8 Hated TV Episodes That Deserve Redemption

Defending Game of Thrones’ final season on the internet will raise more than a few eyebrows online and, yes, that ending deserves every ounce of criticism it gets. But most fans, or former fans, still unfairly consider season eight’s fourth episode, The Last of the Starks, as the point where it all went wrong.

A great deal of this episode is devoted to the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Winterfell in the previous episode. The interactions between the Starks in particular feel believable and compelling, with Arya and Sansa unsure of whether Jon’s trust in Daenerys is wise.

Daenerys’s slowly fracturing mental state after the death of Jorah Mormont is also handled well. Yes, the next episode rushes very quickly from this level of fragility to her suddenly deciding to destroy an entire city. But here it is treated like the beginning of a slow downward spiral and could have been a great character arc if given the time it deserved.

Overall, this is an episode with one or two flaws but certainly not one that deserves as much negative reaction as the remainder of this poorly thought-out season got.