The Ten Best Episodes of Game of Thrones

 Conversely with the last post, when Game of Thrones is good, it has some of, if not the best television in the history of the medium.  At it's peak, the show was the greatest written, acted and well told story since The Sopranos and was on the war path to becoming the greatest show ever to be put on TV.  Of course, the show never stuck the landing after taking off, but that is certainly not the fault of these episodes below.  The ones below are easily the finest the show has ever produced and I never get tired of talking about these landmark episodes of a show that was so central to my young adulthood.  

This list was especially hard to make, because while I appreciate more than the vast majority of GOT episodes, some of them are decent but are made good specifically because of a handful of scenes.  Strong episodes like "Second Sons", "The Climb", "The Ghost of Harrenhal" and "The Mountain and the Viper" did not make the cut because of a few things holding them back.  Likewise, some episodes that I rewatched for this list, such as "Mother's Mercy" and "The Door", aside from a few very strong moments, just weren't strong enough for me as episodes to convince me to stick around in the Top 10.  These ones I have listed are the best that GOT has to offer and will span over the course of the eight seasons, as unlike some others who watched the show, I believe that there was some solid episodes in the murky waters of Seasons 5-8.  And here they are:

Honorable Mentions:

"Second Sons", "The Climb", "Watchers on the Wall", "The Ghost of Harrenhal", "The Mountain and the Viper", "Mockingbird", "The Wolf and the Lion", "Baelor", "Mother's Mercy", "The Door" and "The Spoils of War"

#10: Blackwater (Season 2, Episode 9)

One of the things George RR Martin did that I think was fairly clever in the books was leaving the main action and fighting scenes away from whichever characters were the POV of said specific chapters (The Battle of the Whispering Woods takes place while Catelyn is in a safe location while Robb and Theon are doing most of the fighting).  This makes the major upcoming battle scenes all the more gripping when you have a character who is normally not a fighter actually taking part.  I wasn't sure how the show would pull this off, as there are more POV scenes in the show than in the books, but by gum they did it.  The first major on screen battle in Game of Thrones is a spectacle unlike any the show had seen up to that point.  It has stunning visuals, intense and gripping violence and a musical score that would fit in right alongside Lord of the Rings or The Lion King in terms of being a perfect summation of feelings and action simultaneously.  

Stannis Baratheon finally arrives at King's Landing after sailing up into Blackwater Bay with his army of men bent on overthrowing Joffrey and claiming the crown for himself as Robert's true heir.  While Stannis approaches what he believes to be is his destiny, Tyrion Lannister and King Joffrey are left to defend the city with only a handful of loyal soldiers and hardly a navy to speak of, with Joffrey proving to be a cowardly tool early into the fight.  But through Tyrion's clever planning and shrewd calculations, the defenders of King's Landing are able to hold Stannis's armies at bay long enough for reinforcements led by Loras Tyrell and Tywin Lannister to trounce Stannis's forces and essentially end strongest his bid for the Iron Throne.  And while his plan to use Wildfire to destroy Stannis's fleet proves to be quite successful, Tyrion is assaulted in battle by a mutinous King's Guard and is permanently scarred.  

While this is going on, Sansa has a series of uncomfortably conversations with Cersei and the Hound during the battle, with Cersei trying to impart life lessons onto her captive (as only a drunken Cersei can) and Sansa doing her best not to show that she's secretly praying for Stannis Baratheon to come out on top, as she knows he would be a much more amicable man to her than Joffrey or Cersei.  She manages to hold together and even turns down the Hound's offer to run off with him back to the North when she's sure Stannis would prevail.  Oh, what a fool the little dove was.  

Thrilling action, gripping dialogue and the first of what would become many battles on screen, "Blackwater" has everything one could ask for in a penultimate episode of a show on the rise in both quality and popularity.  

#9: Hardhome (Season 5, Episode 8)

One of the long running jokes when it came to Game of Thrones (besides when Dany was finally going to come to Westeros) was the curiosity about when these so called "Ice Zombies" were finally going to make their presence known to the people of Westeros, in particular the Night's Watch.  Well, we get our answer to that in the chilling episode called "Hardhome", where Jon Snow and Tormund Giantsbane find the bulk of the Wildlings that had evaded Stannis's attack on Mance Rayder.  Few actually trusted or believed that Jon would be so willing to let their people (who had forever been vilified by those in Westeros) go south of the wall for their own protection and believed it to be a trap.  Tormund and Jon both manage to convince them through reminding them that the White Walkers were a threat to everyone living, which is when they descend upon the Wildling village.  While Jon is able to rescue as many of them as he could, several thousand are slain by the White Walkers and their army of wights.  To add to the terror, a mysterious pale-skinned man steps forward and raises his arms to bring the dead wildlings back onto his side again.  No matter how you sum this episode up, the sheer amount of numbers added to the Army of the Dead is a gripping sign that the mission to Hardhome was an unmitigated failure.  These monsters could only be slain with Dragonglass (Obsidian) or with Valyrian Steel, such as Jon's sword in Longclaw.  And to realize just how many of them there were not only shakes Jon and his Brothers, but also the audience realizes that this idea of zombies coming back to life was not just a fear.  It was a fact that all of the main Throne contenders all either dismissed or didn't even know was as dire.  It's a grim, yet fascinating episode.  

Add into that some wonderful scenes between Tyrion and Daenerys after she realizes he was who he said he was.  The two discuss Dany's plans for Westeros and how she intends to break the wheel established by the Westerosi Nobles instead of simply stopping the wheel of power.  It's nice to see Tyrion actually have something he's good at to do again: advising leaders and nobles, even if it comes at the expense of Jorah Mormont, who is again turned aside by Dany.  This episode, despite being focused mostly on Jon Snow, is at its best when it focuses on the primary three contenders the Iron Throne had left in Dany and Cersei (who is in the custody of the Faith and refused every decency until she confesses to her crimes).  

Even in a messy Season 5, "Hardhome" is an episode that not only delivers, but it knocks the show's preconceived notions out of the ballpark.  

#8: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Season 8, Episode 2)

While the last two episodes I've talked about highlighted the show in it's intensity and violence, this episode is strong because of the strength of character built over several years and seasons.  Yes, even in the midst of the freefall that was Season 8, the creative teams brought together one last episode that I simply clap at whenever I see.  This one is all about buildup and character analysis, something I've always loved about this show.  No character is left to the sidelines for long and one of the longest awaited and anticipated moments in the show's history finally comes to pass only a few hours before the Army of the Dead would descend upon Winterfell.  

Jaime Lannister is reluctantly welcomed by both Sansa and Daenerys after his arrival at Winterfell when he insists he wished to be true to his word and fight for them even if Cersei was being unfaithful about her promise to send aid.  He finds it hard to fit in, with his lone supporters of Tyrion and Brienne being tenuous at best, but he does the best he can to aid in however the Starks need him to.  While regaling the group before the Dead come with tales of their actions in battle, Brienne admits to those present that she was never knighted, as women were not permitted to be knights in Westerosi culture (an idea completely foreign to Tormund).  Jaime, knowing Brienne was more worthy of being a knight than anyone he knew (including himself), takes it upon himself to knight Brienne for all to see, giving his friend the most emotionally uplifting scene in the whole episode.  

But the episode has more to offer than just adding to Brienne and Jaime's lengthy history together.  Arya and Gendry's reunion becomes a romantic one when she successfully seduces Robert Baratheon's bastard son into sleeping with her.  While some people were grossed out by the idea of little Arya getting her first sexual experience in the show when we first saw her as a child, I knew it was a rightful progression for her character to experience one of the few things she hadn't before.  And besides, unlike with Sansa and Ramsay, this was completely consensual for both of them.  In fact, I daresay Arya was more for it than Gendry was at first.  Not every Baratheon can say they've slept with a Stark girl (poor Robert lol)

Sansa and Dany continue to snipe back and forth at each other, with both trying to outwit the other.  Dany tries and fails to appeal to Sansa's emotional side by saying she was truly in love with Jon and that he was the one who got her to pledge to fight without him even bending the knee, but Sansa's mistrust of Dany keeps them apart.  And my favorite scene in the episode comes after this, when Dany sees Theon upon his return to Winterfell and realizes that the Starks aren't icy to her because they don't want her ruling them specifically, but because they don't care for her like they do other people, including Theon, Brienne, Davos and many others.  She will not win support in Westeros through love and this is when she understands this (though I'll admit the writers were a little too vague with this concept).  

Add in several more sincerely written scenes between Sam and Jorah, Dany and Jorah, and the final stinger between Dany and Jon and we have one of the best written purely character episodes Game of Thrones has ever had.  It serves as a huge sendoff to everyone, as we are expected to believe few, if any, would last the night against the Army of the Dead.  It's poignantly ended with Podrick singing the song "Jenny of Oldstones" in a haunting tone that sets up all that the final four episodes of the series would bring.  Dany and Jon's fracturing relationship, the futures of all of Westeros's best and bravest and even the potential futures of Arya and Gendry, Sam and Gilly and all life itself.  This episode, to sum it up with one word, is brilliant.  

#7: The Winds of Winter (Season 6, Episode 10)

Game of Thrones has this tendency to have it's most memorable episodes, for better or for worse, as the penultimate episode of every season.  And while Season 6 does not deviate from this fact, the finale to Season 6 is just a flat out perfect way to end a Season, especially the roller coaster that the sixth ended up being.  Every single plot point is wrapped up tightly save for the overarching drama for the Iron Throne.  The Faith, the Starks reclaiming the North, Dany's future in Meereen, Bran's quest to become the Three Eyed Raven, even light is shed on the identity of Jon Snow's mother, a mystery that had been hanging over all of the characters since the second episode of Season 1.  It's a shame to see so many powerful actors and great characters end in this episode, but it was necessary to bring about the next phase of the show (be that good or bad).  

The time has come for Cersei Lannister's trial before the Faith Militant for her crimes against the Gods, including her incestual relationship with Jaime and her successful murder of King Robert.  But she's not present at the Sept of Baelor.  When the High Sparrow sends his minions to find her, Lancel Lannister finds that his cousin has been busy, storing enough caches of Wildfire to utterly annihilate all inside the dwelling.  In Cersei's ensuing power grab, her son Tommen is kept from the Sept by the zombified Mountain as all of Cersei's enemies are purged in one move.  Grand Maester Pycelle, Queen Margaery, The High Sparrow, Loras Tyrell, Mace Tyrell, Kevan Lannister and all of the remnants of Cersei's foes are wiped out in the Wildfire explosion that destroys the Sept.  Though Cersei is proud of where she stands and what she accomplished, the death of his beloved wife is too much for King Tommen to bear and he commits suicide, robbing Cersei of her third child and forcing her to take the Throne as Queen Cersei (as with Tommen's death, House Baratheon is extinct).  Jaime is distraught at the sight of Cersei on the throne and the burned Sept, realizing Cersei's move had killed their last child and he simply lowers his head and accepts this new change.  

In the North, after Jon and a distraught Davos dismiss Melisandre from the North upon learning she burned Shireen at the stake for Stannis, he and Sansa try to keep the forces of the Vale, the Northern Lords and Jon's Wildling allies united in their quest to drive off the White Walkers and keep them from killing all in the South.  Jon is unexpectedly named the King of the North by Lyanna Mormont, who insists that they would answer to no one by the King in the North.  Everyone but Littlefinger echoes these sentiments, as even Sansa insists to Jon that he is a true Stark despite his bastard status.  Sansa also spurns Littlefinger's affections, showing that she's finally realized he is just using her as a means to an end.  Bran has also been busy with Meera, as the two barely escaped the Dead with the aid of Benjen Stark, who leads them as far south as he could still go.  Bran, realizing he was truly the Three Eyed Raven at that moment, goes into the Weirwood network to conclude the vision he saw of his father Ned rescuing Lyanna Stark from the Tower of Joy, only to find her dying with a child in need of care.  Ned promises his sister to protect this son of hers, revealed to be Jon Snow.  

With the Slavers crushed and her control over Meereen secured, Daenerys finally turns her eyes back to Westeros.  After informing Daario that he would not be joining her on the trip, Dany names Tyrion as her Hand of the Queen and she and her forces set off to Westeros, with Varys already there on her behalf winning the loyalties of the Sand Snakes in Dorne and the vengeance seeking Olenna Tyrell for the rightful Queen.  

This episode is just a masterclass at how to end a season.  The only real loose ends remaining for the show at this point were the Army of the Dead, the Stark Family and the impending clash between Dany and Cersei.  No more additional plot points, or unknown quantities, just the main two conflicts left that the show needed.  It is indeed a shame to see so many great actors and actresses play their last roles in this show.  Jonathan Pryce was an excellent High Sparrow and my love for Natalie Dormer will always be known as she was a sensational Margaery Tyrell.  But this was a necessary sacrifice to make the show more fluid heading down into the final seasons.  If only the rest of the episodes had been as good.  In fact, for those who just cannot stomach Seasons 7 and 8, I advise most people to stop watching here.  It's a perfect way to end what was always supposed to be a series left open to interpretation (especially since George keeps taking his sweet time in finishing it).

#6: The Lion and the Rose (Season 4, Episode 2)

This episode isn't here just because everyone's favorite POS dies in it....okay that's a huge reason why, but the Episode itself is another great example of a character driven episode done properly.  No characters are made to feel like they've slipped from that position and we get another great performance by Jack Gleeson as Joffrey before his character's untimely (but very welcomed) gruesome death.  

The Royal Wedding between Joffrey and Margaery has come at last, though no one seems particularly happy about it.  Sansa is still shaken about the deaths of her family, Tyrion is constantly mocked and ridiculed by his family and the Tyrells for the extravagance and even Joffrey finds more enjoyment in belittling his enemies and his uncle over spending time with his lovely bride.  The wedding has everything from tormenting fools and singers to acrobats and even a troop of Dwarf actors remaking the War of the Five Kings, there solely for the sadistic bastard King's enjoyment.  Little does anyone know that a plot has already gone underway for the Lannister Lions to be torn apart at the seams when Joffrey's wine is confirmed to have been poisoned and he chokes to death on his own wedding day.  After a day of putting up with his nephew's torment and cruelty, Tyrion is automatically assigned blame for murdering Joffrey as Sansa is spirited away by the fool Ser Dontos.  The invincible aura of the Lannisters is no longer seen as such as no one truly knows who enacted the scheme (save for the two who were involved) and they begin to tear each other apart in anger and accusations following this and their power would never reach these heights again.  

The Boltons are also fairly prominent in this episode, as Roose Bolton finally makes it back to the North after aiding in the infamous Red Wedding slaughters, only to find his best bargaining chip for dealing with the Ironborn was mutilated to the point of uselessness.  Ramsay Bolton is left in an extreme position of vulnerability and we find that the sadistic bastard has a crucial and unavoidable weakness in his father.  Despite Theon's mutilation, his knowledge that Bran and Rickon were still alive proves useful as Roose sends his best hunter out to find the boys and bring them to him while Ramsay and Theon leave to uproot the Ironborn from Moat Cailin and secure the North from the Iron Island invaders.  

While the rest of the scenes are also worth mentioning, I'll be brutally honest with you all: the wedding of Joffrey is the sole reason this made it onto the list.  This episode is a decent episode with one of the greatest scenes in all of the show wrapped up in all of the drama the Lions of Casterly Rock could muster.  And that is enough to push this high enough into the Top 10.  

#5: And Now His Watch Has Ended...(Season 3, Episode 4)

Season Three was where the show's legendary status finally took off.  And I'd like to think that this and a handful of other episodes that didn't make the cut (and one that CERTAINLY DID) were responsible for the stratospheric rise this show had from being a niche HBO Drama into being the phenomenon it was for a time.  This one is a doozy of an episode that shows off the very best the show has to offer, from acting and music, to violence and set pieces.  

The exhausted and deeply drained Brothers of the Night's Watch are treated miserably at Craster's Keep after their disastrous ranging Beyond the Wall ends in countless deaths and the loss of all but supplies.  Sam does his best to aid Gilly after the birth of her son, but is unable to both watch over her and keep some of his more mutinous brothers at bay, as soon Rast and Karl Tanner stage a revolt that ends in the death of Craster and Lord Commander Mormont.  Sam and Gilly manage to escape, but the mutineers keep several of their own brothers as prisoners and proceed to torment Craster's daughters.  It's a shame to see Mormont go after all this, but I can't say I didn't expect it.  

What did surprise me was how quickly Margaery was able to win Joffrey over.  I know Margaery is a clever manipulator, but to even pretend to enjoy his sick pleasures was certainly surprising to me.  And to Cersei too, who realizes all too late that her son was being manipulated by someone other than her and that no one in her family sees this as a problem, which leads to Tywin giving one of the best lines in the show's history:

"I don't distrust you because you're a woman.  I distrust you because you are not as smart as you think you are."  

Damn, I love me some Charles Dance.  And that line really sums up Cersei's entire character.  Too vain to realize she isn't as clever as she thinks.  

Arya finds herself under the watchful eyes of the Brotherhood Without Banners, who have taken up the same religion that Melisandre has turned Stannis towards.  They fight for the common people, something that so few in GOT do.  And they set up the coming fight between their prisoner the Hound and Beric Dondarrion so well that we're sitting there and waiting to see how it ends up, forgetting that there was still one more deeply important storyline to follow here.  

Dany finally manages to secure for herself the Unsullied, an army of slaves soldiers that would fight for her unflinchingly, at the cost of one of her dragons.  Though both Barristan Selmy and Jorah believe she has lost her mind with this purchase, Dany flips the script around by revealing to the slaver that she not only understood all of the insults he flung at her in Valyrian, but to also inform her swindled foe that a Dragon would never be a slave, having her new army kill the Slave Masters of Astapor and the Slaver himself being roasted with a firm and clean "Dracarys".  This was what we'd all been waiting to see, to see Dany's dragons go nuts on someone and they've finally reached the point where they can burn a man alive.  Imagine when they'd get bigger.  

Hot damn, this episode was amazing.  Nothing short of it.  Well written, well executed and setting us up for what we all hoped would be an excellent climax to Season Three, a notion that the creators actually lived up to for once, but more on that later...

#4: You Win or You Die (Season 1, Episode 7)

Ah, Season One.  Back when the show was niche enough to not have thousands upon thousands of people constantly complaining about where the show was going.  It's almost quaint to go back and see this episode for what it was before the hype train, but I don't mean that as an insult.  Far from it, this episode is one of the best character driven episodes the series has ever had.  There's some action and drama, but the characters are what truly fuels this episode, so much so that the first three scenes are all that I would need to tell you about to get the idea across.  

The first scene is the introduction of the Lannister Family patriarch, Tywin.  Played by the incomparable Charles Dance, Tywin lectures Jaime about how it was more important that the Lannister Family makes the right moves for the future over getting personal glories and starting spats with the Starks or the Baratheons.  We see that even though Tywin is an old man, well into his sixties, he is still a domineering presence that can even make Jaime shrivel up at the sight of.  The idea of having him lecture his son about the duties of the Lannister family while he carved up a stag was not a note of symbolism that was unnoticed, as it symbolized the carving up of the Baratheon lineage that Tywin was scheming.  There was a deleted scene in Season 3 that tried to evoke this, where Tywin was fishing in the Blackwater (to symbolize his domination over House Tully), but it worked much better here as the scene was more important than that one might have been.  

The second scene is Ned Stark confronting Cersei about her incestual relationship with Jaime after Sansa inadvertently revealed to him the missing link to his and Jon Arryn's work in researching the Baratheon line.  The two are such powerhouse actors that we could have forgiven the dialogue being a bit mediocre, but we've got almost the entire conversation straight from the books on display here with Lena Headey and Sean Bean doing what they do best.  Ned informs the Queen that he knows her and Robert's children are actually Jaime's and that he would have to inform the King when he returned from his hunt.  Cersei then reminds Ned that she is just as dangerous as Robert and warns him herself that she had no intention of fleeing and insists to Ned another great line, this one strictly from the books:

"When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.  There is no middle ground."  

This shows not only that Ned is unyielding in his pursuit of justice, but that Cersei is equally as ruthless and ambitious to secure for her son the Throne with which she believed he was entitled to, despite his lack of being a true Baratheon.  

The third scene is a much more poignant character scene, as Littlefinger educates Ros and other whores in his brothel how to properly fake an orgasm while also teaching them a bit about his own rise to prominence.  We learn that Littlefinger was madly in love with Catelyn Tully as a boy, but she was betrothed to Brandon Stark of Winterfell, whom she was smitten by.  Littlefinger challenged the much older and stronger Brandon to a fight, believing his pluckiness and his love for Cat would win him the day.  In the end, it was Catelyn's pleas for his life that kept Brandon from killing the boy.   We learn that Littlefinger has gained what he was not by playing the same games that Brandon, Ned, Robert Baratheon and Jaime Lannister played at.  He got to where he was by playing his own game, one where he intends to be the last one standing.  And he does not care who has to die for him to get there.  We know he might be the only person in the Capital City more dangerous than Cersei.  

The rest of the episode is still very good, with scenes of Daenerys finally convincing her husband Khal Drogo to invade Westeros, Robert Baratheon's final moments after being gored by a wild boar, Renly Baratheon making his own personal claim to the Throne and arguing with Ned over who was the right one to succeed Robert (revealing he knew all along the rumors about Cersei's infidelity but simply didn't care until Robert was on his deathbed), Jon officially joining the Night's Watch and even a moment for Jorah to make his decision about being loyal to Dany or not.  

This episode is a masterpiece in character development and motivation.  We see firsthand just how many have been corrupted into joining up with Cersei's Game of Thrones, where even the King's supposedly loyal brother Renly isn't keen on seeing the line of succession dictate who succeeds Robert on the Iron Throne.  Ned is the only one who is willing to ignore the game, which results in his fate being sealed by the end of this episode and his capture by the treacherous Littlefinger and the Lannisters.  Cersei didn't lie to Ned when she told him there was no middle ground.  You either live or you die.  And Ned's lack of interest in playing all but brought the executioner's sword upon his head.  

#3: The Children (Season 4, Episode 10)

If I could choose an episode that I would label as a perfect episode of Game of Thrones, my nomination would be "The Children", the final episode of Season 4 and the clear mark of delineation between the good parts of Game of Thrones to the bad parts.  While Seasons 5-8 would no doubt have their moments, the quality in episodes dipped considerably once a few of the show's principal players were taken out in this episode, either temporarily or permanently.  This episode is symbolically about the rise of the next generation and how it was their responsibility to chart out the courses for their lives on their own, without the aid of parental supervision.  It also highlights the older generation's fears that the younger generations were either not equipped or not ready to be on their own without their oversight.  

Daenerys struggles as the new Queen of Meereen, with many of her subjects (in particular the older ones) desiring to return to the enslavement they had known their entire lives because of how that is all they have ever known and do not know how to be free themselves.  Dany learns to accept this, knowing that a good mother or "Myhsa" would not stand in the way of what her children want, even if she doesn't fully agree with it.  She also comes to the realization that some children cannot discern between good and bad decisions when her Dragons are revealed to have burned a little girl alive while hunting for livestock to eat.  Devastated by the sight of a charred girl's bones, Dany is forced to chain Viserion and Rhaegal in the pyramids of Meereen as she is unable to control or even locate Drogon.  

Jon, brokenhearted by the loss of Ygritte and his desire for vengeance, heads beyond the wall to find Mance Rayder on the pretext of negotiations, though he really means to murder a man he has come to respect as a kind of father figure with all of his previous mentors and fathers (Ned Stark, Jeor Mormont, Qhorin Halfhand) all being dead.  Jon finds himself unable to murder Mance and finds himself in the presence of Stannis Baratheon and his army, who have finally arrived North of the Wall to deal with the Wildling Army and continue his bid for the throne from the North.  Jon finds himself unintentionally brought into Stannis's inner circle when he learns who he was, with Stannis becoming another sort of father figure to him, giving Jon another worldly opinion to look through.  

Arya and the Hound, after failing to get Arya to the Vale of Arryn in time to ransom her to her Aunt Lysa, come across Brienne of Tarth and Podrick.  Brienne insists she will protect Arya now, but the young Stark girl mistrusts her and the Hound recognizes the gold sword she carried as a Lannister blade and fights for Arya.  Both the Hound and Brienne fail to realize that Arya has become disillusioned with the idea of needing to be protected after all of her protectors since her father's death have let her down or died and she leaves the Hound to die and avoids Brienne by taking the coin Jaqen had given her at the end of Season 2 to barter passage to Braavos to learn from the Faceless Men.  Arya accepts the fact that she does not require a parent anymore, though she carries the lessons that her own parents, Yoren, the Brotherhood, Tywin and even the Hound imparted onto her as she sails across the sea.  

Bran and his group finally make it to the location of the Three Eyed Raven, but not before they are set upon by wights.  While Bran and Meera are able to get inside to safety with the aid of the Children of the Forest (ancient creatures with magic powers who had once ruled Westeros alongside the First Men), Meera's brother Jojen dies and makes sure his sister continues in their quest to ensure Bran completes his destined journey.  Bran becomes an avid learner to the Three Eyed Raven, who imparts on him all of the powers and gifts he would have to acquire to aid in the defeat of the Army of the Dead.  Meera remains something of a protective sister to Bran after losing her brother and Bran's mentor becomes something of another father to Bran with his own dead and all his father-figures gone as well.  

In King's Landing, the Lannister Children find themselves unable to live in the world governed by their father.  Tywin's overbearing attitudes towards them has driven all three to the point of breaking, with Cersei outright spilling the truth about her and Jaime to him and Tywin's refusal to believe it.  Tywin's fatal flaws as a man are revealed, as while he has constantly preached the idea that family is what matters, he never took the time to understand his children and see them for who they were over what he wanted them to be.  Jaime was a ceaseless disappointment in his eyes, Cersei was a oblivious fool who fancied herself a genius and Tyrion was a lecherous drunken fool.  He never saw them for their strengths or what they were capable of and it ultimately led to his destruction.  Tywin's bitter and resentful hatred of Tyrion influences his youngest son to want to rub his escape in his father's face before departing for Essos, but Tyrion finds that Tywin has taken his former lover Shae as his own and it finally makes Tyrion snap.  He strangles Shae and proceeds to threaten his father with a crossbow while he was on the privy.  Tywin tries his best to talk his way out of his end, but his hatred of Tyrion spills out and Tyrions shoots his father point blank with the crossbow, killing him.  And Tywin's death all but assures the Lannister's downward spiral, with Cersei becoming unhinged at the death of her father and Tyrion throwing his lot in with Daenerys.  

This episode is about as perfectly sculpted an episode as one could get. The symbolism works brilliantly and the acting performances are on point.  The Realms of Men will never know a man quite like Tywin Lannister again, and Charles Dance's acting will be greatly missed as the later seasons progress.  Sheer brilliance on all spectrums.  

#2: Battle of the Bastards (Season 6, Episode 9)

Game of Thrones is a show that's expertise went from the character driven episodes like "You Win or You Die" and "The Children" to more spectacle driven episodes like "The Long Night" and "The Spoils of War".  That's not to say these spectacle episodes are bad, but they generally lack the characterization that the other much better episodes had.  And because they lack the characterization of those previously mentioned episodes, we tend to be less invested in them than we would be the slower more dramatic episodes.  That is, with one spectacular exception to the rule: "Battle of the Bastards" from Season 6.  The long expected showdown between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton, though neither had so much as a single scene with the other until this episode.  

Everything hinged on this battle for the Starks.  Sansa's freedom, the life of Rickon Stark, their home of Winterfell and the psychotic bastard's grip over the entirety of the North (thanks to his murder of his father and the refusal to send aid to Jon and Sansa from all Northern Houses except the Mormonts).  Jon's attempts to parlay with Ramsay end poorly when both sides refuse to yield their ground and Sansa professes to Ramsay that he would die.  Despite horrific shortages in men, horses and weapons, Jon leads a ragtag army of Wildlings and Northmen against the heavily armed Bolton armies, who benefitted from the aid of former Stark bannermen in Houses Karstark and Umber.  After Ramsay messes with Jon by having Rickon run out to the safety of his brother and shooting arrows at him playfully, Ramsay puts an arrow into Rickon's heart and kills his brother.  Jon and his men attack and though they put up a good fight, the battle is lost when they are all surrounded by Bolton men.  Sansa's last minute call to aid from the Vale comes through and Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale arrive to rout Ramsay's armies and the bastard retreats into the walls of Winterfell.  Jon confronts Ramsay there and fine characterization comes through as Ramsay again tries to goad Jon into single combat by firing arrows at him, with Jon barely able to pick up a shield in time.  Jon pummels Ramsay into submission until he is taken to the kennels, where Sansa feeds the bloodied Bolton to his own hounds.  

What makes this episode good is the characterization of the lead players.  Sansa is showing her utter ruthlessness towards Ramsay after he wrongs her family for the very last time.  Jon's honorable intentions are pounded into the dirt by Ramsay's trickery and Rickon loses his life in the process.  And Ramsay is at the top of his game in this episode, truly showing how demented of a man he was.  Even Davos Seaworth gets his own moments of courage in the episode despite how bleak it looked for him once again.  The Starks come out on top and it's the first episode in the entire show where we can safely say the good guys outright won the day.  A rarity for this show.  

What's also good is that the whole Battle of the Bastards is just half the episode.  We also get the long expected Battle of Meereen, with Dany and her armies taking on the forces of Slaver's Bay, including the formerly deposed rulers of Astapor and Yunkai from Season 3.  Tyrion gets some much needed revenge on the slavers who broke their words with him and Dany finally puts to a rest all of her enemies in Slaver's Bay when her Dragons destroy their fleets and her Dothraki and Unsullied finish off their land armies.  Then, we get a Greyjoy update with Yara Greyjoy coming to both ally with Dany and warn her of Euron's ambitions.  It's a solid series of scenes in Essos, but the central heart of the episode is what makes this one unforgettable.  

#1: The Rains of Castamere (Season 3, Episode 9)

You know a Game of Thrones episode is a home run when the episode title and the entire aura of said episode is dripping with the influence of the Lannisters, yet not a single Lannister appears in the episode.  "The Rains of Castamere" is without a doubt the most famous, gripping and traumatizing episode of the series.  I stopped watching for a bit after this one, I was so stunned and heartbroken by it.  This episode made me question most of my life's decisions and I didn't feel comfortable watching on.  After rewatching around the time Season 4 started up, I came to realize just how powerful and delightfully dark this episode was.  I not only learned to put up with it, but I also learned to respect this episode for what it was: a true and complete subversion of expectations.  

Deep down, I think all of us knew that Robb Stark was not long for the world.  Even though he never lost a battle in his war against the Lannisters, he was losing the war.  His allies were deserting him, his plans to ally with the Greyjoys of the Iron Islands and Renly Baratheon had ended disastrously and he had caused intense division in his own camps with political blunders that undermined his position.  He allowed his most valuable prisoner to escape into the night, he lost half of his army to wedding Talisa Maegyr and by beheading a vengeful Lord Karstark.  He was losing, but we had a feeling he was going to go out with one last heroic stand against the Lannisters.  Maybe he would take Tywin down with him.  Or maybe he might win a battle and die to injuries, leaving his soon to be born son to carry on his legacy from Winterfell should they every make it back.  

If only I had read the books before watching the show...

The Red Wedding is still one of the most traumatizing things ever seen on television.  The visceral butchering of the Starks and their men is something no one expected to see, let alone at a wedding of such importance to the both the Starks and the Freys.  We had a slight bit of hope that this Stark/Tully/Frey alliance would have enough strength to overwhelm the Lannisters or even just crush the Ironborn and help them retake Winterfell.  But we were warned, time and time again, that the show was not the prototypical Fantasy Story.  The son would not be avenging the father.  The good guys weren't always fated to win.  The Starks were not going to get that Disney Ending we prayed for them to get.  Robb would be skewered by arrows and have his head removed, his Dire Wolf's crudely sewn to the top.  His pregnant wife would be viciously stabbed to death.  His mother would have her throat slit.  The Boltons and Freys showed their newfound loyalties to the Lannisters by slaughtering anyone who kept faith with the Starks or Tullys.  Edmure Tully was kept in a dungeon on his own wedding night.  The Blackfish had to go on the run with no allies or men to speak of.  It was a massacre, no other word can describe it.  

And this is the moment that made Game of Thrones go from being a well-liked niche to being a phenomenon.  Robb, the hero we knew and loved, was dead.  And the Lannisters, the family we loved to hate, were now at the top of the hill, unchallenged by anyone.  No Stags, Wolves, Krakens or Trouts would fight the Lion for the throne anymore.  

There's more to this episode, but I don't think any of it matters in the end.  Not Jon escaping from the Wildlings, or Bran and Rickon separating for their own safety, Arya being a moment too late to get to the Twins in time for the Red Wedding or even Dany taking Yunkai.  None of that matters.  The King of the North fell and the realms of Westeros entered a dark era where the Lions ruled unopposed, until their own arrogance got the better of them and the White Wolf rose to root them out.  But there was no White Wolf in this episode.  No shreds of hope.  No dignity left for the Starks at the Twins.  The Starks were slaughtered and the War died with Robb.  

Next Up: IDK, do I ever follow through on this?  Probably something regarding GOT or one of the lousy Disney Remakes...