Celebrate Game of Thrones’ 7th anniversary with the 7 best episodes

HBO

Season 3: “The Rains of Castamere”

How can I not pick this episode as most memorable? It is (stupidly) the first episode I ever watched of the series, so it sticks out a bit more for me.

You think everything is going to be O.K. for the Starks. But just when you get comfortable, that’s when they get you.

Robb decides to follow his heart instead of following through with his good will marriage to Walter Frey’s daughter. He tries to make amends with Frey by apologizing and offering his uncle Edmure Tully as a groom instead. We also feel good about his plans to attack Casterly Rock. Everything seems to be good.

At the wedding feast, if we can even call it that, things go downhill quickly.

“The Rains of Castamere” play (with a cameo from band members of Coldplay), which is traditionally a Lannister warning song, raising Catelyn suspicions. It’s such an eerie feeling because you just know something awful is about to happen. And this is where Michelle Fairley is absolutely brilliant; her face says it all. (On a side note, I really wish she was brought back as Lady Stoneheart!)

The rest is too awful. Fan favorites Catelyn, Robb, his wife, and unborn baby, not to mention his men are all killed, betrayed by their own bannermen. The whole sneak attack orchestrated by that weasel Tywin Lannister.

And what might be even more heartbreaking, Arya was only mere feet away from reuniting with her family. I guess it just makes her triumphant revenge on Walter Frey in season seven that much sweeter!