WHAT’S LITTLEFINGER’S ENDGAME? AND 7 MORE BURNING GAME OF THRONES QUESTIONS 

MTV News takes a look into the flames to answer your biggest \'Thrones\' questions from Episode 4, \'The Book of the Stranger\'

, you wicked beast. Just when I had convinced myself that Daenerys’s storyline was nothing more than the series’s longest-running joke, you go an make me feel things for the dragon queen again. Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen has been (metaphorically) reborn; let’s hope she doesn’t fuck it up this time.

Daenerys’s last-minute plot to burn the patriarchy to the ground in Season 6, Episode 4 (“The Book of the Stranger”) not only saved herself from the

Brothraki, but it also landed her a whole new army of devotees. The Mother of Dragons has risen, and finally, our long national nightmare in Meereen is (nearly) over. I feel like hugging the nearest Stark in celebration.

But alas, I have no Starks to hug. Sansa and Jon (!!!) are at Castle Black hatching a plan to take back the North, Rickon is rotting away in the bowels of Winterfell, Bran has his head stuck in a weirwood tree, and Arya is filling up on more delicious oysters, clams, and cockles in Braavos. Sigh. I do, however, have more questions to answer. First, a message from our bear:

I may not have all the answers, dear readers, but I promise to always look at you the way Tormund looks at Brienne: with deep admiration — and with a handful of slimy meat.

“The North Remembers” is an oft-repeated phrase among the Northerners. Think of them as a bunch of staunch loyalists. Those in the North don’t easily forget past events, especially betrayals, and following the death of Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell, the North rallied around House Stark and marched into battle with Robb. But with the Boltons currently wreaking havoc in Winterfell, does the North

remember? House Umber clearly had no qualms handing Rickon Stark over to Ramsay to strike a self-serving deal. But if Jon and Sansa are going to succeed in taking back Winterfell, they’re going to need to get as many Northerners on their side as possible. (At least they have the Knights of the Vale on their side.) Now that Roose has been fed to the dogs, Ramsay is getting sloppy, and it’s getting harder to cover his crazy antics. So it hopefully won’t be too hard to win their long-time supporters over. (There’s also the fact that the Boltons brutally betrayed Starks at the Red Wedding. #Karma) Don’t forget: there must always be a Stark in Winterfell.

Did Jon Snow really just retreat to his room at the end of Episode 3?

How lame. After dropping the mic at the end of last week’s episode and dramatically exiting the scene, Jon Snow didn’t actually leave Castle Black. His watch may have ended, but he still needed to pack — I guess? Anyway, it’s a good thing Jon didn’t storm out of Castle Black because he would have missed Sansa’s arrival, and I would have lamented in their poor Karmic fate. (Not that I didn’t cry real human tears when Sansa ran into Jon’s arms.)

Dragons are drawn to noise and the smell of blood, so the final scene in “Book of the Stranger” seemed tailor-made for some dragon action. There was plenty of death, fire, and Daenerys to attract a dragon, and yet, there was nary a dragon to be found. Where’s Drogon? And what about his brothers Rhaegal and Viserion? They’ve been flying free since Tyrion released them earlier this season. There’s no way Drogon lost sight of Khal Moro’s khalasar as they traveled to Vaes Dothrak — so what is he waiting for? Sure, maybe Drogon just needs a break. It’s possible that he’s resting up in Dragonstone. Even dragons need time to recharge. But the more likely scenario is that he’s just being a stubborn brat.

Will Davos discover what really happened to Shireen?

Oh boy. This is bad. Very, very bad. Davos knows that Shireen perished, but he doesn’t know how, and once he finds out that Melisandre and her blood magic was responsible for killing the only good and pure thing this world had left, he’s going to lose it. It’s a good thing Melisandre’s

biggest fan, Brienne of Tarth, is at Castle Black because I don’t see Davos as the type to hurt a lady. However, despite the fact that both Brienne and Davos lost someone they cared about (Renly and Shireen) to her machinations, they’ve both seen the result of her power in the newly resurrected Jon Snow. So there’s really no telling how this storyline is going to play out, other than the fact poor Davos will be heartbroken when he finds out what really happened to Shireen.

Does Littlefinger truly feel sorry for giving Sansa to Ramsay?

, and that’s probably why I love him. You can’t trust Littlefinger, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad dude. The only thing he cares about is proximity to power — and once upon a time, he loved Catelyn Stark but that ship has sailed. And his only real game plan in all of this has been to fuck everything up, as he views chaos as the perfect scenario to climb further up the social ladder. That being said, I do think he cared about Sansa’s well-being. After all, he loved her mother. He may have smuggled her out of King’s Landing and given her away to Ramsay to make a deal that would benefit himself as Protector of the Vale, but he also believed that he was helping Sansa by bringing her home to Winterfell. For years, Roose Bolton was able to cover up his bastard son’s crazy antics, so it’s unlikely Littlefinger actually knew what a monster he was. So, yes, I do think Littlefinger feels bad for what happened to Sansa and wants to help her out of a shitty situation, but don’t get it twisted: he’s still looking out for #1. If Sansa’s not in Winterfell, then he can’t build his alliance with the North.

With Theon back in the Iron Islands and giving his support to his sister at the Kingsmoot, will that tip the needle in Yara’s favor? In George R.R. Martin’s

series, Euron prevails over a number of challengers, including Yara (known as Asha in the books) and his brother Victarion (who appears to be cut from the show), but

Theon. So in order to protect Pyke from an unstable leader, Yara claims that the Kingsmoot was “unlawful” since Theon had not been present to make his claim. It’s a brilliant loophole. However, since Theon returned to the Iron Islands just in time for the Kingsmoot, it seems unlikely that the show will go this route. Who knows what the Greyjoy siblings could be scheming.

Here’s the thing: I obviously do not condone slavery, but I think Tyrion was smart to broker that terrible deal with Valantis, Yunkai, and Astapor. Daenerys is great at serving us those awe-inspiring mic drop moments, but she’s kind of the worst at governing. (We’ve had three seasons of poor decisions to base this on.) This is obviously Tyrion’s strong suit. He’s a pragmatist. As he aptly pointed out this week, Daenerys abolished slavery without offering them a new way of business. While Missandei and Grey Worm have every right to be upset with Tyrion’s deal, it was the right move for Tyrion to make at the time. There’s no way Meereen can afford to go to war with all of Slaver’s Bay right now, especially without Daenerys and her three secret weapons. So he made a deal that would give Valantis, Yunkai, and Astapor seven years to outlaw slavery — and I think we all know that when Daenerys gets back to Meereen with her Dothraki army, it’s not going to take the slavers very long to abolish the practice all-together. Unless they want to be set on fire and brutally killed by the Dothraki.

Approximately how long must we wait for Daenerys to make it to Westeros?

My God. Just get on with it already. DANY, YOU’RE FREE. Daenerys burning the Khals alive wasn’t just a badass move; it was a necessary reboot for her storyline, which has been noticeably lacking since her initial takedown of Slaver’s Bay a few years back. Having one of the series’s most crucial characters wander around in circles playing queen of a shit hole in the desert was terribly boring — and such as waste of Daenerys’s growth as a character. With her new Dothraki following, Dany needs to stop wasting time, deal with Meereen once and for all, and find a way to Westeros. Though, if we’re being honest with ourselves, by the time she actually gets there, the White Walkers will have invaded and all of Westeros will be a frozen tundra. We hope dragons like snow, girl.

podcast, featuring MTV News pop culture writers Rachel Handler, Leah Beckmann, and yours truly, Crystal Bell.