Image via HBO
12.
Our watch has ended, and as far as the majority is concerned, badly. Whether you liked the end run of Game of Thronesand its series finale, one thing is undebatable: the finale isn't in the pantheon of all-time greats. It was so polarizing that instead for the time being, it'll go down among the ranks of the most controversial. Your mileage may vary, but whatever happened now though, doesn't invalidate the past. Thrones has still given us great individual hours of television, great seasons, and some of the most spectacular scenes and sequences we've ever seen on the small screen.
Now that we're about a month removed from the finale, it's time to take stock of the series as a whole. Game of Thrones is often thought of in seasons and moments, rarely episodes—with so many narratives going at once, there was always too much happening in any given hour to remember what happened when. And yet, Thrones tried its best and often succeeded more times than not, assembling stories and arcs to give each episode a rough, congruous shape. These are the finest hours of Game of Thrones ranked, eleven because ten, while exclusive, just wasn't enough to do the series justice. If your fave is missing, remember: the measure of a full episode is more than just the huge moment that occurs within it. (Maybe we'll do a moments-only list later.) And no, nothing from Season 8 appears—we did say best.
11."The Spoils of War"
Season 7, Episode 4
The One Where: Dany finally gives Westeros a taste of her power.
Once the show overtook the books, good episodes became scarce, while great episodes seemed forever consigned to the past. Maybe that’s why this one stands out so much. Surrounded by aimless dialogue and plot filler, this mid-mark for Season 7 cuts straight to the chase. Up north, Arya finally returns to Winterfell, only to have her new skills with a blade clash with Sansa’s ever-growing Littlefinger-ness. The series’ return to meaningful conflict continues down south with another event so long promised it seems prophesied. Coming off a chain of defeats, Dany, Drogon and the Dothraki horde ride on Westeros and the Lannister army. Foregoing the cumbersome scale that plagued Battle of The Bastards, detailed thrills like horseback acrobatics and dragon fire rekindled our interest by reminding us just how great GoT can be at both story and spectacle when it wants to.
10."The Climb"
Season 3, Episode 6
The One Where: Jon scales the wall, while Littlefinger scales the hierarchy.
Holding no major plot points or million-dollar battles, it may surprise some to see this episode so high. But in truth, the absence of those climaxes is what allows “The Climb” to thrive. Spread across five different locations and even more story-threads, the episode continues the brisk pace that marks Season 3 as one of the best of the series. As Lady Olenna and Tywin Lannister engage in a long-awaited jousting of wits to decide the fates of damn near half the cast, Robb struggles to find a solution to his mounting problems, and Theon begins to break under the cruelty of his still-mysterious captor (read: Ramsay, ugh).
Up north, the romance between Ygritte and Jon continues to evolve as they take on the impossible: scaling the huge, wide, icy wall built to keep Wildings like her out. Ending on a very GoT version of the classic sunset-moment, we look out from atop the wall reminded that the sum of many great moments is often more satisfying than the shock and awe of any larger one. But the true stunner of this hour is the figurative climb that also lends the episode its title: the climb for power, verbalized in an Emmy-worthy monologue by none other than Littlefinger in a speech that encapsulates the thesis of not only his character, but the series overall, a speech so chilling that it even shakes the normally unflappable Varys. It really should’ve come as no surprise next season when we learned all of the series events were set in motion by this ambition-driven slimeball. Chaos is a ladder.
9."Kissed by Fire"
Season 3, Episode 5
The One Where: Jaime, Brienne, Jon and Ygritte take some pivotal, character-altering baths.
Two-and-a-half seasons in, the battle lines of good vs. evil were set in stone, and every character sorted. Jaime Lannister, the oath-breaking, king-killing, child-crippling, cousin-strangling, sister-smasher wasn’t just evil, but the evilest. Then, armed with his new development as a physically broken man, the show pulls the rug out from under us, exposing him as a long emotionally crippled one as well. That type of dynamic character writing presents a big risk, but a true masterclass of writing accepted this challenge head-on and delivered us one of the series' most subtle triumphs. By undressing Jaime’s humanity alongside the Karstark’s slaughtering of innocent children, and Robb’s reactionary beheading of Lord Karstark (mirroring that of Ned at the hands of the Lannisters), the very morality of the show became as elegantly complicated as any political or tactical maneuver previously shown.
Meanwhile up north, Jon Snow’s storyline, often up until this point saddled with some of the series' dead-weight arcs, heats up as he does the eponymous fire-kissing with Wildling Ygritte, beginning an inevitably doomed romance that nonetheless had so much chemistry the two married off-screen soon after.
8."The Laws of Gods and Men"
Season 4, Episode 6
The One Where: Tyrion stands trial for a second time, witch less successful results.
Following Season 8, it may be hard to remember Tyrion as anything other than a mindless tool for plot conjecture. But once upon a time, he stood as the GOAT in a series of greats, and his fight for his life at the trial of Joffrey’s murder might be his—and Peter Dinklage’s—finest moment. Sure, there are other things that happen in the episode, but the real spectacle is Tyrion and the court’s puppet master, Tywin, locked in an all-time epic battle of wits. One after the other, characters step forth to testify, recalling classic run-ins with Tyrion like a greatest hits album, and Tyrion answers all comers. His wits, though, are no match for Shae’s eleventh-hour betrayal. Broken-hearted by the love of his life, Peter Dinklage snaps back with a medieval homage to Tony Montana’s “Say goodnight to the bad guy” speech, thusly cementing this episode’s all-time classic status.
7."You Win or You Die"
Season 1, Episode 7
The One Where: Ned makes his last stupid mistake.
With Joffrey’s true lineage revealed, and the mystery of Jon Arryn’s death (seemingly) solved, GoT was on course to continue as a well-written, R-rated hero’s journey. The series’ first truly great episode tosses those expectations, though, when Cersei barks back at Ned with pride over her incestual brood and some ice-cold words of wisdom that leave her, the de facto bad guy, as clear victor of the exchange—and later, the episode.
The trope smack-down continues at break-neck speed with Robert’s death by boar, Joffrey’s crowning, Littlefinger’s double betrayal, and Ned, our once sure to be champion, outsmarted and in chains. For the first time in our television viewing history credits roll with endless possibilities on the horizon, elevating GoT from HBO’s new nerd-fodder to must-watch TV. “Baelor” is the typical Season 1 pick, but on rewatch that episode is mostly all about the last few minutes. “You Win or You Die” is a thrill ride from top to bottom.
6."The Lion and the Rose"
Season 4, Episode 2
The One Where: A majority of the cast attends The Purple Wedding
Coming off the Red Wedding, the very mention of marital ceremony was enough to send any fan back into depression. So, when Joffrey’s big day finally aired and all appeared dandy, we had to wonder, at what point does watching become sadomasochism?
Written by the bearded mastermind GRRM himself, the script sets about snapping every one of our heartstrings. First: destroy our last bit of happiness by having Tyrion cast off Shae in order to protect her from Cersei. Then: salt our wounds for Joffrey’s amusement. On his royal signal, a play of dwarves commences to torture Loras, Tyrion, and Sansa with depictions of Renly and Robb’s deaths. The ceiling of sadomasochism has officially been reached and broken. But just as the prospects for the last few likable people on this show look grim as ever, Joffrey sips from his cup of wine, and begins to choke as his face turns purple. Before we know it the very nexus of our pain is snotting himself to death on the ground. Love you, George. Oh wait—but Tyrion is blamed for the murder. Fuck you, George.
5."The Dance of Dragons"
Season 5, Episode 9
The One Where: Stannis commits one of the most unspeakable acts on the series and Drogon comes home.
It feels weird putting the episode where a preteen is burned alive among the best episodes of the show, but such is the nature of Game of Thrones, where so many plates are spinning at one time that one arc ending in tragedy can easily segue to one of triumph. The sequence in the fighting pits is, for my money, one of the most underrated moments on the series. Miguel Sapochnik gets credit for helming the big battles but never forget what David Nutter did here. The suspense and tension he unfurls—as we realize Daenerys, in capitulating to re-open the pits to honor Mereen’s traditions, has willingly served herself up on a silver platter to her enemies—is honestly right up there with Red Wedding and Mountain vs Viper. The blocking in the shot where Jorah realizes it’s a trap and throws his spear at a creeping assassin while Dany thinks he’s throwing it at her! That shot of the Sons of Harpy slowly unveiling themselves throughout the entire crowd! That eerie music!
It’s weird to contemplate now (and will surely be weirder on rewatch), knowing how Daenery’s story ends, but it was here that I realized, even as they languished in narrative limbo, the characters in Dany’s corner were comprised of the most solid, likable, cheer-worthy people on the show. I still remember watching this for the first time, as it dawned on me that I’d be fucked up should literally anyone on-screen die: Dany, Tyrion, Drogon, Jorah, Daario, Grey Worm, Missandei—shit, even Drogon the dragon. And how about that eleventh-hour rescue from Dany’s prodigal child, who’d been AWOL for most of the season sorting out the dragon version of teenage rebellion? We got so used to watching Dany mount her children in the last three seasons, but man, watching her do it for the first time here still gives me chills.
Ardent defenders of Season 8 defend Dany’s turn to madness as being thoroughly foreshadowed, but as the music swells triumphantly while her squad watches in awe as she flies away (again, for the first time) on a fucking dragon, flipping the upper hand on a situation they were most certainly doomed to die in, can you really blame us for betting it all the Mother of Dragons as the monarch to back? Long Live Khaleesi.
4."The Rains of Castamere"
Season 3, Episode 9
The One Where: Robb Stark, his mother, his pregnant wife, and their army attend a wedding...and don’t walk out.
Colloquially known as “The Red Wedding," named for the song that mythologizes Lannister victory, this episode is so perfectly traumatizing that it’s difficult not to view all others in terms of pre-RW, and post-RW. Going in, Robb was on a season-long slump, and just like him, we were all too eager for a solution. So, when one arose in the albeit slimy, yet tenable form of Walder Frey, all parties saw it as a sound decision. After all, it was necessary to defeat the Lannisters. And surely Frey was the far lesser of two evils? Oh, how naïve we were. Lulled into a false sense of safety under the guise of guest-rights, The King in The North set about celebrating his new allegiance with House Frey at the wedding of his good ‘ole uncle Edmure. Only Catelyn seemed wary. But let’s be real, the lion’s share of Robb’s previous woes could all be traced back to Mamma Stark’s less than stellar judgment, so the party continued.
Slowly, the exquisite directing of David Nutter hypnotizes us away from our couches and makes us feel a part of the jubilations. Then the doors close, and everything changes. A weasel-faced Frey son plunges his blade into the belly of Robb’s pregnant wife Talisa, setting off a chain of murderous duplicity. Like Catleyn, we’re forced to watch all those we’d been celebrating with just moments before dying, and our new number-one enemy, Lord Bolton, steal the life from her son. Broken, with no words to describe the emptiness taking hold inside, what was left to do but scream? So that’s what Catelyn spent her final seconds of life doing. And to keep it real, if you screamed right along with her, I wouldn’t knock you for it.
3."Hardhome"
Season 5, Episode 8
The One Where: The Night King flexes.
So many of Game of Thrones most memorable episodes are about the “moment.” It’s not a criticism; the show at its most expansive was juggling so many competing storylines that streamlining any of them into episodic narratives was virtually impossible outside of once or twice per season. As such, much like the slug category on this list indicates, we often think of Thrones episodes like Friends: “the one where,” rarely considering what happened across the whole 60 minutes.
“Hardhome” is often hailed as a top five episode of the series for finally paying off the threat promised in the pilot’s opening scene tenfold, showing us the White Walkers and their general in a show-stopping sequence among the most nightmarish and awe-inspiring set pieces across all eight seasons. As it should! After four-and-a-half seasons of telling, we were finally shown just a small glimpse of the White Walker threat that validated both Jon’s claims and motivations, and the Night King as the final boss. (Well, so we thought then at least, sigh.) Much like “Blackwater,” D&D’s knack for storytelling within spectacle is on full display here, too—a Wildling woman we only meet in this episode goes through a full arc that lands so forcefully it feels as if she’s a main character.
But “Hardhome” deserves even more credit because even with all of that going on, it amounts to more. Ice zombies aside, this is the episode when Daenerys and Tyrion finally meet, their conversations serving as some of the best scenes of the series. This is also the episode where Cersei’s High Sparrow machinations finally come back to bite her, setting in motion a character-defining comeuppance that will energize every decision she makes in the final three seasons. This is the rare GoT episode devoid of deadweight, and not having to condense stories to do so either. Finally, every burner on the stove is cooking with gas.
2."Blackwater"
Season 2, Episode 9
The One Where: Stannis storms the gates of King’s Landing.
Ask a fan to pick their favorite battle and the vote almost always favors a latter-series spectacle when the budget was on MCU-level. Those are visual feasts for sure but in terms of being narratively and visually satisfying, real ones know The Battle of the Blackwater is arguably battle in the show’s eight season run.
With the unique combination of naval warfare, close quarters siege fighting, and our first look at wildfire it delivered top-notch action sets worthy of a spot on this list. Yet, that’s only a fraction of why it’s here. Every adrenaline-triggering sword slash outside the walls of King’s Landing was met with a visceral counterbalance of drama equally as tense inside. As Tyrion bolstered Red Keep troops with a Gladiator-esque monologue and charged out onto the sands of the bay, a drunken Cersei keeps tensions on the inside just as high as the battle as she reaches new levels (or lows) of venomous wit. And, as she contemplated the murder/suicide of her young children when the battle prospects looked grim, she showed us just how hardcore she truly is. By end credits, an expected blood and guts action piece had transformed into the kind of entertaining patchwork of genres that would eventually propel GoT to be, arguably, the last truly universal show of our generation.
1."The Winds of Winter"
Season 6, Episode 10
The One Where: Cersei settles all family business.
There’s no battle in this episode, but there may not be a better-directed sequence across the series than the opening 25 minutes, where Cersei goes full Michael Corleone, swiping a majority of her enemies off the board in one fell swoop. The great Ramin Djawadi does the damn thing on the score bring the gravity of the moment home, and what we’re left with is an event that immediately put this episode in the show’s Hall of Fame. And that’s just the first quarter. With Cersei ascendant, by episode’s end we finally get the image we’ve been waiting for since Daenerys walked out of a pyre with three baby dragons: our khaleesi, her children, her army, and her Dothraki, setting sail for Westeros to take back her home and her throne.
That’d be enough for GOAT status and yet in between those bookends, the long-awaited fan theory R+L=J is confirmed, less an indictment of predictable storytelling and more of a reward for longtime fans keen sense of where this song of ice and fire was headed. Oh, and Arya begins her Stark family revenge tour with Walder Red Wedding Fuccboi Frey himself. When the credits rolled on this episode, the question of D&D’s ability to bring this story to a fitting close seemed rhetorical.