--- title: :Game of Thrones: Aidan Gillen Answers Arya Stark Question description: Actor Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger) provided his theory on a certain scene from Season Two that fans have always wondered about. canonical: https://time.com/4837670/game-of-thrones-aidan-gillen-arya-theory/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-28T20:15:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:59.535Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Littlefinger Answered Your Most Pressing 'Game of Thrones' Question og:description: Aidan Gillen on an oft-discussed scene from season two og:url: https://time.com/4837670/game-of-thrones-aidan-gillen-arya-theory/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a330c1a68294b93/6988d3bfbc6cfc18283e209b/aidan-gillen-thrones.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" - European Premiere - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Littlefinger Answered Your Most Pressing 'Game of Thrones' Question twitter:description: Aidan Gillen on an oft-discussed scene from season two twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a330c1a68294b93/6988d3bfbc6cfc18283e209b/aidan-gillen-thrones.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Littlefinger Just Answered One of Your Most Pressing _Game of Thrones_ Questions > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly Jun 28, 2017 8:15 PM UTC  Aidan Gillen attends the European premiere of "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" at Cineworld Empire on May 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Aidan Gillen attends the European premiere of "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" at Cineworld Empire on May 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom.Fred Duval—FilmMagic/Getty Images by [James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly Jun 28, 2017 8:15 PM UTC EW spoke to actor Aidan Gillen for the upcoming seventh season of HBO’s _Game of Thrones_, but one of our questions was about a certain scene that occurred years ago that fans have always wondered about: Did Petyr Baelish recognize Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) when he encountered her back in season 2? You remember the scene: Littlefinger was visiting Lord Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) at Harrenhal while Arya was working incognito as a servant girl. She nervously spills some wine and Littlefinger glances at the Stark fugitive curiously. Littlefinger had met Arya previously back in season one though didn’t pay her much attention (his focus, of course, was on her sister Sansa). “It was unclear if he recognized her or not, but I have my own thoughts on that,” Gillen told EW. “_Yes_, I did recognize her — I just didn’t say anything or do anything about it.” Gillen didn’t reveal why his scheming character would have stayed silent instead of exposing her identity to the Lannister patriarch. But perhaps he thought that if left things alone that Arya might kill Tywin, which would then create more power-grabbing opportunities for himself (chaos, after all, is a ladder). Speaking of Littlefinger’s ambitions, we also asked what’s going on at Winterfell in season 7 between Littlefinger and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) now that they’re back in each others’ good graces (sort of) and Baelish has revealed his ultimate ambition to seize the Iron Throne with Sansa as his queen. “I finished last season on a promising note by laying my cards on the table — at least to Sansa,” Gillen says. “I was \[sowing seeds of doubt about Jon Snow\] throughout my appearances in season 6, and, yeah, that will continue. It’s pretty obvious what my game is there. We’re playing out that final exchange in the Great Hall in Winterfell. But the same time my character is becoming quite aware that Sansa is becoming as bright as me and just as wary of my manipulations of her.They’re onto each other. They use each other. They enjoy each other. And they keep a lot from each other. There are all kinds of mixed things going on with Littlefinger and his relationship with Sansa, so watching her grow in stature is quite enjoyable.” Littlefinger’s schemes this year will involve a degree of risk, as always, but Gillen says that’s how his character functions. “With carefully laid plans there’s always a bit of risk involved,” he says. “He puts himself in a situation that could backfire on him. But I think he likes that. His plans are never fail safe. But he puts himself on the line like a good gambler.” **Previous**: How Jessica Henwick’s Sandsnake [almost vanished from season 7 ](http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/27/game-of-thrones-jessica-henwick-season-7/) **Previous**: All [65 Game of Thrones season 7 photos in one place](http://ew.com/tv/game-of-thrones-season-7-photos-all/) _Game of Thrones_ is back on July 16. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4837670/game-of-thrones-aidan-gillen-arya-theory/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4837670/game-of-thrones-aidan-gillen-arya-theory/"},"headline":"Littlefinger Just Answered One of Your Most Pressing Game of Thrones Questions","datePublished":"2017-06-28T20:15:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:59.535Z","description":"Aidan Gillen on an oft-discussed scene from season two","url":"https://time.com/4837670/game-of-thrones-aidan-gillen-arya-theory/","keywords":["Television","Newsfeed","game of thrones","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a330c1a68294b93/6988d3bfbc6cfc18283e209b/aidan-gillen-thrones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8a330c1a68294b93/6988d3bfbc6cfc18283e209b/aidan-gillen-thrones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"King Arthur: Legend of the Sword\" - European Premiere - Arrivals","caption":"\"King Arthur: Legend of the Sword\" - European Premiere - Arrivals","creditText":"Fred Duval—FilmMagic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4837670/game-of-thrones-aidan-gillen-arya-theory/","name":"Littlefinger Just Answered One of Your Most Pressing Game of Thrones Questions"}}]}] ```