In "Game of Thrones" season 7 episode 5, "Eastwatch", Arya tailed Littlefinger and found a letter with a signature by her sister Sansa Stark. The Letter was only onscreen for a second, but what it said is very important. As you may have guessed, the note is part of a dangerous Littlefinger plan.
A quick recap
Arya watches as the Stark bannermen (Yohn Royce of the Vale and Robett Glover of Deepwood Motte) agitate in the Great Hall of Winterfell, with Glover suggesting that Sansa Stark should rule the north instead of Jon. Sansa answers that Jon is the King and he knows what to do.
This scene leads to a harsh conversation between Arya and Sansa in Sansa's room (which was Ned and Catelyn's room).
Arya accuses Sansa of not shutting down the lords' criticism soon enough and Sansa replies that, as Lady of Winterfell, she's supposed to listen to the Lords' complaints. Arya is not convinced. She still thinks that Sansa is the vain, self-regarding young girl she was years ago. Apparently, Arya thinks that her sister is planning to overthrow Jon. Sansa dismisses her, seemingly embittered by Arya's distrust.
Shortly after, we see Arya following Littlefinger. Baelish soon finds out he's been tailed by Arya and arranges what it looks like a trap: when he knows Arya is watching him, he receives a note from Maester Wolkan and then hides a letter Sansa wrote years ago in the mattress.
Arya enters the room as soon as Littlefinger leaves. After searching Baelish's room, Arya finds the letter with a signature by Sansa.
What the letter said
Here's what Sansa's letter said: "Robb, I write to you with a heavy heart. Our good king Robert is dead [...] Father has been charged with treason. He conspired with Robert's brothers against my beloved Joffrey and tried to steal his throne.
The Lannisters are treating me very well and providing me with every comfort. I beg you: come to King's Landing, swear fealty to King Joffrey and prevent any strife between the great houses of Lannister and Stark."
This letter was written by Sansa in the first season of the show. She was forced to write it under the eye of Cersei.
Maester Luwin (who was the Winterfell's maester before Wolkan), immediately told Robb that the note looked strange. It was easy to realize that someone obliged Sansa to wrote it. We would love to think that Arya immediately understood that Sansa couldn't have written that letter on her own initiative, but we must point out that the younger Stark sister still consider Sansa to be like a naif highborn girl who dreams to be queen, which doesn't help.
The showrunners explains what's going on between Littlefinger, Arya, and Sansa
Benioff and Weiss discussed what's happening in Winterfell on the post-episode segment "Inside Game of Thrones." Arya is used to being more clever than any of the people she's up against, Weiss explained, but she hasn't dealt with such a brilliant mind as Littlefinger's yet.
She gets roped into spying on someone "who's actually leading her by the nose to something that he wants her to have." This doesn't sound good, does it? Baelish is trying to stop this Arya-Sansa bond from developing further because the closer the sisters are, the more he's caught on the outside of it, Weiss added. In other words, Littlefinger wants to turn the sisters against each other so he can take advantage of whatever stupid thing Arya is going to do.
The pack survives
The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives, and the Starks are wolves. We don't know what consequences Littlefinger's trick will have, but we still think that he's underestimating the Starks as a family. He may trick Arya, but Sansa knows him very well, not to talk about Bran, who may time travel to discover all Baelish's evil deeds.
As we explained in one of our previous articles, Sansa still despises him and this may be, in our opinion, what may lead Littlefinger to disaster.
Don't forget! "Game of Thrones" season 7 episode 6 airs on August 20, on HBO. At the moment, there is no title or synopsis available for the next episode of the show, but you can watch the official trailer below:
