Game of Thrones: How “The Bells” should have ended

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Jaime fulfills the prophecy

After they exit the tunnel, Jaime tries to convince Cersei to run away with him. Cersei refuses, confident that they can just wait for the fire to die down and then take back the city since Dany will be horrified by what she’s done and will no longer have an army at her disposal.

Jaime is dumbfounded but just then the city ignites in red and green flames. He realizes Cersei was always willing to be the queen of the ashes as long as she could still be queen – that she views the death of millions as a stroke of luck that will win her back the throne.

Furious, Jaime still makes one last desperate attempt to get through to her, insisting that their baby would be better off growing up away from all the chaos in Westeros. Cersei reveals that she was never pregnant and made it up in an attempt to manipulate him. That’s the last straw for Jaime, and he stabs Cersei.

When the fire and smoke clears, Arya sees Jaime cradling Cersei’s body. He asks Arya to give Tyrion a message from him — “The Queen is dead” — if Arya finds Tyrion alive (which she would in the next episode since he remained on the perimeter of the city). Jaime then slits his own throat. (In the next episode, with Dany still alive, Tyrion would realize Jaime meant Cersei. And with Arya delivering the message, he would realize that Jaime is dead, presumably by suicide, which Arya would confirm.)

Admittedly, it would be a very dark and very tragic ending for Jaime. But it would be a fitting one. Jaime and Cersei would’ve come full circle with Jaime once again killing a tyrant to save innocents (future innocents this time) and fulfilling the prophecy that Cersei would be killed by the hand of her brother.

Additionally, while not regretting his decision, he would still be guilt-ridden over killing the love of his life. Plus, he would feel too guilty about abandoning Brienne to crawl back to her. Thus, he would elect to go out of this world as he came into it — with Cersei (which, per the “Inside the Episode,” is what Benioff and Weiss were going for).

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Correction: This article updated and revised to reflect that it was Aerys Targaryen, not Cersei, who put the network of wildfire under King’s Landing in place.