1. People are resurrected all the time on Game of Thrones. Remember Beric Dondarrion back in Season 3? It even happened last night, though the Mountain wasn’t really looking all that well behind his mask. Melisandre didn’t say much when she arrived at Castle Black — being ignored by your vengeful fire god will do that to a lady — but she must be there for something. And wasn’t she awfully interested in Jon’s blood once before?
2. Speaking of that blood: Boy, did David Nutter’s camera zoom in on it in the season’s last shot! People wondering how I called Jon’s fate in last week’s recap should know that I did it only by reading the giant, honking signs the show was throwing at me with Olly these past few weeks. Game of Thrones is many things. Subtle is not often among them.
3. The Night’s King epic “Come at me, bro” from a few weeks ago needs to be answered, no? But even more than that dangling plot thread, there is simply too much intranarrative piping dependent on Jon’s presence to believe in his sudden demise. The whole fan-hypnotizing theory of “R + L = J” (Google it, you’re safe) is no longer just a book thing — rewatch the Littlefinger-Sansa scene in the crypts of Winterfell for proof. If Benioff and Weiss don’t care about that theory, why introduce it at all? And why mention that as the deal-sealing point that earned them the right to make this show when they solved it for Martin, as explained in my interview with them here? There are pages and pages of backstory that the showrunners have gleefully shorn. We are at the point where if it’s on the screen, it’s important, particularly for the eventual endgame.