“Valar Morghulis.” All Men must Die. One Game of Thrones character learned this lesson the hard way in yesterday’s head smashing episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN EPISODE 8 “THE MOUNTAIN AND THE VIPER.”

Last night, Prince Oberyn Martell — played by the awesome Pedro Pascal — met his grisly end at the hands of The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) during Tyrion Lannister’s (Peter Dinklage) absolutely fantastic trial by combat.

And boy, it sure wasn’t pretty! Even book readers who knew what was coming had to be somewhat taken aback at the way the end went down.

Here’s what Pedro Pascal had to say about his character’s gruesome demise (‘cause, you know, getting your eyes gouged out and your head smashed like a ripe pumpkin is such a not-so-pleasant way to go):

“It’s awful. It’s heartbreaking. I love the character. I fell in love with the character and maybe that helped me play him. The first thing that helped me identify with him was actually a love for him. I found him very delicious. I also found him very, very honorable and very progressive and just an all-around badass, not because he’s a great fighter and because he likes to f*** everything that moves, but because he has morals that I identify with. So it was always very hard for me to kind of like, detach myself from my own heartbreak that the character goes out the way that he goes out.”

At least the Red Viper finally got the public confession he wanted: that Gregor Clegane, a.k.a. The Mountain That Rides, had raped and killed Oberyn’s sister Elia and her babes.

“I had this really interesting conversation with Lena Headey when we were on set and we were talking about the character – Oberyn’s journey — and how in the end, he ultimately does hear the words spoken aloud,” Pedro said. “And we talked about the possibility — is there a kind of release? Is there a sort of delivering himself into his own end? I mean, this is very interpretive, but it was just a really interesting and inspiring conversation that I had with her.”

But there’s one other confession Oberyn sadly didn’t get to hear — that Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) was the man behind it all.

What did you think of last night’s episode of Game of Thrones? Were you guys shocked by Oberyn’s tragic end? Are you sorry to see the character go?

(via Access Hollywood)