Game Of Thrones Season 6: All 10 Episode Ranked From Worst To Best
Can anything outshine the Battle Of The Bastards?
Who could possibly have predicted that the first season of Game Of Thrones not to be directly based on George RR Martin's source would end up being the best? Free to write their own story (albeit one inherently shackled to the texts), David Benioff and D. B. Weiss created arguably the finest ten episodes of fantasy television ever made.
The pace picked up from season 5, the death toll ramped up quite dramatically and it felt - more than anything else - like there was a narrative purpose to get things done, to right some of the wrongs previously written and to move closer to the Two Great Wars Of Westeros.
As with every season, the wheel of fortune rose for some - bringing Jon Snow back from the dead, increasingly Arya's stock exponentionally and making Dany a threat once again - while others were tossed into the dark waters never to emerge again. That the show managed to do so much in the space of a little over 10 hours without attracting too many complaints (there were plot-holes and contrivances, but we're a forgiving bunch of fans on the whole), is simply unprecedented.
Inevitably, attention will now turn to those last 13 episodes, and theorising how this great game ends, but if any season of this stunning show deserves further appreciation, it's this one. So here's the definitive ranking of season 6's superlative episodes...
10. The Red Woman
There's really no indignity in coming bottom of this list, considering how great season 6 was as a whole, but something had to.
In some respects, the opening episode felt a little like necessary House Keeping after the stunning full-stop at the end of season 5. The flabby and mostly boring Dorne subplot was excised in bloody fashion, finally giving the Sand Snakes something to do (and earning their reputations in the process), and exposition was the name of the day.
Obviously Melisandre's haunting revelation at the episode's climax will be remembered for a long time (particularly by anyone seduced by her in fairer form), but in terms of spectacle, there really weren't enough to compete with the rest of the season. But you can't ignore the work it did in setting the early tone of the season and generally dealing with some tasteless dead wood.
Best Moment: The Dorne cleansing.