‘Game of Thrones’: How Many Freys Were in the Season 7 Premiere Cold Open?

The North remembered a whole bunch of members of House Frey in the “Game of Thrones” Season 7 premiere in an extremely satisfying opening scene

game of thrones how many freys
HBO

(Note: This post contains spoilers for the premiere of “Game of Thrones” Season 7.)

Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) got her revenge on Lord Walder Frey (David Bradley) at the end of “Game of Thrones” Season 6, killing him after feeding him two of his sons that she baked into a pie. At the start of Season 7, she took her revenge for her murdered family even further.

House Frey is one of the bigger Great Houses in “Game of Thrones,” mostly thanks to the penchant of Lord Walder for marrying a lot of young girls and having a lot of kids. And all of them were involved in the Red Wedding. Lord Walder used that wedding to lure the Starks into the Season 3 massacre in which the Freys and Boltons betrayed the Starks, wound up dead — including Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) and Robb Stark (Richard Madden) and his wife Talisa (Oona Chaplin).

With her Faceless Man powers, Arya took on Walder Frey’s identity and called another feast of the rest of the Freys. And then, in the cold open for the Season 7 premiere, Arya got her full revenge: She poisoned the rest of the Freys, annihilating the male side of the house (while sparing Lord Walder’s wife and, presumably, his many daughters).

So how many Freys did Arya just murder as she ripped out House Frey “root and stem?” We counted, and the answer is: 51 dead Freys. If you count Lord Walder and his sons “Black” Walder Rivers and Lame Lothar Frey, the two guys she baked into that pie, the total gets up to 54.

Arya’s revenge was a perfect mirror for the Red Wedding, in which the Freys invited the Starks and Tullys for a feast and then murdered them after giving them “guest rites.” In the world of “Game of Thrones,” inviting people into your house places them under your protection, and it’s against the gods to do them harm — particularly after you offer them bread and salt, a symbol of their safety. Before the Red Wedding, the Freys very poignantly gave Robb and his family bread and salt as a symbol of goodwill, before brutally betraying them.

There was no bread and salt this time around, but Arya ambushing the Freys in their own house was pretty close to what happened in the Red Wedding, and her execution was almost as devastating. She had some pretty powerful words to leave the Freys with, as well, noting that “the North remembered,” and “Winter has come for House Frey.”

With Arya at work, maybe the Starks should change their words from “Winter is coming” to “Winter has come.”

Looking for more amazing Arya Stark moments? Check out our gallery of the biggest events in her character arc below.

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