The ‘Game’ is once again afoot. Last night, “Game of Thrones” (read our episode recap here) returned with [mild episode spoilers] a massacre by poison, Jim Broadbent, an undead giant, a proposal of marriage, a bedpan montage, a man-bun/top-knot and Ed Sheeran — about whom you can avoid all the outrage if, like me, you couldn’t pick him out of a lineup anyway. “Dragonstone,” the first installment of the show’s seven-episode seventh season has immediately plunged us back into the thick of the intrigue with even the Narrow Sea no longer separating Daenerys and her allies, armies and dragons from the warring Houses of Westeros, and the White Walkers.
It is, of course, the beginning of the penultimate season, and there’s an accumulating sense that with fewer episodes this time out, and the end of the era now in sight, each single 60-minute portion has to be an event, something unprecedented and special. And with its standards of big-budget lavishness already pretty high, that’s a big ask. But then, “Game of Thrones” has been, more or less consistently, knocking our stuffing out since 2011, with even less celebrated seasons and weaker episodes remaining the definition of appointment-to-view TV. So we thought it high time we quit faffing around with related features like “10 HBO Shows That Paved The Way For ‘Game of Thrones’” or “The Best Performances From The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Cast” and got straight to the point: the best episodes.
It’s a trickier proposition than you might think: Over 60 hours of programming have yielded incredible highs — truly unforgettable moments, standout performances and set pieces as spectacular as anything ever seen on TV, but these are not always packaged into the same hour-long slot. Killer can sit alongside filler, and ‘Thrones” ability to constantly top itself has meant that some earlier installments that were blistering at the time have faded a little with retrospect. Here, then, is House Playlist’s considered top 10, which we, and those who stand with us, will defend to our dying breath (or until, more likely, a season 7 episode or two comes along to unhorse a current favorite). Enjoy, and feel free to start a blood feud over our selection in the comments.
10. “And Now His Watch Is Ended” (Season 3, Episode 4)
By now we’re familiar with the rhythms of a “Game of Thrones” season: usually it crescendoes to a point where the penultimate or antepenultimate episode is the strongest. Season 3 is no exception (see ‘The Rains of Castamere” below) but it did also reach a notable peak less than halfway through. It’s here that a classic ‘GoT’ switcheroo sees the wretched Theon (Alfie Allen) begin what’s going to be his long descent into Reekdom. The vile Craster (Robert Pugh) is killed and Sam (John Bradley-West) escapes with Gilly (Hannah Murray). And three unlikely but oddly satisfying friendships ripen: Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau); Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Margaery (Natalie Dormer); and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Varys (Conleth Hill), with the latter telling the story of how he became a eunuch. But the problem with the show has often been the Narrow Sea separation of storylines and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) being kept in a kind of holding pattern. And that comes to an iconic end here when she buys her Unsullied Army, has them turn on their old masters and then frees them to fight for her by choice. It’s not only a kick-ass Khaleesi moment–especially the old, “I could speak Valyrian all along, doofus” and “Haha, my dragon, not yours” sections–but it also points to a philosophy of leadership that sets her apart from the Lannisters and Baratheons: gratitude, not just fear and self-interest, can earn you loyalty.
9. “The Door” (Season 6, Episode 5)
As you might imagine from it having three episodes on this list, Season 6 of “Game Of Thrones” made a pretty decent argument for being the show’s best, despite, or more likely because, it was the point where the show fully overtook the books, and felt less beholden to them in some ways. With the ending approaching, there’s a lot more killer than filler across the season, an emphasis on entertaining rather than moving plot pieces around the board, and finally spilling some secrets, and season midpoint “The Door” has all kinds of terrific elements. We get Sansa confronting an uncomfortable Littlefinger for his role in her tortures at the hands of Ramsay Bolton (a reminder of what a strong actress Sophie Turner had become), we get Pilou Asbaek chewing scenery beautifully in his introduction as Euron Greyjoy, and we get the enormously enjoyable theater performances as Richard E. Grant, Kevin Eldon and “The Babadook” star Essie Davis re-enact the events of Season 1. But most importantly, there’s that door in the title. Hodor, when introduced, was a comic relief character, his endless repetition of his name making him a fan favorite but mostly being useful as a way of letting Bran move around. But in the climax of a creepy and revealing sequence that sees Max Von Sydow bow out of his brief turn, we find out the origins of his name — a devastating revelation that in his final moments of heroic sacrifice, Meera’s cry of “Hold the door!” resonated through time to become lodged in his head like a devastating earworm that would eventually become all he could ever hear. Thrillingly cut together by veteran “Lost” helmer Jack Bender in his first GoT episode, the implications of the moment Hodor’s entire life has been building towards are desperately, desperately sad in a way that lingers long after the credits roll, and might be the show’s single biggest heartbreaker to date.
