'Game of Thrones' One Surprising Character Returned, and Her Death Has Fans Angry

One character returned to Winterfell ahead of the big battle with the White Walkers in Sunday [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

One character returned to Winterfell ahead of the big battle with the White Walkers in Sunday night's episode of Game of Thrones, to make her first appearance on the show since early on in Season 7. Fans were stunned that she came back, only to die in the end.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3

Carice Van Houten's Melisandre was last seen back in the 2017 episode "The Queen's Justice," in which she decided to leave Westeros and head to Volantis. While she was warned it would be dangerous to come back to Westeros, she clearly did not heed the warning and decided to come back.

Melisandre was instrumental in pushing Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) to work with Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to work together on stopping the Night King's threat to the Seven Kingdoms. Her efforts worked, and the two combined forces in Winterfell to stop the undead White Walkers.

In Sunday night's episode, she told Davos she was sure no one would execute her because she will be dead by sunrise. As the battle wore on, she was still convinced the Lord brought Jon back to life for a purpose and continued to keep an eye on everything.

Later, Melisandre and Arya (Maisie Williams) met, and talked about the discussion they had back in Season 3. At the time, Melisandre said she sensed a "darkness" within her.

In the end, Melisandre took her necklace off and walked into the snow. The last shot of the episode showed her collapsing to her death.

In an interview with HuffPost, Van Houten said she was excited to be called back to the show as the red priestess.

"Oh, I was happy ― because I wasn't sure, you know? I thought, 'I'm just banned now and that's the end of me,'" Van Houten said at the time. "But it's also a lot more of a relaxed shooting schedule, so I can't really complain. But I was very happy to be back again."

She also confirmed she was at the final table read, calling it a bit "overwhelming."

"Everyone was a bit like, 'This is so weird! This is actually the last time we're going to do this,'" Van Houten said. "So there was way more tension in the room than there normally was. Everything was sort of more loaded, I guess, and therefore everyone was a bit more wired or something."

As for her thoughts on the mysterious ending, she said she was satisfied with how things turned out.

"Of course, you're going to have some people love it and others not. That's unavoidable, I think," the Dutch actress said. "The ending is the way it should end, as in this is what the writers [envisioned] ― the organic ending to their writing. I don't think there's a wrong or a right, really. It's just what it is."

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. There are only three episodes left.

Photo credit: HBO

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