It may have been filled with several shockers and probably the most jaw-dropping ending since the controversial 'Red Wedding' episode, but the 'Game of Thrones' finale for Season Five is now the highest rating episode in the show's history.
The audience pull of 'Mother's Mercy' is made even more incredible by the fact that it was up against the NBA finals on Sunday night.
According to Variety, the 'Game of Thrones' season finale drew in an astounding 8.11 million viewers who had wanted to find out about the fates of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington). This is a significant 14% higher than the previous episode 'The Dance of Dragons,' which pulled 7.14 million viewers.
'The Children,' which was the previous season's final episode, only drew in 7.09 million viewers.
The Season Five finale also broke the internet, or Twitter, at least. 'Mother's Mercy' was on top of the Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings weekly top 10 series list with more than 436,000 tweets related to the episode. There were 5.1 million Twitter users who posted their reactions to the season finale's depressing ending.
When you finished watching the Game of Thrones Season Finale pic.twitter.com/uKW2gVWbBY
— Darth Vader (@DepressedDarth) June 16, 2015
[Warning, spoilers ahead]
'Mother's Mercy' was a mixture of vengeance, hope and despair. Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) finally took revenge on Ser Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie), who she believed had killed her sword-fighting teacher Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou). However, her actions led to severe consequences.
Cersei finally gave in to the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) and confessed to her crime, expecting to be set free. Although she was allowed to return to the Red Keep, her hair was first shorn off and she was forced to walk home naked.
Watch fans react to last night's shocking death on #GameOfThrones: https://t.co/K1Z8WiRppl pic.twitter.com/XKxhdCSuBj — Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) June 16, 2015
Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the 'Game of Thrones' season finale was the ending. Jon Snow is lured out on the news of his Uncle Benjen Stark's (Joseph Mawle) return. Unfortunately, it was a trap set by Ser Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) who wanted to murder him "for the Watch."
'Game of Thrones' Season Six will air on HBO in 2016.
