We bow to the epic episodes of ‘Thrones’
Which episode of “Game of Thrones” reigns supreme? Ahead of the eighth and final season of the epic HBO series that begins April 14, we ranked all 67 episodes from best to worst. The night may be dark and full of terrors, but “Thrones” is dark and full of some brilliant episodes, some bad and several mediocre ones. Full list at usatoday.com/life. The top 10:
1. Season 2 Episode 9: “Blackwater”
“Blackwater” is a torrent of emotions and violence, a complete and satisfying story on its own. The first “Thrones” hour to stay entirely in one location, it chronicled Stannis’ assault on King’s Landing missing no detail. The episode began the series’ smart pattern of building up to battles by taking time to focus on characters big and small, allowing its nonviolent conflicts to continue in the shadow of swords and steel. The episode is full of brilliant moments, from Joffrey forcing Sansa to kiss his sword to Cersei’s drunken rants to Tyrion’s profanely inspiring address to the troops. One massive green explosion aside, it also is surprisingly low-tech, relying on impeccable acting and writing for its
intrigue instead of dragons or white walkers. It’s a masterful example of exquisitely slow-built tension, followed by bittersweet relief.
2. Season 3 Episode 9: “The Rains of Castamere”
Everyone remembers the end of this pivotal episode, the infamous Red Wedding sequence in which Robb, Catelyn, Talisa and the Stark army are slaughtered by Roose Bolton and the Freys, but the entire hour is a master stroke. For most of the episode, the good guys prevail, as Dany takes the slave city of Yunkai, Jon escapes the wildlings and Arya finally gets close to her family, which only makes the bloodbath at the Twins more affecting. “Castam-
didn’t just change the course of “Thrones”; it raised the bar for what we expect from our TV shows.
3. Season 4 Episode 9: “The Watchers on the Wall”
“Watchers” could have been a mere rehash of Season 2’s “Blackwater,” but it’s a different animal. The best battle the series has portrayed, “Watchers” is a cold and bloody examination of omnipresent “Thrones” themes of love, duty and honor, pitting Jon against the woman he loves as he and the Night’s Watch defend Castle Black against Mance Rayder’s wildling army. This battle is one of the few to focus on infantry rather than commanders, and the deaths of Pyp and Grenn are among the series’ most affecting, even though they were minor characters.
4. Season 1 Episode 9: “Baelor”
For most of its run, “Thrones” has saved its biggest battles and most jawdropping moments for the ninth episode of the season, which means its best episodes (and our top four) most often come right before the finale. Cutting off Ned Stark’s head was the coming-out party for “Thrones,” announcing the series would do anything and kill anyone – even its top-billed protagonist – in the name of storytelling.
Later seasons would lean much too far in the direction of shock for its own sake, but when Joffrey ordered Ned’s head off it was a singular moment of terror and tragedy. It also showed remarkable restraint, filmed through Arya’s eyes and artfully keeping the moment of violence off screen, which made it all the more terrible in viewers’ imaginations.
5. Season 6 Episode 10: “The Winds of Winter”
This episode is all about the elegant and breathtaking opening, in which Cersei destroys the Sept of Baelor and
her hundreds of enemies within it. Scored to melodic strings, the sequence is executed to perfection, building toward the explosion yet finding one more rollercoaster drop with Tommen’s suicide. That Daenerys also finally sails for Westeros is simply the cherry on top.
6. Season 4 Episode 8: “The Mountain and the Viper”
After four seasons of death and brutality, “Thrones” writers still fooled fans into believing the good guy could win out if his cause was just. But “Thrones” is not that kind of show. Oberyn’s fight against the Mountain might seem like a David and Goliath victory, but instead it’s a crushing defeat.
7. Season 1 Episode 10: “Fire and Blood”
This episode will long be remembered for the image of Dany emerging from the ashes of her husband’s funeral pyre, unharmed and clutching three baby dragons.
But it also deserves praise for the deft way it handles the aftermath of Ned’s death, setting up the show to succeed without its leading man.
8. Season 6 Episode 5: “The Door”
In a series where deaths are as common as drinking and sex, it’s difficult for any one killing to have resonance. Yet no one’s passing hits harder than Hodor’s, the sweet, simple giant who dies in the present while being simultaneously destroyed in the past.
9. Season 3 Episode 4: “And Now His Watch Is Ended”
“Thrones” has unleashed dragon fire nearly a dozen times, but at no point did Daenerys’s dragons let loose to greater effect than in her liberation of the Unsullied, a sequence that launched a thousand memes and pulled the Mother of Dragons out of a season-long stupor.
10. Season 6 Episode 9: “The Battle of the Bastards”
This episode is famous for the unbelievably brutal battle, a sort of “Saving Private Ryan” moment. It’s not that “Thrones” was never shy about the horrors of war, but “Bastards” outdoes them all displaying some of the series’ most grotesquely striking visuals.