‘Game of Thrones’ season 5, episode 4 reaction: Actor on Ser Barristan surprise

“Game of Thrones” is a series that does very much enjoy the surprise ending from time to time, and part of that includes also writing out characters that lived much longer in the books than they do on the small screen. This happened once again on Sunday night’s new episode, as we big farewell to someone who had become a rather trusted ally to Dany over the past couple of years in Ser Barristan. He knows where many of the bodies are buried in King’s Landing, which is precisely why he was such an interesting tool for her to try to use.

Unfortunately for her, tonight’s episode brought us the character’s demise, as he was done away with during a fierce battle in Meereen. Seemingly, Grey Worm has died right along with him. Actor Ian McElhinney played the character on the series, and because he read the books, he thought he was going to leave much longer than he ultimately did.

So what is his reaction to the character’s death? Here is what he had to say on the subject to Entertainment Weekly:

“I’m disappointed. But I think you have to accept—as I have accepted—that the demands of TV are different than the demand of book writing. With TV there’s a pressure to create a number of high points. One of the big things about this series—it’s true in the books and even more true in the series—is the surprise element, the shocks. They’ve got to keep that up because people expect that. You can’t predict anything but what you can predict is that there will be surprises.”

We will miss the character too, but for now, we are looking forward to getting a chance to see more of some other new additions to Meereen, and this includes Ser Jorah and also Tyrion.

If you do want to get some other news related to Sunday night’s “Game of Thrones” episode, be sure to head over here to read our full episode review! Also, you can sign up here in the event you want some other TV updates on everything we cover sent right over to you, courtesy of our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)