Every episode from the final season of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best

Image: Helen Sloan

“Winterfell,” Season 8, Episode 1

The show’s final season premiere is a pretty standard episode of Game of Thrones, which is just fine with us. There’s a lot of political back-and-forth at Winterfell as Sansa and her followers try to adjust to the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen, the queen their king has chosen for them. It’s fun to see characters who have never met mix it up, and the reunions are nice, particularly the one between Jon and Arya.

But Samwell Tarly steals the show. He finds himself far more distraught than he probably figured he would be after learning that Daenerys executed his father and brother back in “Eastwatch” in season 7. Sad and mad, he tells Jon the secret of his birth, and nothing can ever be the same.

“Winterfell” also sports a few big set pieces. The first is the best: Daenerys and her party arrive at the Stark home base in all their glory, fascinating the townsfolk with their grandeur and terrifying them with the giant flying murder machines they’ve brought north. Later, there’s a creepy scene at the Last Hearth where Tormund Giantsbane and Dolorous Edd find little Lord Ned Umber stabbed to a wall, not dead but undead, screeching as he dies wreathed in flame. It’s a reminder of the grim fate coming for them all.

Then we have Jon and Daenerys’ dragon-back joyride through the North, which feels like a scene cut out of some big-budget romantic comedy and grafted awkwardly onto Game of Thrones. I get that the show needs to establish that these two love each other before their romance crumbles, but I shouldn’t feel them trying this hard.

Oh, and the whole thing ends with Jaime Lannister pulling up to Winterfell to find Bran Stark, the kid he pushed out a window in the series premiere, sitting in wait for him. It’s a delightful big gulp of a final moment. This is a solid outing.