Game of Thrones: Catch up with EW's essential episodes guide
Ahead of the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, here’s our guide to the essential episodes to get up to speed or refresh your memory. (Check out our full season guides down below.)
Season 1, episode 1: “Winter Is Coming”
Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Director: Tim Van Patten
Plot: After the death of his right-hand man, King Robert Baratheon travels north to Winterfell to ask his old friend Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark to assume the role. The queen, Cersei; her twin brother, Jaime Lannister; and their brother Tyrion Lannister arrive with the king. The two families intermingle to devastating result: Bran (the second youngest of the Stark children) interrupts Jaime and Cersei having incestuous sex, so Jaime pushes him from a tower window to silence him. Across the Narrow Sea in Pentos, exiled prince Viserys Targaryen forces his sister, Daenerys, to wed Khal Drogo, the leader of a Dothraki tribe, in exchange for an army so he can return to Westeros and reclaim his father’s Iron Throne.
Introduces: Everyone, plus White Walkers (the undead entities that live Beyond the Wall), the Starks’ pet direwolves, their ward Theon Greyjoy, and the treacherous prince Joffrey.
Historic moment: Dany receives three petrified dragon eggs as a wedding gift.
Grade: A–
Season 1, episode 9: “Baelor”
Season 2, episode 9: “Blackwater”
Writer: George R.R. Martin
Director: Neil Marshall
Plot: The Battle of Blackwater is now upon King’s Landing. Tyrion’s many strategies, including the deployment of wildfire to fend off approaching ships, turn out to be (gruesome) winners. A cowardly Joffrey scuttles away when the tides begin to turn, leaving Tyrion to rally the troops to hold the line: “Those are brave men knocking at our door, let’s go kill them.” All hope seems like it might be lost, and just as Tyrion is injured — by one of his own men — he sees Tywin leading a fresh army to the rescue. Sitting on the Iron Throne, Cersei is poised to poison her youngest son, Tommen, should the keep be breached, but is relieved when a triumphant Tywin strides into the throne room.
Introduces/Historic moment: Wildfire in action. A+
Season 3, episode 9: “The Rains of Castamere”
Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Director: David Nutter
Plot: Jon and Bran almost reunite when the Wildlings attempt to kill Jon, but he’s saved when Bran wargs (projects his consciousness) into his direwolf, Summer. Jon escapes, leaving Ygritte behind. Rickon leaves too, as Osha takes him to safety.
Historic moment: This episode is known as the “Red Wedding,” in reference to the end of Edmure and Roslin Frey’s wedding reception, which goes from cheery to bloody when a pregnant Talisa is stabbed in the stomach, followed by the Stark bannermen being slaughtered and Robb getting shot with arrows. Catelyn tries to bargain for her son’s life by threatening Walder Frey’s wife, but the old man is unmoved, and Roose stabs Robb. Crying, Catelyn slits Mrs. Frey’s throat right before her own is cut.
Grade: A
Season 4, episode 2: ?“The Lion and the Rose”
Writer: George R.R. Martin
Director: Alex Graves
Plot: Joffrey weds Margaery, with one big complication. (More on that in a moment.) Roose scolds Ramsay for carving the humanity — and a lot more — out of Theon; Melisandre sacrifices three people as an offering to the Lord of Light before joining Stannis and his wife for a tense meal; and Jaime begins the arduous task of training himself to sword fight with one hand.
Introduces: The Night King, leader of the White Walkers, who appears in a vision that Bran has while communing with a Weirwood Heart tree.
Historic Moment: Joffrey finally gets his just deserts and is poisoned at his wedding, dying in supremely gruesome fashion. Further complicating the Lannister family dynamic, Cersei accuses Tyrion of murdering her son. In an attempt to protect Shae from Tywin’s revenge plot against him, Tyrion breaks things off with his lover.
Grade: A
Season 4, episode 10: “The Children”
Season 5, episode 10: “Mother’s Mercy”
Season 6, episode 9: “Battle of the Bastards”
Season 6, episode 10: “The Winds of Winter”
Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Plot: Cersei’s great revenge. Everyone in King’s Landing gathers for her demise at her and Loras’ trial at the Sept of Baelor in this spectacular season finale. But Cersei remains in her keep a little too long; her cousin Lancel is sent to retrieve her. Her great plan unfolds: Lancel finds a wildfire cache on the verge of exploding and is stabbed before he’s able to put it out. Margaery is the first to realize something’s wrong — that a trap has been set — but she’s too late. The High Sparrow doesn’t let anyone leave. The wildfire is ignited, and the Sept (and everyone inside) is annihilated. Jaime reunites with Cersei, who — utterly gleeful over her perfectly executed scheme and unaware that it prompted Tommen to commit suicide — is crowned Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Historic moment: Bran learns Jon is the child of Lyanna (more to come on that…); the burning of the Sept; and the last we see of Dany in season 6: setting sail for Westeros with her army, prepared for the grand battle.
Grade: A
Season 7, episode 7: “The Dragon and the Wolf”
Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Plot: Almost every major player in Westeros unites in King’s Landing to discuss the Night King. Not even Cersei can deny the threat, yet she refuses to cease hostilities after Jon admits his allegiance to Dany. But Cersei is expecting (or at least wants people to think she is); Tyrion plays on her pregnancy to get her to join the alliance, though she secretly still plans betrayal. That’s one scheme too many for Jaime, who finally leaves his sister behind just as winter begins. Winter comes for Littlefinger when the Stark kids unite to unveil his lies. Arya kills him with a dagger — the same one used to attack Bran in season 1, which Littlefinger had falsely claimed belonged to Tyrion.
Introduces: The Hound’s awareness that his brother, the Mountain, is still alive (well, reanimated by Cersei’s Hand of the Queen, Qyburn).
Historic moment: The Wall falls. Riding the undead dragon, the Night King destroys the magical barrier, and the dead pour into Westeros.
Grade: B+
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