Game Of Thrones: What Did Littlefinger's Note Say That Arya Found?

Contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 5

So what exactly got Arya all worked up in the latest episode of Game of Thrones? Unless you're a maester with freeze-framing, you may have missed it.

Near the end of "Eastwatch," we see Arya (Maisie Williams) stealthily follow Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Aidan Gillen) around Winterfell, rightly suspecting that he's up to his nefarious ways. At one point, Littlefinger receives a mysterious scroll from Maester Wolkan (Richard Rycroft) and Lord Baelish asks if it's the last remaining copy. Wolkan says that it is and Littlefinger replies that "Lady Stark thanks you for your service." 

Arya, already suspicious of her sister, then breaks into Littlefinger's room and discovers the scroll hastily hidden inside his mattress. When she reads it, she's shocked by its contents. Why? As Business Insider points out, it's a scroll that Sansa wrote way back in season 1. She wrote it while she was under the thumb of the villainous King Joffrey, and she pleaded for her brother Robb, then King in the North, to bend the knee. Here's what it says:

"Robb, I write to you with a heavy heart. Our good king Robert is dead, killed from wounds he took in a boar hunt. Father has been charged with treason. He conspired with Robert's brothers against my beloved Joffrey and tried to steal his throne. The Lannisters are treating me very well and provide me with every comfort. I beg you: come to King's Landing, swear fealty to King Joffrey and prevent any strife between the great houses of Lannister and Stark."

While Arya was right to suspect Littlefinger of no good, she underestimated the level of his conniving: we see him watch Arya leave the room in a tizzy as he smirks the way only a pleased Littlefinger can. He clearly knew that Arya was following him and he wanted her to read the scroll to further drive a wedge between the Stark sisters. After all, Joffrey was at the top of Arya's kill list for the longest time. 

On Game of Thrones: Inside the Episode, showrunner D.B. Weiss explained what is happening. 

"Arya is very used to being more clever and more stealthy, and smarter than any of the people she's up against, but she hasn't dealt with Littlefinger for a while," he said. "She gets roped into spying on somebody who's actually leading her by the nose to something that he wants her to have. He's looking for a way to prevent this sister bond from developing further because the tighter they are, the more definitively he is caught on the outside of it. On the Sansa end of the relationship he's seen the opening and now all he needs to do is give Arya a cause to display real rage towards Sansa. And, he knows full well that with what's going on in Sansa's head with regards to Arya and how dangerous she is, when Arya starts to act dangerous, and act angry, he knows where Sansa is going to turn."

After lurking in the shadows for many episodes, it seems that Littlefinger is finally making some real moves. Earlier this season, he also tried to get inside the head of Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), by giving him the dagger that was meant to kill him. Of course, Bran's head is a dangerous place, and he instead gave the dagger to Arya. Still, it seems as though Baelish won't rest until the Stark kids are at each others' throats. 

If you missed the episode or have more questions about what went down, check out our detailed recap of "Eastwatch."