Last Hearth after the Night King’s army attacked, they too find the mangled dead bodies of House Umber displayed in a strange spiral. There’s even again a young child nailed up - this time the young lord, Ned Umber - who then awakens and further terrifies those present.
Page 3 of 3: The Winterfell Crypts & Old Friends
The Winterfell Crypts
No visit to Winterfell is really complete without a trip to the crypts below, where (almost) every Stark, from the old Kings in the North to the recently deceased, are entombed. In the season 1 premiere, King Robert makes visiting the crypts his first stop after arriving in Winterfell, wanting to visit the grave of his former love, Lyanna Stark. Ned joins him and the scene becomes one of old memories and grief but also duty as Robert uses the moment to ask Ned to become his new Hand.
In the season 8 premiere, aptly named “Winterfell”, the scene in the crypts arises from different though not entirely unrelated reasons. In this episode, Jon is visiting Ned’s tomb, the man he believes is his father, only for Sam to enter moments later and explain that Ned isn’t his father but actually his uncle. Jon’s mother is Lyanna and his father Rhaegar Targaryen, a lineage which makes him the true heir to the Iron Throne. This bombshell hearkens right back to that season 1 scene not only in its direct connection to Robert’s mourning of the women he loved and lost, Jon’s mother, but in the conflicting emotions it brings out in Jon. Not to mention, the revelatory moment takes place directly in front of Lyanna’s statue.
Old Friends
The ending to the Game of Thrones season 1 premiere, “Winter is Coming”, is without a doubt one of the most iconic moments in the entire series. Jaime pushing Bran out of the broken tower’s window after he’s caught the Lannister twins in a rather amorous embrace is just as much of a starting point for the series as the death of Jon Arryn. Not only does it ramp up the tensions already brewing between Starks and Lannisters, paving the way for the War of the Five Kings, but it puts Bran on the path towards becoming the Three-Eyed Raven.
The final season of Game of Thrones may not have the available screen time to address every lingering plot point or thread from the last seven seasons, but addressing that scene between Jaime and Bran is an absolute must. No one understands this better than Bran, who now, as the eerie and omniscient Three-Eyed Raven, makes sure he’s there when Jaime finally arrives at Winterfell. (In fact, Jaime’s arrival itself cleverly references the season 1 premiere where Jaime removed his helmet upon arriving at Winterfell and shook out his golden locks. Only now, he simply pulls back his hood and reveals an older, more weary looking Jaime.)
As the final scene of the episode, Jaime locking eyes with Three-Eyed Bran across the courtyard recalls that season 1 premiere cliffhanger perfectly, bringing to surface all that these two characters have gone through since they were last together. It’s an encapsulation of the entire Game of Thrones season 8 premiere, reminding its characters (and therefor the audience) of where this series has been and where it still has to go.
Next: 14 Unanswered Questions After The Game of Thrones Season 8 Premiere
Game of Thrones season 8 continues Sunday, April 21 at 9:00pm on HBO.
