And the best episode of Game of Thrones Season 5 is…
By Dan Selcke
…”Hardhome.” Oh, at least try and look surprised.
“Everything is going according to plan.”
And really, it wasn’t even remotely close. “Hardhome” ran away with well over half the vote, leaving “The Dance of Dragons” and “Mother’s Mercy” to fight over the scraps. No other episode managed to snag barely more than 1% of the vote, and while I understand the instinct to go with the big, splashy episodes, that was still a bit surprising. So few people enjoyed the quiet density of “High Sparrow” or “Kill the Boy” enough to vote for them? How about Cersei’s arrest in “The Gift?” I figured that would be worth more than 1.06%, but the people have spoken.
[polldaddy poll=9044613]
On the other hand, I voted for “Hardhome,” so who am I to criticize? I’ll let prolific commenter a57se explain why the episode hit such a chord.
"The best scene of the entire series could easily end up being the Hardhome Massacre. You think when Jon destroys the White Walker that maybe the battle will turn in their favor but NO, the Night’s King screeches and hundreds of Wights go all lemming over the cliffs and in Dolorous Edd’s infamous words of “O FOOK”. we know this is no fair fight and it is time to run.How anyone who watches this show can ever again think of anything other than the Nights’ King raising the dead at the end of Hardhome whenever someone says the Stark words “Winter is Coming” is beyond me. This scene should have changed everyones’ view of A Game of Thrones permanently."
Throughout the first four season of the show, we all knew in the back of our minds that the threats all the characters were preoccupied with—war, gamesmanship, succession—didn’t really matter, at least not as much as the looming menace of the White Walkers growing beyond the Wall. It was the innovation of “Hardhome” to bring that menace front and center. The episode brought the real stakes of the game into clear view, and it did so in a tremendously entertaining way. Game of Thrones can never be the same.