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

5. “The Watchers on the Wall,” Season 4, Episode 9

If ever there was an episode built purely for the IMAX screen, this was it. Game of Thrones fans were treated to watching this episode, along with the fourth season finale, roughly a month before the Season 5 premiere last spring. Like Blackwater from Season 2, this episode focuses solely on one plot, in this case the wildling attack on the Wall and Castle Black. All the wildlings we’ve met over the past couple seasons participate, including Jon’s ex-girlfriend Ygritte.

Other than Gilly somehow being able to slip past the contingent of wildlings camped outside Castle Black, this episode is top to bottom fun. Mance Rayder and his giants attack the outer gate of the Wall on one side, and Ygritte, Tormund, and Styr attack Castle Black from the front, and the result is pure chaos. Alliser Thorne gets a couple moments to shine, giving epic pep talks to the men of the Night’s Watch. It’s enough to make you see the normally prickly veteran of the Watch in a completely new light.

Sam and Pyp provide the levity for the episode, as they struggle in vain to actually hit something with their crossbows, and when they finally do, their joy is cut short when Pyp takes an arrow through the throat. Oh Game of Thrones, we should have known better.

Jon’s evolution as a leader is completed in this episode. He takes charge of first the Wall and then the defense of Castle Black after Alliser Thorne is injured. He also sends his friends on a suicide mission to defend the tunnel under the Wall, which takes a heavy toll on him. And then he reunites with Ygritte.

After dispatching the leader of the Thenns, Jon comes face to face with the woman who filled him full of arrows at the end of the previous season. Ygritte aims a bow at him, but seems hesitant to draw, and despite all the carnage swirling around him, Jon manages a smile for the love of his life, happy to see her no matter the circumstances. But as with Pyp, we should have known better. Olly shoots Ygritte through the back, and she dies in Jon’s arms after giving him one last, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”