Warning: Spoilers ahead from the "Game of Thrones" Season 5 finale and "A Song of Ice and Fire" books.

UPDATE: The Season 6 premiere has been given the title "The Red Woman," with "Jon Snow is dead" right in HBO's synopsis. It sounds like Melisandre is going to revive him, no? Or is the title in reference to someone else and we are being misled?

The Powers That Be are trying to drive it home that Jon Snow is really dead after that Season 5 finale end scene. Kit Harington and one of the showrunners, David Weiss, told Entertainment Weekly in separate interviews that (David's words) "Dead is dead" and (Kit's words) "I've been told I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm not coming back next season. So that's all I can tell you, really." David added, "We would hope that after seeing the scene and the way it's shot that the answer to that will be unambiguous in the minds of the people watching it. It should be pretty clear what happens in by the time you're done seeing that scene. It's not an, 'Oh what just happened scene?'"

And yet it definitely is a 'what just happened?' scene -- or at least a 'what might happen next?' scene. Author George R.R. Martin wrote a version of that scene toward the end of "A Dance with Dragons," the most recently published book (which was still years ago), and he previously told Entertainment Weekly of Jon Snow, "Oh, you think he's dead, do you? My readers should know better than to take anything as gospel." He later added, "If there's one thing we know in A Song of Ice and Fire is that death is not necessarily permanent."
If Jon is indeed revived -- and does anyone really think he'll stay dead, even with the TV show changing so many elements of the book? -- will he have different recoveries on TV than in the next book, "The Winds of Winter"? In "Dance with Dragons," Jon called out to Ghost as he was dying, as if he might warg into Ghost. On TV, we didn't see or hear about Ghost, but Melisandre just returned to The Wall, and they've made it very clear that she sees something special about Jon. She may know what Jon doesn't know, and that fans only suspect at this point, that he might have some king's blood in him as well. He has a major part to play in the war to come.

What if Mel does what Thoros of Myr did for Beric Dondarrion and brings Jon back from the dead? That seems to be the running theory at this point, especially since there's really nothing else for Melisandre to be doing, and there had to be a reason for all that Mel/Jon foreshadowing. Plus, Melisandre met with the Brotherhood Without Banners back in Season 3, and picked up some revival tips from Thoros. And Jon still needs to learn about his parents. He needs to meet Dany Targaryen. He needs to be one of the three heads of the dragon. It is known. Or suspected, anyway.

We'll have to wait for the next book, "The Winds of Winter," and next year's "Game of Thrones" Season 6 for answers on how both the book and TV show tackle Jon Snow's fate.

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