Game of Thrones were happy about at least cameo during the series finale. In one of the last shots of the series, Jon Snow was reunited with Ghost.
Warning! Spoilers for the Game of Thrones series finale lie ahead!
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In the finale, Jon (Kit Harington) was punished for killing Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), even though his snap decision saved Westeros from being ruled by an angry queen who will probably not stop killing in her pursuit to “free” more peoples.
While Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) became the new King of the Six Kingdoms, Sansa (Sophie Turner) became the queen of an independent Winterfell and Arya (Maisie Williams) went off to go where no Westeros citizen has gone before, Jon was sent to The Wall and to return to the Knight’s Watch with Tormund (Kristofer Hivju).
While Jon was sad about this, he did reunite with Ghost the direwolf in Wenterfell, on his way to the Haunted Forest and The Wall.
This was the first appearance of Ghost since Episode 4, when Jon notably did not give his pet a proper goodbye on his way to King’s Landing. Director David Nutter blamed a “CGI issue” that prevented us from getting the goodbye scene.
I mean, Jon finally petting Ghost was all we really wanted. #GoT
โ Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) May 20, 2019
However, the Thrones team still appears to have cheated to get Ghost into the series finale. Fans quickly realized the scene was actually an edited version of a shot used back during Season 4. Although this was not confirmed, fans crafted a conspiracy theory, suggesting the Thrones producers added the scene in the last moment as a response to outrage for leaving Ghost out of Episode 4.
โWHOOSAGOOD- itโs you. Youโre a good boy.โ #ghost #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/Vv0sdOOnwL
โ Melissa Anelli (@melissaanelli) May 20, 2019
Lord Ghost of House Stark, first of his name. Protector of Jon and just a real good boy. #GamefThrones #Ghost pic.twitter.com/9CwWTiyrtA
โ Mr Jordanยฎ (@El_Jordinho) May 20, 2019
JON: *pets Ghost*
Me:#GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/aL4CV4e31b
โ Chris Masse (@cjmasse) May 20, 2019
It is not clear if the scene was added in response to the outrage, especially since the finale was likely finished long before the first episode of the season even aired.
The final episode of Game of Thrones is now the most-watched episode in the show’s history. Simply titled “The Iron Throne,” the show pulled in 19.3 million viewers for the main broadcast and streaming on HBO Now and HBO Go. It was also the most-watched broadcast in HBO’s history, with 13.6 million people watching it live at 9 p.m. ET. It beat the series finale of The Sopranos, which had 13.4 million total viewers.