“Why do you think I came all this way?”

Eight years. Seventy-three episodes. Eighty-eight hours. That’s how much time we’ve spent watching Game of Thrones – assuming we’ve only watched each episode once. And that obviously doesn’t take into account the hours and hours we’ve spent reading about every episode of Season 8 online, or the time spent poring over preview trailers, or the minutes that ticked by while we argued with other fans on Twitter.

The finale that aired worldwide at 03:00 (SA time) on Monday, 20 May 2019 was not just the last episode of a popular show. It was a television event. In the States alone, more than 19 million viewers tuned in to watch it, beating the previous series record of 18 million + who watched episode 5.

Episode 6 of Season 8 (along with every other Game of Thrones episode ever) is now available to stream on Showmax. If you haven’t watched it yet, you should do that before you carry on reading, okay?

Before we go into some detail about how this pop culture phenomenon came to an end, check out these pictures of the finale.

 

Before we went into this episode, we knew that the following things were inevitable:

• It would either be Jon or one of the Starks sitting on the Throne at the end. Daenerys, as much as we loved and will always love her, went too far in episode 5. (Bit of an understatement.)
• Tyrion would be punished by Daenerys for betraying him and freeing Jaime.
• But somehow or other, the Imp would be instrumental in bringing lasting peace to King’s Landing.
• The Unsullied, and Grey Worm in particular, would not leave quietly.
• We had not seen the last of Ser Brienne of Tarth, Samwell Tarly or that irrepressible sellsword Bronn.

But if we said we’d have been able to call who exactly it would be sitting on the Throne at the end, we’d be lying. And judging from fan reactions online, we’re not alone.

And while we assumed it would by Arya who brought Daenerys down, it’s fitting that is was Jon who finally twisted the knife (ahem).

Still wondering why Drogon didn’t dispatch his mother’s murderer in one fiery breath? Could it be that he had some awareness of the fact that it wasn’t Jon who killed his mother, even though he committed the final act – it was her relentless pursuit of the Throne that ended up destroying her?

Or maybe he was so stricken with grief that he couldn’t think – or aim – straight.

Either way, we’re so relieved that Jon made it out of King’s Landing alive, and we like to imagine him living out his life with the Free Folk beyond the Wall.

Oh, and Brienne? The way she honoured Jaime’s life by making sure his good deeds and fearless courage would go down in history by writing his legacy in the Book of Brothers, despite how he treated her … does that not prove that she’s probably the most selfless, and frankly, the most good, character in the whole series?

If you’re new to the world of Game of Thrones, you can now stream every single episode of the entire boxset on Showmax. That also goes for those of us who suddenly feel the urge to go right back to the beginning, to watch with fresh eyes, now that we know how it all ends.