All 10 episodes of The Winter King, ranked worst to best
By Dan Selcke
3. The third best episode of The Winter King is Episode 9
By the end of the season, The Winter King had spent enough time for all the characters to rightly call itself an ensemble show. They didn’t have to give Arthur screentime just because he was famous: he’d earned it, and he shares it with other characters like Derfel, Guinevere and Morgan. And in this episode they’re all mad at him over his decision making.
To make a long story short, Arthur upset some powerful people when he spurned Ceinwyn to marry Guinevere, and he’s not handling the aftermath particularly well. This episode does a good job of showing how even a smart and considerate man like Arthur can let down the people around him. When you’re in charge, it might even be inevitable.
This is one of those episodes that basically ends with a “come back next week” banner, but that’s inevitable in a serialized show like this. Minute for minute, it might be the most tightly written hour of the show.
2. The second-best episode of The Winter King is Episode 7
And here’s where Arthur makes the choices that screw everything up. Episode 7 is set almost entirely at King Gorfydd’s compound in Powys, where Arthur is supposed to marry Gorfydd’s daughter Ceinwyn. Instead he falls for Guinevere, and she for him. The episode does a good job of teasing out all the consequent conflicts. We understand that Arthur’s in love, but also that he’s risking the lives of not only everyone in his party but maybe even all of England, if his alliance with Gorfydd falls through. The characters know they should do one thing but want to do another. There’s a lot of good tension in that conflict.
Ceinwyn emerges as perhaps the episode’s MVP. She takes Arthur’s rejection a lot more gracefully than a lot of people would, I imagine. If the show gets another season, she’ll be back, at least if the series follows the books.