Game of Thrones Final Season Cut a Key Scene From Theon’s Redemption

Game of Thrones gave Theon Greyjoy a measure of redemption in its final season. Theon led the rescue of his sister, Yara Greyjoy, who he’d abandoned in Euron Greyoy’s clutches the previous season. He then returned to Winterfell to make right his betrayal of House Stark by dying to defend Bran Stark in the Godswood from the forces of the Night King. The scripts for the season, which are now available to read at the Writers Guild Foundation library in Los Angeles, reveal that his redemption was made more explicit by a cut scene from an episode early in the season.

One of the scripts (according to Insider) includes a conversation between Theon and Yara that takes place after he rescues her. He tries to apologize for leaving her behind when Euron attacked, but Yara shrugs it off, telling him, “Don’t be a girl.”

The stage direction in the script reads, “It’s hard for Theon to talk about the night he betrayed his sister and jumped overboard, but he finally brings himself to say the words.” While it sounds gruff, the intent seems to be to confirm a reconciliation between the siblings and bring closure to that storyline before Theon leaves for Winterfell.

Theon Greyjoy actor Alfie Allen earned his first Emmy Award nomination for playing Theon in the final season of Game of Thrones. Despite that, he had a succinct answer when asked about the controversial final season’s ending. “I’m over it,” was all he had to say to Entertainment Tonight.

Despite being controversial with fans, the final season of Game of Thrones won a record number of Emmy Awards and just picked up four Critics Choice Awards nominations. Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff reflected on the show in an interview. “To have it become what it became, and to be able to spend not one year or two years but more than ten years of our lives making it at this level, with the people we got to work with, all them, behind the camera…”, Weiss says.

“We didn’t have any idea that the show would be so big because when we first started going to Northern Ireland, where we shot the show, the customs officers would ask us what we were doing there,” Benioff adds. “We’d say ‘We’re working on this show…’ And they’d say, ‘What is Game of Thorns?’ And then, by the third season, we’d see the customs guys and — literally this happened in the Heathrow Airport — and the guy was reading A Game of Thrones, George [RR Martin]’s book, and we knew that something was starting to cross the threshold of public awareness.”