HBO

After oh-so-long away, Game of Thrones finally returned to our screens last week with the premiere of Season 8, simply titled Winterfell.

With the endgame very much in sight, Game of Thrones had to get a bit more of a move on, although it still found time for a largely typical season opener: the emphasis was on dusting off the chessboard after two years away, and re-assembling all the pieces on the board.

Still, it achieved rather a lot within that, including some very notable moments that portend directly to this episode: the Night King sent a message by way of the Umbers, with the White Walkers very much on the march; Jaime arrived at Winterfell and saw Bran; and Jon learned the truth, via Sam, of his real parentage.

That leads us to this second episode, titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (which, as ever, has a couple of different meanings). With the Battle of Winterfell already confirmed to be happening in episode 3, leaving this very much as a 'calm before the storm' type of instalment. But frankly, if this is the calm, then the storm is going to destroy us all.

Major spoilers of Season 8 Episode 2 follow.