Michelle Fairley Will Not Return To 'Game Of Thrones' As Lady Stoneheart

Catelyn Stark is dead. Dead as a dodo, a doornail, her son Robb, her husband Ned, Sansa's wolf, Geoffrey... We could go on but you get the idea. So why were Game Of Thrones fans (mainly those who had read the series) so irritated by the lack of one major feature in the finale of season four?

Michelle Fairley played Catelyn Stark on GoT.

It involves zombies and resurrections so it's not all that simple to explain. It's still not entirely clear what's going on when you read the books so it would be an even greater difficulty explaining it in the series. But we shall try:

So Catelyn was killed at the Red Wedding when her throat was cut by Reymund Frey. Her body was then thrown into the river and three days later Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr discover her washed up corpse.

We have met Dondarrion and Thoros in the series when Arya bumped into the Brotherhood. If you remember Sandor Clegane (The Hound) killed Dondarrion who was soon resurrected by Thoros.

Anyway, Catelyn is resurrected by Dondarrion but he sacrifices his life for hers. He is a little beaten up by this point having lost an eye, been hung amongst other things. Catelyn is physically damaged beyond repair and, as her throat has been cut, can no longer speak. She assumes the name Lady Stoneheart and is determined to exact punishment on those who killed her family. Of course she goes a little overboard and kills anyone vaguely associated with the rival houses including Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne.

Game of Thrones
Fairley will not be joining the GoT cast, sadly, ever again.

Lady Stoneheart should have appeared in the finale of season 4, in line with the books. Unfortunately for fans, this didn't happen which left us all wondering if Catelyn would return at all.

Sadly, it has been confirmed by the actress who played Catelyn, Michelle Fairley, that her character would not be returning. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fairley was asked about Catelyn's possible return to which she responded "The character's dead. She's dead," laying to rest any hopes fans had of seeing her as Lady Stoneheart.

Fairley did not seem overly perturbed by exiting the series and even stated she avoids "like the plague" any online speculation. She also said she respects the writers' decisions and understood how Catelyn's story may be too much to tell in such a limit time period. Fairley said "You respect the writers' decision. I knew the arc, and that was it. They can't stick to the books 100 percent. It's impossible; they only have 10 hours per season. They have got to keep it dramatic and exciting, and extraneous stuff along the way gets lost in order to maintain the quality of brilliant show."

Tywin Lannister followed Catelyn Stark a series later on GoT.