We rank the episodes of Game of Thrones season 7 from worst to best

3. “The Dragon and the Wolf”

The final episode of season 7 is one of its strongest, and a nice bounce back after a couple of iffy hours. Unlike “Eastwatch” and “Beyond the Wall,” “The Dragon and the Wolf” is interested in detail and minutia. The first chunk is dominated by a huge gathering of characters at the Dragonpit in King’s Landing, and director Jeremy Podeswa takes his time drawing out the small, intimate moments they share. Dany’s fashionably late arrival on Drogon is the scene-stealer, but it holds no less weight than a cathartic walk-and-talk between Brienne and the Hound, a reunion of the Heroes of Blackwater Bay, and a series of furtive glances between Jaime, Cersei and Brienne.

“Beyond the Wall” leaned on spectacle, which is fine so long as that spectacle is built on a solid foundation. It wasn’t, and the episode was a failure. “The Dragon and the Wolf” leans on character, and is far more successful. The electrifying back and forth between Cersei and Tyrion around the middle of the episode, which finds both Lena Headey and Peter Dinklage at the top of their game, is worth the price of admission by itself.

The episode even manages to pull a fairly satisfying resolution out of the muddled conflict between Arya and Sansa. I would have enjoyed the scene in the Winterfell Great Hall more if it had been built up more carefully, but seeing Sansa, Arya, and Bran unite to take down Littlefinger is still a treat. Let’s hope that, with this conflict resolved, the siblings can start fresh next year.

“The Dragon and the Wolf” also pulls off a couple of big moments towards the end. First, there’s the revelation that Jon and Dany are related, something we find out while they have sex for the first time. The show treats both halves of this scene with the appropriate gravity, but combining them gives them a potency they wouldn’t have by themselves. The guy and the girl finally get together just as we learn they can’t stay that way. The final scene is entertaining, too — it would have been hard to mess up an ice monster riding a zombie dragon and burning down a huge wall. It’s pure spectacle and it works.

And between that, we get excellent character-driven scenes like the one where Jaime finally walks out on Cersei and the one where Theon resolves to rescue Yara. “The Dragon and the Wolf” takes full advantage of the show’s deep bench of characters and superb cast, slowing the pace down so we can fully appreciate where they are and how their journeys are changing. If this is a template for what episodes will be like in season 8, we have a lot to look forward to.