Game of Thrones is about a lot of people who want to be the king, or queen, who sits on the Iron Throne, ensuring they’re the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The first season has some conflict over which family should rule, and then things explode into all-out warfare from the second season onwards. And there’s also a mysterious army of the dead approaching the continent from a wintery area north of Westeros.
All the warring, fighting, and killing make Game of Thrones a pretty heavy show, more often than not. Few people ever feel safe, and the show was never afraid to have episodes (or sometimes even seasons) end on downer notes. So, to celebrate all the misery, in effect, here are the heaviest episodes of Game of Thrones; the ones that go the extra mile, in terms of being despairing.
There are unavoidable spoilers below for all eight seasons of Game of Thrones.
10
“Hardhome” (2015)
Season 5, Episode 8
You could single out “Hardhome” as the episode with the army of the dead in it, though that could technically be a fair few episodes… so it’s probably best to say it’s the episode where said army makes the biggest impact, and feels the scariest. There were two battle-focused episodes about taking on the Night King’s undead soldiers that aired after “Hardhome,” and probably tried to top it, but neither of them were as strong (season 7’s “Beyond the Wall” and season 8’s “The Long Night”).
There are losses suffered in those episodes, too, and technically, more high-profile characters are lost, since a dragon’s killed and reanimated in “Beyond the Wall,” and then a large number of supporting characters are killed off during “The Long Night.” They’re just scarier, in “Hardhome,” making the most of a first impression, since this episode gets to really drive home, for the first time, how overwhelming the army of the dead is. And there’s an extra sense of terror and heaviness that comes from the battle for survival near the episode’s end more or less exploding out of nowhere, cementing – on a visceral level – the existential threat that’s, at this stage, not far from reaching the Wall.
9
“The Bear and the Maiden Fair” (2013)
Season 3, Episode 7
This is the most distressing episode of Game of Thrones that doesn’t involve a single person dying. Granted, there are only four episodes that fit that description, out of 73, which does really drive home how death-heavy this show was. But “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” finds another way to prove disturbing and bleak, since it’s particularly confronting with its Theon and Ramsay scenes.
There were reasons to hate Ramsay before this, and many after, but this remains up there as one of his cruelest and most despicable acts.
The latter isn’t named at this point in the series, but he has spent a good chunk of season 3 up until this point torturing and tormenting the former. It reaches a particularly sadistic peak (or low) in “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” and even though the most graphic act of violence isn’t directly seen, it is still horrifying to know it happens, and then it’s not even the end of Theon’s torment, either. There were reasons to hate Ramsay before this, and many after, but this remains up there as one of his cruelest and most despicable acts in the entire show.
8
“The Winds of Winter” (2016)
Season 6, Episode 10
A lot happens in the season 6 finale of Game of Thrones, “The Winds of Winter,” and not all of it’s 100% depressing. Jon Snow and Daenerys get relatively triumphant moments here, even if they’re both in positions of probable danger, since both are in charge of armies that’ll play some kind of role in one of two looming wars. One war involves the approaching army of the dead, which is imminent here, given that “The Winds of Winter” sees winter finally arriving.
There’s also everything that happens in King’s Landing, with villainous and somewhat likable characters alike dying in a massive explosion that Cersei sets off. She murders so many people, and then her actions cause her son, Tommen (the king), to take his own life, and all that makes various Houses (Tyrell, Baratheon, and Lannister) pretty close to extinct, in effect, if you’re talking about the prominent members of such families. The whole episode really did feel like it kicked off the show’s endgame, so to speak.
7
“The Door” (2016)
Season 6, Episode 5
In season 6, Game of Thrones well and truly overtook A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series the television show’s based on. Certain moments that George R.R. Martin has not yet written about (and may never, though one can hope The Winds of Winter will still come out) that did appear on the show weren’t widely loved… but Hodor’s death in “The Door” was well-received.
Not well-received in the sense that people were happy Hodor died, but it was an impactful moment for the show, and the episode it appeared in, “The Door,” is one of the better ones from the show’s second half. It might’ve worked as well as it did because it was confirmed to be an idea from Martin himself, so it’s almost a book idea. Learning about Hodor’s past and then how that also relates to his death is tragic, though his going out heroically does ensure there’s some bittersweetness to it. More bitter than sweet, sure, but far from all the morally good Game of Thrones characters have had meaningful or genuinely heroic deaths.
6
“The Mountain and the Viper” (2014)
Season 4, Episode 8
See, speaking of generally good characters who didn’t get to die meaningful deaths, here’s Oberyn Martell. He’s a highlight of the fourth season of Game of Thrones, since he’s willing to ally himself with a very desperate Tyrion Lannister, the latter of whom is on trial for Joffrey’s death. Oberyn fights for Tyrion in trial by combat, against Gregor Clegane (AKA “The Mountain”), partly so he can also get vengeance upon Gregor for the deaths of several of his family members.
So, there you get the episode’s title: “The Mountain and the Viper.” Oberyn, the Viper, seems like he’s about to win, but then he gets too confident, slips up when he could’ve just finished things, and then he dies in one of the most brutal ways imaginable. It’s upsetting for several reasons, all of them obvious: it’s a confronting death, it happened to an endearing character, the murderer still lives (just), and (the also endearing) Tyrion seems absolutely screwed, so you end the episode feeling fearful for his future, too.
5
“The Bells” (2019)
Season 8, Episode 5
The way King’s Landing gets devastated in “The Winds of Winter” has nothing on what happens to it in “The Bells.” This penultimate episode of the whole show controversially has Daenerys snapping, during an assault on King’s Landing, and ultimately razing so much of the city to the ground, thanks to a completely unrestrained Drogon. It is a lot to take in, to say the least.
Now, there’s an argument to be made that “The Bells” has all this happen a little too suddenly, and that, therefore, it’s not as powerful as it could’ve been. If you’re questioning Daenerys doing what she does the whole time, you might not be able to process the emotions you’re supposed to be feeling, but this ranking’s not really about episode quality (or lack thereof). Regardless of the execution or writing, what happens here is pretty terrifying and intense, in terms of seeing so many people die and so much destruction, not to mention having to grapple with one of the show’s most well-liked characters becoming so monstrous.
4
“The Dance of Dragons” (2015)
Season 5, Episode 9
Like “The Door,” “The Dance of Dragons” is an episode that contains material not yet written about in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, though the most noteworthy scene here is one Martin plans to have happen in the books… in all likelihood. And assuming those last two books come out. It’s the death of Shireen, which is one of the hardest moments of the whole show to watch.
Stannis has lost it by this point, albeit he’s lost it a bit more convincingly – and gradually – than Daenerys did. Still, it’s a new low for him to sacrifice his own daughter for a chance at better weather so he can potentially win an upcoming battle. His daughter, Shireen, was one of the few genuinely good-hearted characters on the show, she’s only a child, and she’s killed in a particularly horrific way: being burned at the stake. To make things somehow even worse, it’s all for nothing, since Stannis and his army are entirely defeated in the final episode of the season. Nothing easy about watching it, by any means, and that one scene alone ensures that “The Dance of Dragons” deserves to be called one of the most emotionally intense episodes of the whole show.
3
“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” (2015)
Season 5, Episode 6
Before the final two seasons of Game of Thrones, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” was about as controversial as an episode had ever gotten, and it’s also a bit like “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” in the sense that it’s distressing for reasons other than deaths. Theon was tortured in that season 3 episode in a particularly nasty way, and his same torturer, Ramsay, also puts Sansa through hell in this episode, culminating with him sexually assaulting her after their wedding.
“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” spares viewers from the sight of what happens at the episode’s end, to some extent, also like what happened with Theon, but there’s no doubt about what happens, and what is shown/heard is hugely distressing. Before, it was mentioned that what Ramsay did to Theon was one of the worst things he did on the show, and what he does to Sansa here is similarly horrible. There are other dark and disturbing moments throughout the episode, but it’s the stuff with Ramsay and Sansa that pushes “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” over the edge.
2
“Baelor” (2011)
Season 1, Episode 9
It’s more accurate to say that A Song of Ice and Fire was groundbreaking as a fantasy series, and that its brazenness and subversive qualities meant that Game of Thrones, being based on it, ultimately felt groundbreaking as a show. Still, the first season of Game of Thrones kind of makes Ned Stark feel even more like the central character than the first book does, largely thanks to Sean Bean being the highest-profile member of the main cast in that first season.
Of course, Ned’s killed off in the penultimate episode of season 1, “Baelor,” and the circumstances of his death (being shamed by Joffrey, confessing to save his life, but then his death gets ordered anyway) are so monumentally depressing. He was a generally good guy, and from that point, no one felt safe. Somehow, the show managed to top the devastation here, with the heaviest episode in the show’s run being the one you probably expected to see in the #1 spot.
1
“The Rains of Castamere” (2013)
Season 3, Episode 9
Game of Thrones had already proven itself to be an incredible drama series before the penultimate episode of season 3, but in terms of pure drama, it is “The Rains of Castamere” that stands as the show’s most memorable (for better or worse) hour. The Starks had been underdogs, albeit very capable ones, ever since Ned had been executed back in season 1, but they’re effectively wiped out here.
Some of Ned and Catelyn’s children remain alive, but they’re scattered throughout Westeros and in different levels of peril, while the Stark army (including Catelyn, Robb, and Robb’s newly pregnant wife, Talisa) are massacred during what comes to be known as the Red Wedding. In hindsight, the show was building to it, and it makes sense why the Starks are betrayed by the Freys here, yet it’s still an absolute sucker-punch of an episode when you do see it for the first time. Television has seldom been heavier than this; it’s like a 21st-century “Abyssinia, Henry” (and hey, that episode of M*A*S*H also happened to come right near the end of said show’s third season).
