All 73 episodes of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best
66. “The Iron Throne,” Season 8, Episode 6
The series finale of Game of Thrones is really two episodes. The first half deals with the aftermath of Daenerys Targaryen’s slaughter of King’s Landing, as she makes speeches to her assembled hordes and executes surviving Lannister soldiers without trial. Jon and Tyrion wander the wreckage, looking aghast, and finally plot to kill the Dragon Queen before she can spread her tyranny to the rest of Westeros.
This is the better of the two halves, if for no other reason than because Emilia Clarke gives a final performance to remember. This is particularly true of the scene in the Iron Throne room, where she finally touches the ugly metal chair she’s been chasing all this time. As she talks with Jon Snow, she brings back a little of the hopeful woman we knew, the kind-hearted girl who wanted to rule wisely and well. That’s the woman Jon stabs in the heart, and it hurts.
And then Drogon burns down the Iron Throne, which is pretty cool.
The problem with the first half is that it never really reckons with what came before. The tragedy of Daenerys Targaryen is lyrical and sad…in theory. In reality, we’re still too blindsided by her genocidal about-face in “The Bells” to understand who she is now, how she got here, and why she has to die. As with much of season 8, the plot ran ahead of the story, leaving us behind along with the characters.
The second half is messier. We skip forward in time to find ourselves in the Dragonpit with the assembled Great Lords of Westeros, who elect Bran Stark as their king after Tryion, who’s been in prison ever since Daenerys’ assassination, gives a speech about the importance of stories.
What we needed was more time to understand why these characters are making these choices. Some of them have never heard of Bran before this moment, and others have no reason to think he’s a worthy leader. The scene plays as though it’s a momentous moment for Westeros and the people who rule it — it’s got the right music, the right blocking, the right rhythm — but without the proper buildup, it doesn’t mean much of anything to the people watching at home.
Once the plot is dispensed with, “The Iron Throne” does slow down a bit and lets us say proper goodbyes to some of the characters. Brienne gets a lovely moment where she makes her peace with the role Jaime Lannister played in her life, and a genuinely moving ending montage shows us what becomes of Jon, Arya and Sansa.
“The Iron Throne” is like the final season as a whole: beautiful, lopsided and baffling with occasional bursts of brilliance.
65. “The North Remembers,” Season 2, Episode 1
Although producers have promised to break the trend for Season 6, generally speaking the first episode of each season of Game of Thrones is mostly uneventful. We play catch up with our favorite dysfunctional families, but by and large nothing of note occurs. After the shocking end to Season 1, several new contenders for the Iron Throne pop up here, and we officially kick off the War of the Five Kings, or as I like to call it, Everyone Hates the Lannisters.
This marks the first episode in which Stannis Baratheon and his loyal sidekick Davos Seaworth appear, and as we quickly learn, Stannis is both a man of principle and difficult to get along with. Basically, he’s everything his now-deceased older brother Robert wasn’t. Stannis’ first act as the lawful king of Westeros is to send out a letter to the entire realm revealing the bastardy of King Joffrey and his siblings. A grammatically correct letter.
Speaking of Joffrey, he orders the execution of all of King Robert’s known bastards, and the Gold Cloaks precede to take out half of Kings Landing. King Robert was a busy man.
The third Baratheon brother, Renly, has also declared himself king, bringing the really, really, ridiculously good-looking Tyrell family into the fold, and immediately throwing a series of parties and tournaments. Just like a good king should.
And Daenerys walks around a desert.
64. “Sons of the Harpy,” Season 5, Episode 4
The bad news is, we are back on Season 5. The good news is that most of the rest of the season is really good.
The newly empowered High Sparrow swiftly begins his campaign against the ruling families of King’s Landing, starting by arresting Loras Tyrell—it’s an important moment, but happens a little too quickly for the audience to really take it in. Margery begs little Tommen for help, but Tommen is unwilling to force the issue. Even the king has to sleep on the couch sometimes, it appears.
The Sand Snakes show up in this episode, terrible accents follow, along with a lot of boasting about avenging their father, Oberyn Martell. How someone as cool as Oberyn gave birth to a group of characters as lame as the Sand Snakes is beyond me.
Up at the Wall, Melisandre takes her clothes off for Jon Snow, who skillfully avoids the seduction. Elsewhere at Castle Black, Stannis and Shireen have an affecting conversation about how he stopped at nothing to cure her greyscale.
So by and large nothing shocking about the episode occurs until the final moments, when we jump across the Narrow Sea to Meereen. After Barristan Selmy tells Daenerys a heartwarming story about her deceased brother Rhaegar, Dany gives Ser Barristan the morning off. As Selmy is leisurely strolling through the streets of Meereen, the Sons of the Harpy attack Grey Worm and the Unsullied in a back alley. Barristan rushes to Grey Worm’s aid, and after dispatching a half dozen of the bronze masked terrorists, succumbs to his wounds. But he’s alive in the books!
63. “Eastwatch,” Season 7, Episode 5
“Eastwatch” was something of a blur. Characters jumped from one end of the map to the other, but unlike in other season 7 episodes, there weren’t any particularly magnificent scenes to distract from this contrivance. Look at Ser Davos’ journey: in one episode, he goes from Dragonstone to King’s Landing, back to Dragonstone, and finally ends up at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. We couldn’t help but wonder what the big hurry was.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Bronn had a fine hour, berating Jaime after barely surviving the Loot Train Attack and facilitating a meeting with Tyrion, all while displaying the sarcastic pragmatism we’ve come to love. Gendry’s return was fun, even if it felt a little rushed. Gilly’s accidental discovery of Jon’s true heritage was also a nice moment, and the fact that it flew right over Samwell’s head was priceless. Finally, Dany’s execution of Randyll and Dickon Tarly was a knotty, complicated scene that effectively paid off the massive battle from the preview episode.
But back on the other hand, a good chunk of the episode was devoted to setting up the most idiotic plan in the history of the fantasy genre: kidnapping a single wight north of the Wall to convince Cersei of the existence of the army of the dead. Between the ludicrous nature of Jon and Friends’ mission to the hopping around the map at will, “Eastwatch” was a bit of a mess.
Next: Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things