Game of Thrones Season 7: Key questions after episode 4

Warning: Contains spoilers up to episode 4, Spoils of War

The drama in Game of Thrones ratcheted up to new levels this week when the long-discussed tactics of enemy camps were finally put into practice.

Fans barely had a moment to catch their breath during episode 4.

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The Spoils of War literally referred to the Lannisters' looting of Casterly Rock to pay back their debts to the Iron Bank. But there were also plenty of metaphorical connotations suggesting the consequences of war are often unintended and devastating.

The episode saw Daenerys, Drogon and the Dothraki unleash a fiery havoc outside King's Landing, making things look pretty dire for Cersei. But beyond the violent battle scenes there was plenty of scheming and some dramatic reunions to keep fans guessing.

Is Daenerys becoming the real Mad Queen?

Until recently, Cersei (Lena Headey) and Euron (Pilou Asbaek) seemed the most unhinged characters of the season, but this week Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) put in a bid for the title.

Daenerys decided she'd had enough of subtle plans after a bad run against Cersei. She chose instead to lead the Dothraki army with her fire-breathing dragon Drogon into ambush against Jaime Lannister's men.

The result was a battle so violent that even Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) had his doubts about his chosen leader. The scene also had eerie echoes of Danys's own father, the Mad King Aerys, who was killed because he tried to destroy King's Landing with wildfire.

Will Tyrion reunite with brother Jaime and friend Bronn?

Bronn (Jerome Flynn) proved his enduring loyalty this week by saving Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) from getting barbecued by Drogon, but will Bronn have the stomach to join team Cersei after their recent roasting? A pragmatic man, Bronn's main goal is surviving long enough to enjoy a hedonistic retirement. Complicating issues of loyalty, Bronn's old drinking buddy Tyrion is also back in town. Whose side, if any, will Bronn choose, and can the three amigos get back together?

What will happen to Jaime?

Bronn may have saved Jaime from cremation, but he did this by tossing him into the water in a killer cliffhanger. It's possible that Jaime might drown, weighed down by his heavy armour and prosthetic limb – this is Game of Thrones, after all. But Jaime is such a central character it's far more likely he'll survive, but how? Will Jaime and Bronn swim to safety away from Daenerys and her killer troops, or will Daenerys capture them and use them as hostages in order to undermine Cersei and Euron's plans?

What happened to the Tarlys?

It wasn't just Jaime and Bronn who came under fire this week. Sam Tarly's father, Randyll Tarly, and his younger brother Dickon (Tom Hooper) were also in peril.

Apart from being lumbered with a ridiculous name, Dickon seems like a nice enough chap and he also saved Jaime from a Dothraki bloodrider mid-battle. Since we didn't actually see the Tarlys toasted, it seems fair to hope they somehow managed to get out of there alive. This would also allow an eventual reunion between Sam and his family and perhaps some well-earned recognition, at last, from his disapproving father.

Will the Iron Bank betray Cersei?

The cash from Highgarden seemed safely stored in King's Landing before Daenerys attacked, but Cersei's formidable army is now in tatters. The Iron Bank's Tycho Nestoris (Mark Gatiss) is nothing if not a pragmatic man, with the bank's interests at heart. Once he sees Cersei's weakness, will he switch sides and transfer the Iron Bank's considerable resources in support of Daenerys's winning team?

Is Bran sending Arya to kill Littlefinger?

Bran's (Isaac Hempstead Wright) new, super-charged psychic powers mean that he knows pretty much everything about the past, present and also a bit of the future. This means he probably knows who sent an assassin to kill him, how Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) plotted to have Ned killed and what he's done to Sansa.

Bran has already given a dagger to Arya (Maisie Williams), which seems like a provocation given that Arya is up for killing anyone who looks at her sideways. Or did Bran give Arya the Valyrian steel knife, which can kill White Walkers, because he knows something else about her future?

Where is Gendry?

The whereabouts of Joe Dempsie's Gendry (one of many bastard sons of King Robert Baratheon), who rowed away at the end of season three, remains one of the big mysteries of the series. The return of his character has long been predicted and was even confirmed by Dempsie earlier this year, the Daily Telegraph reports http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/gendrys-game-thrones-return-new-fan-theory-could-make-surprising/. But so far there's been no official word on what the young blacksmith has been doing, what role he'll play and when he'll return.

Nerdist http://nerdist.com/gendry-game-of-thrones-return-spoiled-imdb/

believe they can answer at least one of those questions. The website has found Gendry's character name on an IMDb cast list for next week's episode, Eastwatch. If it's correct, fans might soon discover what Gendry has been up to and, given the wait, it had better be good.