The following article contains spoilers for seasons 1-7 of Game of Thrones and speculation for season 8

If a picture is worth a thousand words, three seconds of video can fill a book. It’s been a year since a new episode of Game of Thrones graced our screens and the wait has left fans salivating for vestiges of the upcoming season.

It may not be a trailer, but HBO released a new video on Sunday detailing their forthcoming projects for the remainder of 2018 and into 2019. The nearly two-minute video was filled with footage from season 7 of Game of Thrones, but it also included a few seconds of new footage from the final season.

The above hug between Jon Snow and his sister/cousin Sansa carries the weight of last season’s events and fills it with ambiguity. It’s in stark contrast to their reunion in season six. If HBO was looking for three seconds of footage that would inspire intense speculation, they chose wisely.

There’s a lot to unpack in those three seconds and a lot of different ways to perceive the hug between Jon and Sansa. Neither looks particularly excited to see the other after spending half of last season apart.  

Here are some possible ways to interpret the new footage, each varying in likelihood:

Sansa wants to keep ruling

This seems like the most popular but least likely way to interpret Sansa’s cold look during the hug. Last season she proved herself a capable and measured ruler who is probably better equipped to run Winterfell than Jon.

Deep down Sansa knows she craves power and has the ability to wield it, but that issue seemed to be resolved in the season seven finale. The absurd beef with Arya over her loyalty to Jon seemed to be put to rest after Littlefinger’s execution. 

Maybe some of the resentment still lingers, but Sansa isn’t going to mount a civil war against Jon. Her conversation with Arya in “The Dragon and the Wolf”—in which they echo their father’s words—gives us a preview of the Starks’ mindset for the wars to come.

“When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”

Even though Sansa and Jon had their disagreements since reuniting, her criticisms have always come from a sincere will to keep Jon and the Stark family alive. Sansa, like Jon and Arya, has seen horrible misfortune befall her family and doesn’t want Jon to make those same mistakes.

Sansa isn’t happy with Jon’s companions

Sansa’s relationship with the bulk of Jon’s new travelling companions is complicated at best. Let’s run down the list of people with whom Jon is travelling: 

Tyrion – Sansa’s former husband. While Tyrion was mostly kind to Sansa during their marriage and they were just beginning to understand each other, the Lannisters still murdered Sansa’s father, mother and brother. Seeing him again has to bring up complicated feelings for Sansa, especially after just freeing herself from her other husband. 

Sandor Clegane – So this relationship is much more complicated in the books, but she still feared the Hound from the beginning of the series. While she warmed to Sandor in the second season, she still refused to accompany him North during the Battle of the Blackwater. 

Daenerys Targaryen – Sansa likely would have advised against Jon’s support for the Mother of Dragons. She advised Jon against travelling to Dragonstone in the first place and bringing someone who wants to rule the North into Winterfell likely won’t sit well with Sansa. 

Varys – To Sansa, Varys represents King’s Landing and all of the horrors associated with her experience there. He stood by and watched her father blunder his way to his death, and was part of Joffrey’s council. He, along with Littlefinger and crew, forced her into writing that infamous letter to Robb in the first season.  

Bran told Sansa about Jon’s parentage and she has to break the news

The discovery of Jon’s true parentage and place as the heir to the Iron Throne was one the final reveals of the seventh season. We didn’t see any of the fallout from that revelation, but Bran has become the wildcard of the Stark crew.

It’s possible he kept this information between he and Sam, but it’s also possible that he revealed the game-changing information to the Stark inner circle. Of that inner circle, Sansa is probably the best to break the news to Jon. While Jon is closest with Arya, she’s spent the intervening years catching bodies and wearing the faces of her victims, so maybe she’s not the best person to deliver the news. Bran has also lost any filter that would prepare him for human interaction, so it would be tough getting the news from him.

Meanwhile, Sansa is family and the only present reminder of the pre-Wall life Jon has had since leaving Winterfell in season one. Of anyone other than maybe Sam, she has the most empathy for how big this news is for Jon. And based on Bran’s all-knowing nature and lack of social awareness, if he told the inner circle about Jon’s parentage, there’s a good chance he also told them of Jon’s sex life. So not only would she have to tell Jon his whole identity is a lie, but that’s he’s been having sex with his auntie for the past several weeks.

All that would inspire the cold look Sansa has on her face as she’s hugging Jon.

Jon and Sansa are both just very depressed human beings

Few characters on Game of Thrones have been through as much over the course of seven seasons as Jon and Sansa.  

Jon was shunned by Catelyn, led to believe he was a bastard and outcast his whole life,  sent to a decaying organization, lost his father to beheading, lost his brother to a gruesome betrayal, lost his lover in a battle in which she was killed by his mentee, saw thousands murdered by a threat long thought dormant, and tried to do something revolutionary but was killed by those he trusted (including the aforementioned mentee). Then, he was brought back to life for reasons he can’t understand after going to the afterlife and seeing there was absolutely nothing at all. Finally, he saw his brother die in front of him and was given the heavy burden of a crown he didn’t want.

Sansa’s story is possibly worse. While Jon grew up a bastard and understood the perils of the world slightly more than a normal child of his age, Sansa went to King’s Landing thinking the world was as sweet as the songs she treasured. Within the first few episodes, Sansa’s direwolf was killed, whose importance wasn’t yet clear. Her betrothed turned out to be one of the biggest pieces of garbage in the Seven Kingdoms and he ordered her father’s beheading in front of her. She was put through years of torture by the Lannisters, forced to marry Tyrion against her will, and when she was finally rid of Joffrey she was blamed for his murder. She went from a bad situation with Joffrey to a far creepier situation with Littlefinger in the Vale. His interests were far from pure, and he also played an integral part in both her father’s demise and her betrothal to the biggest piece of garbage in the Seven Kingdoms, Ramsay Bolton. She suffered through rape and torture at the hands of Ramsay in what was once her home, only to finally escape. Now after putting the team on her back and regaining control of Winterfell, Sansa’s contributions are all but forgotten by the lords of the North.

While both Jon and Sansa have found some form of peace, their lives are irrevocably changed by their experiences. Jon may have a death wish and Sansa will never be the same again. While finding each other in season six provided them with a brief moment of happiness, they could both be forever broken. Seeing each other for the first time in months might not bring a smile to their face in perilous times.

It means nothing, they’re actually very excited to see each other

Jon has smiled like twice in the entire series and Sansa has smiled like twice since season one. Even when they’re incredibly happy, it’s not something that’s visibly noticeable.

While the pair bickered throughout season six and seven, they were both always on the same side. Jon may have been annoyed with Sansa’s constant counsel and Sansa may have been annoyed by Jon’s reluctance to heed her counsel, but both had only the interest of the Stark family on their mind.

Sansa is no doubt glad a family member managed to go south of the Neck without losing what is north of their own neck.

Did Sansa just see a dragon for the first time?

 Sansa’s lack of enthusiasm during the hug could be mistaken for a stone-cold look of shock. The first time each character interacts with a dragon is a life-changing experience. For most, it’s the return of something beautiful, terrible, majestic and devastating to a world that has long been deprived of magic. Sansa’s time with the Lannisters and the Boltons turned her cynical and with good reason. But just as at it did with Tyrion and Jorah, dragons have a way of turning cynics into shocked believers. There could be a welcoming smile from Sansa between the two shots provided by HBO. But Sansa has the look of someone who has seen a dragon for the first time.

This is the brilliance of editing, and a trick HBO has played with Game of Thrones trailers before. Here are GIFs of some of the other characters reacting to a dragon for the first time:

Maybe this is about the Wall coming down

So things in Westeros could definitely be better right now. Despite the best efforts from Jon, the Seven Kingdoms remain divided by war and old grievances. A dragon just died, the army of the dead marches South and the best defence against the coming threat was just destroyed.

So even though Jon is probably enjoying weeks of vibrant boat sex, it’s hard for he and Sansa to muster a smile when they see each other. 

This is a lot to consider for just three seconds of new footage. It’s possible multiple theories could be true and it’s possible none are correct. Game of Thrones returns to HBO in 2019.