The Battle Of Winterfell Is Over, But WTF Happened To Ghost?

It was a long time coming, but the Battle of Winterfell didn’t disappoint. In the third, highly anticipated Season 8 episode of Game of Thrones, fans got to see some of their favorite characters in action, including Jon’s beloved dire wolf Ghost. He ran into battle like a superhero, but wasn’t seen or heard from again. It breaks my heart to even think it, but did Ghost die in the Battle of Winterfell?

Luckily, in a sneak peek for the next episode, you can see that Ghost managed to survive the White Walker attack, and is still very much alive. Fans have been pretty vocal about his absence from the show in the past few seasons, so it was a treat to see him back on screen in Season 8. However, knowing that almost of all of the Stark direwolves are dead — minus Arya’s Nymeria — there is a lingering fear that Ghost could die, too.

But Game of Thrones fans know what a formidable force Ghost is. He fought off wights in Seasons 1 and 3, and he’s been fiercely protective of Jon and his friends, especially Sam. There hasn’t been much build-up for his character in recent seasons, so seeing Ghost charge into the deadly darkness alongside Jorah and the Dothraki in “The Long Night” was both thrilling and worrisome. There were only two options for the white wolf after the battle — to either fall and join the army of the dead, or to survive and fight alongside Jon in battles to come. Thankfully, Ghost lives to fight another day, and I know fans are praying that he makes it to the end in one piece.

In the teaser for Episode 4, you can see a glimpse of Ghost standing among the survivors of the battle. He’s almost hidden in the group, but if you look very closely, you can see him lingering behind Sam, Daenerys, Varis, and Missandei. In the scene, some of the surviving key players — including Jon, Daenerys, Grey Worm, Sansa, Arya, and Tormund — are holding fiery torches and walking towards pyres of dead bodies that lay outside the gates of Winterfell.

The trailer also forecasts that the next episode will take the story into King’s Landing, where Cersei is waiting for Jon and Dany with her Golden Army. Now that almost all of the Dothraki, the Unsullied, the Wildlings, and northern armies have been decimated by the White Walkers, there aren’t many soldiers left to fight a war against Cersei. Aside from having a handful of immense fighters like Jon, Arya, Brienne, Jaime and Tormund on their side, the only key weapons the good guys have are Dany’s remaining two dragons, a small fleet of ships from the Iron Islands, and Ghost.

Whether he rips out Euron’s throat, or fights off soldiers from the Golden Army, I’m sure fans are hoping to see Ghost play a distinctive part going forward. With three episodes left in the series, there should be plenty of opportunities for him to take to the spotlight one last time.

New episodes of Game of Thrones air every Sunday, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.