At 79 minutes, “The Dragon and the Wolf” is the biggest episode in Game of Thrones history, but it also represents an intense narrowing of focus, as what seems like the entire living cast gathers in King’s Landing to contemplate a path forward in the Great War. These opening scenes have the feeling of a reunion, or maybe a good Irish wake. There are friendly pats on the back between Tyrion, Podrick, and Bronn; even Brienne and the Hound, last seen battling ferociously in season four, exchange a wry smile about little Arya Stark. (The fact that the “million” inhabitants of King’s Landing get a few off-hand name-checks, but are never seen, only heightens the sense that we’ve tightened scope on the few people that really matter.)

After Cersei (Lena Headey) initially walks away from the dragon pit meeting, Tyrion follows her to speak in private. During this meeting, Tyrion confesses that he never wanted to destroy his family despite all his talk about doing so. (And we were all like, “Come again, bruh?”)

Make no mistake, the fact that Tyrion doesn’t want to destroy the Lannisters is a major confession, and it could confirm that he will betray ― or has betrayed ― Dany.

Benioff: “It was one of the harder death calls we had to make. Relatively speaking, he’s a minor character if you look at his screen time. The fact that Littlefinger looms so large when people talk about the show, and when we think about the show, it’s really a credit to Aidan. Every scene he’s in manages to make you think about Littlefinger. And when he’s at the center of a scene — like his final scene in the finale — he’s completely mesmerizing. We’ve had a lot of death scenes on this show and this is one of the great ones. Diana Rigg [as Olenna Tyrell] was so true to her character in the end, and Littlefinger was so true to his character — in his own cowardly, horrible way.”

Well, Jon, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is, you’re not actually a bastard. Sure, we’ve known this for a few weeks now, since Gilly confirmed that Jon’s parents, Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark — we’ve known that for even longer — were married when she had him. But legitimacy will no doubt be some sort of relief to a man whose fine features have borne the strain of second-class status from the beginning of this story.

The bad news? Say hi to your aunt.