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

Ranking all 73 episodes of Game of Thrones is a monumental task. Sure, it’s easy to rank the top 15 episodes—most fans can probably agree on the best hours, even if we disagree on the order. But what about the bottom 15? How do you rank episodes that consist mainly of everybody walking somewhere?

It should be noted, however, that there are really only a few actual bad episodes. Most episodes of Game of  Thrones are generally must-see TV, so a low ranking doesn’t necessarily mean it was bad episode, just that the competition was fierce.

So what criteria was used? Major events like the Red Wedding or Jon Snow’s death bumped the episode up in the ratings, while other episodes earned their spots based on smaller moments—conversations between two characters or fun bits of dialogue, for instance. Conversely, any episode with the Sand Snakes received an immediate penalty, because they were terrible.

Without further ado, check out all 73 episodes of Game of Thrones, arranged in (subjective) order from worst to best.

73. “The Last of the Starks,” Season 8, Episode 4

This was it, folks; this was the moment many of us knew season 8 was going to let us down. Season 8’s opening episode, “Winterfell” was a mixed bag, but “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was amazing, and while “The Long Night” had its issues, season 8 looked like it was heading in the right direction before “Starks” aired. Its flaws are legion and its bright spots few. More than any other episode, “Starks” was a microcosm of the issues many fans had with season 7 and 8.

Chief among those issues was the rushed pace that was out of step with the slow burn we’d come to expect from the show. Sure, you could argue we didn’t need to spend time endlessly walking up and down the Kingsroad, but having Jaime and Brienne finally act on their romantic feelings only for Jaime to depart for King’s Landing five minutes later didn’t pay proper respect to their complicated, long-developing relationship. See also Bronn’s sudden appearance and immediate disappearance.

Sure, there were small moments to enjoy — Arya and the Hound on the road to King’s Landing was a nice callback to season 4 — but they were too far and between to overshadow the what felt like two episodes mashed together. The opening funeral scene was also well done, but the good doesn’t outweigh the bad.

You could point to small moments like the infamous coffee cup, or showrunner David Benioff’s comment about Dany “kind of forgetting” about the Iron Fleet as proof of the episode’s status as the worst in the series, but really it was more about pacing, and characters making nonsensical choices simply to serve the plot. Thanks to an image leak beforehand, we knew the episode would start in Winterfell with the funerals and end with Missandei and Rhaeghal’s deaths, and yet I still couldn’t believe how quickly things moved.

Like most of season 8, it wasn’t the events themselves that were frustrating, but how as an audience we were supposed to buy into said events without the groundwork being laid. Dropping season 8 to just six episodes might have sounded like a good idea to someone, but more time for these storylines to settle and breath and stretch could have helped things. As it is, we were left with the truncated mess that was “Starks.”

72. “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” Season 5, Episode 6

The reasons “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” lands as the worst episode of Game of Thrones come from all over the map, but let’s start with the good stuff. For the first time in the series, we are shown the Hall of Faces, when Arya’s mentor Jaqen H’ghar takes Arya deep below the House of Black and White for what has to be one of the strangest tours of all time.

Other highlights of the episode include Tyrion’s fantastic dialogue with a slaver regarding whether or not Tyrion is anatomically proportional, along with Olenna Tyrell’s arrival back in Kings Landing after Loras is arrested for buggery. As always, Olenna and Tyrion continue to have some of the best dialogue on the show, and any scene they are in instantly raises the bar for the rest of the cast.

Littlefinger, freshly returned from dropping off Sansa at Winterfell, promises to smash Roose Bolton for trying to marry Sansa to Ramsay. Sure, that’s a marriage Littlefinger arranged, but as always he’s playing every side against the other. Loras and Queen Margery are both eventually arrested at Loras’ inquiry and taken into custody, much to the delight of Cersei and the horror of poor little Tommen.

And now for the bad stuff. First up, we have the most poorly choreographed fight scene in the series, pitting a one-handed Jamie Lannister and Bronn against the Sand Snakes of Dorne. Continuing the widely panned Dornish road trip story line, Jaime and Bronn try and “rescue” Myrcella from an attempted kidnapping attempt by Oberyn Martell’s bastard daughters. Almost nothing about the scene works, and we should all just try and move on.

And then there’s perhaps the most controversial moment yet aired on Game of Thrones, as newly married Ramsay Bolton and Sansa Stark retire to a bridal suite following their wedding, with Theon Greyjoy in tow, before Ramsay rapes his new wife offscreen as Theon looks on. The act served no purpose for either character’s story arc—viewers were already familiar with the sadistic nature of Roose Bolton’s bastard son. Sansa, meanwhile, had started to grow into someone who actually controlled her fate, as opposed to simply reacting to events. Fans were infuriated by the regression, along with the sexual violence inflicted upon her.

71. “Beyond the Wall” Season 7, Episode 6

Perhaps no episode was more indicative of the season 7’s unevenness than “Beyond the Wall.” The good stuff is really good, but large swaths of it are an illogical mess.

As the title implies, most of the episode concerns Jon and his merry band of misfits’ quest to capture a wight beyond the wall, although we take a break from that for a few scenes. One thing that weighs the episode down is the continued in-fighting between Sansa and Arya. Their conflict ratchets up over the course of the episode, but it all felt so…stupid. There’s no fancier word for it. It was stupid. No fan actually believed Arya might murder Sansa, no matter how many times Sansa said she might, and everyone wondered why these sisters didn’t resolve the issue by having an honest conversation.

Back beyond the wall, we were treated to some fun banter between our heroes, and the undead polar bear attack was fantastic. It isn’t until our crew runs into a conveniently small patrol of wights — led by a single White Walker — that things began go off the rails.

From a technical standpoint, everything that happens from the moment Jon and friends ambush the wights is amazing. Watching Dany’s dragons burn through the Night King’s army like kindling was a sight to behold. But Logically, “Beyond the Wall” suffers. We could excuse one of two plot holes in an episode, but between Gendry’s mad dash to Eastwatch, the fastest raven in history, the convenience of just ONE wight being left after Jon kills the White Walkers, Benjen’s hasty return and exit, and the Night King having a secret stash of chains capable of pulling a dead dragon from the bottom of a lake, “Beyond the Wall” was just too sloppy to sit any higher in our rankings.

70. “The House of Black and White,” Season 5 Episode 2

Landing in the bottom ten episodes on a series as great as Game of Thrones doesn’t always mean the episode is terrible; it can simply mean that not a whole lot happens. With the exception of the final four episodes, Season 5 often felt as if it was treading water, and this episode contributed to that feeling.

Interspersed with shocking moments, like the return of Jaqen H’ghar, are moments when Cersei Lannister once again threatens to hurt people. This time it’s the Dornish. (“I will burn their cities to the ground!”) As a plus, Bronn comes back into our lives, as he walks slowly along the shore with his “dim-witted” future wife before Jaime mysteriously promises him a bigger castle and a more beautiful bride, if only Bronn will go on a road trip with him to Dorne on a super secret rescue mission.  As viewers, we are never told why Jaime expects no one to recognize him on said rescue mission.

Back at Castle Black, Jon Snow rebuffs surrogate father Stannis Baratheon’s offer of legitimacy, as Jon believes it would be a betrayal of his vows to the Night’s Watch. Ned would have been proud. As a reward (or punishment, depending on your point of view), Jon is elected the new Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, narrowly defeating Alliser Thorne.

After offering her services to yet another Stark daughter, and yet again being rejected, Brienne and Podrick flee Littlefinger’s guards, but decide to tail Sansa as she begins to trek north to Winterfell. And finally, Daenerys makes mistakes in her struggle to rule Meereen. After executing one of her own followers for killing an imprisoned Son of the Harpy, Dany is mercilessly booed by the freed slaves of Meereen, and has to be escorted away by the Unsullied. On the bright side, Drogon shows up at the end of the episode, seemingly to comfort everyone’s favorite dragon mother after a rough day at work.

69. “Kill the Boy,” Season 5 Episode 5

Here’s another Season 5 episode with a few exciting moments, but which overall serves as a bridge to the very busy end of the season. We check in with a lot of players. Brienne and Podrick set up shop outside Winterfell and got a message to the soon-to-be Mrs. Ramsay Bolton, Daenerys fries a Meereenese nobleman in the wake of Ser Barristan’s Selmy’s death (and then decides to marry a different one in an attempt to quiet the lot), and Stannis finally pulls up stakes at the Wall, but not before getting in a dig at the Night’s Watchman’s poor grammar. The show is inching toward incident.

Speaking of Sansa, inside Winterfell she encounters Theon/Reek for the first time, a startling encounter for both parties. Also important is Jon and Tormund forming an alliance to go north of the Wall to save as many wildlings as they can, something Jon realizes is vital with winter on the way. The Wall will need to be reinforced with new soldiers, and it won’t do to give the White Walkers more “meat for their army.”

And in perhaps the best part of the episode, Tyrion and Jorah continue their trek to Meereen by passing through the ruins of ancient Valyria. Distracted by a Drogon flyby, Tyrion and Jorah are waylaid by a group of stone men, lepers that have had Greyscale cover their entire bodies. In the process of fighting them off, and after a long Sopranos-esque fade to black, we discover that Jorah has become infected with Greyscale himself. Went to Valyria and all I got was this lousy incurable disease.

68. “The Night Lands,” Season 2, Episode 2

Every episode of Game of Thrones can’t feature someone we know and love being stabbed in the back, and even though The Night Lands has a whole lot going on, unfortunately none of it is very exciting. Season 2 is fairly challenging for new show-watchers to get through, as a bevy of new characters are introduced. This episode introduces us to the happy-go-lucky Greyjoys. After a reunion with his sister Yara that would have made the Lannister twins proud, Theon gets verbally and literally undressed by his father Balon, lord of the Iron Islands.

Samwell Tarly meets his future girlfriend, Crasters daughter wife, Gilly, asking Jon if it’d be alright to take Gilly and her soon-to-be-born child North as the Night’s Watch wages war on the wildlings. Only Sam would fall in love with the first girl to talk to him, and then ask if he could bring her with them into battle.

We also are introduced to Salladhor Saan, a pirate who joins Stannis’ service in return for the opportunity to seduce Cersei. Apparently, he is very persuasive. The fans are amused, though Davos’ religiously minded son is not.

And fulfilling her contractual obligation to appear naked once per episode, Melisandre tempts King Stannis into producing the son he has always craved, but perhaps not exactly the one he wanted.

And oh yeah, Dany walks around the desert some more after being abandoned by Drogo’s khalasar at the end of Season 1.

67. “The Wars to Come,” Season 5 Episode 1

The fifth season of Game of Thrones began with a yawn as we caught up with all our favorite families in The Wars to Come. Although it left out a key bit from the books, we see a young Cersei receive a prophecy about a younger, more beautiful queen who will cast her down in the show’s first-ever flashback. Margery? Daenerys? Time will tell.

After Tywin’s funeral, Cersei speaks with the freshly devout Lancel Lannister, who has converted to a fanatical sect of the Faith of the Seven: the Sparrows. This is the same Lancel who shared Cersei’s bed while Jamie was held captive by the Starks, and the same Lancel who helped Cersei off King Robert in Season 1. If Cersei was half as smart as she thinks she is, she’d recognize Lancel as a threat, but she simply laughs him off.

Across the Narrow Sea, Tyrion finally arrives in Pentos, and is let out of the shipping crate he apparently spent the whole journey in. Varys convinces the ever-drunk Tyrion to meet Daenerys Targaryen, and to support her claim to the Iron Throne. Tyrion takes his drunkenness to a whole other level and shames alcoholics everywhere when he immediately pours himself a fresh cup of wine after vomiting up the first cup. Also, has anyone noticed how there is always a flagon of wine, complete with cups, in every room of every building in the world of Game of Thrones?

In the episode’s best scene, Jon tries to convince Mance Rayder to bend the knee to Stannis Baratheon, the man with the greatest grammar in all of Westeros. He’s unsuccessful, but the show finally lets Ciarán Hinds shine as the doomed Mance. Stannis decides to burn the king beyond the Wall to death, but Snow mercifully shoots Mance with an arrow in the middle of the proceedings. Our first major death of the season!

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.

62.  “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things,” Season 1, Episode 4

At this point, we aren’t talking about terrible episodes, or even bad ones. They simply just don’t have the fireworks other episodes do.

This episode builds on the theme from a previous one: just because Tyrion is a Lannister doesn’t mean we’re required to hate him. While the rest of the family members have established themselves as the show’s villains, Tyrion continues to play against expectations by offering Bran Stark a specially modified saddle that would allow him to ride even after losing the ability to use his legs.

This episode also introduces us to fan favorite Samwell Tarly, a new recruit for the Night’s Watch. Jon quickly decides to protect the portly Tarly, despite the fact that Tarly can barely lift a sword. It is one of the first times we begin to see leadership qualities in Jon, who recognizes that the Night’s Watch can use any man it can get, fighter or no.

Back in King’s Landing, Ned begins to get ever closer to the secret his mentor Jon Arryn was killed to protect, even if Ned doesn’t quite realize it yet. We also get the wonderful story of how the Mountain, aka Gregor Clegane, burned and scarred his younger brother, the Hound, aka Sandor Clegane. Never play with the Mountain’s toys!

Towards the end of the episode, Catelyn and Tyrion’s paths cross at an inn, and Catelyn quickly leverages the Tully name to take Tyrion prisoner for the crimes Catelyn falsely believes he committed. Virtually the entire inn pulls their swords on the smallest Lannister, and roll credits. Bravo Cat.

61. “First of His Name,” Season 4, Episode 5

Here’s our first episode from the exceptional fourth season, which I would put up against any other single season of any other television show.

After the death of Joffrey, something viewers had been awaiting since the moment he walked onscreen in the pilot, Joffrey’s younger brother Tommen is crowned king. Meanwhile, Tommen’s mother Cersei is busy meeting with the judges in Tyrion’s trial for Joffrey’s murder. Cersei’s conversation with Oberyn is fantastic, as they discuss Myrcella’s treatment in Dorne. Despite Oberyn’s assurances to the contrary, Cersei notes that “everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls.”

Littlefinger and Sansa arrive at the Vale, which is ruled by Sansa’s psychotic aunt Lysa. Lysa quickly marries Littlefinger, giving him nominal control over the Vale and its armies. Lysa admits that it was she who poisoned Jon Arryn at Littlefinger’s behest, meaning that she set the whole series in motion. When her paranoid side kicks in, Lysa accuses Sansa of trying to steal Baelish from her, but relents after Sansa denies it. Family reunions are always so much fun in Westeros.

After hearing of the strife in Kings Landing, Daenerys initially decides to sail for home, but after learning that Slaver’s Bay is falling back into, well, slavery, Dany decides to stay in Meereen and get some on the job training before attempting to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Some day she will go home. Maybe. We hope. Who the hell knows?

Meanwhile, Jon Snow arrives at Craster’s Keep north of the Wall, and along with a band of merry men, kill all the former Night’s Watchmen that mutinied and murdered Lord Commander Mormont. In the chaos, secret Bolton bannerman Locke is killed by Bran, after the former takes control of Hodor’s body in an imaginative action scene.

60. “High Sparrow,” Season 5, Episode 3

Because the third time is the charm, Margery is once again wed to a king. This time it’s Tommen, first of his name. Unlike the other kings Margery has wed, she’s able to consummate the marriage with this one, something she enjoys bragging about to Cersei, Tommen’s mother, in a memorable scene. Isn’t that sweet?

Cersei, who’s not about to take that lying down, installs a new leader of the Faith of the Seven, the titular High Sparrow, after the old one is caught in a brothel. And as ever, Cersei’s plots look likely to get her in more trouble than had she simply left well enough alone. When will you learn, Queen Mother? Or is it dowager Queen?

Petyr Baelish somehow convinces Sansa that marrying Ramsay, the son of the man who killed her brother Robb at the Red Wedding, will let her get revenge. Still not quite sure we as viewers buy that logic, but the Sansa does.

Back at the Wall, Jon Snow begins to take charge of his role as Lord Commander, appointing Alliser Thorne as First Ranger before attempting to give Janos Slynt a new job. After refusing the post, Slynt is summarily beheaded by Jon, gaining some slight justice for Slynt’s role in Ned’s beheading in season one. Go Snow!

Meanwhile, Arya continues her training at the House of Black and White, but struggles with leaving her former life behind. After discarding all of her possessions, except Needle, in an moving scene (great performance by Maisie Williams there), Arya is allowed to move on to the next stage of her training; giving dead people a bath.

59. “Lord Snow,” Season 1, Episode 3

This episode should have simply been called “The Introductions.” The amount of characters we are introduced to in this episode is staggering: Renly Baratheon, Varys, Grand Maester Pycelle, Petyr Baelish, Alliser Thorne, Jeor Mormont, Old Nan, Barristan Selmy, and even Yoren all make their first appearances here.

Our first use of the eponymous “Lord Snow” comes in this episode as well, when the perpetually gloomy Alliser Thorne bestows the name on Jon Snow to mock his highborn upbringing. Snow is not exactly fitting in at the Wall, as he struggles to reconcile his romantic ideal of the Night’s Watch with the gritty, rundown criminal collective it actually is. After besting his fellow lowborn recruits over and over in the training yard, Tyrion Lannister points out that Jon’s only advantage comes from his upbringing, not any inherent skill. Someone needs to put that Tyrion guy in charge of something.

As the Dothraki horde continues its slow trek to Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys begins to grow a backbone, shocking her petulant and paranoid brother when she orders the khalasar to stop for a while. Dany’s bloodrider has to be convinced not to kill Viserys after he strikes the khaleesi, and yet Viserys still does not learn his lesson. Dany also discovers to her surprise that she is now pregnant with Khal Drogo’s child, a startling revelation for Jorah Mormont, who’s still spying for Varys at this point.

Ned Stark arrives in King’s Landing and is immediately assaulted from all sides, first from the Small Council, and later from his daughters at home. Poor Ned can’t catch a break. Meeting the Small Council, we get our first sense of where the actual power in the realm lies—so much scheming going on in such a small room.

In perhaps one of Ned’s only good decisions, he recognizes the futility of ever attempting to mold Arya into Sansa, and hires a sword instructor for Arya, the wonderful Syrio Forel, former first sword of Braavos. Arya takes to the training like a fire to dry leaves, and we as fans are treated to great lines like, “The steel must be part of your arm. Can you drop part of your arm?”

This is an episode that requires a lot of pausing and explaining who everyone is to new viewers, but it’s critical for future story arcs.

58. “What is Dead May Never Die,” Season 2, Episode 3

Oh Theon Greyjoy, you magnificent bastard. Up until this point in the series, you were just an arrogant “brother” to the Starks, hot-headed and self-centered. Even when you took that William Tell shot at Bran in Season 1, at least it was to save his life. But man, this right here is when you start going down the path to being the most hated man in Westeros.

After arriving home on Pyke, Theon is berated by his father, Balon, and further ridiculed by his sister Yara. The peer pressure appears to be too much, and Theon betrays the Starks to attack the North with his birth family. Hopefully something bad happens to Theon. For a whole season or two.

Meanwhile, Tyrion runs circles around all his fellow schemers on the Small Council, telling each of a different plot to marry one of Cersei’s children off to a different great house, exposing Pycelle as Cersei’s informant, and promptly tossing him in the dungeons, but not before threatening to have Shagga cut off Pycelle’s manhood and feed it to the goats. And if there are no goats present? “Make do.” This leads to the best moment of the episode, and one of most important thematic moments of the series: Varys’ riddle to Tyrion about power. How often have we seen this insight crop up throughout the rest of the series?

Meanwhile, Arya continues her trek towards the first destination she will never reach, accompanied by Yoren and a group of Night’s Watch recruits. Yoren gives Arya the idea of her “death prayer” before getting himself killed by Lannister bannermen searching for Gendry. Doh.

And in a scene from one of the most awkward marriages in Westeros, Margery Tyrell attempts to seduce her gay husband, but is rebuffed. Margery suggests bringing in her brother Loras to help, showing us all that it isn’t just the Lannisters who are weird. Also in Renly’s camp, we get to meet Brienne of Tarth, bodyguard to the stars. Brienne kicks the living tar out of Loras, before joining Renly’s

kingsguard

57. “No One,” Season 6, Episode 8

Generally, by the eighth episode of a season, stories are starting to come to fruition. There have been some incredible episodes in the number eight slot over the years—”Hardhome” and “The Mountain and the Viper,” for instance—but “No One” featured several pieces of set-up (Qyburn telling Cersei about some secret information, Varys leaving Meereen on a mysterious mission) and messed up what should have been some strong, climactic moments.

Let’s start with the offscreen death of Brynden “the Blackfish” Tully, who’s reintroduced in Season 6. We’re reminded that he’s a great warrior, but we don’t see him fight. He doesn’t kill a dozen Lannister guards before finally being outnumbered, or even run down a hall towards a bunch of guards with their swords drawn. Instead, after Riverrun surrenders, a guard informs Jaime that the Blackfish died fighting, and appears as if he almost forgot to tell Jaime.

“No One” also features the final showdown between Arya and the Waif. After the Waif murders Lady Crane with a stool, the pair engage in some serious Assassin’s Creed-style cut scenes before Arya leads the Waif to her hiding place and kills her in the dark. It’s a neat little sequence, but the producers ask a lot of the audience to believe that Arya could move like that so soon after receiving a crippling gut wound, and the motivations of the Jaqen H’ghar character, who lets her leave the House of Black and White, are muddled.

There are some good scenes in this episode, particularly Jaime’s dealings with Brienne and Edmure Tully, which showed both sides of his personality. Bronn’s teasing of Podrick was funny, and the Hound’s killing spree was awesome, but they weren’t enough to overcome the problem scenes.

56.” The Prince of Winterfell,” Season 2, Episode 8

This is one of those episodes that book-readers appreciate because the fates of several main characters are set in motion. Catelyn, Robb, Tyrion, Cersei, and Jaime all begin to march toward their fates here. Book-readers know where each will end up, and like the babysitter who walks up the stairs in the suddenly darkened house, we can only sit and scream at the screen, “Don’t go up there!”

Catelyn frees Jaime Lannister from captivity, sending him along with Brienne to King’s Landing in exchange for Arya and Sansa, a journey that will have life-changing consequences for both.

King Robb returns from taking some castle, and after learning that his mother has freed Jamie, immediately has her arrested. Roose Bolton, perhaps displaying doubt in his king for the first time, agrees that his bastard son Ramsay will show mercy to any surrendering Ironborn soldiers when Ramsay takes back Winterfell. Fat chance. Robb takes another step toward doom when he confesses his feelings for Talisa, the hot nurse who has been tending to his wounded.

Back in Harrenhal, Arya realizes too late that if you have a secret assassin in your pocket, maybe you shouldn’t kill people like that guy who cut you off in traffic, but rather someone of importance, like Tywin Lannister. But Tywin marches out of Harrenhal, intent on attacking Robb Stark while he is distracted by the Ironborn occupation of the North.

Lastly, in one of the best scenes of the season, Yara attempts to convince Theon to abandon Winterfell and return home. When her attempt is unsuccessful, she tells Theon he was a “terrible baby,” always crying, except for when Theon saw her. The scene kills because you actually feel a bit sorry for Theon, despite the terrible things he has done to impress his family. Great episode all around.

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.

51. “The Ghost of Harrenhal,” Season 2, Episode 5

Everyone remember that shadow demon/monster/creature birthed by Melisandre? Of course you do; it was pretty damn weird. Well, here we find out exactly what its purpose was: to kill King Renly as he prepared for battle with his brother Stannis. Brienne and Catelyn witness Renly’s murder. They flee, since no one will believe them, and Stannis marches in and takes control of Renly’s army, but not before the Tyrells take off, presumably back to Highgarden. Or do they? Littlefinger does his best to sway the golden roses to the Lannister cause, but what they do next is left unclear.

Meanwhile, Tyrion is running around King’s Landing preparing for whichever Baratheon brother shows up, and decides that a substance called wildfire, which sounds an awful like naplam, will turn the tide in the Lannister’s favor.

Dany is wandering around Qarth begging people for money and ships to take her home to King’s Landing, something she seems desperate to do in this season. Once she gets the money to buy ships and what not in later seasons, she seems to forget King’s Landing. Funny, that.

Arya remains Tywin Lannister’s cupbearer in Harrenhal, and their scenes together are the best part of the episode. Arya has yet to realize the super secret assassin in her back pocket could be used on someone important, and instead has Jaqen kill one of Tywin’s soldiers killed. That’s like using your first of three wishes on a ham sandwich.

50. “Winterfell,” Season 8, Episode 1

The show’s final season premiere is a pretty standard episode of Game of Thrones, and that’s the way we like it. There’s a lot of political jockeying at Winterfell as Sansa and her followers try to adjust to the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen, the queen their king has chosen whether they like it or not. We also get some wonderful interpersonal moments, with the long-awaited reunion between Jon and Arya being a particular highlight.

But the character who steals the show is Samwell Tarly, who finds himself far more distraught than he probably figured he would be after learning that Daenerys executed his father and brother after the Loot Train Attack in season 7. That sets the stage for him to tell Jon the secret of his birth, and nothing can ever be the same.

“Winterfell” also sports a few big set pieces. The first is the best: Daenerys and her party arrive at the Stark home base in all their glory, fascinating the townsfolk with their grandeur and terrifying them with the giant flying murder machines they’ve brought north with them. Later, there’s a creepy scene at the Last Hearth where Tormund Giantsbane and Dolorous Edd find little lord Ned Umber stabbed to a wall, not dead but undead, screeching as he dies in fire. It’s an unsettling reminder of the threat the White Walkers pose to everyone in Westeros.

Then we have Jon and Daenerys’ dragon-back joyride through the North, which feels like a scene sliced out of some big-budget romantic comedy and grafted awkwardly onto Game of Thrones. I get that the writers need to establish that these two love each other before their romance falls apart, but I shouldn’t feel them trying this hard.

But overall, this is a solid outing. Oh, and the whole thing ends with Jaime Lannister pulling up to Winterfell only to find Bran Stark, the kid he pushed out a window in the series premiere, sitting in wait for him. It’s a delightful big gulp of a final moment.

49. “Oathkeeper,” Season 4, Episode 4

This mid-season episode takes its name from the sword Oathkeeper, made from Ice, the Stark family sword melted down by Tywin Lannister at the top of the season. Oathkeeper is initially given to Jaime Lannister, who passes the sword onto Brienne in the hope that she’ll be able to find and protect the Stark daughters. The notion of Brienne protecting the Stark girls with Ned’s old sword has a nice ring to it, and the fact the she’s empowered by a Lannister gives it an ironic twist.

Speaking of Jaime, sending Brienne off is not the only time he splits from the family game plan. Although Cersei is convinced that Tyrion killed Joffrey, Jaime remains loyal to his brother, which is touching. It seems all Jamie had to do to become a semi-decent person was lose a hand. Jaime has essentially been the only one to ever be kind to Tyrion, and its refreshing to see that kind of relationship on a show as reliably bleak as this.

Two other major events occur in this episode: Daenerys conquers Meereen, the last city in Slavers Bay, and perhaps the only one we care about, as it is the one she will occupy for two seasons. Can she please just sail to Westeros already?

Last but not least, we witness Craster’s final infant son carried into the far, far north by a White Walker, where it is placed on an altar, and converted into a baby White Walker by the Night’s King. Creepy.

48. “Valar Dohaeris,” Season 3, Episode 1

Even show producers have noted that the first episodes of each season tend to be constrained from having to “catch up” with our favorite characters, and the Season 3 opener has a bit of that. We get updated on what everyone has been doing since the Battle of the Blackwater, and like that first day at school after summer break, nobody seems to get any actual work done.

Samwell Tarly miraculously survived an army of wights walking around him, and joins up with fellow survivors of the massacre as they head back south to the Wall. Elsewhere in the far north, Jon Snow meets Mance Rayder. When asked why he wants to join the wildings, Jon gives a pretty lame explanation about fighting for the living, but Mance buys it. In the books, Jon says he felt disrespected in Westerosi society because of his bastardy, which seems more reasonable, but we can’t have everything.

Everybody else is basically up to what they were doing at the end of last year, although we do get an extended conversation between Tywin and Tyrion that establishes just how much Tywin hates his youngest son—he calls Tyrion a punishment inflicted upon him by the gods, and refuses to name Tyrion heir to Casterly Rock. So I guess Father’s Day is cancelled this year? And all the years after…

Margaery is another highlight in King’s Landing. Her strategy for ruling for subjects—which involves being, y’know, nice to them—is very much at odds with the “power is power” style Cersei has been employing for seasons now. It’s fun to see the two bounce off each other. So yeah, not a terrible episode, more of a yawn than a nap.

47. “Oathbreaker,” Season 6, Episode 3

Hopefully we’ve made it clear that just because an episode is ranked low doesn’t mean it’s a bad episode. “Oathbreaker” wasn’t a terrible hour of TV by any means, but often felt like a setup episode for the later half of Season 6.

The best parts of this episode took place at the Wall, immediately after Jon Snow is brought back to life. We get some fantastic dialogue from Ser Davos, as the Onion Knight helps an understandably shocked Jon come to grips with being back among the living. Seriously, if something terrible ever happens to me, I want Ser Davos to give me a pep talk. He’s the Duke Evers of Westeros.

Away from the Wall, Bran does some time-hopping and watches his father Ned and his boys get the ever-living crap kicked out of them by Ser Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy. If we are picking the biggest badasses in the Seven Kingdoms, Ser Arthur Dayne goes number one in that draft. It was also interesting to get a tease of Jon’s origins in the same episode as his rebirth, which brings us back to the Wall.

Jon’s execution of the Night’s Watchmen responsible for his death was powerful. Jon doesn’t seem as eager as when he executed Janos Slynt back in Season 5, and the last words of Alliser Thorne actually made you feel a tiny bit of sympathy for Jon’s nemesis. Not so much for that Olly kid.

46. “The Wolf and the Lion,” Season 1, Episode 5

We jump way back to another mid-season episode, this time from the first season. On the whole, major events are lacking in this episode, but there are some fantastic scenes that make it entertaining overall.

In King’s Landing, we get some comic relief when Ned informs King Robert that he is both too fat for his armor and too fat to participate in a melee. The fun between Ned and Robert stops quickly, however, when Robert learns of Daenerys’ pregnancy and orders her killed. Ned refuses to be a part of it, almost as if he sympathizes with the Targaryens for some unexplained reason, and resigns as Hand of the King.

We love Ned for refusing to kill fan favorite Dany, but like all his decisions, it only gets him in more trouble. Deciding to investigate one last clue as to why the previous Hand was murdered, Ned is ambushed by Jaime Lannister outside a brothel. Jaime’s guards quickly overwhelm Ned’s, but then its onto the main event.

Ned and Jaime square off, and though the fight is short, its exciting to see such vaunted warriors face off. Ned’s contempt for Jaime is clear in the episodes before this, as is Jaime’s arrogance, so its satisfying to see the two square off. Alas, the fight is short-lived, and Ned is stabbed through the leg by a Lannister guard. Better luck next time Ned!

Lastly, in a completely original scene, Robert and Cersei have a brutally honest conversation about their marriage, their rule, and the Seven Kingdoms in general. It’s one the best non-book scenes in the series, and both actors give it their all. Cersei confesses to actually feeling something for Robert once, although Robert cannot say the same. On repeated viewings, you understand that this is Cersei saying her goodbye to Robert, having finally decided to have him killed. Just a fantastic scene overall.

45. “Garden of Bones,” Season 2, Episode 4

This is one of those “eh” episodes. It’s necessary for plot development, sure, but not exactly setting the continents of Essos and Westeros on fire. It does have a moment at the end that made even a minister friend of mine text “WTF just happened?” (Which is about as close as he ever gets to cursing.)

Catelyn is down in the Riverlands trying to play referee between the Baratheon brothers, who are both vying for the crown now that big brother Bobby B bit the dust. Stannis is not capable of bending to anyone, and Renly is having too much fun being a king, so Catelyn’s pleas are in vain, and the Baratheon brothers agree to disagree, which in Westeros means slaughter one another.

Littlefinger shows up in Renly’s camp, sowing chaos wherever he can, but this time he comes bearing gifts: Ned Stark’s bones. I mean, that’s nice and all, but you are basically the reason Ned is dead, Littlefinger.

Daenrys arrives at Qarth, another city in the desert, and is brought inside by a member of the ruling council. We can’t wait to see where this goes. (It goes nowhere, so I guess we could have waited.)

Onto that WTF moment: Davos rows Melisandre ashore near Renly’s camp, where she squats in the mud and gives birth to some sort of shadow monster/demon/idk thing. Labor went pretty smoothly, but we are still wondering what the hell just happened. Melisandre is so weird. Don’t ever invite her to a baby shower.

44. “The Pointy End,” Season 1, Episode 8

Lots of quick but good scenes occur in this episode, so let’s hit them rapid fire shall we?

Tyrion, Bronn, and the Hill Tribes meet Tywin Lannister, Tyrion’s father. Tyrion attempts to introduce Bronn, son who, now? “You wouldn’t know him.” Lines like this are why producers have gone out of their way to put Bronn in any storyline they can.

At Winterfell, Robb “calls the banners” which is Westerosi speak for getting all your boys together to go cause a ruckus. Robb intends to ride south and make war on the Lannisters, and we as fans wish him nothing but luck. Hope that works out for you, Robb.

In the Vale, Catelyn pleads with her sister to send her army to assist the Starks, but Lysa refuses. As always, Catelyn serves as a voice for the audience, and expresses her anger that her own sister will not help her.

Up at the Wall, we begin to get a vague hint of the actual biggest threat to the Seven Kingdoms, and it’s not Joffrey’s inbred temper. A reanimated corpse attacks Lord Commander Mormont, but luckily for the Old Bear, Jon and Ghost arrive on the scene and light that guy on fire. Instant promotion for Jon.

Across the Narrow Sea, in the Dothraki Sea, which is made of grass, and is not actually a sea, Khal Drogo and his horde are rounding up slaves to pay for the trip to Westeros. After Daenerys orders the horde to cease raping women, one of Drogo’s lieutenants challenges Drogo to a duel. We aren’t quite sure what the dude was thinking, but have you seen Drogo? Guy looks like he eats elephant hearts for breakfast. Anyways, it doesn’t end well for the lieutenant, as Drogo rips out the guy’s tongue with his bare hands.

We also get one of the the best scenes of the season as Syrio Forel defends Arya from Lannister guardsmen, and we hear this great exchange for the last time in the series:

Syrio: “What do we say to the God of Death?”

Arya: “Not today.”

43. “The Kingsroad,” Season 1, Episode 2

Okay, so we won’t penalize this episode too much for not having a lot going on. It is, after all, only the second episode of the series. The show stays fairly close to the source material throughout the first season, but as with the conversation between Cersei and Robert in episode five, the original scenes created for TV absolutely kill.

So let’s start there. The King, the Lannisters, and all the rest are still hanging out in Winterfell, preparing to ride south despite Bran being in a coma. Cersei visits Catelyn in Bran’s chambers, and despite the fact that we saw Jaime push Bran out the window just the episode before, Cersei and Catelyn share a great scene. Cersei is the picture of comfort and consolation, sharing a story about the death of her first son, and the King’s rage, with a stunned Catelyn.

Like many scenes in Game of Thrones, this becomes an even better scene as the series progresses because we come to realize that Cersei probably murdered her first born son, as it was Robert’s child and not Jamie’s. Here Cersei stands, comforting the mother of the son Jamie and Cersei did their best to kill, by telling Catelyn about the time Cersei killed her own child. Cold blooded. Maybe Cersei should lead the White Walkers.

This is also a strong episode for Tyrion, who gets to smack around Joffrey before doling out logic to Jon Snow on his way to visit the Wall. High five, little Lannister!

After a scuffle on the way south involving Joffrey, Sansa, Arya and her direwolf, Ned learns just how much his friend Robert has changed. Cersei orders the death of Sansa’s direwolf in place of Arya’s, and we are off to the races with the Lannister vs. Stark feud. Ned does the deed himself, which somehow magically awakens Bran, hundreds of miles away. What are you playing at, Game of Thrones?

42. “The Red Woman,” Season 6, Episode 1

A strong season opener, “Red Woman” ditched the “let’s catch up with everyone from last season” format and picked up mere moments after the Season 5 finale ended. We should have known from the slow, painful, powerful opening tracking shot of Jon Snow’s dead body that Season 6 would be something special. For anyone not on the “Jon is coming back!” train at the time, Ser Davos protecting Jon’s body from Alliser Thorne and his cronies should have been your first clue that Jon wouldn’t be staying dead long.

Surprises came fast and frequently in this episode, again a rarity for a season opener, and one of the biggest was the literal and figurative murder of the entire Dornish plotline. Critics of Season 5, myself among them, counted the Dornish story line as the weakest part of the season narrative, and it appeared as if the Thrones producers listened, as Prince Doran and his son Trystane were murdered by the Sand Snakes in a matter of moments. It was especially shocking for book readers, as the Dornish plot is still going strong there. Not that we’re complaining.

And in perhaps one of the best scenes of Season 6, Brienne of Tarth wrecks shop on a crew of Bolton soldiers chasing Sansa, and is then taken into Sansa’s service. The look of relief on Brienne’s face at finally fulfilling her oath was one of the highlight’s of the season, and Gwendoline Christie knocks it out of the park.

Also, Melisandre takes off her clothes and reveals herself to be hundreds of years old. And I can’t ever unsee it. Ever.

41. “A Man Without Honor,” Season 2, Episode 7

It a bad episode to be a Stark, starting with Sansa, who awakens from a nightmare to discover she has had her first period. This means she is old enough to bear Joffrey’s children, a horrific prospect. Shae attempts to threaten Sansa’s other handmaiden into silence, but has no such luck with the Hound. Shae’s concern for Sansa is endearing, and an example of how the producers improved on the book version of the character, at least for this stretch of the story.

Back at Harrenhal, Tywin decides that the death of Amory Lorch was actually an attempt on his life. After verbally berating the Mountain, Tywin and Arya sit and have another fantastic discussion. These interactions are completely fabricated for the show, but are a more than welcome addition to the series.

I guess by now we should learn that a great character moment is likely to be followed by something brutal. Case in point: Jaime Lannister’s conversation with his cousin, Alton Lannister. Alton describes just how flat out awesome it was to be Jaime’s squire for a day, giving the audience a taste of what it would be like to be Jaime himself. Of course, Jaime follows up their remembrance by beating Alton to death in an escape attempt. Torrhen Karstark, Jaime’s guard, also dies, which will have some consequences down the road.

Up at Winterfell, Theon completes his turn to the darkside after he reveals the charred remains of two little boys, which we are told is Bran and Rickon. A bad day for the Starks indeed, but some crackling good drama.

40. “Mhysa,” Season 3, Episode 10

The aftermath of the Red Wedding is wide-reaching and painful. Just when Tyrion is starting to make some headway with Sansa, his new wife, the news of Robb and Catelyn’s death reaches King’s Landing. So much for that.

In a Small Council meeting about the tidings, Joffrey insults Tywin, who does not blink an eye before ordering the king sent to bed early with no supper. Cersei’s reaction to Joffrey’s outburst is particularly priceless, somewhere between absolute horror and embarrassment. No one messes with Tywin, not even the king.

For once, however, Tywin gets something wrong. He misjudges the reaction Robb’s murder will have in the North, which we may see more of this coming season. Although Roose Bolton is installed as Warden of the North, we will find out later in the series that his hand in the Red Wedding will be remembered by his subjects.

Jon and Ygritte break up in this episode, as Ygritte shoots Jon full of arrows. As breakups go, it’s pretty intense.

But things are looking up for Daenerys, as she is received with open arms in Yunkai by the recently freed slaves of the city. Viewers, however, may be inwardly groaning by this point, as we’re all well ready for Dany to move on to Westeros and the Iron Throne. Mhysa needs to get that ball rolling already.

39. “A Golden Crown,” Season 1, Episode 6

“A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.” —Tyrion Lannister

Indeed, Mr. Lannister, indeed. Lysa Arryn would have been wise to remember that Tyrion is by far the smartest of the Lannister siblings, but she doesn’t, because Lysa is unstable and not that bright. Anyways, Lysa plays right into Tyrion’s hands when the latter, currently at the Eyrie after being accused of trying to have Bran killed, demands trial by combat. Bronn, our soon-to-be-favorite mercenary with a mouth (sorry, Deadpool), takes up Tyrion’s cause and handily defeats Lysa’s champion. And on their merry way go Tyrion and Bronn.

Down in King’s Landing, Ned rules the Seven Kingdoms while Robert is away on a hunt, because in the woods you get terrible cell phone coverage. The Mountain has started pillaging through the Riverlands at the behest of Tywin Lannister, and so Ned orders the Mountain arrested and executed, and calls Tywin to the capital. As if anyone has ever told Tywin what to do.

Sansa inadvertently helps Ned with his investigation of what Jon Arryn was murdered for, and Ned realizes that all of Robert’s children are actually Jamie’s, which makes them bastards, and the queen a traitor. It’s about to go down!

But before we get to that, we jump across the Narrow Sea. After deciding that he no longer wants to wait on Khal Drogo, Viserys Targaryen charges into a feast in Vaes Dothrak wielding a sword, something expressly forbidden in this city. And because Viserys didn’t want to live that long anyways, he threatens Daenerys in front of Khal Drogo.

Drogo responds by pouring a kettle of molten gold over Viserys’ head, giving him the crown he always wanted. Dany looks on in detached silence, finally free of her tormentor. I mean, threatening women is never a good idea, but when said woman’s husband is a marauding death machine, maybe just use your words next time. This is a terrific scene, and the first time a major character dies. There’ll be plenty more where that came from.

38. “Dragonstone,” Season 7, Episode 1

Season premieres are a tricky thing. Like superhero origin stories, their are boxes these episodes have to tick, and that can constrain them. But “Dragonstone” was a decent episode with some very fun moments.

Things began with a bang. In one of the show’s rare cold openings, we watch Arya Stark murder all the remaining male members of House Frey. Something that could have felt campy ended up working brilliantly thanks to some top-notch dialogue from Arya. Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, Euron Greyjoy’s reintroduction served as a witty showcase for his maniacal sense of humor.

In contrast, Daenery’s long-awaited arrival in Westeros (on the island of Dragonstone, naturally) was a subdued moment. There was no dialogue until the very last moment, which was the proper way to handle such a momentous homecoming.

Despite all these fireworks, it was the Hound who stole the show. Returning to the farm where he robbed a pair of peasants back in season 4, Sandor Clegane is deeply affected to find them dead. As he buries them in the cold earth, we can feel the Hound’s regret burning him up. It’s another step forward in a character evolution going back years.

All and all, a great season premiere.

37. “Dark Wings, Dark Words,” Season 3, Episode 2

Things are continuing to build for many of our favorite characters here, with little crumbs here and little crumbs there leading them to their ultimate fates.

Robb continues to be as honorable as his father, minus the whole breaking his vow and marrying Talisa thing. But in this episode it’s Catelyn’s broken vow we will focus on. In an affecting scene, Catelyn tells Talisa about a time when Jon Snow was deathly sick as a child. Cat promised the gods she would love the boy if he recovered, and though Jon did, Cat does not keep her word. Vow broken.

Jaime and Brienne continue their incognito trek across the war-torn Riverlands, but are recognized by Bolton soldiers after the pair get into a sword fight that Brienne, surprisingly enough, wins. Although Jaime is yet to recognize it, let alone acknowledge it, his time with Brienne is having a profound effect on him. George R.R. Martin loves to play with stereotypes, and here the core of the story reflects how Jaime has been surrounded by knights his whole life, some good, some bad. But it’s Brienne of Tarth, herself unable to be knighted because she is a woman, that is finally breaking through to Jaime about what it means to be a knight. Irony and stuff.

Oh, and Theon gets tortured again and again. And no one feels sorry for him.

36. “The Climb,” Season 3, Episode 6

Let’s stay in Season 3 but jump to four episodes later, when Theon is still being tortured. Happily, there are other scenes, too.

Any episode with Tywin Lannister automatically earns high marks. Add in a scene with Olenna Tyrell, and it’s like watching two undefeated heavyweights in their primes go at it. Tywin uses his leverage to force Olenna into accepting a marriage proposal between Cersei to Loras Tyrell, and despite being beaten, Olenna is happy just to have found a worthy opponent. “It’s a rare enough thing, a man who lives up to his reputation.” The scene between Tyrion and Cersei is solid, as well, as they chat frankly about the marriages their father is forcing upon them. Like most children, it seems that no matter what happens, it’s you and your siblings against your parents.

Meanwhile, Robb continues to barrel headlong to his doom, agreeing to marry his uncle to one of Walder Frey’s daughter. Gonna miss you, Robb! We also get a scene in the Riverlands in which Melisandre comes to bring Gendry back to Dragostone for a freaky sex ritual, but first she runs into an old co-worker, Thoros of Myr. It seems old Thoros has brought back a friend, Beric Dondarrion, from the dead a half dozen times. That might come in handy later on no?

The best scene comes at the very end, when Littlefinger lays out his Machiavellian philosophy. Littlefinger describes chaos as a ladder, and cautions Varys that “the climb is all there is.” It’s a sobering reminder of how far Littlefinger will go to achieve his goals, and the show skillfully sets it off against footage of Jon and Ygritte finally reaching the top of the Wall after their own perilous (and far more literal) climb. The parallel is a little obvious, but still effective, as Jon and Ygritte stand on top of the world and take a moment to admire the view, all ambition forgotten.

Also, next time you play Game of Thrones jeopardy, you will know that it was Ned Stark who sent Dondarrion out on his original mission way back in Season 1. Random facts that don’t matter for 300, Alex.

35. “Book of the Stranger,” Season 6, Episode 4

It’s rare for Game of Thrones to deliver a satisfying moment that doesn’t involve someone dying, but “Book of the Stranger” gave us one in the form of the reunion between Sansa and Jon Snow at Castle Black. The hug shared between half-brother and half-sister (or cousins, technically) hit everyone right in the feels. Their catch-up conversation keeps the good vibes going. A shame they couldn’t last.

When he wasn’t busy offing Osha at Winterfell, Ramsay sent Jon a letter threatening his life and the lives of his family. And just like that, the Starks are on the warpath, determined to free baby brother Rickon and take back Winterfell. It was an interesting choice to have Jon want nothing to do with the violence to come, and to have Sansa be the one urging the destruction of House Bolton. Tables have turned and what-not.

A small but equally great scene occurred between Yara and Theon, the Greyjoy siblings, when the latter arrives back on Pyke after years of torture and captivity. Yara’s anger at Theon is both justified and brutal, and yet there is a subtle hint of love as Yara appears to be attempting to shock Theon back into being someone with a backbone.

Oh, and Daenerys burns down all the Dothraki khals and took control of their armies. Most cheered this scene, but it felt like we’d seen it before. Dany is always burning people when she has a problem with them, and it wasn’t that shocking to see her burn people again. Still, it was nice that she figured a way out of her predicament herself rather than relying on Drogon.

34. “Two Swords,” Season 4, Episode 1

In one of the rare instances when an episode does not start with the opening credits, “Two Swords” cut immediately to a shot of Tywin Lannister melting down Ice, the ancestral sword of House Stark, and reforging it into the the titular two swords. As if the symbolism wasn’t enough, Tywin finishes the scene by tossing a wolf skin onto the flames. And then the credits hit, and you know you are watching the best television show on the planet.

All is not well in House Lannister, however, as Tywin cannot seem to control his children. Jamie stubbornly desires to remain in the Kingsguard, despite Tywin offering him Casterly Rock, the ancestral home of the Lannisters. I blame Brienne for Jamie’s newfound sense of duty and honor.

Tyrion is having problems of his own, as his new wife Sansa refuses to eat or drink after hearing what happened to her mother and brother at the Red Wedding. Sansa elicits some sympathy from the audience when she reveals her reasoning for constantly visiting the godswood; it’s not to pray, but rather because its the only place people won’t talk to her.

This is also the episode where we meet the Red Viper, Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne. Oberyn has arrived in King’s Landing to get revenge on the Lannisters for killing his sister Elia years earlier, and he does not give even the smallest damn who knows it. All it takes is the one scene with Tyrion for Oberyn to become an instant fan favorite. Naturally, he’s doomed.

Out in the Riverlands, the Hound and Arya begin their road trip to the Vale, so the Houng can ransom off Arya to her aunt Lysa. Stopping by an inn, Arya recognizes her old sword Needle being held by Polliver, one of her tormenters in Season 2, and is determined to get it back. The Hound follows her inside, and after a hilarious argument about chickens, the Hound and Arya murder a group of Lannister soldiers, and Arya reclaims Needle. Arya continues to head down the path of darkness, and yet we can’t help but cheer for her after everything that has happened to her and her family.

33. “The Queen’s Justice,” Season 7 Episode 3

Daenerys’ return to Westeros set the stage for some incredible meetings between characters long separated by vast distances. “The Queen’s Justice” had the biggest meeting: the one between Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, fire and ice themselves.

Seeing Jon and Dany on screen together for the first time was a delight. Although the meeting did not initially go well, it formed the foundation of a partnership that will surely prove crucial to the story’s conclusion. But as much fun as their meeting was, another pair of monarchs stole the episode.

Early on in the episode, Euron Greyjoy returns to King’s Landing with his new captives in tow; his teasing of Jaime Lannister was enjoyable, and also set up a far more serious moment between Cersei and the Sand Snakes. Cersei’s confrontation with Ellaria Sand should forever sit on Lena Headey’s highlight reel. She was furious and vulnerable at the same time, and it was spellbinding. Cersei does horrible things, but Headey brings a fire to her that makes her so captivating, we can’t ever completely hate her. For that, she should be commended.

And speaking of wonderful performances, “The Queen’s Justice” was the last time we saw Diana Rigg play Lady Olenna Tyrell. Rigg’s final scene was a head-turner. As she sat there dying, she laced into Jaime Lannister and left him feeling like he’d drank poison rather than her. It was a treat, and a fitting end for one of the show’s great characters.

32. “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” Season 3, Episode 7

“We can arrange to have you carried.”

What makes Tywin such an incredible character is his ability to turn seemingly harmless statements into smackdowns of epic proportions. In this episode, Joffrey attempts to stand up to his grandfather and demand that the Small Council meetings be held somewhere he doesn’t have to climb as many stairs to reach. Tywin slowly climbs the few steps to the Iron Throne before delivering the above line. Joffrey squirms and attempts to crawl into the Iron Throne. If there was any doubt as to who actually ruled the Seven Kingdoms, Tywin puts it to rest here.

Meanwhile, right outside the Red Keep, Melisandre and Gendry are sailing through Blackwater Bay, looking up at Gendry’s “father’s house.” The best part of this shot are the sunken hulks from the Battle of the Blackwater passing by beneath the waves, a vivid reminder of the recent battle.

Talisa reveals to Robb that she is pregnant, something that makes their eventual doom all the more painful. But hey, if you didn’t know that the Red Wedding is coming, I guess that’s a pretty happy moment.

Jaime readies to leave Harrenhal, something he will do without his road buddy, Brienne of Tarth. Roose Bolton sends Jaime on to King’s Landing with his regards to Tywin, and Jaime sends the same to Edmure Tully on his impending nuptials. No one else found it odd that Bolton released Jaime rather than turn him over to Robb? It’s almost like he knew something.

Moving right along, Jaime doesn’t get far before he realizes Brienne will likely be killed in Harrenhal, and thus turns around in order to rescue the wench. Sure enough, Locke is trying to feed Brienne to his pet bear, and Jaime is forced to jump in the middle. This time, Jaime departs with Brienne in tow. Somewhere in the Riverlands, Jaime lost his hand to Locke, but in return, he gained a heart. Aw!

31. “Walk of Punishment,” Season 3, Episode 3

In the immortal words of Ron Burgundy’s nemesis Frank Vitchard, “I did not see that coming.”

At the climax of the episode, in a surprising act of chivalry that backfires in the worst possible way, Jaime Lannister attempts to persuade Bolton guardsmen not to rape Brienne of Tarth. Bolton lieutenant Locke decides it’d be nice to actual give Jaime a taste of the real world, where not everyone’s daddy is the most powerful man in Westeros, and lops off Jamie’s sword hand.

And while losing a hand is of course devastating in and of itself, Jaime WAS that sword hand. The show fails in my estimation to highlight this fact, something the books go to great lengths to emphasize. Jaime’s prowess with a sword was what won him most of his fame and infamy, and losing it has a profound affect on Jaime and his relationships with others, in the books moreso than on the show.

Either way, it is a hallmark moment in the life of Jaime Lannister, one that forces him to confront life as an average, albeit wealthy, man. (And in an awful bit of foreshadowing, Jaime must now decide if he wants to live a cripple, or die a good, clean death, as he suggested for Bran Stark in the very second episode of the series.)

Outside of this startling moment at the end of the episode, plots continue to inch forward. Daenerys is beginning to come into her own, more so than in past seasons as she chastises renowned knights Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy for questioning her in public. No character grows as much as Dany does in Season 3.

Arya shares a sweet moment with the departing Hot Pie, something all too rare for our soon-to-be serial killer, and Theon is freed from his torture chamber by a mysterious benefactor. Good luck with that Theon!

30. “The Old Gods and the New,” Season 2, Episode 6

“Where are my dragons?”

Dany, Dany, Dany. You can’t leave the only three living dragons in the world lying around like a set of car keys. In fairness, she did leave them under guard, but still. Daenerys continues to blunder around Qarth, asking this guy and that guy for money, but can’t seem to get anywhere. Returning from one such meeting, she finds her guards and servants dead, and the dragons missing. As the episode closes, we get treated to a shot of the dragons crying as they are taken into a mysterious, Dungeons and Dragons-looking tower. Also, do the dragons’ cries always sound so sad to everyone? Every time they howl, it gets to me.

We get two more fantastic scenes in this episode, and if you guessed one would involve Tywin, and the other would involve Tyrion, you would be correct. Tywin continues to sit in Harrenhal, blocking Robb Stark from heading south to King’s Landing. Tywin is half tempted to execute half his war staff, since they can’t seem to stop tripping over their own two feet. The only one Tywin seems to actually enjoy having around is the incognito Arya Stark, who can read and write better than most of his bannermen.

Down in King’s Landing, Tyrion and the rest of the Lannister clan see Myrcella off to Dorne, because “Dorne is the safest place for her.” Game of Thrones, your foreshadowing game is strong indeed. On the way back to the Red Keep, the starving common folk toss manure on Joffrey’s face and we have a full blown riot on our hands. After reaching safety, Tyrion puts another smackdown on Joffrey, which means wish fulfillment for fans everywhere. The Hound braves the riot to rescue Sansa from the common folk, and once more we all question who exactly are the villains on this show. Good times.

Lots of important happenings in this episode, not the least of which is the only major weddings in the series so far where something unspeakably horrible doesn’t happen to one of the new marrieds. Tyrion and Sansa are wed in this episode, and Tyrion quickly gets drunk at the reception. After Joffrey threatens to have his way with the new bride, Tyrion spits out a profanity-filled one liner that we can’t repeat here.

Melisandre continues to be weird, seducing Gendry, the bastard son of Robert Baratheon for some kind of weird ritual. Melisandre wants some of his “kingsblood” and apparently that involves getting naked first. Anyways, Mel extracts some blood with three leeches, which Stannis then burns while naming the other three living kings in Westeros; Robb Stark, Joffrey Baratheon, and Balon Greyjoy. Not exactly subtle foreshadowing, especially considering the Red Wedding is the next episode.

Meanwhile, Daenerys continues her siege of Yunkai, a city no one will remember next week. (Unless you want to win Game of Thrones Jeopardy.) As she sits outside the city, she meets the captains of a mercenary company, the Second Sons. They later decide to sneak into her camp and kill her, except that one of them, Daario Naharis, decides he’d rather serve the beautiful queen. That’s bad news for his buddies, whose heads he chops off and presents to Dany while she bathes. How romantic!

As the episode closes out, our self-professed coward Samwell Tarly manages to kill a White Walker with a dragonglass dagger, much to the surprise of both parties involved. The scenes with the White Walkers are few and far between, and it’s not an accident that the producers want us more focused on who sits the Iron Throne than who could destroy the entire realm. Remember these things!

28. “Stormborn,” Season 7 Episode 2

“Stormborn” was the kind of solid episode Game of Thrones produces on a regular basis. With the exception of the final minutes, nothing in the second episode of season 7 was outstanding, but neither was it terrible. There are plenty of well-crafted moments.

There’s a lot of setup in this episode, from Melisandre urging Daenerys to meet with Jon to Qyburn’s reveal of a new dragon-killing scorpion. Arya and Hot Pie’s reunion was well-written and performed, especially when Arya’s cold facade melted when she learned of Jon’s kingship. Sam’s treatment of Jorah’s greyscale was perhaps the lowlight of the episode, but only for those with weak stomachs like us.

The high point of the episode came when Euron attacked his niece Yara’s fleet. From the moment Euron smashes onto Yara’s ship, he’s a force of destruction. From his brutal murder of two of the Sand Snakes (whom no one will miss), to his maniacal laughter at episode’s end, his glee was infectious.

Then there was Theon’s choice to leap into the water rather than stick by his sister, an emotional gut punch. Watching Theon drift among the wreckage of the Ironborn fleet was a somber way to end the episode, and one that pounded home what a threat Euron could be.

27. “Valar Morghulis,” Season 2, Episode 10

As in The Empire Strikes Back, sometimes the bad guys winning is the best thing for a story. And man, do the bad guys triumph in this one.

After smashing the Baratheon army, Tywin and the Tyrells get all kinds of awards showered on them. Sansa is set aside as Joffrey’s intended in favor of Margaery, though the joke’s on Margaery there, and Tywin gets named Hand of the King. But what about poor Tyrion, you ask? The true savior of King’s Landing is locked away in a closet to lick his wounds without even the slightest thanks. How rude.

Robb breaks his oath to the Freys, and marries the hot nurse who was following around his army, Talisa. Doh.

Daenerys answers the episode-old question, “where are my dragons?” and journeys into the House of the Undying. For budgetary and other reasons, Dany’s visions are kept brief, although in the books they are much, much more detailed. In the novels, Dany has visions of basically every major event in the series, but here she just sees a snow-covered Iron Throne, the Wall, and her unborn son. And then her dragons burn that creepy bald guy to a cinder. Dragons get credit for the save in this episode.

Last but not least, we get our once-a-season glimpse of the White Walkers, this time as they slowly but surely approach the camp of the Night’s Watch north of the Wall. Until Season 5, the show always walked a fine line when it came to these guys—it reminded us that they were out there, but it didn’t oversell the fact that they could easily kill everyone in Westeros, thereby making all the shenanigans south of the Wall totally meaningless. Honestly, good job with that.

26. “Kissed by Fire,” Season 3, Episode 5

Oh, little Shireen. If you only knew the irony of your first appearance on the show coming in an episode name “Kissed by Fire.” Halfway through the third season, we finally meet Stannis’ wife Selyse, who apparently keeps her stillborn sons in jars, and his daughter Shireen, afflicted with greyscale as a child. I guess now we know why Stannis is such a jerk.

The funniest part of this episode occurs when Tywin informs his children of the spouses he has found for them. Cersei is smug and sneering as Tywin informs Tyrion he will wed Sansa, but her smile disappears when she finds out she will be wed to Loras. Misery loves company and what not.

The three best remaining scenes are not-at-all funny, but are of monumental importance to the series. After the Hound defeats Beric Dondarrion in combat, Arya and company are astounded to witness his resurrection only minutes later by Thoros of Myr, a red priest. Wait, red priest and priestesses can raise people from the dead? Hmmm.

Back in Riverrun, my vote for castle I would most like to live in, Robb Stark is floored when one of his bannermen, Rickard Karstark, murders two Lannister boys captured in a previous battle. Richard Madden does some fine work here, shouting down the much older and wiser-looking actors. Like his father Ned, however, Robb always does the honorable thing, and therefore beheads Lord Karstark rather than keeping him as a hostage, thereby losing all of Karstark’s supporters.

While it foreshadows Shireen’s fate, the episode title actually comes from the wildling term for redheads, and the standard bearer for that on Game of Thrones is Ygritte. She and Jon Snow find a cave on their way south, and for the first time Jon breaks his vows by sleeping with her. The relationship is quickly starting to become trouble, because even though Jon’s feelings for Ygritte are genuine, we know Jon will never abandon the Watch. They’re headed for a rough breakup, like ice cream and Netflix for a week rough.

Finally we arrive at the scene where Jaime and Brienne recuperate from their journey across the Riverlands with a hot bath. Jaime confesses to Brienne that the act he is most notorious for, the murder of King Aerys, was actually done to save the population of King’s Landing, as Aerys planned to burn the city to the ground. It’s a startling revelation that completely changes the way in which we view Jaime. Except, oh yeah, he threw a child out a window in the first episode.

Leave it to Game of Thrones to leave us confused about how we feel towards a character.

25. “Fire and Blood,” Season 1, Episode 10

“Fire and Blood” is the epic finale to the wonderful first season, and had a lot to do with launching the series into the stratosphere.

News of Ned’s beheading by that Joffrey kid spreads far and fast in this one. When Robb finds out, he attempts to hack a tree to pieces before collapsing into his mother’s arms. If you don’t feel for Robb and Catelyn in this scene, call your doctor. Catelyn walking through the Stark camp, every man bowing their head to her, as she tries to keep her composure is strong stuff.

In King’s Landing, Joffrey is in full-blown bastard mode as he shows Sansa Ned’s head on a spike. Sansa contemplates pushing Joffrey off the tower, officially marking the moment many fans started to like her, but unfortunately the Hound stops her and we all have to suffer through his reign for another three seasons. Also, Ned’s head on a stick is now the most popular dessert item at Game of Thrones parties.

Daenerys has the hardest time of it, though. Waking up after passing out during the struggle to save Khal Drogo, Dany discovers that not only has she lost her unborn child, but that Drogo only lives in body, not in mind. Dany smothers her husband rather that see him live as a husk, and orders a funeral pyre built. As Drogo’s body burns along with her dragon eggs, Dany walks into the fire. When the flames finally die down, Dany sits naked with three newborn dragons clutching her. And the series has officially jumped to the next level. If baby dragons can’t get you to tune in next year, we don’t know what will.

24. “The Broken Man,” Season 6, Episode 7

Okay, I’ll be perfectly honest: this episode is ranked as high as it is largely based on the fact that it features the return of the Hound. Rory McCann always killed it in this role, and it was a joy to have him back on the show, even if it was only for two episodes in Season 6. The Hound and Arya’s road trip back in Season 4 was spectacular television, and his pairing with Ian McShane as Septon Rey could have been a show all unto its own.

The other major reason we ranked this episode so high was because it featured the introduction of the breakout character of Season 6: Lyanna Mormont. Bella Ramsay absolutely slays as the pint-sized ruler of Bear Island in the North, and held her own with a group of more seasoned actors in her scene. The Mormont scowl would go on to become an internet meme sensation, and it’s easy to see why.

Jon and Sansa’s other recruiting trips were also interesting, as we got to see the weariness felt by both the wildlings and House Glover, with each group tired of all the fighting for others that’s been required. Given all the violence we’d seen on the show, it was effective to see some leaders hesitant to reenter the fray.

On the flip side of all that goodness, we got the Waif’s attack on Arya, as the latter calmly strolled through the streets of Braavos despite knowing there was an entire assassin’s guild out to kill her. The Waif shanks Arya half a dozen times before Arya escapes into a canal full of sewer water. The whole scene just didn’t work for anyone, and was only made worse by the next episode when Arya’s wounds are healed by some chicken soup.

23. “You Win or You Die,” Season 1, Episode 7

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” —Cersei Lannister

That sounds like a fun game, sign me up!

Seriously though, landing in our top fifteen, this Season 1 episode represents a shift in the narrative. By now, we’ve been introduced to all the major characters, gotten a bit of backstory on each, and are now starting to head towards the bloody conclusion of the year.

The quote above comes during a conversation when Ned Stark confronts Cersei Lannister about the real father of her children. Cersei calmly confesses that all three are Jaime’s as if she were explaining to Ned that she did have a Cobb salad last night for dinner, thank you very much. If Ned had half a brain, this conversation would have either waited until after Robert returned from his hunting trip, or Ned would have shown up to the meeting with half the guards in the Red Keep. Alas, he does neither, and things spiral out of control.

Remember that incredible conversation Robert and Cersei had before this? Where Cersei was secretly saying goodbye to Robert? Robert is injured in a drunken hunting accident, as it turns out hunting a boar with a spear and drinking copious amounts of wine are a bad mix. Oh Robert, you damned fool.

Robert’s death sets in motion all kinds of craziness that ultimately ends up with Ned in jail and Joffrey on the throne. Oh Ned, you damned fool.

Out in the Riverlands, we get to meet Tywin Lannister in the flesh for the first time, played by veteran actor Charles Dance. The normally arrogant and self-assured Jaime Lannister is cowed in the presence of his father. Tywin gives one of the best speeches of the series, all while symbolically skinning a stag, which we all know to be the symbol of which house, again?

Also in this episode, a wine seller attempts to poison Daenerys and her unborn child, and Khal Drogo’s reaction is terrible to behold. Drogo loses his mind when he learns someone tried to kill his wife, and swears a vow under the stars to see his son sit the Iron Throne. There is literally nothing on Game of Thrones more terrifying than a pissed-off Khal Drogo.

22. “Winter is Coming,” Season 1, Episode 1

But wait, you’ve said this whole time that the first episodes of each season aren’t very good. How does this one crack the top fifteen? Okay, well, this is not just any first episode, it’s THE first episode, and it sets the tone for the entire series. Most assumed it was simply another medieval-type show, a knockoff of Rome except with dragons. They couldn’t have been more wrong. I mean, what other show pushes an eight-year-old kid out the window of a tower in the pilot? It’s that kind of dedication to thwarting expectations that set Game of Thrones apart right from the beginning.

Before the opening credits roll, we get our first scene beyond the Wall, as a group of Night’s Watchmen are quickly and effortlessly slaughtered by the White Walkers. It’s no accident this scene comes first, as it’s meant to show us the true threat to Westeros, but then distract us with all the soap opera goings on in the south.

Next, we get introduced to the main power players in Westeros in rapid fire fashion, and book-readers everywhere paused periodically to explain to their newbie friends who everyone was. We meet the Baratheons, the Starks, and the Lannisters in the matter of a few minutes, before meeting Daenerys roughly one scene before she is married to the husband she just met. See what I meant about rapid fire?

In our first scene of over-the-top foreshadowing, Ned and his children come upon a direwolf and stag, the symbols of House Stark and House Baratheon, that have killed one another. The direwolf’s pups have survived, and each of the Stark children gets one for a pet. Because what child hasn’t secretly wished for a giant man-eating wolf for a pet?

We’re introduced to the mystery of Jon Snow’s parentage, and get see the deep bond of friendship between King Robert and Ned Stark, before jumping back to Dany’s wedding day. And last, we get our first official shock of the series when young Bran stumbles on Queen Cersei and her brother Jaime having sex. Jaime throws Bran out the window to keep him quiet, and a global phenomenon is born.

21. “The Long Night,” Season 8, Episode 3

For seven seasons, viewers had been waiting to see the Night King and his army of the dead descend upon the world of the living, for kings to shiver and die in their castles and for women to feel their tears freeze upon their cheeks. “The Long Night” compresses this invasion down to the space of an epic, extra-long episode where the Night King throws his undead army against Winterfell, and is in the end defeated before he can invade Westeros proper. No story could have completely paid off all that build-up, but “The Long Night” mostly succeeds.

Not that there aren’t flaws. Much has been made about the photography for this episode; it takes place at night, and the filmmakers wanted to give an idea of the oppressive bleakness closing in on those fighting against this apocalyptic threat. It’s a good idea, but the end result is an episode that is plain hard to see at times. That would be a point against it in an ordinary episode, but this is a battle episode — the show’s longest and most ambitious — so it’s especially important we be able to make out what’s happening.

Then there are the kind of oversights and plot conveniences that became more commonplace as the show went on. So you’re telling me that no one in the castle thought that it might be a bad idea to sequester all the non-fighters in a corpse-packed crypt when you’re battling an enemy who can raise the dead, not even the characters the show is always telling us are super-smart? And somehow, when the corpses inevitably start rising, no named characters are killed, so not only does everyone down there act like a moron, but the show lets them off the hook for it.

That’s probably my biggest “oh, come on!” moment of the episode, but there are several like it. But “The Long Night” comes through when it counts. Melisandre is on fire throughout, kicking things off right by setting ablaze the arakhs of the Dothraki cavalry, lighting up a defensive trench, and making good on her season 3 promise to meet Arya again. Her death scene at the end is the perfect, understated end to a loud, clanging hour.

And of course, Arya kills it throughout. There’s a tense scene where she dodges wights in the Winterfell library, and her unexpected slaying of the Night King is a proper get-on-your-feet-and-cheer-your-ass-off moment. The deaths of Theon Greyjoy and Jorah Mormont hit hard (even though not enough people died in this episode) and I love that Daenerys and Jon both throw the best they’ve got a the Night King and come up empty.

“The Long Night” may not be the best battle episode in the show’s history, but it sees us through the darkness and out the other side.

20. “The Lion and the Rose,” Season 4, Episode 2

This episode contains the moment everyone had been waiting for since the first episode: Joffrey Baratheon’s brutal and painful death. Joffrey literally got away with murder for three entire seasons, and it was starting to look like he might outlast everyone despite the crimes he’d committed both before and after he sat the Iron Throne. (I say before, because in the books Tyrion deduces that it was Joffrey who hired the assassin that tired to kill Bran with the Valyrian steel dagger, a point dropped from the show.)

So the royal wedding has finally arrived, and anyone who is anyone is in town for the occasion. Well, anyone that isn’t a rebel, a traitor, or someone who hasn’t paid their royal taxes. The event takes up the back half of the episode and is full of great exchanges (Oberyn has a stare-down with Tywin, Jaime and Loras square off, Brienne and Cersei share a moment), but Joffrey is the star.

As if we needed any more reason to hate the kid, Joffrey spends most of the episode being insufferable, slicing up Tyrion’s thoughtful wedding gift with a Valyrian steel sword and humiliating his uncle during the wedding feast. And then he uses a troupe of dwarves to reenact the War of the Five Kings, which is offensive to half the guests present, including his new wife, as it mocks Renly Baratheon’s homosexuality.

But no sooner does Joffrey cut his wedding cake and eat the first slice, than he drops to his knees choking. Efforts to save him are in vain, and Cersei can only hold Joffrey as he dies, gasping for air. So long, sweet prince, we knew you more than we wanted to, and you will not be missed.

By the way, wear your gold star proud if you caught Olenna Tyrell dropping the poison into Joffrey’s cup on your first viewing.

19. “Home,” Season 6, Episode 2

Our boy is back! “Home” saw the return of Jon Snow, after he was brutally murdered by his brothers in black at the conclusion of Season 5. Throughout the long off-season, fans had wondered about the ultimate fate of our favorite Night’s Watchman (sorry, Edd), and we only had to wait until the second episode of Season 6 to get an answer.

After Ser Davos gives her one of his famous pep talks, Melisandre attempts to bring Jon back with the weirdest haircut in history, and at first, it appears like she’s failed. But then, right when the audience thinks Jon might stay dead another episode, the former Lord Commander bursts back to life in the final moments. We knew Jon wasn’t going to stay dead, but “Home” almost convinced us we were wrong. That’s great TV.

To offset the rebirth of one character, we had others being knocked off in record numbers. First Ramsay murders his entire family, starting with stabbing his father Roose Bolton, and ending with feeding his stepmother and newly born half-brother to his hounds. That’ll come back to bite him, we think. Meanwhile, on the Iron Islands, we get introduced to the awesomely insane Euron Greyjoy, who promptly tosses his brother off a bridge. Such quality family time in Westeros!

Finally, “Home” sports a wonderfully moody scene where Tyrion unchains Rhaegal and Viserion in the dungeons beneath Meereen. It’s just a great episode all around.

18. “Mockingbird,” Season 4, Episode 7

Season 4 features one amazing hour after another, and this episode is no different. We could fill up the whole space just talking about Tyrion’s search for a champion in his upcoming trial by combat, but let’s hit a couple of the other highlights first.

In our foreshadowing moment of the week, Selyse pleads with Melisandre to leave Shireen behind at Dragonstone when Stannis sails north to the Wall, but Melisandre insists the Lord of Light will have need of the young princess. Knowing what comes later, this moment is chilling on rewatch.

Arya is wondering around the Riverlands with the Hound, still murdering anyone she happens to run into and doesn’t like. Daenerys finally falls for Daario, making for an awkward morning when Jorah Mormont shows up.

And last but not least, Littlefinger pushes crazy aunt Lysa out the Moon Door, after Lysa goes, well, crazy, and almost does the same to Sansa. Although Littlefinger’s breakup line is especially brutal “I have only ever loved one woman. Your sister,” special mention goes to Sophie Turner for portraying Sansa’s terror, and her sadness when she realizes she is not safe even with her own family.

Speaking of people who are terrorized by their family, Tyrion rots in his cell, looking for a champion to defend him after his epic rant in the previous episode. Cersei has named Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane as her champion, who gladly accepts since it appears his favorite thing to do is chop people in half. With an opponent like the Mountain, champions aren’t exactly lining up around the block. The two most likeliest candidates, Jamie and Bronn, both turn Tyrion down.

Even though Jamie is initially furious with Tyrion for not taking the deal Tywin offered, he comes around when Tyrion explains how good it felt to ruin one of Tywin’s plans. Jamie still refuses to face the Mountain, however, as he has yet to recover his fighting skills after losing his hand.

Bronn seems a likely candidate, as he defended Tyrion once before. Bronn explains that he’s already been bought out by Cersei (for a castle and a dim-witted wife), and Tyrion isn’t able to offer him enough to change his mind. Bronn is clearly pained by having to decline, having grown found of the littlest Lannister, despite their business-only relationship. Tyrion and Bronn part as friends, as Tyrion can’t argue with Bronn’s logic in accepting Cersei’s offer.

The best of the three conversations, with Oberyn Martell, is saved for last. Before even acknowledging the reason for his visit, Oberyn relays a story to Tyrion about Tyrion’s infancy. Oberyn and Elia visited Casterly Rock days after Tyrion’s birth, in which Tyrion’s mother died. Cersei, who already hated her younger brother, took the Martells to Tyrion’s crib, and pinched the infant Tyrion hard until Jamie stopped her.

It’s a painful story for Tyrion to hear, and Peter Dinklage kills it. It’s no wonder why he remains the only actor on Game of Thrones to win an Emmy. Tyrion’s pain turns to elation after Oberyn agrees to be his champion, and we have our title fight. Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne versus Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. Ding ding.

17. “The Dragon and the Wolf,” Season 7 Episode 7

The longest episode in Game of Thrones history by a wide margin, “The Dragon and the Wolf” was the finale of season 7. Subtracting the final moments at the Wall, the episode lacked any major action beats, but still had plentiful twists and turns.

The centerpiece of the episode is the meeting at the Dragonpit in King’s Landing. It was great fun to see so many of our favorite characters on screen together, and even in this crowed field, director Jeremy Podeswa gave all of them at least one moment to shine. Watching Cersei and Dany come face to face was particularly enjoyable, as was the reunion between the Hound and Brienne.

Cersei’s interactions with her brothers are also noteworthy, particularly Jaime’s long-in-coming decision to walk out on her — his realization that Cersei is willing to go back on her word and let the people of Westeros fight the dead alone was note-perfect, as was the dusting of snow falling over King’s Landing. And at Dragonstone, Theon and Jon’s conversation about Theon’s many sins was the type of character-driven moment that made us fall in love with Game of Thrones in the first place.

The episode was not without its flaws. For example, while Littlefinger’s execution was wonderfully done, it didn’t have the impact it could have, coming as it did after the manufactured tension between Arya and Sansa.

The revelation about Jon’s true heritage and his new bond with Dany set the stage for things to come in the final season. Coupled with the Night King’s decimation of the Wall, “The Dragon and the Wolf” moved the pieces forward and left us eager to find out what happens next.

16. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Season 8, Episode 2

The best episode of season 8 is also the quietest and slowest. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” simply lets characters talk to each while they wait for the hammer to fall on Winterfell, and scene after scene is a winner. The opening trial of Jaime Lannister is wonderfully textured. Daenerys is angry with Jaime, who refuses to apologize for killing her tyrannical father, and who finds support in Brienne of Tarth, whose honor cannot questioned. That gets Sansa on Jaime’s side, which gets Daenerys to look for support from Jon, who’s flustered because he just found out the woman he’s sleeping with is his aunt. There are so many currents flowing back and forth in this scene, all of them developed carefully over years of TV, and it’s a pleasure to watch them run.

And the hits keep coming. I love the scene in the godswood where Jaime confronts Bran about the vicious act of attempted child murder that kicked off the series, and finds that Bran has evolved beyond caring, which is a new kind of confusing and frightening. Jaime and Tyrion also have a long-overdue talk about what Cersei means to them, and the reunion between Sansa and Theon Greyjoy hits unexpectedly hard.

Sansa and Daenerys try and fail to make a connection, Missandei and Grey Worm contemplate their future, and Arya visits with the Hound and then with Gendry, taking a tour of her seven-season journey and making a decision to celebrate what life she has left before it’s ended by the White Walkers or someone else along her bloody path of vengeance. Easily the high point of the episode is the scene around the hearth, where Tyrion, Jaime, Davos, Tormund, Gendry and Brienne gather to chat before the end. Jaime shows how much he’s grown when he makes a knight of quite possibly the only person in Westeros to actually deserve it: Brienne.. And as the final hour draws nearer, Podrick sings a mournful song that reminds everyone of how far they’ve come, and how it could all end tonight. It’s impossible not to watch it and get chills.

The only drawback to this scene is that none of the people involved actually perish in the coming battle, which robs it of a little of its poetic value, but “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is still a warm sad hug of an episode. We love these characters and it was nice to spend quality time with them.

15. “The Door,” Season 6, Episode 5

“The Door” was one of those great episodes that just snuck up on us, taking fans by surprise with the amount of twists and turns packed into it. From heartbreaking character deaths to giant reveals that went to the core questions of the series, “The Door” had it all.

And before we get to any of that, Sophie Turner kicks off the episode with perhaps her strongest work to date in the role of Sansa Stark, as she verbally berates Littlefinger for selling her to the Boltons last season. It was a powerful scene, and had many audience members squirming as Sansa recollected of her time with Ramsay. What Turner doesn’t say is far more powerful than what she does. Even with all the quality work around it, this scene stood out.

But the fireworks of the episode occurred north of the Wall, as Bran continued his training under the Three-Eyed Raven. Bran witnesses to the creation of the White Walkers by the Children of the Forrest, a jaw-dropping moment for fans, and for book-readers in particular. The White Walkers’ origins had always been shrouded in mystery, so this came as a shock. But we didn’t stop there…

After jumping back in time unsupervised, Bran is branded by the Night’s King, allowing the White Walkers entry into the formerly protected cave. Characters start dying left and right, including Summer, Leaf, and the Three-Eyed Raven. But none of their deaths had the impact of Hodor’s, the simple Stark family man servant. Not only do we come to learn about Bran’s hand in Hodor’s mental impairment, but we have to watch as Hodor, serving House Stark one last time, holds the door shut from an army of wights as he’s slowly torn apart. Just like our hearts.

14. “Mother’s Mercy,” Season 5, Episode 10

Valar Morghulis.

All men must die, and a lot of them die in this episode. Women too. Seriously, this episode must have set a record for most characters killed in a single hour.

Up north, Stannis the Mannis continues his disastrous campaign against the Boltons, and thanks to his ritual sacrifice of his daughter, has much better weather. A good tradeoff, no? Apparently Stannis’ wife Selyse didn’t think so, and hung herself from a tree. No matter, on to Winterfell, except that many of Stannis’ troops deserted in the night, unwilling to serve a man who burns his own children. No matter, on to Winterfell.

Once at the Bolton stronghold, Stannis plans a siege, but the Boltons appear to want to crush him quickly. With only a remnant of his army remaining to him, he doesn’t last long. Amid the carnage, Brienne of Tarth finds the last Baratheon and promptly takes off his head in revenge for Renly’s murder. Now that we think about it, Stannis sure did kill a lot of his family.

Stannis is hardly the last to die this episode, as we get Myrcella dying in Jamie’s arms shortly after acknowledging him as her father. And then across the Narrow Sea in Braavos, we get Arya doing her best Saw tribute and stabbing Meryn Trant approximately 357 times. The Faceless Men do not take kindly to this unauthorized killing, and turn Arya blind as punishment.

Cersei takes an incredibly demeaning naked walk through the streets of King’s Landing as punishment for some of her crimes, and even the biggest Cersei hater feels a tiny bit of sympathy for the Queen Mother here. Or is it Dowager Queen?

Finally, we jump to the Wall, where Jon snow is lured into an ambush and murdered by his own men. Jon is stabbed only a few times less than Meryn Trant, and bleeds out in the snow as the camera fades to black. Viewers who hadn’t read the books may have assumed Jon and Dany were untouchable, so this moment came as a big shock. Even if they had foreshadowed it with moody little Olly, it was a surprise to see the little kid stab Jon Snow last.

Paging Melisandre. Melisandre to the courtyard please.

13. “The Dance of Dragons,” Season 5, Episode 9

This episode evokes two very strong emotions: sadness in the first half, and complete elation in the second half.

The first half of the episode concerns Stannis Baratheon’s doomed march to Winterfell, and the constant string of disasters that lead him to make a terrible choice. Though show producers had been teasing it since Season 3, it does not make Stannis’ decision to burn his daughter at the stake any easier for fans to watch. Melisandre had been hinting at it for a while, and flat out asked and was denied the episode before, so we held out hope that sweet Shireen would somehow survive. But when Stannis sends Davos back to Castle Black, nominally for supplies, we saw the writing on the wall.

Davos shares a tender moment with Shireen before he departs, a brutal scene considering what we know is about to happen. No sooner does Davos leave than Stannis shows up and shares a final moment with his daughter before having her dragged outside and tied to a pyre. Stannis’ wife Selyse initially thinks burning her daughter alive is a grand idea, but breaks down when it actually happens. Stannis, we were all kind of rooting for you up until this point, but now it’s pretty impossible to support someone who burns their children alive. Lots of luck with that siege at Winterfell.

Shireen is still smoldering on the stake, and the show wisely cuts to the great fighting pit in Meereen, where Daenerys is going to preside over the grand reopening of the gladiator games, much to her own disgust. Things escalate quickly when the Sons of the Harpy stage a surprise attack, killing Dany’ soon to be/already husband, (the show was a little unclear on that account). Anyway, Daenerys is forced into the pit herself, and as her bodyguards are slowly picked off, things start to look pretty grim for our silver-haired queen.

What happens next is easily one of the most thrilling scenes of Season 5, if not the whole series. Drogon comes bursting into the arena—whether he was drawn by the noise or responded to some kind of psychic distress call from Dany is unclear—flames and wings flying everywhere. Drogon and his mama haven’t seen each other for a while, but he is still not happy that people are messing with his mother. Drogon is pure fury in this scene, eating, stomping, and burning anyone in his path, including a few unlucky Unsullied.

The Sons of the Harpy quickly bombard the dragon with spears, many of which land. Dany surmises that it’s time to exit stage left, and hops on Drogon’s back. Riding dragonback for the first time in the whole series, Dany shows us the first glimpse of what dragons are capable of.

As Dany flies off, I have to give a special shout out to Peter Dinklage for his stunned look of wonder. It might seem impossible to make people forget that the show just burned a young girl at the stake, but Game of Thrones is no ordinary show.

12. “Blackwater,” Season 2, Episode 9

“Blackwater” solely concerns itself with the arrival of Stannis Baratheon’s forces in King’s Landing, something Season 2 built towards for most of its run. With a reported budget of $8 million dollars for this episode alone, Game of Thrones established itself as a television show of unique ambition.

The entirety of the episode is spent in King’s Landing, and director Neil Marshall does an excellent job ratcheting up the tension as the episode rolls on. We start by watching each of the major players preparing for the upcoming battle, and some are contemplating more extreme measures than others. Cersei obtains nightshade, a powerful poison, as a last resort should Stannis breach the walls.

Sansa attempts to goad Joffrey into leading the vanguard, but Joffrey is no Baratheon. The closest he gets is huddled on the walls of the city, scared the entire time, but this was yet another moment that endeared fans to Sansa. Trying to get Joffrey killed can only over well with the audience.

We split most of the episode between Stannis and Davos on the one side, and Cersei and Tyrion on the other. Cersei spends most of the hour getting drunk and berating Sansa while holed up with the other women, but Tyrion leads an attack, a first for him.

After destroying a large portion of the attacking Baratheon fleet with explosive wildfire, Tyrion leads sorties beyond the walls, after everyone else flees. When one of Joffrey’s Kingsguard attempts to murder Tyrion, its our lover-not-fighter Podrick Payne who comes to the rescue.

Blood and gore are pepper the episode, with heads, legs, and arms flying across the screen at a steady rate, but when it’s all said and done, the Lannisters emerge victorious after a Lannister/Tyrell army attacks Stannis from the rear. The outcome is left in doubt until the final moments of the episode, where we catch up with Cersei in the throne room. As she sits on the Iron Throne with poor little Tommen, Cersei uncorks her poison and waits to see who opens the doors. Luckily, it’s her father Tywin, smug as a bug after defeating Stannis. Dodged a bullet there, Tommen!

11. “The Spoils of War,” Season 7 Episode 4

Despite being tied for shortest episode of the series, “The Spoils of War” is our highest ranked episode of season 7. Clocking in at a meager 50 minutes, the episode still left a lasting impression.

In a season packed with reunions and meetings, “The Spoils of War” had one of the most momentous: Arya Stark reuniting with her siblings in Winterfell. From the moment where she quietly surveyed the courtyard of her childhood home to her initially frosty meeting with Sansa under the watchful eye of their father, Arya’s return was everything we’d hoped for.

Other highlights included Jon and Theon’s reunion on the beaches of Dragonstone, as well as Jon taking Daenerys on a tour of the dragonglass mine (Jon has a thing for caves). Finally, Arya and Brienne’s duel in Winterfell would serve as a pleasant appetizer for the main course: the Loot Train Attack.

Game of Thrones has rarely delivered a finer sequence. A lighthearted scene involving Jaime, Bronn and Dickon Tarly discussing war quickly degenerates into an actual battle, and one unlike any we have seen on the show thus far. Dany, mounted on Drogon, showed off her true power here, and it was exhilarating and horrifying and equal measure.

In addition to the thrillingly choreographed action, the scene’s greatest accomplishment was making us feel pity and fear for the Lannister and Tarly forces. But there were also moments of beauty, as when Drogon glided across a lake. When it comes to action sequences on TV, there’s nothing else like Game of Thrones.

10. “The Laws of Gods and Men,” Season 4, Episode 6

Like some of the other episodes in our top 10, this episode earns its spot based largely on one scene. Not that the rest of the episode is terrible—seeing Daenerys adjust to life in Meereen is interesting, and Davos’ stump speech for Stannis in Braavos is heartwarning—but to get into the top 10, an episode has to have a scene that puts it over the top. Here, it’s Tyrion’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey.

A parade of witnesses is brought forth to testify before judges Tywin, Oberyn, and Mace Tyrell, not exactly what you’d call an impartial jury. Tywin clearly has it out for Tyrion, and Mace Tyrell will do whatever Tywin does (like his father, who followed a hawk over the edge of a cliff and died, Mace is a follower at heart). Oberyn is the wild card; the Red Viper hates the Lannisters in general, and Tywin most of all. Either way, Tyrion has his work cut out for him.

Summoned as they are by Cersei, the witnesses all paint a terrible picture of Tyrion. Even good deeds, such as saving the city from Stannis or stopping Joffrey for beating Sansa, are twisted so as to show Tyrion in a terrible light. Any attempt by Tyrion to contradict the testimony of his accusers is quickly squashed by Tywin, making one wonder why they bother with the trial in the first place. No one ever seems to want to talk about just what a monster Joffrey was, conveniently glossing over any of his many misdeeds.

During a lunch break, we find out the real reason for the trial. Jamie pleads with Tywin for mercy on Tyrion’s behalf. The only card Jamie has is to agree to leave the Kingsguard and carry on the family line from Casterly Rock, something Tywin wants very much. Tywin accepts so readily that viewers wonder whether he didn’t stage the entire trial just for this purpose. A deal is struck for Tyrion to be exiled to the Wall, so long as he confesses his crimes.

But then the prosecution overreaches, because the next witness shatters Tyrion far past the point of cooperation: Shae.

Tyrion is floored as Shae walks into the throne room, and we’re right there with him. Shae loved him, and seeing her testify against him is a knife through Tyrion’s heart. Anyone who doesn’t feel something for Tyrion here is a wight. Burn them.

Not only does Shae share their most private moments together with the crowd, but she falsely testifies that Sansa and Tyrion planned Joffrey’s murder together, and this is the last straw for Tyrion. The smallest Lannister explodes in an epic rant on everyone in the crowd, and then demands trial by combat. Peter Dinklage breathes fire and exhales smoke in this scene, raging against everyone and everything.

Definitely the most entertaining trial since A Few Good Men.

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.

8. “And Now His Watch Is Ended,” Season 3, Episode 4

For a mid-season episode, quite a lot happens here: Arya meets Beric Dondarrion, Varys tells Tyrion the memorable story of how he became a eunuch, and a band of traitorous Night’s Watchmen kill their Lord Commander. (That seems to happen a lot.) But this episode ranks so high mainly for one reason: it marks the moment when Daenerys officially became a legitimate, do-not-mess-with-me badass.

Daenerys’ character’s growth is second only to that of Jon Snow. In Season 1, we watched Dany morph from a scared child to a confident wife to a khaleesi who was unafraid to wield the power being married to Khal Drogo gave her. In Season 2, Dany struggled to come into her own, although no one appeared to take her seriously. Season 3 appeared to be more of the same, right up until this episode.

After landing in Astapor to potentially purchase a slave army, Dany is counselled by both Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy that a dragon is too high a price to pay for it, and we begin to get a hint that Dany is not playing around anymore as she scolds both veteran warriors for questioning her in public.

But oh wait til’ Dany puts on her “I’m a badass” hat. At the exchange, Dany stoically hands over Drogon to the slaver. She pretends not to understand the constant string of insults hurled her way by the slaver, but she understands that the deal is complete. Testing out her command of the Unsullied, in Valyrian, the language the slaver assumes she does not speak, Dany quickly orders her new army to slay every slaver they see, and to sack the city.

Dany orders Drogon to torch the slaver, who realizes right before he dies how badly he underestimated her, and then lays waste to the city. This is the moment when Daenerys went from a queen in name only, to a queen made from fire and blood. The newly freed Unsullied choose to follow Dany on the march, loyal to the woman who granted their freedom.

(Google the words Daenerys and badass, and this is the scene you get.)

7. “The Children,” Season 4, Episode 10

Our highest rated season finale comes from the fourth season. This isn’t just a season finale—it’s the finale for the first half of the series. Many of the plots and storylines that had been building over the past four seasons come to a head here, and characters shoot off in new and unexpected directions.

The threat of Mance Rayder’s wildling army is effectively ended by the timely arrival of Stannis Baratheon, who rides roughshod all over the wildlings. Just like that, the threat that had loomed over the Wall for almost four seasons is smashed. There’s something way worse on the way, though.

Bran arrives at the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, and is rescued by the oldest looking kid you’ve ever seen. Magic was previously confined mainly to Dany’s dragons and Melisandre’s weird stuff, but Bran’s tutelage under the Three Eyed Raven promises to open up all kinds of new possibilities.

Down in the Vale, Brienne succeeds in locating Arya, only to run afoul of the Hound, who defends Arya with the ferocity of a father. Brienne and the Hound’s fight is brutal, and both take a beating. Afterwards, Arya and the Hound have a reckoning as the later lies mortally wounded. Throughout their wacky road trip, the two appeared to bond. But even after everything they’ve been through, Arya is unable to forget that the Hound murdered her friend Mycah in Season 1. Despite the Hound’s pleas for a quick death, Arya leaves Clegane to die slowly, as she boards a ship to Braavos. Valar Morghulis.

As often is the case, the meat of the episode occurs down in King’s Landing. House Lannister appears on the brink of exploding, after Cersei threatens to tell the world about her relationship with Jamie, startling the implacable Tywin for perhaps the first time in the series. Tywin usually maintains his cool, but the thought of his perfect children having a relationship together shocks even him.

There are a handful of scenes on Game of Thrones that literally cause you to stop breathing for a moment, and one of those comes in the closing minutes of this episode. After Jaime and Varys spring Tyrion from his cell, Tyrion is unable to resist the temptation to confront his father before fleeing the capital, and so he sneaks into Tywin’s chambers.

Thinking he may find his father in bed, Tyrion instead finds Shae, his former girlfriend. I am Jack’s utter sense of betrayal.

Peter Dinklage’s face runs from rage to pain to shock in a matter of seconds, but ultimately rage wins out. It might sound like circular logic, but finding Shae in his father’s bad is made worse because of the terrible relationship Tyrion and Tywin have always had. Tyrion might have harbored some hope that he could eventually win Tywin’s approval, but this hammers home the fact that Tywin has never loved and will never love his oldest son.

Tyrion chokes Shae to death, simultaneously angry and sad. And then it’s down the hall to confront his father in the bathroom. For the second time in the episode, Tywin is caught off guard by one of his children. After dismissing Shae as a whore one too many times, Tyrion shoots his father with a crossbow, and after all Tywin’s preaching about family and legacy, the smallest Lannister kills the biggest one.

6. “Baelor,” Season 1, Episode 9

This is the episode where Ned Stark gets his head removed from his body, teaching every new fan of the show to never get too attached to anyone. A slew of other major events set many of the other characters on paths they will follow for the rest of the series.

The night before battle with the Starks, Tyrion meets his future mistress Shae, and after a night of drinking, reveals probably the worst childhood story you’ve ever heard. Think having to do your homework was bad? At age thirteen, Tyrion met Tysha, a woman Jamie and Tyrion save from rapists. But after falling in love and marrying her, Tyrion learns from Jaime that she was just a prostitute hired to deflower him. And then, to teach his son not to marry below his station, Tywin orders a barracks full of Lannister guardsmen to rape his new wife, and then orders Tyrion to do the same. Ouch. Bronn swears he’d kill the man that did that to him, and Tyrion brushes it off, even though Tyrion will of course later kill Tywin. Bronn the fortune teller!

And the foreshadowing continues. In order to move quickly south, Robb sends his mother Catelyn to negotiate with Walder Frey, because she “has known Lord Walder since she was a girl. He would never harm me.” Well Catelyn, wait until Season 3 and let us know how that turns out. The bargain works, however, and Robb is able to move through Frey’s territory and capture Jaime Lannister in a surprise attack. Did anyone else notice the snow on the ground in this scene? Anyways…

All this leads up to the scene at the Great Sept of Baelor, where Ned Stark is dragged before a bloodthirsty crowd, all of whom assume he’s a traitor. Arya is in the crowd, and Sansa is on the steps, standing beside her beloved Joffrey, believing her prince to be merciful. Despite getting the confession he wanted, Joffrey orders Ned’s head removed, much to the shock of everyone, including the members of his own Small Council.

Even as the executioner puts Ned’s head on the block, first-time viewers still con’t believe what is about to happen will happen. Sean Bean is the most well-known actor on the show. He’s the main character. He’s a good guy for crying out loud. He’ll get pushed aside at the last minute by some companion who was hidden in the crowd.

And then Ned dies. Welcome to Game of Thrones.

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.”

4. “The Rains of Castamere,” Season 3, Episode 9

It was very hard not to rank this as the best episode of them all—the only complaint that can be made against it is that it played out exactly as book-readers expected. Side note: if you are looking for a good time, google “Red Wedding reactions,” and watch as book-readers record the reactions of show-only fans. Endless fun.

We could talk about other things that happened in this episode, but really it’s all about the Red Wedding. I recently guided a new fan through the series, one who won’t even look at movie posters for fear of being spoiled, and even he knew there would be a wedding in the series and he wouldn’t like it. That’s how much this episode has pervaded the pop cultural lexicon.

Robb, Catelyn, and the rest of their crew arrive at the Twins for the wedding of Catelyn’s brother Edmure to the only Roslin Frey, an apology for Robb marrying Talisa rather than the Frey daughter he was promised to. At the reception, all seems normal until the musicians start playing “The Rains of Castamere,” and the Freys kick off the Red Wedding properly by knifing Talisa in her pregnant belly half a dozen times.

Viewers are given a half second to process what just happened, and then arrows start flying and swords come out and the Stark host is quickly cut to pieces. Robb takes a couple bolts to the chest before Catelyn holds a knife to Walder Frey’s throat. For a half minute, viewers hope that Catelyn’s threat to kill Mrs. Walder Frey if he doesn’t let them go will work, but then Walder Frey says he can always find another wife. Robb takes a knife through the heart courtesy of Roose Bolton, and Catelyn has her throat slit before the screen fades to black.

No music accompanies the credits, as we are left to sit, cry, scream, throw pillows at the TV, and generally wonder why the hell we are in such an abusive relationship with this show. But after the anger subsides, we begin to appreciate that we are not watching Friends, and that anyone (and in this case everyone), can go at any minute.

Extra credit goes to the producers, who cleverly peppered the song “The Rains of Castamere“ throughout the series so viewers would associate it with the Lannisters. Looking into the song’s history, you realize it’s a song about not messing with Tywin Lannister. Ever.

Catelyn’s pleas for the life of her firstborn are probably the hardest part of the episode to watch. It hits you like the blade through Robb’s heart, and afterwards, all we can do is make like Catelyn and collapse, unable to take anymore.

(Until next week.)

3. “Battle of the Bastards,” Season 6, Episode 9

There are a few minor quibbles with the “Battle of the Bastards” that keep it out of the top spot, but so much of it works that it is was very hard not to rank this as the best episode of the series. Prior to its airing, most assumed that the episode would take place entirely in the North, but a decent chunk of the hour was set in Meereen, and what we got there was outstanding.

Seeing all three of Daenerys’ dragons unleashed on the slavers’ fleet was a sight to behold, and gave the audience a sense of how the Targaryens were able to conquer Westeros in the first place. After it was all said and done, Dany met with the Greyjoy siblings and gained more allies. Dany showed more diplomatic savvy in her two-minute conversation with Yara than she did during the entirety  of Season 5.

But back to the North, where Jon and Sansa have arrived at Winterfell for their showdown with Ramsay: from Sansa’s mic drop moment at the parlay to the war council in the tent, everything that led up to the battle was a pleasure to watch. Showing us Davos and Tormund musing about the kings they have served was a nice, quiet touch.

The battle itself contains some of the most potent imagery to appear in the series. Jon’s mad dash to save Rickon was great, as was the shot of Kit Harrington staring down the wall of cavalry dashing towards him. (Those were real horses, by the way.) And then, after a lengthy shot of Jon caught in the thick of the fighting, Jon was put in huge danger as the Bolton army surrounded his forces. We knew going in that Jon would find himself in peril at some point, but to have him almost be crushed to death by his own fleeing soldiers was an original choice, and you have to applaud the directors for their vision. It was a horrifying, claustrophobic sequence.

Later, Sansa fed Ramsy to his own dogs, a clever little bit of irony, and it was nice to see Sansa proactively kill someone for once. All in all, one of the best episodes the series has ever done.

2. “Hardhome,” Season 5, Episode 8

When I first watched this episode, I was jumping on my couch like some sort of drunken gorilla as the battle at Hardhome unfolded, unable to contain my excitement. That deserves a high place on the list.

The battle was doubly exciting for book fans because, unlike the Red Wedding, it was a complete unknown. It stands as some of the strongest evidence of why Game of Thrones is the best television show currently running, and in contention for best of all time.

Before the battle begins, we check in with all our favorite characters, or at least the ones still alive. Cersei is still imprisoned by the High Sparrow, and refuses to budge an inch. Love her or hate her, Cersei is the most consistently written character on the show.

Back in Winterfell, Sansa is still locked in the bridal suite by her loving husband Ramsay, and is attended to by Reek/Theon. After Reek betrayed Sansa’s northern friend in the previous episode, Sansa explodes on Theon, and Sophie Turner shows us why she’s so good in this role. Her rage cows Reek into confessing that Bran and Rickon, Sansa’s little brothers, are actually alive, which gives her a reason to go on.

Meanwhile, in Essos, Tyrion and Daenerys meet for the first time, a treat for book-readers, as this has yet to happen in the novels. Tyrion’s logical assessment of the state of Dany’s rule and the Seven Kingdoms is spot-on, and it’s a joy to watch Dany and Tyrion converse.

But tasty as they are, those are just the appetizers are over, and now we have arrived at the main course. After coming to an agreement, Tormund and Jon arrive at the wildling settlement of Hardhome, looking to take as many people south of the Wall as possible, with the help of Stannis’ fleet. We stay in this location for the rest of the episode, and every second is gold.

Before the horror begins, we get a couple of laugh-out-loud moments (e.g. Tormund beating Rattleshirt, Wun Wun the giant mouthing off to Dolorous Edd, newcomer Karsi’s thoughts on respecting her ancestors). As the laughter dies down, the dogs in the camp start to howl, a slow snow cloud rolls over the huddled masses, and viewers suck in their breath. If this scene doesn’t get your heart racing, call a doctor because you are as dead as the wights that suddenly swarm the walls. It’s nonstop action from there on out.

Jon and Tormund lead the defense, even though we can tell right away that it’s a doomed cause. Jon and the leader of the Thenns make a stand against a single White Walker who beats Jon within an inch of his life. From the very first episode of the series we have been shown the White Walkers’ ability to shatter steel weapons like glass, so when Jon blocked the White Walker’s spear, I literally jumped and cheered. Jon and the White Walker are both shocked, but Jon recovers first and slashes, turning his foe into enough ice cubes for a frat party. Valyrian Steel for the win!

Jon’s victory is short-lived as the camp is quickly overrun. In the first of two ice-cold middle fingers to Jon and the viewers, the leader of the White Walkers, the Night’s King, throws hundreds of his wights off a cliff, just to show Jon how little he fears the Night’s Watch. And after Jon literally makes it out on the last boat, the Night’s King slowly walks out on the docks, and raises every single dead human from the grave. Check. Mate. Set. Match. Knockout. Game over.

And the most popular Game of Thrones meme ever is born.

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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