1. The new credits show trenches being dug around the castle of Winterfell as well as other dragon glass defence systems to keep the dead out. 

Winterfell is preparing its defence against 100,000 white wakers led by the Night King and they are using every bit of that dragon glass Jon had mined from Dragonstone. 

You can actually see it during the episode. 

2. Bran repeats Jaime’s words from the first episode before the latter threw him off that tower, just to remind him that he remembers. 

The things we do for love.

-Bran Stark

While Jaime stands defiant in front of Dany and Sansa defending all his actions to destroy their families in the name of war, Bran reminds him that he was the one who started the war against the Starks. 

3. Jaime is a man of honour but he betrayed his family to fight for the living because he believed this war to be beyond loyalty, something that Brienne told him. 

In the last episode of season 7, when the Starks and the Targaryen went to Cersei for a truce so that they could unite to fight the dead together, Brienne had told Jaime to screw loyalty because this was so much more than that. 

So when Dany asks him why he left Cersei to join them at Winterfell, Jaime tells her the exact same thing. 

4. Arya likes watching Gendry do this whole blacksmith thing. She did this in season 8, as she had done in season 2. 

Can’t say, I really blame her. 

But this obviously means that she had desired to be with him for a while now. And while this might a sour topic for many, grow up. Arya has!

5. When she is told that the white walkers are like death, she says that death has many faces, a reference to the time she spent training with the faceless man. 

Arya is one of the faceless men. She spent a lot of time training there to become the fighter that she is today. 

So, when Gendry tries to scare her into the safety of the crypts, she tells him that she knows death. 

6. Bran asks Jaime about how he could be sure, there was an afterwards following the Night King. This could mean that Jaime doesn’t survive the great war. 

Jaime is one of our favourite characters from the show and he has come a long way from being a blonde asshole in season 1. 

But his character arc seems almost complete and many of us already suspect that he will perish in the great war. And Bran might have just foreshadowed that. 

7. Tyrion’s idea of an ideal death is very colourful and this wasn’t the first time we heard it from the horse’s mouth. 

When Tyrion said the same thing in season 1, we thought it was a one-off thing he just said to fool the mountain tribes. 

But from the looks of it, this is a very common and well known wish of his. 

8. Sansa tells Dany that men do stupid things for love. This is in reference to the time Robb Stark died because he was in love in Talissa despite being promised to another. 

Sansa is worried about Jon. She has seen the men in her life do stupid things for love and pay with their lives for it. She fears the same for Jon and doesn’t shy away from telling Daenerys about it. 

She had told the same thing to Jon in season 7. She had asked him to be smarter than their father and their brother, if they have to survive. 

9. Ser Davos meets a girl with a scarred face, which reminds her of the princess Shireen, daughter of Stannis Baratheon. 

There is nothing much to explain here, We all know Ser Davos loved Shireen like a daughter. 

But finding out that Melisandre and her parents burned her alive at stake to protect themselves because of some false prophecy broke him. 

10. This is the first time we see all the Starks in the same scene since the first episode of season 1. 

During the war council, we can see all the Starks in one room in one frame. The last time that happened was during King Robert Baratheon’s visit to Winterfell in the first episode of season 1. 

Which is just sad, really. 

11. Ghost is back. 

As brief as it was, Ghost was seen still atop a wall with Jon and Sam, just chilling, waiting for the CGI budget. 

12. Jon, Sam and Ed stand on the wall of the castle of Winterfell and talk about their fallen brothers; Grenn and Pyp at the Night’s Watch. 

It’s quite fitting that we see these three like college seniors during their farewell, reminiscing about the good old days. 

13. The Hound reminds Arya of the times he actually fought to protect her. 

Sure, his original intention of taking Arya was to earn some money for himself, we saw that he actually cared for her and protected her on many occasions, including the time, he nearly got killed by Brienne. 

14. The Hound mentions Arya’s kill list. 

We hadn’t heard about the list for a while now. A lot of people on that list are already dead. 

And as far as a few others are concerned, their circumstances have seriously changed and they are on the side of the angels now. 

15. When Gendry reminds Arya that she had once asked her to come to Winterfell, he’s talking about their farewell, when he had decided to join the Brotherhood. 

Last time they met, Arya had to leave Gendry behind. But she had asked him to join her at Winterfell. 

She wanted him to be her family but he had denied her back then. 

16. Jaime calling Brienne a ‘Knight of the seven kingdoms’ is a reference to the tales of Dunk and Egg, spin-off series by George R.R. Martin. 

Dunk, here, refers to Brienne’s ancestor – Duncan the Tall and the Egg refers to the great Aegon Targaryen. 

17. Podrick’s song about ‘Jenny of Oldstones’ directly relates to the prophecy of the ‘Price that was promised’. 

Jenny was friends with the witch who prophesied that the ‘Prince That Was Promised’ would be born in the bloodline of Aerys and Rhaella. 

18. Sam gives his family sword ‘Heartsbane’ to Ser Jorah Mormont. Jorah’s father was Jeor Mormont who was the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch before Jon Snow. 

Jeor Mormont had also gifted Jon his family sword ‘Longclaw’. 

And since he was a  mentor to Sam and the others, it only makes sense that Ser Jorah wielded a Valyrian steel sword in his memory. 

19. Daenerys talks about the nice stories she had heard about her brother. She heard those stories from Ser Barristan Selmy.

Selmy was the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard during the reign of the Mad King and travelled with Rhaegar as they disguised themselves, drank and sang and gave money to the poor. 

20. When Jon tells Daenerys the true story of Rhaegar and Lyanna, they are both standing in front of Lyanna’s statue. 

When Jon found out about his true origins, Sam and Jon were standing in front of Ned’s statue as the secret Sam shared with Jon belong to Ned Stark. 

Similarly, Jon telling Daenerys about his true parents came in front of Lyanna’s statue, who in her dying breath made sure that Jon lived to tell the tale. 

Holy crap. This has been a long trip down memory lane.