'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Finale Leak May Reveal a Jon and Ghost Reunion

Jon Snow said his goodbyes to Winterfell and some of his dearest friends, including his direwolf, Ghost, in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 4. Believing he would be better off North of the Wall, Jon asked Tormund to take Ghost with him instead, but fans were understandably upset when their final scene together garnered only the briefest of head nods from Jon (blink and you’ll miss it). A new Game of Thrones leak, however, suggests the series finale will reunite them and possibly foreshadow Jon’s fate.

Warning: Possible spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 6 ahead.

In the Season 8, Episode 5 podcast episode of A Storm of Spoilers, co-host and journalist Joanna Robinson revealed there would be “extensive patting and petting” of a direwolf in Episode 6. That definitely sounds like Jon and Ghost to us (Arya and Nymeria is a slim alternative contender).

Subscribe for free to Multiverse and get Game of Thrones coverage delivered to your inbox the night the episode airs.

The quote was given to Robinson from another journalist by way of a VFX technician for Game of Thrones. This heavily implies a reunion between Jon and Ghost, and the only way that will happen is if Jon heads North of the Wall.

There are only a couple of reasons why Jon would make that trip, and only one that really makes sense. The most logical theory is that Jon will send himself into exile after killing Daenerys to stop her from murdering even more people after the Battle of King’s Landing. After killing his lover/aunt, Jon will likely refuse his place on the Iron Throne and instead “take the black” to avoid the death penalty for regicide before heading north to rejoin Ghost and Tormund.

If you want to get a little more out there, you could speculate that Jon’s trip back North and his reunion with Ghost may be spurred by the return of the White Walkers. There’s two major theories that could explain this: 1.) Dany becomes the Night Queen or 2.) Jon actually becomes the new Night King. Does that make Ghost a White Walker pup?

Longtime Game of Thrones director David Nutter suggested the reason Jon didn’t pet, pat, or hug Ghost goodbye in Episode 4 was due to CGI limitations. “Since the direwolves are kind of CG creations, we felt it best to keep it as simple as possible,” Nutter told Huffington Post. “And I think that it played out much more powerfully that way.”

It seemed like a questionable reason for the decision at first, especially considering all the CGI that went into creating Daenerys’ dragons. If this was really the last time Jon would ever see Ghost, their farewell should have been much more emotional, right? However, now that we know Ghost might appear again in Episode 6, perhaps the lackluster goodbye was precisely because the duo would get a more touching moment later on.

If Jon’s going North of the Wall, it’s definitely less likely he’ll be crowned King of Westeros (possibly leaving an opening for Sansa). Though he has a claim to the throne as the last male-born Targaryen, Jon never wanted to rule and probably feels more at home in the North than he would at King’s Landing (which is destroyed now, anyway). He could also become leader of the Free Folk, which is highly possible since he already has Tormund’s trust. Whatever happens, the reveal of a direwolf reunion effectively seals his fate and brings his journey right back to where it all started.

Game of Thrones Season 8 finale airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO.