Melisandre shocked the viewers "Game of Thrones" Season 6 episode 1 when she revealed her true form. (Photo : YouTube)
The highly-anticipated "Game of Thrones" Season 6 episode 1 ended with a major shock for the viewers when it was revealed that the titular character, Lady Melisandre, who is also known as Red Woman, has been keeping a big secret since she first appeared in the hit series.
The final scene of the premiere episode unveiled that Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) has been keeping her appearance in disguise with the help of a magical necklace. After Melisandre stripped down and revealed herself to be a decrepit, old woman instead of a sexy, young fire priestess, fans were thrown for a loop as to what this could possibly mean, leading several theories about the development.
Since it is now evident that Melisandre has mastered the art of eternal youth and probably immortality too, a fan theory has emerged that she will definitely resurrect Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) either by transferring her powers to him or by simply sacrificing herself to bring him back to life. Viewers of the show are aware that Melisandre is on a lookout for Azor Ahai, the chosen prince that will defeat the darkness, and many fans strongly believe that he is none other than Jon Snow.
Another fan theory is that since Melisandre strongly believes in her vision, which showed Jon Snow fighting at Winterfell, she is most likely to ride out and find Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye), who could bring men back from the dead owing to the power bestowed on him from the Lord of Light.
However, some eagle-eyed fans pointed out that way back in season 4, Melisandre was shown taking a bath without her ruby necklace and that too without any change in her appearance, . It can either be a miss by show writers back then or it means that only person who have seen her real form is Stannis Baratheon' wife Selyse, who had a peculiarly strange expression the whole time in the scene.
Meanwhile, Houten is seemingly pretty excited over the turn of events for her character. She added that the unveiling of real Melisandre makes her look wise and more mysterious.
"I was really happy when I read that we were going to reveal that this year," Houten told Entertainment Weekly. "I don't think a lot of people will see that coming."
Meanwhile, Tony Gardner of makeup effects company Alterian gave a thumbs up to the showmakers for portraying the aged face of the 39-year-old actress. He told Yahoo News that the process of building an aged face for an actor is very involved and sometime takes upto four hours to put the age mask.
"Game of Thrones" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO. Watch the promo for Season 6 episode 2 below:
