If you have read George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series — the books on which HBO's Game of Thrones is based — then you have been waiting for Sunday's episode, in which we saw the infamous, horrifying, tragic nightmare known as the Red Wedding. And you would not be alone. The most important fans of the book, the show's creators, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, feel the same way. Before Season 2, Benioff told Entertainment Weekly's James Hibberd that before they had even written the pilot, he thought to himself, "We've got to get this show to happen because if we can make this scene work, it's gonna be one of the greatest things ever on television or film."

Like I said, we've all been waiting. But as for you viewers who had no idea what was going to happen? I don't know how you're reading this story, since I imagine you are dead.

What a wrenching, wonderfully acted, brave scene. Stunning.

The Red Wedding takes place in the middle of Martin's third novel in the series, A Storm of Swords. It represents the turning point in the war — the Lannisters, for now at least, have no real challengers. Robb (Richard Madden) might have won every battle he fought, but he managed to lose the war when he married Talisa (Oona Chaplin) and alienated the creepy Walder Frey (David Bradley), to whom he had sworn he would marry one of his daughters.

The geriatric Lord Walder — who Robb still thought was an ally — exacted his revenge by killing Robb, the pregnant Talisa, and Catelyn Tully. Weep!

Michelle Fairley has played Catelyn, the matriarch of House Stark, through three seasons of Game of Thrones. Her Catelyn has been a wise, if not always heeded, war counselor to Robb: she is rash (she did begin the war, after all, by snatching Peter Dinklage's Tyrion), loyal, brokenhearted over her dead husband (Sean Bean as Ned) and children (who are not actually dead). She has brought a gravity and warmth to the role.

I spoke with her recently about filming the Red Wedding and her Game of Thrones experience.

I imagine you took this job knowing Catelyn's fate, but please tell me how that worked.

Michelle Fairley: I read the books. And I knew what lay in store. It's an incredibly dramatic storyline, and it's one to be relished, and one to be enjoyed, actually. For an actor to be given the dramatic scenes that I've been given — it's a sheer joy, actually.