Jon Snow is alive. Despite showrunners, actors, producers and HBO all insisting otherwise, Jon returned to the land of the living a mere two episodes into Game of Thrones season six, after being resurrected by a doubtful Melisandre.
That Jon now lives isn't the most interesting part. How he has changed is. Jon has seen what lies on the other side of death, and tells Melisandre that there is nothing. There is no afterlife, no reward, no punishment. Just darkness. That looked to have changed Jon's outlook on life fundamentally.
We've already seen this new Jon in action on the show. After executing some of the key members involved in his murder, Jon relinquishes his cloak and title of Lord Commander to his friend Dolorous Edd. He then storms out of Castle Black, seemingly determined to forge a new path for himself.
The pre-death Jon, the honorable bastard of Winterfell, would never abandon his post. In season five, Jon turned down an offer by Stannis to became the rightful heir of Winterfell. He was Lord Commander. He swore an oath. And he would die before he went back on his word.
Turns out, Jon did die, and it has freed him in more ways than one. In addition to his outlook on life having been changed, his literal death may have actually freed him from his lifelong oath to the Night's Watch as well.
Maybe. Fans have long speculated that Jon's death would create some kind of legal loophole in which Jon could freely leave the Night's Watch behind without being labeled a deserter. Indeed, nobody looks to be in a hurry to stop Jon as he marches out of Castle Black at the end of episode three. Part of that likely comes from the men under his command being too afraid to get in the way of a man who was stabbed 10 times but is now somehow back from the dead. As Tormund Giantsbane remarks to Jon shortly after his resurrection, some of the men now view Jon as a god.
It's possible that Edd, who is now seemingly the Lord Commander, will be able to bend the rules in order for Jon to walk out of the Night's Watch a free man. Combine that with the fact that few men are likely to volunteer to hunt Jon down if he was labeled a deserter, and it seems like Jon will be safe.
The real question is what's next? Where will Jon go now that he's free from his commitment to the Night's Watch? Winterfell is still held by the Boltons, so he can't simply return home. In fact, Ramsay might actively go out of his way to hunt down and kill Jon if he learns the Stark bastard has left the Wall. Much of Jon's family is dead, and those who still live are lost to Jon. He has no idea where Bran, Rickon, Sansa or Arya are (though it appears that Sansa will be heading Jon's way). In fact, he thinks Bran and Rickon are dead.
George R.R. Martin's books provide few answers. Last time book readers saw Jon, he was lying faceup in the snow in a pool of his own blood. Many speculated he would come back in some way, and now the show has seemingly confirmed Jon's return. Fans are truly in uncharted territory now that the show has sailed past Martin's source material. Jon's entire story in the books has been confined to the Wall and the Night's Watch, so there have been few clues as to what the character might do were he to ever leave his black cloak behind.
Being unable to go to Winterfell and not knowing the location of his remaining family members, Jon could possibly seek shelter at a nearby royal house loyal to the Starks. House Umber would be one likely possibility - if the show hadn't literally just introduced an Umber that sealed an alliance with the Boltons by capturing Rickon. In the books the Umbers are fiercely loyal to the Starks, though one member of the house, Hother Umber, does begrudgingly pledge loyalty to House Bolton in order to avoid the execution of his nephew, who is still a prisoner of the Freys. Another Umber, Mors Crawsford, joins Stannis Baratheon's forces in the novels.
Show Jon, of course, doesn't know about the Umbers' newfound fealty to Ramsay. Another possible house Jon could seek out is House Manderly, the lords of the North's largest city, White Harbor. The show has yet to take viewers to the port city, but Davos traveled there in the books in an attempt to secure an alliance between Stannis and House Manderly.
Though the Manderlys do keep up appearances as being loyal to the Iron Throne and the Boltons, secretly they are anything but. They still have a deep hatred for the Freys and Boltons for their roles in the Red Wedding, where Manderly blood was spilled. Lord Manderly learns that Rickon Stark is still alive, and says that White Harbor will join the side of Stannis if Davos can find the boy. The Manderlys later arrive to "help" the Boltons fight off Stannis and celebrate Ramsay's wedding to a fake Arya, where tensions between the two groups of Northmen run high. Oh, and the Manderlys might have also served the Boltons pies made from slain Freys envoys.
Certainly the Starks do still have allies in the North who are looking for revenge, even if most of them are trying to at least appear loyal to House Bolton. That being said, it still remains to be seen if Jon will seek them out. His motivations at this point are completely unclear. All we know is that he's now ready to leave the Night's Watch behind and live his life to the fullest. After all, you only live once ... or in Jon's case, twice.
