Video: Uproxx ranks the ninth episodes of each Game of Thrones season
By Dan Selcke
Each season, Game of Thrones tends to break out the big guns when it reaches Episode 9. In Season 1, Ned Stark got his head chopped off in “Baelor.” In Season 2, Stannis attacked King’s Landing in “Blackwater.” Season 3 gave us the Red Wedding with “The Rains of Castamere,” Season 4 the Battle of Castle Black in “The Watchers on the Wall,” and Season 5 made us endure the burning of Shireen Baratheon and then torched a whole bunch of Sons of the Harpy in Daznak’s Pit. Episode 9: it’s a big deal.
In the long internet tradition of rankings things against other things, Uproxx has compiled a handy video ranking the ninth episodes of each Game of Thrones season. Do you agree with its pics?
These kinds of rankings are always a little suspect. What exactly gives one episode the edge over another? Number of WTF moments? Cohesion? Depth? All of the above? Whether you break down the criteria or not, I think most people know in their guts which episodes are “better” or “worse” than others. I mostly agree with Uproxx’s rankings, although I might switch them around just a tad.
- “The Rains of Castamere”
- “Baelor”
- “Blackwater”
- “The Watchers on the Wall”
- “The Dance of Dragons”
“The Watchers on the Wall” and “The Dance of Dragons” are both fine episodes of Game of Thrones, but I think there’s a drop-off in impact compared to the ninth episodes of the first three seasons. To be fair, the eighth episodes of Seasons 4 and 5 (“The Mountain and the Viper” and “Hardhome” respectively) seem to have taken the place of the ninth episodes as the most eventful. Will this continue in Season 6? Is Episode 8, rather than Episode 9, going to be the banner hour of the year? Or maybe it’ll keep going backwards, and Episode 7 will be the season highlight.
I’d be happy if the show switched up the structure a bit. It wouldn’t do to save all the big events for Episode 9 to the point where it became predictable. In other words, expect the White Walkers to tear down the Wall in Season 6, Episode 3.