Everything From 'Game Of Thrones' Season 4 You Need To Remember Before The Final Season

After traveling with the Hound for much of Season 4, Arya Stark is offered the opportunity to be rescued by Brienne of Tarth. Rather than accept the protection of yet another strange adult, Arya finally decides to strike out on her own - a path that takes her across the Narrow Sea to Essos.

At the fourth season’s conclusion, Arya leaves the Hound to perish and cashes in on the mysterious Braavosi coin given to her by Jaqen H’ghar. The token buys Arya passage to Braavos and into the House of Black and White, a temple in which she learns the arts of combat and face-changing.

This training proves vital to the formation of Arya as she exists heading into Season 8 - a shapeshifting cutthroat with a heart of stone and a long list of targets.

The early seasons of GoT feature precious few glimpses of the White Walkers, making the overall looming threat of the series all the more mysterious. Season 4 includes one of the earliest glimpses into White Walker culture, and it’s as intriguing as it is terrifying.

Following the chaos at Craster’s Keep, a White Walker is shown carrying Craster’s infant son into the far north of the continent. After being delivered to the Night King, the baby undergoes a process that seems to transform it into a White Walker - the first direct hint of the Others' supernatural origins.

With Season 8 set to center primarily around the conflict between humanity and the White Walkers, it’s important to keep in mind that the frosty foes all began as humans themselves.

The entirety of Season 4's ninth episode is dedicated to the Night’s Watch and their desperate attempt to protect Castle Black from a Wildling onslaught. Jon Snow and his compatriots are ultimately successful, but at a terrible cost: several brothers are lost to the battle, as is Ygritte, Jon’s love.

The grace shown by Snow to his Wildling opponents in the wake of this fight sets the stage for the betrayal of the Night’s Watch mutineers, which in turn leads to Jon’s demise, resurrection, and exit from the Night’s Watch.

His fair treatment of Tormund Giantsbane and the other surviving Wildlings also lays the groundwork for the grand northern alliance which Jon heads leading up to Season 8 - he is not only King in the North but also head of a united front against the White Walkers.

Tyrion Lannister is falsely accused of slaying Joffrey Baratheon, and nobody believes his claims of innocence. After failing at both his trial and a trial-by-combat - one that claims the life of his champion, Oberyn Martell - Tyrion is fatally sentenced by his father, Tywin.

Enraged by his father’s sentence - which he knows has as much to do with his dwarfism as it does Joffrey’s end - Tyrion is freed with a heart full of vengeance. After finding his former lover, Shae, in his father’s bed, Tyrion coldly ends her life, taking the first step on his path to becoming a darker version of himself.

Afterward, Tyrion pierces Tywin with a crossbow bolt as he sits on the privy, forever driving a wedge between him and his siblings. Tywin's end also signals a major power shift in King’s Landing, which paves the way for Cersei’s eventual rise as queen.

Season 4 sees Bran Stark, the Reed twins, and faithful Hodor journey north of the Wall and directly into some serious trouble. Bran and his compatriots encounter some mutinous members of the Night’s Watch at Craster’s Keep during a turbulent scene that has them almost - but not quite - cross paths with Jon Snow. In the end, Bran keeps his friends safe by “warging” into Hodor and forcing the gentle giant to break a man’s neck.

The warging of another human being represents an important ethical line crossed by Bran, one he first dealt with in Season 3. While the first time could be considered an accident, Season 4 sees Bran purposefully use his power on another person - to say nothing of what he does while controlling Hodor’s body. Though he was acting in self-defense, this action marks the beginning of a more ethically ambiguous Bran, one that doesn’t mind surveying time and space as the Three-Eyed Raven by the time Season 8 rolls around.

Bran eventually uses his warging power to travel into and alter the past, dooming Hodor and his own moral compass in the process. 

Fans of GoT got to see something in Season 4 they had waited for since the series’ opening episodes: the gruesome end of Joffrey Baratheon. The cruel young king meets a vicious end after drinking from a goblet of tainted wine at his wedding. As far as monarchal exterminations go, Joffrey's is relatively inconsequential - his power passes to his younger brother, Tommen. But the fact that his uncle, Tyrion Lannister, is blamed has far-reaching ramifications.

Joffrey’s expiration marks the end of Tyrion’s influence in King’s Landing and the beginning of his life as a traveling vagabond. After losing both his trial and his trial-by-combat throughout the course of the season, Tyrion, facing capital punishment, is forced to exile himself to Essos - where he eventually comes into contact with Daenerys Targaryen.

It is by Daenerys’s side that Tyrion stands entering Season 8, joining her in the conflicts of Westeros as both her Queen’s Hand and her closest advisor.