The general consensus among what I’ve seen from mostly Game of Thrones book readers this season regarding the Sand Snakes can be best described as “disappointment.” I do not know how they fare in Dorne in George R.R. Martin’s novels, but I get the sense that what has happened with them on the series so far has failed to live up to book-reader expectations.

Moreover, given all the hype about the Sand Snakes going into the season — they hired an Oscar nominee, after all — I also expected more than a lot of gnashing of teeth, an aborted fight sequence with Jaime Lannister, and a few episodes with the Sand Snakes holed up in prison.

That’s it?

Well, no, according to Jessica Henwick, the Singaporean actress who plays the bull-whip toting Nymeria Sand. Based on her comments, we can not only expect Game of Thrones to return to Dorne in this Sunday’s finale, we can expect some game-changing developments for the series, as she tells Yahoo:

“What happens with the Sand Snakes is … extreme. Very extreme. So I’m really curious to see how people take it. I don’t know what else I can say!” says Henwick with a laugh. “Episode 10 sets the rest of the show on a very certain path. It’s a big move in Game of Thrones, and the Sand Snakes are a part of it.”

For those who are already concerned with the violence in the show (especially violence against women), that may be some cause for concern. Or it may be portend an exciting finale in which the Sand Snakes finally live up to the hype. Either way, with the sixth A Song of Ice and Fire nowhere in sight, it looks like the new “path” will at least tip us to the direction the show will be taking over the (likely) final two seasons.

As for Nymeria’s role in the next season of Game of Thrones, Henwick could only offer, “I don’t know, to be honest.”

(Via Yahoo)