Will Meera Return With Her Father On 'Game Of Thrones'? We Investigate

We're reaching the end stages of Game of Thrones, with Season 7 more than half over, and Season 8 only six episodes long. All the loose ends are being tied up, and even characters who are left alive on screen (like Ellaria Sand last week) popping round the interview circuit to tell us "Ahee ahee, that's all folks!" now that they are done. But oddly enough, Meera's departure for home this week was not followed with the same moves by actress Ellie Kendrick. Does this mean she's not done? Will Meera return with Howland Reed before the show's end?

It's a serious question. Entertainment Weekly, which has functioned as the official outlet for all departing interviews with the cast as they leave the show so far, had nothing with Kendrick this week. This, despite her dramatic and heartfelt sobs as she walked away from the boy she helped travel North of the Wall, and whose body she worked so hard to drag back after the Night King swarmed their weir tree last season.

One would think after such a traumatic experience, losing everyone she cared about, Meera would run for home and never look back. But there's a reason she might have to travel back to Winterfell before the final battle.

House Reed is part of the North, though it's one of the most southern of the houses, down in the area called "the Neck," just above the Riverlands. Their keep, called Greywater Watch, is located in a marshy area, inhabited by a people known as the crannogmen. These are a smaller, more compact people, descendants of the First Men who sided with The Children back during the war of the Dawn Age, when the First Men fought for control and the Children fought for their lands. Due to much intermarrying, they also have a tendency to exhibit traits of the Children, like greenseeing. (RIP Jojen.)

So why would Meera have reason to leave this place, which is south of Winterfell and further away from the oncoming attack by the Night King? Well, as Sansa points out, as things get more dire, the smaller keeps will start running out of supplies. (A thing very likely to happen if the sun stops rising when the Night King crosses the Wall.) If and when that happens, they'll pack themselves up and head to Winterfell.

Moreover, Meera's father might have more than one reason to ride up to stay at Winterfell other than food and shelter. You might remember meeting him in Bran's visions of the Tower of Joy: he's Ned's best buddy, Howland Reed.

And we all know what happened at the Tower of Joy, don't we?

You know, it's one thing for Bran to tell Jon, "Hey dude, I'm a tree wizard now, and I saw a vision that your mother was Lyanna Stark." They can even back it up by books and scrolls -- maybe something Sam comes across in all that copying he's doing for Maester Ebrose? -- that say Lyanna and Rhaegar ran away together and were happy and Jon was a love child they had together.

But there's nothing, and I mean nothing, like an eyewitness account. And that's what Howland is. He is the only living person who can say: "I was there, at the Tower of Joy. I saw Ned come out with a baby his sister had just given birth to. I saw him take it home to the North, and proclaim it his own bastard, Jon Snow."

Will Meera be back, father in tow, just in time to confirm Jon Snow's real parentage? And if not, and this was the last we see of her, why the radio silence on her exit from the show? Meera deserved more, no?