The Small Council: What was the best episode of Game of Thrones Season 5?

Game of Thrones Season 5 had a well-defined structure to it. The first several episodes were slow and heavy on setup, while the last few were action-packed to an almost dizzying extent. This week, the writers at Winter is Coming debate which of the ten episodes did its job best. Let us know what you think in our poll!

RAZOR: Come on, this is a no-brainer…Episode 8, “Hardhome.” Or is it? Honestly, the very first episode of the season is my favorite this time around. Episode 1, “The Wars to Come” sets into motion events that would run through the entire season. Plus, how much weight should you give the show’s first ever flashback? I say a lot! Although Maggy the Frog wasn’t green and wart-covered like she was in the books, I still enjoyed seeing her interact with a perfectly cast young Cersei Lannister.

That flashback scene clarified that Cersei has always been a nasty and entitled little shit, which is how she acted in Season 5 until the High Sparrow fed her a heaping helping of comeuppance. Watching a snooty young Cersei, with her whole life ahead of her, cocksure that she would always remain beautiful and in power, threaten Maggy, only to be told that her life would be turned upside down in her older years—or as Tyrion so eloquently put it in Season 3, “Your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth and you will know the debt is paid”—really hit home as I watched her take her walk of atonement in the finale. The lioness of House Lannister finally had her mane shorn, her finery stripped from her, and her sins laid bare for all to see, and it was all setup in Episode 1, “The Wars to Come.”

KATIE: Episode 503, “High Sparrow,” lit up the screen with rays of hope—many of which were blotted out in episodes to come—but for one blissful week I could rest somewhat easy. Jaqen dropped a little Syrio panache when he told Arya that “There is only one god.” Both Arya and Sansa were well on their way to achieving justice, both of them taking on roles they resisted but accepted as necessary. Brienne’s loyalty was explored and expounded upon, reassuring us all that she would stay true to the Starks, protecting the young women as their respective journeys darkened. Jon asserted his no-nonsense authority by beheading Janos Slynt, proving himself to Stannis and therefore gaining a powerful ally. Handsomest Man On the Planet Ser Jorah returned, truly a glory to behold.

Now, admittedly, much of this fell apart in the following weeks—Arya is punished, Sansa is abused, Brienne abandons her post, Jon and Stannis (seemingly) bite it, and Ser Jorah is generally the world’s biggest sadsack, what with his unrequited love and newly obtained greyscale. But at the time, we didn’t see any of that coming; I for one was blissfully ignorant, spinning in a field of daisies. Sure, those daisies eventually spontaneously combusted and I was left to mourn their ashes, but what “High Sparrow” reminded me was that there is hope. Amidst all the destruction, the deceit, and all the falls from grace, there is still fight left in the characters who have something to fight for. Eventually we see Stannis lose his way, but looking back on it all, the others make their mistakes so purposefully that you have to wonder if they’re mistakes at all but rather a means to each of their personal ends.

Finding and holding onto hope is what makes this show so compelling. More times than not, we have to ask “How can it get worse than this?” and the showrunners deliver by somehow finding a low for our characters. But if we didn’t believe that these characters could make it through, if we didn’t think that the dead Starks will be avenged, that the Lannisters and the Boltons will get their just desserts, then tuning in every week would just be emotional masochism. Time and again, the bad guys end up on top, but the thing about the “game of thrones” is that it’s a slow simmer; it takes time and patience to win, and maintaining that win is strategic. It’s not all slaughter—the bad guys win battles, yes, but the war stretches further than a few dead armies.

That, to me, was what “High Sparrow” represented. There is tactical decision-making, schemes to plot, and enemies to unravel. It’s a slow burn to victory, filled with pain and loss, but oftentimes it’s the loss that instills that fight in you. Characters like the Stark sisters, Brienne, and Daenerys have all known the heavy hand of loss, and it drives them to succeed. And that’s why I watch the show—so I can see them win. The triumph of the good guy might not be GRRM’s or the producers’ calling card but, then again, that’s where the hope comes in.

ANI: Look, I know. You’re all going to vote for “Hardhome.” There’s very little I can say or do to change the prevailing wisdom on this subject. But friends, Game of Thrones countrymen, lend me your ears for a moment, while I suggest that there is another option, and that option is “Mother’s Mercy.”

“Mother’s Mercy” is an incredible episode. It might not feel like one, coming as it does after the one-two ice-fire punch of “Hardhome” and “The Dance of Dragons.” But let us consider! First off, it opens with the first suicide in Game of Thrones history—Ashara Dayne does not count here!—and it only gets darker as the hour goes along. Then there’s the body count. This is a show known for high body counts, and perhaps six in the grand scheme does not seem like that many when placed next to the final scene of “The Rains of Castemere, which was the last time David Nutter had a crack at this show. But that was a massacre. Like in “Hardhome” and “The Dance of Dragons,” those episodes saw one or two (or three) known speaking parts killed, while the masses in the background died. “Mother’s Mercy” doesn’t let you off that easy. There were six singular, individual deaths, and all of those characters died in different ways at different times in different places. All were speaking roles, two of them major speaking roles, and they all died over the same 63-minute period. That’s one death every ten minutes, and when you consider that a major portion of the episode is given over to Lena Headey’s incredible performance during the walk of shame, that means those deaths actually come in much quicker succession than a cursory viewing might suggest.

And that’s not even getting to the major plot points that are packed in between the slaughter and Cersei’s walk. Stannis’ army is wiped out, ending the long and protracted War of Five Kings, while also removing from the board the one major piece outside of Castle Black that was taking the danger north of the Wall seriously. Theon finally comes to his senses, and he and Sansa escape from the horrendously abusive Ramsay Bolton into the snow, putting the character everyone considers “the key to the North” in flux. In Dorne, Elleria finally gets her revenge for Oberyn’s death, all but guaranteeing that a hysterical Cersei will demand war, and putting the seventh kingdom’s relationship with King’s Landing in serious jeopardy. The only factor currently working in Dorne’s favor is that in King’s Landing, the High Sparrow has completely upended the board, and destroyed any capital Cersei had left after her disastrous reign. At this point, Kevan may simply refuse to go to war because Cersei insists upon it.

In Braavos, Arya was just force-fed the red pill only to discover that the rabbit hole goes way deeper than her tiny little mind and eyesight can handle. And in Meereen, the Mother of Dragons, who everyone has loved or feared, has taken an extended leave of absence to go a journey to find herself, leaving Tyrion and Varys to cope. As more travelers from Westeros head to Meereen and find Tyrion in charge, how long until news reaches King’s Landing that the traitorous Lannister Brother is supporting the coming Targaryen invasion?

But of course, we’re avoiding the real reason that “Mother’s Mercy” is the best episode of the season. This is the best episode because it was the one that left us all with the mother of all cliffhangers, guaranteeing it will be the most talked about show for the rest of the year, and the first quarter of the next, and probably that the first episode of Season 6 will be the most watched premiere episode in the history of television. Even the President of the Free World is asking anyone related to Game of Thrones the same question the rest of us keep asking: Jon Snow’s not really dead right? Right? RIGHT?

My lords and ladies, the defense rests.

CAMERON: A vote, an oath, an execution, and a mysterious pair of doors. Few early episodes of a season have promised quite as much excitement to come as “The House of Black and White,” which featured many memorable moments, from Brienne and Pod encountering Sansa and Littlefinger, to Jon Snow becoming Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, to Tyrion and Varys discussing the value of life. And then there was that execution scene, as Daenerys faces the consequences of her decisions in Meereen. That gripping scene, which quickly turns into a class riot, signaled the beginning of a series of unfortunate events for the Khaleesi. “The House of Black and White” is an episode of characters on the brink of significant change as they find and lose their identities—a key theme of the series. Are you ready to become no one?

DAN: Okay, yes, as David and Ani suggested above, voting for “Hardhome” is a bit of an obvious choice, but that doesn’t mean it’s the wrong choice. “Hardhome” is a banner episode of Game of Thrones, and not just because of the tremendous action sequence that takes up the final half. A lot of storylines were firing on all cylinders here.

For example, the conversations between Daenerys and Tyrion, which show-watchers had been anticipating since the beginning of the season and book-readers since the beginning of the show, were carefully written to honor the nuances of both characters. The temptation for a writer in this situation would have been to indulge in fan service (Two fan favorite characters are coming together! Time for a meet cute!), but David Benioff and Dan Weiss treat them as hardened survivors who are understandably wary of each other. Because the conversations are taken seriously, they’re engrossing rather than indulgent.

The scenes showing Cersei in holy prison were also effective—if anything could convince us that Cersei could be pushed to the point where she’d negotiate with the High Sparrow, it’s that shot of her slurping water off the floor—as were Arya’s adventures as Lana the seafood salesman. Her trips walks through the back-alleys were quietly comic and a little creepy, a fun tone to strike.

And then there’s the Massacre at Hardhome, which on top of being a huge technical achievement for the production team is just really, really fun to watch. Wun Wun bursting from the hut, Karsi getting bum rushed by wight children, Jon shattering the White Walker…the battle was a hit parade of memorable moments. The show had done action scenes before, but it had nothing in the show’s history had ever got the blood pumping quite like this.

The Massacre at Hardhome is also a poster child for the benefits of delayed gratification. In a way, the battle was vindication for every rumor we’d ever heard about the White Walkers, every frightened whisper, every hazy shadow. Game of Thrones has occasionally been criticized for keeping the real stakes so persistently out of view, but all that waiting paid off in “Hardhome,” which taught us a lot of new information about the White Walkers in a really entertaining way.

And like any good entertainer, the episode left us wanting more. When will the Night’s King show up next, and what will he do when he does? Because of “Hardhome,” we’ll all be sitting on the edge of our seats to find out.

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