50. The Gift (Season 5, Episode 7)
Plenty of book readers I know have lost hope that we’ll ever get the excellent version of the Sand Snakes promised by the text. “The Gift” is probably the episode that sealed it. While I hold out hope for Obara, Nymeria, and Tyenne, I can see how their little game with Bronn is a bit underwhelming. Elsewhere in this episode, Lady Olenna spars with the High Sparrow and Maester Aemon’s fire is extinguished. As episodes-before-the-episodes go, this one accomplishes a bit but is dragged down by its further tormenting poor Sansa Stark. It’s also peak Brienne Staring Out a Window.
49. Walk of Punishment (Season 3, Episode 3)
“Walk of Punishment” is one of two episodes written and directed by show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. It’s closing moments, in which we cut from Jaime Lannister’s hand being chopped off to a rousing credits song by The Hold Steady, shows off their sense of humor. Even Hoster Tully’s funeral, in which poor Edmure can’t fire an arrow into his father’s Viking pyre, is played for laughs. And we spend a fair amount of time with Tyrion and Bronn, talking through Podrick’s prowess with women. This might be one of the most joyful hours of Thrones if joy is what you’re in it for.
48. Winter is Coming (Season 1, Episode 1)
It’s the inconsistencies that bring the final pilot, directed by Tim Van Patten, down to this position on the list. Tyrion’s hair was very blonde. His look wasn’t the only thing that was fully formed, as is the case with many TV pilots. The prologue, which introduced the White Walkers, was a mess. Thrones opened with fast-paced 28 Days Later ice zombies, something it would later discard for an army of ice zombies that has been marching for three seasons. In fairness, these are common pilot problems. But that doesn’t mean it’s better than what came later. (It’s not.)
47. The Wars to Come (Season 5, Episode 1)
Thrones’ first flashback! The show missed a great comedic opportunity from the books — a moment in which the smell of Tywin’s corpse becomes a topic of conversation at his funeral — but in the end, this episode delivers all kinds of checking in with storylines and finishes with the big final moments of Mance Rayder. It took them until season five to begin knocking off major characters in the opening episode, something from which this episode benefits greatly.
46. The Ghost of Harrenhal (Season 2, Episode 5)
The death of Renly Baratheon, the opening sequence of “The Ghost of Harrenhal,” shows off the roughness of the show’s visual effects in those early seasons. This isn’t $10 million per episode work. But those baby dragons were cute, weren’t they? The best part of this episode: Arya and Tywin’s budding relationship and Jaqen doing fun murder things.
45. Oathkeeper (Season 4, Episode 4)
I remember spending most of this episode — one that delivers some solid character moments — wondering why they placed it in the hands of Michelle MacLaren. Once again she seemed saddled with a meandering middle episode. Then the episode closed with a massive surprise — a visit to The Land of Always Winter where the Night’s King showed up to icify a baby — and it made sense. To her credit, MacLaren’s episodes always deliver fantastic intimacy. This one also gave her a chance to work with some wild scale.
44. High Sparrow (Season 5, Episode 3)
“High Sparrow” is another walk-and-talk episode, with a dash of age-inappropriate sexual coupling and a huge character moment for Jon Snow. Margaery and Tommen get married and do the thing you do after you get married; Sansa arrives at Winterfell and meets Ramsay for the first time, and Jon Snow has a rough day as the new Lord Commander. For the audience, it’s a rough cathartic day, as he ultimately executes the loathsome Janos Slynt. Its big finish is Jorah kidnapping Tyrion in a Volantine brothel, the epitome of a transitional cliffhanger.
43. Garden of Bones (Season 2, Episode 4)
What ends with a smoke monster exiting Melisandre’s birth canal begins with a lot of Joffrey being horrible to women. I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of his tormenting of Sansa. It matters for the story to move forward, and solidifies both his awfulness and Tyrion’s goodness, but it’s not fun to watch. “Garden of Bones,” an episode that would go on to win a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Art Direction, is a well-made, yet thoroughly cruel hour of Thrones.
42. No One (Season 6, Episode 8)
“No One” leans into the formula of moving pieces around before a big battle episode. In this case, it’s all about tying up the loose ends at Riverrun and in The North before two Bastards duke it out. But it does finish with a furious Braavosi Parkour chase between Arya and The Waifenator, followed by Arya quitting her internship at The Murder House for good. Even Jaqen appears pleased that our time with Arya in Braavos has come to an end.
41. Eastwatch (Season 7, Episode 5)
The relativity of travel time has not been a strength of Thrones for a long time. Not since they were following George R.R. Martin’s map closely, at least. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the piece-moving episode of the show’s seventh season. And sure, there’s plenty of good walk-and-talk in this episode and it ends with a power-walking shot of The Westeros Avengers. That’s all well and good, but there’s some meandering as they clean up from the first big battle episode of the season and set the stage for the next one. “Eastwatch” exists a little awkwardly in-between. What saves it is the incredible sequence in which Jon Snow decides that after all he’s been through, he’d like to touch a dragon. This all feels like its building to something.
Related Topics: Game of Thrones
