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

1. “The Winds of Winter,” Season 6, Episode 10

“The Winds of Winter” was a perfect episode from top to bottom. Want to know how good the episode was? Even the Sand Snakes worked for once, and if you can get that terrible group to work, you are cooking with butter, my friend.

From the very first second of the episode, we could tell we were in for something special. At the top of the hour, the various power players in King’s Landing prepare to attend Cersei’s trial, and as composer Ramin Djawadi’s eerie score bloomed in the background, fans began to sense something might be off. Cersei goes into full-on supervillain mode here, burning the Sept Baelor to the ground with all of her rivals inside it. It’s a slowly built scene that pays off remarkably. But wait, we’re not done!

Maester Pycelle is stabbed to death by the Children of the Corn and Tommen throws himself out a window after witnessing the destruction his mother has caused. It was the first and last decision Tommen ever made on his own, and we can’t help but feel sorry for the poor guy (even if he got to marry Margaery.)

After we leave King’s Landing, the surprises come at us with lighting speed, and it’s almost hard to keep up. Jon is elected the new King in the North, Arya murders Walder Frey after feeding him a pie made from his sons’ flesh, Cersei is crowned Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and Daenerys FINALLY sets sail for Westeros. Get all that? Good. Now catch your breath, cause there’s more.

Perhaps the biggest reveal of the season, or even the series, was the reveal of Jon’s true parents. Bran warps into the past, and we finally get confirmation of the biggest fan theory of the series: that Jon is actually the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. And I jumped out of my chair.

All that said, two of the smaller moments stood out the most. Jon and Sansa’s conversation about who will take their parents room was a great moment, acted gracefully by Kit Harrington and Sophie Turner. It reminded us what out heroes are ultimately fighting for: family.

Even better was Ser Davos confronting Melisandre about her involvement in the death of Shireen Baratheon back in Season 5. Every word spoken by Liam Cunningham drips with anger and pain, and to see him shouting down Melisandre is to see fury incarnate. Melisandre’s counter argument, that Stannis allowed it to happen, shakes Davos to the core. Cunningham so often serves as the voice of the audience, and his rage is frightening.

Small scenes like these, coupled with the bigger, more shocking ones, are what make “The Winds of Winter” our number one episode of the series.

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