Game of Thrones season 7 episode 6: Is [spoiler] dead or now a wight?
*This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7 episode 6, which was mistakenly broadcast early*
In this week's instalment of Game of Thrones, we saw how terrifyingly easily the Night King is able to reanimate corpses into wights, turning Daenerys' enormous dragon Viserion's eyes blue in seconds by simply placing a hand on its head.
It is this 'ice dragon' that is the biggest problem to come out of the all-round pretty blundering expedition north of the wall, but Viserion is not the only beloved character that may return zombified.
Though I was expecting the dragon's brother, Rhaegal, to rescue Jon Snow from the wights, it was in fact his uncle Benjen who saved the day, returning out of nowhere to whip them with his flaming chain and put Jon on a horse bound for the Wall.
He sacrificed himself and was engulfed by wights, with no-one around to burn his body.
Were this any other human, Benjen turning into a wight would be a certainty, but the Stark's physiology is different.
In season 6 he explained to Meera and Bran that he previously took an ice sword to the gut from a wight and was left for dead. He was discovered by the Children of the Forest, who stopped him from turning into a wight by driving a piece of dragonglass into his chest.
Benjen looked deathly and suggested that he wasn't far from departing, but he was still a force for good.
But can the dragonglass' magic withstand a whole horde of wights, and will he simply die or join their legions?
The whole 'shove dragonglass in the wound' treatment sounds like something that could crop up next season too.
Game of Thrones continues on HBO, Sky Atlantic and through NOWTV on Sunday nights.
