All 73 episodes of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best

9. “The Mountain and the Viper,” Season 4, Episode 8

The rules are thrown out in the jam-packed Season 4. Normally, an episode this good would be the ninth or tenth episode of the season.

Over in Meereen, it finally comes out that Jorah had been spying on Daenerys back when they first met. This scene is painful for Dany and Jorah, as Jorah quickly grew to love Dany, and wants nothing more than to serve by her side. Dany is furious that her most trusted adviser initially came into her service to spy on her for Robert Baratheon, the man who took everything from her family. Dany banishes Jorah in her fury, and the poor old knight walks out of Meereen, defeated and heartbroken.

Back in the Vale, we finally get to see Sansa make a play for herself, tearfully confessing to a tribunal that her crazy aunt Lysa tried to kill her before throwing herself out the Moon Door. Her confession clears Littlefinger of his involvement, and impresses Baelish. If only Sansa’s newfound prowess served her into Season 5.

Outside the Vale, Arya and the Hound arrive to learn Lysa is dead, and Arya can only laugh hysterically at her terrible luck. I laughed with her.

It’s homerun or strikeout for the showrunners when they add a scene not present in the books, but in this case, it’s another home run. After requesting trial by combat in the previous episode, Tyrion and Jamie spend a long night waiting in his cell, discussing an old family relative’s proclivity for smashing beetles. It’s the type of meaningless conversation you have with family, one you’ve had a dozen times before but still laugh at, that means nothing and everything at the same time.

But too soon, it’s time for the combat portion of trial by combat, and it’s a doozy. For the first time in the series, we actually get to see the Mountain fight, and he is an intimidating sight. Oberyn is undaunted, and takes the time to try and wring a confession from his absurdly large opponent as they fight. Dancing and flying around the Mountain, it appears as if the Viper will walk out the victor after he severely wounds his opponent, but apparently Oberyn forgot he was on Game of Thrones and not The Princess Bride. The Mountain catches Oberyn in his moment of triumph, and quickly squashes his head like an oversized grape.

That escalated quickly.