The Pretty Good John

Isn't is pretty clear at this point that he knows she was born and raised in a noble house? He also knew she was from the North. He might not have met her before the war, but he certainly knew Ned from King's Landing at the end of Robert's rebellion. It's also entirely possible that he saw Ned's father, brother and/or Lyanna before their deaths. They've gone out of their way in the series to tell us how much Arya has "the look" of the Starks -- from Yhorrin (sp?) saying that to Ned to Ned telling her how much she looked like Lyanna. It might have dawned on him that this 10 year old noble born Northern girl who looks like the Starks running around 500 miles from home is the same missing Stark girl they're looking for (and might be able to exchange for Jaime). He is ceratinly much more familiar and friendly with her now -- after he had a conversation we did not hear with Littlefinger that began with Littlefinger describing his conversation with Catlin about exchanging Arya and Sansa for Jaime. If Tywin didn't know who she was at first, I bet he knows by the time he gives her his mutton.

I'm wondering if these extra Littlefinger scenes with the Arya plotline are leading to something specific -- that wasn't in the books. First, we have the gratuitous scene where Cersei threatens his life and tells him to have his people find Arya. At the time, no one understood why that scene was added other than to make Cersei look like she's losing her composure. Then, we have the gratuitous scene in this episode where Arya is, of all places in the Seven Kingdoms, attending to Tywin and she even spills wine on Littlefinger. People seem to think that this scene was added just to increase artificial tension, but they had enough tension with Lorch seeing her with the note and chasing her, etc. I don't know what it's building to. Maybe when Tywin shows up in Kings Landing, Littlefinger will ask "where's Arya Stark? Didn't you bring her? She was your cupbearer at Harrenhal. What do you mean you didn't know? How could you not know? Young, educated Northern girl on her own about a thousand miles from home. Same age as the young educated Northern girl that your daughter, Varys and my spies have been searching frantically for not far from here. You didn't know? When was the last time you saw her?" In the books, Littlefinger had no involvement at all in the Arya plot. I have to believe these two extra scenes that chewed up precious minutes and made no sense at the time will tie in somewhere down the road.