We are days away from the final season of Game of Thrones; one of the greatest shows of all-time!  In preparation for the season premiere on April 14th, we are looking back at the first seven seasons and making lists about…everything!

Today, we are looking at the best endings to a single episode…

Here we go!

10 Best Episode Endings

10. S3E3:  Walk of Punishment

How it ended: Jamie gets his hand cut off.

Why it rocked: It LITERALLY rocked.  As in, they played a speed metal song over the opening credits instead of medieval instrumentals.  This was a great shock since our protagonists generally either die or get out of trouble. Jamie got maimed and there were consequences.

9. S5e1- The Wars to Come

How it ended: Snow kills Mance with an arrow

Why it rocked:  This wasn’t just he death of a key player in the Game, it was a huge character development moment for Jon.  He had been at war with Mance recently, and even went to his camp to kill him before Stannis attacked.  But, he was Ned Stark’s “son” and he didn’t believe in torture.  He gave Mance a clean death, even risking Stannis’ ire.

8. S7e6- Beyond the Wall

How it ended: The Night King turns Viserion into a wight dragon.

Why it rocked: Come on!  We had been hoping for an ice dragon since the series first introduced the army of the dead and the dragons.  It was like those old commercials about “you got chocolate in my peanut butter…no you got peanut butter in my chocolate!”  Whichever the order, that stuff tastes good and I am glad we have Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  Wait…. What were we talking about?  Oh yeah, the dragon.  That shit was tight…

7. S6e9- Battle of the Bastards

How it ended: We learn of Jon’s lineage.

Why it rocked: The whole episode was baller, but the ending finally delivered a moment fans had been theorizing about for 25 years.  Readers of the books had long speculated R+L = J; or Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark were actually Jon’s parents and not Ned.  With a flashback from Bran, we finally get to see that Lyanna did have a baby and the show cut from its eyes to Jon’s in Winterfell.  I like to have (Winter)fell out of my chair…

6. S6e2- Home

How it ended: Jon returns from the dead

Why it rocked: In a series filled with A-list deaths, Jon Snow’s was one people never seemed to believe was real.  Sure, some of that was tracking Kit Harrington’s presence when the Season Six filming began, but it also didn’t seem like the show could move forward without Jon.  Quietly, he had joined Daenerys as the main force driving the real narrative.  The Red Woman had tried her magic and thought herself a failure, but as the episode began to end, we see Jon gasp for air and return to life.  I am not sure I had a breath of my own for a few minutes afterward…

5. S5e8- Hardhome

How it ended: The Knight King raises thousands of dead Wildlings

Why it rocked: After the brutal battle with the dead at Hardhome, Jon and the surviving Wildlings flee on Stannis’ ships.  The Night King, who didn’t fight in the battle, walks onto the dock and gives Jon a “Come at me, brah!” hand gesture.  This wasn’t to throw shade at Jon for taking an assbeating, he was using his powers to raise all the people his army had just killed as wights in his own force.  Jon realized the stakes of fighting the dead, when every loss of the living is a new troop for the Night King.

4. S4e8- The Mountain and the Viper

How it ended: The Mountain crushes Oberyn Martell’s head with his bare hands.

Why it rocked: The Red Viper of Dorne agreed to fight The Mountain in Tyrion’s trial by combat.  The Mountain famously raped Martell’s sister and killed her and her children during Robert’s Rebellion.  Oberyn wants revenge and uses Tyrion’s trial to get it without starting a war.  After ripping the Mountain to shreds and leaving him dying on the ground, Oberyn pauses to accuse Tywin of complicity with the plot.  While he is bleeding out, the Mountain musters the strength to knock Oberyn to the ground, roll on top of him, and crush his skull with his bare hands. It was shocking, brutal, and pure Game of Thrones.

3. S7e3- The Queen’s Justice

How it ended: Olenna Tyrell reveals she killed Joffrey.

Why it rocked: This was my favorite moment of the series because Diana Rigg nailed it; like most scenes she was in over the course of the run.  After her defeat at the Battle for Highgarden, Jamie gives her poison to take as a form of execution.  She pours it in her wine and as she waits for it to take effect, she confesses to Jamie that she poisoned Joffrey; giving him final prick in the balls as Bronn would later say.  The line was so good, I will provide it here in its entirety for you to enjoy.  “Must have been horrible for you as a Kingsguard, as a father. It was horrible enough for me,” she said of Joffrey’s death. “A shocking scene. Not at all what I intended. You see, I had never seen the poison work before. Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.”  DROP…THE…MIC!

2. S5e10- Mother’s Mercy

How it ended: Jon was assassinated by his own men.

Why it rocked: Jon’s fortunes had been riding high. He had been the hero of the Battle of Castle Black and elected Lord Commander of the Nights Watch.  He used his new political capital to rescue as many Wildlings as he could at Hardhome, and allowed them to come south of the Wall.  This sat poorly with some of the rank and file, so a group of them conspired to lead him into the yard and stab him, Julius Caesar style; ironic since Jon’s buddy Mance Rayder played Caesar in the HBO show Rome.  This was a season finale as well, so the shock lasted a year until we saw what happened next.

1. S1E7- Baelor

How it ended: Ned’s dead, baby.  Ned’s dead.

Why it rocked: This is when we all realized GRRM was playing for keeps.  Ned was played by Sean Bean. He was the big name associated with the series after appearing in Lord of the Rings, James Bond, and Patriot Games.  Surely, someone will intervene.  Surely Joffrey is just trying to scare him.  Nope.  His head was chopped off with one episode to go in the first season.  Game changer and one of THE most pivotal moments in the series.

Honorable Mentions:

S1E1- Pushing Bran out the window
S1E6- Visarys’ Melted Golden Crown
S2e9- Tywin comes into Throne room as Cersei considers poisoning Tommen
S3E6- Jon and Ygritte kissing On the edge of the world
S3E8- Sam kills the first White Walker
S4E7- Lysa flying out the Moon Door
S5e9- Daenerys flying off on a dragon for the first time
S6e1- Red Woman is old
S2E4- Melisandre gives birth to a shadow demon.
S2e10- the Whitewalkers are revealed as a much more intellectual threat that previously thought.