It’s finally over. After nine years and eight seasons, the most galvanizing television show of the decade has come to an end. Many viewers were left disappointed by the events of the final episode, and the final season, but it was a ratings bonanza for HBO. The last episode of Game of Thrones was watched by 19.3 million viewers across all platforms, smashing its own record as the most watched show in the network’s history. A little more than 44 million people are estimated to have seen every episode this season, and that’s a huge win for HBO despite the lukewarm reaction from the fans.
Season Eight, Episode Six Recap
Unfortunately, a number of spoilers ruined the surprises in the last episode of Game of Thrones. A running Reddit thread proved to be spot on with everything that took place in the final episode, and that was not good news for the sportsbooks as the betting odds shifted drastically over the course of last week.
The biggest shock to those who had managed to avoid the spoilers happened early in the episode. After burning half of King’s Landing and becoming the Queen of the Ashes, Daenerys Targaryen was killed by Jon Snow. Daenerys’ turn in the penultimate episode was somewhat unexpected, but it made sense if you had followed her story closely throughout the series. She always had the capability to burn a city to the ground, and we saw she had a penchant for violence with her actions in Essos.
Additionally, Daenerys no longer had any reliable people around her that she could trust. The deaths of Jorah Mormont and Missandei in consecutive episodes really rattled her, and her remaining confidants proved unworthy of her trust. Varys was openly trying to poison Daenerys, and let his birds fly regarding the true parentage of Jon Snow. Tyrion betrayed her twice, and he made illogical decisions throughout the course of the final season. Davos was an accessory to Tyrion’s last betrayal, and Jon Snow did the one thing she asked him not to do when he told Sansa and Arya about his true lineage.
Ahead of the final episode, the betting odds had shifted drastically due to the spoilers, and Daenerys’ odds on various props saw a lot of movement. She was no longer one of the three favorites to rule Westeros despite taking King’s Landing last week, and there were specific odds regarding whether or not she would die, whether or not she would be the first character to die, and whether or not she would be killed by Jon Snow. All of those ended in the affirmative, much to the chagrin of oddsmakers.
The second biggest surprise was in regards to who was the ruler of Westeros at the end of the series. Jon Snow was the obvious choice, and some believed that Sansa Stark would rise to the top, but the spoilers and the betting odds indicated the eventual monarch would be Bran Stark. That held true in the last episode as Tyrion’s impassioned speech in favor of Bran the Broken led to the gathered nobles voting for Bran to be the new king.
That twist angered a lot of viewers, and it doesn’t really make much sense in hindsight. Bran doesn’t have the story that Arya Stark or Jon Snow do, and installing Bran as the new king when he is also the Three Eyed Raven is strange.
One of the few things the betting odds got wrong was which character would have the last words in the series. There was a lot of action on Samwell Tarly to have the last words, but I noted before that this seemed to be more indicative of a logical bet than due to any spoilers. The last named character to speak ended up being Tyrion Lannister, while the last words were a host of Northmen chanting Queen of the North at Sansa Stark’s coronation.
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