How does Jon Snow’s resurrection impact the Emmy race?
So, naturally, spoilers exist ahead for those who haven’t yet caught up with last weekend’s Game of Thrones which decidedly answered the question of Jon Snow’s ultimate fate. Or if you haven’t been on the internet at all in the past week. Or turned on television. Or talked to other humans. So, yeah, ***spoiler alert.***
In last week’s Game of Thrones, red priestess Melisandre laid the healin’ hands on Jon Snow, and he came back to life. Finally.
This development was a surprise to almost no one. We all were collectively holding our breath to discover when exactly it would happen. The question remains as to what kind of Jon Snow will return, and what impact, if any, the highly anticipated resurrection would have on the Emmy race. If there has been any watershed moment for actor Kit Harington, then this is his time. More so now than ever before, he is the face of Game of Thrones. His is the character on everyone’s lips. His death caused the internet to rise up and push buzz for the series into the stratosphere, resulting in the series’ first Drama Series win at last September’s Emmy awards. Added to that, Harington co-starred in Andy Samberg’s well received faux doc 7 Days in Hell. Harington showed he knew more than Jon Snow. He had a sense of humor too.
But, again, what kind of Jon Snow will return from death? Harington’s well-intended performance has, so far, gone largely ignored by major voting bodies. Was Jon Snow just too nice? Did he melt into the background compared to the other, nastier major characters? Or is Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister just that beloved by the Television Academy that they can’t bare the thought of recognizing someone else in the Supporting Actor Drama category? It’s not a problem over on the Actress side – both Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey have been co-nominees. Neither of them have won, however. Dinklage has two Emmys for Game of Thrones.
I’ll say this, though: if the same old Jon Snow returns on Sunday night, then you can forget Harington’s Emmy surge. I have no idea what the writers have in store for the character, but he needs to learn from the experience. He needs to change. Death, in all its aspects, changes you. It saddens you. It hardens you. It makes you view the world differently, and, as such, I would expect Snow to go through a similar transition. It would elevate the character’s arc in such a way as to make it more difficult for the Emmys to continue ignoring him, which they will continue to do if he remains the same put-upon nice guy.
So, for now, Kit Harington goes on the list, bumping out Rufus Sewell with the villain’s role in The Man in the High Castle and elevating him above potential break-outs like Tobias Menzies (Outlander) or Hugh Dancy (The Path).
But mark my words, if we see the same old “know nothing” Jon Snow Sunday night, then I’m shit-canning Kit Harington from the tracker. Done and done.
