There was so much going on in "Game of Thrones" Season 7, Episode 5, "Eastwatch," that an otherwise major announcement went by without much more than a few fan spit-takes, groans, and raised eyebrows.
Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) did kinda look like she was glowing, like she had just successfully killed off another entire house, in her talk with brother-lover Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). She revealed that she's pregnant, and Jaime -- dim bulb to the last -- seemed confused about the father. It was him. And she was done hiding that fact. When the baby was born, she decided, they were going to openly name him as the father. Full Targaryen breeding stuff. Creepy, but -- if you're playing Jaime, anyway -- "a beautiful, beautiful thing."
Fans were skeptical and grossed out. Here's just a taste of that reaction:
Everybody when we hear that Cersei is pregnant by Jaime! #GameofThrones #GoTS7 #ThronesYall #GoTFinale
Cersi is that girl from high school who was always "pregnant" when her boyfriend wanted to break up #GameOfThrones#DemThrones
#GameOfThrones I'm thinking she's not really pregnant. Just wants to ensure Jaime's loyalty or if she is, it's not his at all.
Cocoa Kimmie
How is Cersei pregnant? The prophecy said she would only have 3 children. It hasn't been wrong so far... #GameOfThrones#Thronesyall
Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reacted to Bustle with a few jokes, but also some serious thought into how his character Jaime would take this news. First of all, since it's Cersei, do you even believe her or assume this is some manipulation?
"I think that he believes it," Coster-Waldau told Bustle. "If you look at the scene again, she actually looks happy for the first time in, I don't know, three seasons. She seems to believe it as well."
And, from Jaime's perspective, Baby No. 4 with Cersei is a cause for celebration, not fear or doubt or a reminder of how bad things went for the previous three kids:
"People are so cynical. They're pregnant and so happy cause they're getting a little old. I think it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. They're bringing an heir to the Lannister family, into the world, such a great thing."
Plus, he told Bustle, this would give Jaime a chance to be a father for real, not one hiding in the background as he pretended Robert Baratheon was the daddy of Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen.
Bustle brought up Maggy's prophecy that Cersei would only have three children, which adds a wrinkle to this plan, but must embolden Cersei to believe the prophecy was just wrong. Speaking of the prophecy, Coster-Waldau gave Bustle a new answer on the Valonqar theory, seeming to leave the door open for it, whereas the last time he was asked, he deflected that it was too obvious. We'll see. You have to give GoT credit that it does not always take the obvious path.
But it would be pretty funny if Melisandre showed up for a baby shower, just as a nod to that Seth Meyers sketch.
"Game of Thrones" Season 7 continues with Episode 6 on Sunday, Aug. 20 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
