WASHINGTON • Chaos is a ladder and the climb for Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish has come to an end.
During Sunday's Game Of Thrones season finale, Sansa deliciously ticks off all of Littlefinger's misdeeds before issuing his death sentence. And it hits you: This guy was the driving force behind the biggest conflicts in the HBO fantasy series. Sansa's listing of Baelish's crimes includes callbacks to events that took place seasons ago. Here is her rundown of how much Littlefinger played everyone.
"You murdered our aunt, Lysa Arryn. You pushed her through the moon door and watched her fall."
Sansa didn't need Bran's three eyes to know that one. She saw that fatal fall herself. Lysa held Sansa close to the edge of the moon door as she accused her niece of making moves on her husband Petyr - that is, until he showed up and talked her down. He promised to send Sansa away from the Eyrie and reassured Lysa.
"My sweet, silly wife," he tells Lysa. "I have only loved one woman - only one, my entire life." Then he hits her with the worst break-up move of all time: "Your sister", followed by a fatal push right through the moon door.
"You conspired to murder Jon Arryn. You gave Lysa 'Tears of Lys' to poison him."
Although he was in love with Catelyn Stark, Littlefinger pretended to be all about Lysa so he could manipulate her to do his bidding. In season four, Lysa revealed how deep her love for him went: She killed her former husband for the guy.
"You had Aunt Lysa send a letter to our parents telling them it was the Lannisters who murdered Jon Arryn, when really it was you. The conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters - it was you who started it."
Not only did Littlefinger get Lysa to kill her own husband, but he also got her to throw the blame on the Lannisters, thus amping up the Lannister-Stark feud by about a thousand.
"You conspired with Cersei Lannister and Joffrey Baratheon to betray our father, Ned Stark. Thanks to your treachery, he was imprisoned and later executed on false charges of treason."
Ned confronted Cersei with the truth - that Joffrey was not Robert Baratheon's son - and he thought Littlefinger would back him up on not handing the throne to the boy, with the City Watch's help. When Ned presented a letter from the freshly dead Robert, declaring his rightful heir would need to come of age first, Cersei promptly ripped it up.
Then Ned tried to have Cersei and Joffrey taken into custody - but the City Watch turned on the Stark men.
"You held a knife to his throat. You said, 'I did warn you not to trust me.'"
Bran finally used his powers to provide Sansa with incredibly specific details. In season one, after the City Watch turned on Ned's men in the Throne Room, Littlefinger held a dagger to Ned's throat and whispered those words.
"You told our mother this knife belonged to Tyrion Lannister. But that was another one of your lies. It was yours."
Catelyn Stark came to King's Landing on a fact-finding mission: Who tried to kill her son, Bran? The assassin had a dagger made of Valyrian steel. "There is only one dagger like this in all the Seven Kingdoms" and it was his until he lost it in a bet to Tyrion Lannister, Littlefinger told Catelyn. That accusation deepened the divisions between the Starks and Lannisters, and also set off another chain of events: Cat had Tyrion arrested, causing papa Twyin Lannister to send his forces to attack her home in the Riverlands.
WASHINGTON POST
