Game of Thrones: 7 Things That Have To Happen In The Season 6 Finale

Game of Thrones has a lot to wrap up and a lot to set up in "The Winds of Winter," its upcoming Season 6 finale. This is the last episode before the series begins its final episodes (13 of them, to be split between two shortened seasons if rumors are true), so it has a lot of work to do to put the pieces in place. Here's a quick rundown of the major plots that need to be addressed in the finale, and how we think they might play out.

1. Cersei Has to Release the Wildfire
Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones) will finally stand trial for homosexuality in the finale, with the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) presiding. Cersei's (Lena Headey) main enemies at this point - Margaery (Natalie Dormer) and Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) and the High Sparrow - will all be there in the Great Sept of Baelor, and it's heavily established that there are caches of nearly unstoppable wildfire stashed underneath the city left over from Mad King Aerys' reign. Add in the fact that Cersei has been threatening to burn the city to the ground for seasons now, and we think she's going to take 'em out. Unfortunately for her, she's probably going to kill her son Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) in the process.

2. Jaime Has to Figure Out How to Get Home to Cersei
Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) spent the last several episodes working to retake Riverrun on behalf of Walder Frey (David Bradley) under orders of Tommen. He succeeded, and in the finale he'll celebrate the victory with Frey at the Twins. Jaime probably hopes that his business in the Riverlands is concluded and he can go home to Cersei - if in fact there is a home for him to return to - but there's no way it'll be easy. If Walder Frey knows that the Starks have retaken Winterfell, he may ask Jaime to take his army up there to neutralize any revenge plot from the North. Maybe Jaime will kill Walder Frey and be rid of him. There's also the possibility that Arya (Maisie Williams) somehow snuck into the Twins and intends to scratch Walder Frey off her kill list.

3. Davos Has to Confront Melisandre
Right before the Battle of the Bastards, Davos (Liam Cunningham) learned that Melisandre (Carice van Houten) had his young bestie Shireen Baratheon (Kerry Ingram) burned at the stake. As we see in the preview, this confrontation is definitely happening, with Davos making Melisandre tell Jon Snow (Kit Harington) what she did. But will Jon care enough take action against the woman who brought him back from the dead?

4. Sansa Has to Explain Herself to Jon
Sansa's letter to Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) ended up saving the day during the Battle of the Bastards, but why didn't she tell Jon the cavalry was coming? "We have to trust each other," Jon implores her in the preview. Will she reveal her real, as-yet-unknown reason for keeping her letter a secret, or will she tell a lie? How conniving has Sansa become?

4. Daenerys and Tyrion Have to Leave Meereen
Khaleesi (Emilia Clarke) & co. have to leave Meereen, because there just isn't much left of it. The dragons made sure of that. It seems like it's finally time for Daenerys to head to Westeros. She finally has a strong army, good advisors, nearly full-grown dragons and a naval fleet capable of taking her there. Setting sail would be the perfect end to the season, and signify - along with the white raven that proves that Winter Is Here - that Game of Thrones is entering its final stage.

6. We Have to Check In with Bran
Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) has been offscreen since he and Meera (Ellie Kendrick) met Benjen Stark (Joseph Mawle) in "Blood of My Blood." Benjen can help them get to Castle Black, where they may arrive in the finale (and will find that Jon is long gone). But there's an even more important dangling Bran thread than that...

7. We Have to See the Second Half of Bran's Vision of Ned and Lyanna Stark
The Three-Eyed Raven (Max von Sydow) showed Bran the first half of young Ned Stark's (Robert Aramayo) visit to the Tower of Joy, when he and Meera's father Howland Reed (Leo Woodruff) killed Arthur Dayne (Luke Roberts) to gain access, but the vision stopped before Ned went inside. We're still waiting to see him find his dying sister Lyanna Stark. That will probably happen in the finale, and she's probably going to confirm what we've long suspected: Jon Snow is her son with Daenerys' brother Rhaegar Targaryen.

What do you think is going to happen?

Game of Thrones' Season 6 finale airs Sunday, June 26th at 9/8c on HBO.