Game Of Thrones: Does Benjen Stark Return?

A new episode of Game of Thrones airs tonight an HBO, and the episode, "Blood of My Blood," may bring the return of a character that hasn't appeared since the show's debut season. Jon Snow's uncle, Benjen Stark, was lost beyond the Wall, prompting the great ranging that alerted the Night's Watch to the White Walker's threat. Though most of the watch assumed Benjen had died, Jon has never given up hope that his uncle was still alive somewhere. Tonight, Jon may be proven correct on the matter.

In last week's episode, "The Door," Hodor selflessly sacrificed himself, as it seems he was always destined to do, in order to buy Meera Reed enough time to drag Bran Stark away from the horde of wights invading the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven. However, even Hodor can't hold the door forever, so what happens to Bran and Meera once the gentle giant falls and the wights are free to make pursuit?

The answer likely lies in a brief scene from the trailer for Game of Thrones Season 6. The scene showed a figure on horseback in a dark and snowy forest using a flaming flail to take out a wight before it could devour its victims. The sneak preview for "Blood of My Blood" showed this scene again from another angle, focusing on the terrified Meera and the still entranced Bran, which seems to indicate that we'll be introduced to our heroic and mysterious rider.

Our bet is that this figure is Benjen Stark. It's unclear why Benjen wouldn't have returned to the Wall at some point, but there's a theory about that that ties Benjen to another character from the George R.R. Martin's novels.

POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING

The sequence of events from Season 3 of Game of Thrones in which Samwell Tarly kills a White Walker and then encounters Bran's traveling party went down quite differently in the novel A Storm of Swords. In the book, Sam and Gilly are rescued by a mysterious figure called Coldhands, so named because his hands are black and cold like a wight's. Coldhands doesn't breathe and keeps his face covered with a scarf, but wears the cloak of the Night's Watch and refers to Sam as "brother," suggesting a connection to the Watch. Coldhands escorts Sam and Gilly back to the Wall and tells them to send Bran's party, whom he is inexplicably expecting to be there, out to meet him. Coldhands himself cannot approach the Wall himself because of the magic wards placed on it.

Coldhands presumably learned of Bran's location from the Three-Eyed Raven because he leads Bran's party to the cave of the Raven's cave. Coldhands cannot enter the cave himself, apparently kept out by the same magic that protects the cave from the White Walkers. Instead, Coldhands keeps watch outside of the cave, defending it from wights.

Coldhands falls into the same category of character as Lady Stoneheart, that being a character that is a little too fantastical for the televised version of Martin's character, and so most fans have given up on ever actually seeing him in the show. However, if Benjen Stark appears to rescue Meera and Bran, perhaps with some toned down version of Coldhands' traits, it could confirm the longstanding fan theory that Coldhands is in fact Benjen Stark somehow effected by an encounter with a White Walker. If so, it would explain why Coldhands dresses like a ranger of the Night's Watch, and the magical wards would explain why he never returned to the Wall.

As a bonus fan theory tie-in, some fans believe that Benjen Stark may actually know who Jon Snow's mother is, and could reveal the truth to Bran.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.