Neither Beric Dondarrian nor his companion Thoros of Myr understand why the Lord of Light brings Beric back from the dead time and time again, but one clever Game of Thrones fan on Reddit may have figured out Dondarrian’s ultimate fate on the show.
Redditor Hockeyfox’s theory has everything to do with the upcoming suicide mission north of the Wall, led by Jon. When Jon first explained his plan to capture a zombie wight as proof to show Cersei, most of us assumed it would be a current member of the Night King’s army, but this theory posits that the wight they bring south will be none other than Beric. As Hockeyfox says, “Every time Beric has been raised from the dead by Thoros, he has wondered why the Lord of Light keeps bringing him back.” This would be his ultimate purpose.
Beric’s already come back from death a handful of times, but this time he’d be resurrected not by the fiery Lord of Light, but by the icy Night King.
“Death is the enemy,” Beric tells Jon in the preview for the next episode. “The first enemy and the last. The enemy always wins, and we still need to fight him.”
Beric once told Arya that every time he comes back from the dead, he’s “a bit less.” George R. R. Martin, the writer behind Game of Thrones, confirmed as much with TIME in July, saying, “His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins.” Martin even called him “a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice.”
It’s possible that the wight the team brings back could be a different member of the squad, perhaps even Gendry. There’s no way that all seven members of the squad are coming back from south of the Wall alive, but there’s a pretty good chance one will come back dead.
It’s also possible that when Beric lights his sword aflame this Sunday, it could be the start of an epic final stand in which he sacrifices himself to become the unliving proof that Jon needs to finally convince Daenerys of this threat, and eventually, maybe even Cersei.
Game of Thrones Season 7 airs Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. Eastern.
