There Was An Honest To God Water Bottle Slap Bang In The Middle Of The ‘Game of Thrones’ Finale

There should be a German word for the deeply unsettling feeling produced by spotting an anachronistic object in an episode of Game of Thrones.

After all, we might have all had a good yuk last time it happened, when a Starbucks coffee cup was spotted sitting slap bang on the table in front of Daenerys Targaryen. But now it’s happened again: last night, during the climax of the very last ever episode of Game of Thrones, there sat a plastic water bottle, hidden only vaguely by the foot of Samwell Tarly.

Sam is v smart he invented democracy AND polyethylene terephthalate. #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/sKvCHCAwKW

— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) May 20, 2019

The first reaction of many Game of Thrones fans has been, understandably, to laugh, and the water bottle has become as much of a viral sensation as the coffee cup that preceded it.

Samwell Tarley: I wonder if my foot is blocking this water bottle.
Also Sam: I wonder if anyone even knows who the F is seated to my right.#GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/7tl8KpQeRg

— Patrick Driscoll (@P_Drizzzle) May 20, 2019

Game of Thrones leaving a plastic water bottle sitting there in the finale is such perfect symbolism for a show that spent the last two seasons rushing to get done and ignoring the important little details that made it great in the first place. pic.twitter.com/P4VWTuGvBM

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) May 20, 2019

LMAOOO I CAN'T BREATHE THEY DID IT AGAIN 💀💀 First Starbucks now a water bottle this show is a joke #GameOfThrones #GameOfThronesFinale #TheFinalEpisode pic.twitter.com/9YaFF8Pnm6

— ℝίτα🐉||GoT Spoilers (@JonxDanyy) May 20, 2019

But I think we can all admit that the laughter is hiding something — the deeply unsettling feeling that we have been had.

This is what happens during the making of a TV show. On set, their eyes peeled for any mistakes, are an entire continuity team. These people frequently take photographs of the set-ups, so that if any props get moved, they can be perfectly rearranged in time for another take. On top of that, a set is presided over by the watchful gaze of a second assistant director, who corrals extras and props, and watches the corners of the frame to ensure that nobody is looking at the camera, or picking their nose.

Then, when the scene is shot, there’s the editing team, who watch the same few seconds of footage over and over again, to precisely trim the action so it moves as fluidly as possible. When they’ve done their job, the colour correction team step in, who digitally grade the footage to create a consistent look.

THE WATER BOTTLE.

THIS IS NOT EVEN FUNNY ANYMORE.

We’ve had a coffe cup, a cameraman, sneakers, Jamie two handed, Drogon flying alone over KL and now a water bottle.

Writing 🤝 Editing
Being the worst GoT departments pic.twitter.com/d6dDpXYsPB

— C. | that is NOT my canon (@carohuntz) May 20, 2019

At any point during the filming of the finale of Game of Thrones, which cost many of millions of dollars, any one of these people could have spotted the very visible water bottle. And if they had, they could have edited it out immediately.

So what the fuck is going on here? There seem to be two options — one is disheartening, one is deeply paranoid. The disheartening one is that the crew of one of the biggest shows in history simply do not give a shit about what they are making. The paranoid one is that the bottle was deliberately left in, so as to generate online chatter and articles just like this one.

You decide which answer you’d prefer.