One of the biggest TV shows the world's ever seen, both in scope and popularity, Game of Thrones was based on A Song of Ice and Fire, a book series that was penned by George R.R. Martin. Running from 2011 until 2019, the adaptation ran for eight seasons exclusively on HBO, and its success spawned several spin-off shows that have continued to resonate with fans.
While it's true that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon have produced some fine content, the original show's pinnacle remains.
In each season, the penultimate episode 9 was typically home to, respectively, major plot twists, from Ned Stark's beheading in season 1 to the infamous Red Wedding that played out in season 3. When considering "Hardhome" was the eighth episode of season 5, fans had their guards down for the spectacles to come.
Game of Thrones season 5 episode 8 remains its greatest episode
Attempting to make peace, Jon kicks off the plot of season 5, episode 8, by recruiting a couple of Night Watch brothers in tandem with Tormund Giantsbane, and it's then that the ragtag group travels by boat to Hardhome, a sprawling Wildling settlement that sits along the coast of the infamous Shivering Sea.
Individual moments in the "Hardhome" episode—like the conversation with Sam and Olly—are often forgotten even by Game of Thrones super fans, with elements of foreshadowing being at play within that scene. It's one of the calms before a storm that nobody saw coming, not even hardcore fans of George R.R. Martin's original line of novels.
Catching the audience completely off guard, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss implement a plot point that wasn't in the books: An all-out attack from the White Walkers that facilitates a half-hour set piece.
Once the snows thicken and sounds begin to settle, Jon and company feel an ominous presence looming in the air. It's in this moment that viewers are keyed into the battle that's to come, and when Loboda the Thenn orders his fellow Wildlings to close a nearby gate, a ticking clock plays for the audience to make the impending doom all the more unsettling.
Impactful moments take place, like with how Jon kills a White Walker and thus realizes that his Valyrian steel sword—called Longclaw, given to him by the former Lord Commander Jeor Mormont—is capable of spectacular feats.
What's more for "Hardhome" is that it leaves off with the Night King raising wights and fallen Wildlings alike and adds them to their army. The stare-down between Jon and his intimidating antagonist concluded "Hardhome" with yet another intense moment, and it perfectly set up the episodes to come.
While some fans may prefer the show's earlier episodes, this climactic moment of season five remains the cream of the crop, and no matter how many spinoff shows may be pushed into production, that will always be the case.
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