Oh, maybe. I looked for him and didn't see him, so I thought they just decided to, uh, well, adjust his story from the books.

He's obviously the acting head of the Night's Watch at this point, and he spent all season trying to convince them of things that needed to be done to protect Castle Black. Yeah, it's not much, at least compared to what's coming, but "complete projection from [the] reviewer" it is not.