All 73 episodes of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best
55. “The Bells,” Season 8, Episode 5
The turning point of season 8 comes in “The Bells,” as Daenerys Targaryen sits atop her dragon, Cersei Lannister’s army defeated and the Red Keep looming before her, and she decides to do the unthinkable: she takes off flying, glides low over the city, and burns it and its people to ash, strafing down streets before finally blasting the walls off the Red Keep itself. Following her lead, her army — including Northerners who follow Jon Snow — flood the city and begin looting, raping and pillaging.
It’s definitely the most strikingly photographed section of the season, and the most harrowing. This is no battle between the living and an army of dead men. These are people — civilians — being killed by people, or burned to ash from above.
Clearly, the show spent a lot of time getting this sequence how they wanted it, and it is a spectacular technical achievement. It’s harder to parse where it fits into the story. Daenerys had always had a sense of righteous vengeance; she was willing to slaughter the Masters of Astapor and crucify the Masters of Meereen, and was even prepared to burn that ancient city down if she needed to. But the jump to indiscriminately killing men, women and children in the streets is a stretch, and not one we were prepared to make. Watching the slaughter makes us feel complicit in something untoward, because the show is using such powerful imagery without earning it.
Other moments fly by in a daze. The best is when the Hound, who will soon fight his brother the Mountain in the closest thing Westeros will ever have to WrestleMania, reaches Arya when she’s finally close to her vengeance and convinces her not to throw her life away. Arya closes out the episode rising from the rubble covered in dust, finally free to be herself, whoever that is. We also feel one final pang of sympathy for Cersei as she and Jaime embrace as the Red Keep falls down around them, taking them out of the world as they came into it: together.
But it all comes down to that moment when Daenerys turns. If you bought it, you probably liked this episode. If you didn’t, it was another story. I didn’t buy it, and that breaks my heart a little.
54. “Breaker of Chains,” Season 4, Episode 3
Like “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” “Breaker of Chains” gets one key scene very wrong, but there is so much right with this episode, like the Hound and Arya’s continued road trip shenanigans and Daenerys intimidating the Meereesese at the city gates. And Tywin Lannister. Lots of Tywin. But like the saying goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link.
The episode opens with the wild flight of Sansa and her drunken savior, Ser Dontos Hollard, as they flee King’s Landing immediately after Joffrey’s murder. Dontos rows Sansa out to a ship owned by Littlefinger, who of course promptly murders Ser Dontos. “Money buys a man’s silence for a time. A bolt in the heart buys it forever.” Well said, Littlefinger, well said.
In King’s Landing, we get to see Tywin maneuvering around, always a joy. In front of Joffrey’s corpse, Tywin impresses upon poor little Tommen the importance of listening to one’s advisers, and despite such advice clearly benefiting Tywin himself, Tommen quickly sees the light. But that’s Tommen, always doing what he’s told.
After subduing Tommen, Tywin is off to take on the Red Viper, Oberyn Martell. Tywin interrupts fun time for the Dornish prince, but offers Oberyn the chance to speak with the Mountain about the death of his sister Elia years earlier, in exchange for Oberyn serving as a judge during Tyrion’s trial. Oberyn hates all Lannisters, so it seems like a logical move, stacking the deck against Tyrion, but Oberyn is too much of a wild card to be trusted.
At the Wall, Samwell Tarly decides to move his girlfriend/not girlfriend Gilly and her infant son out of Castle Black because there are too many rapists among the Night’s Watch. He wants to move her to Mole’s Town, where the men of the Watch go for female companionship. So a bit of a frying pa3, fire thing there. Also, there are wildlings running around, so maybe it’s not the best idea to move your girlfriend and her kid out of your castle.
Speaking of the wildlings, in the midst of running amok, they slaughter a village full of people except a kid named Olly. Joy.
At last, we arrive at the reason this episode isn’t near the top twenty. After a conversation in front of Joffrey’s cold body, Jaime apparently rapes Cersei. I say “apparently” because the producers and actors all swear up and down that it was not intended to come across as rape, but it sure looked like it. Even worse, the scene in the books was clearly consensual, so it appeared as if the show-runners simply wanted to stir up some controversy. Or they were incompetent. Either way the scene was a critical failure, hence why the otherwise fantastic episode sits here.
53. “The Gift,” Season 5, Episode 7
Back to Season 5 we go, where we land on a late season episode. Highlights of this episode take place mainly in the North, although there are some amazing exchanges involving Olenna and Cersei in King’s Landing.
Jon leaves the Wall in Alliser Thorne’s hands as he heads to Hardhome with Tormund, and immediately after Jon leaves Maester Aemon dies of old age. Before Aemon dies, he mentions Egg, his late brother, in a clever nod to the prequel novellas by George R.R. Martin. Aemon’s death is a Westerosi rarity, in that it does not occur violently, and he passes away with one last amazing line, “Egg! I dreamed that I was old.”
Sansa continues to be abused by her new husband up in Winterfell, and continues to make mistakes, this time asking Theon/Reek to help her escape. Of course, Theon immediately informs Ramsay, who flays Sansa’s would-be rescuer, a poor old lady. But hey, at least Sansa secretly gets a corkscrew out of the deal. That will come in handy.
Olenna Tyrell attempts to reason with the High Sparrow in King’s Landing, and despite normally gaining the upper hand in any verbal conflict, Olenna is unable to gain any ground with the leader of the Faith. Battles between equally matched foes are always the most entertaining.
And sadly, we are subjugated to more scenes involving the Sand Snakes and their terrible mismatched accents. But pretty much everything is forgiven after the final scene, when Cersei is carried off by the Faith shrieking and screaming. Finally, this woman who lives with impotent anger constantly boiling under the surface lets it all out, and it’s useless against her foes. It’s a big moment for her, and for the audience.
52. “Blood of My Blood,” Season 6, Episode 6
Season Six was generally outstanding, but there was a point in the middle where some fans and critics felt it stalled. It’s not that “Blood of My Blood” didn’t have anything of note going on—it did. The scene where the High Sparrow presents Tommen and Margaery outside the Sept of Baelor provided some spectacle, for instance. But it lacked the shocking moments that seemed to fill every other episode of the year.
It was pretty awesome to find Uncle Benjen dead and well, though although it would have been nicer to find him alive. The reveal that Benjen had been working with the Three-Eyed Raven was big news, and answered a question first asked in the first season, when Benjen left Castle Black to range north of the Wall, never to return.
Other highlights of the episodes include jag-wagons Randyll Tarly and Walder Frey chewing out their sons. We aren’t supposed to like either of these men, but it’s compelling to watch them lay into their befuddled sons. They’re the highlight of the episode.
Finally, Daenerys ended the episode with a speech to her Dothraki army from atop Drogon’s back. I know it was intended to feel inspiring, but it felt a bit too similar to other speeches she’d given to get the blood pumping. At least she definitively decided to cross the Narrow Sea.
Next: The Ghost of Harrenhal