WiCnet Awards: And the winner for Best Episode of Season 4 is…

….Episode 8, “The Mountain and The Viper”!

That’s right, once again, Oberyn Martell’s starring moment in the Game of Thrones firmament was your pick. Has a one season wonder ever been so dominant in his popularity since Ned bit the dust in “Baelor”? Check out all the ways that we–and you–loved this episode, after the jump….

The Viper may have had the most memorable scene, but other storylines got their due. This, for instance is Sansa’s big moment where she steps off the path the books laid out for her, and goes from pawn to player in The Game, using the truth to lie for Littlefinger in one of my favorite scenes of her in the entire season. Poor Arya arrives at the Bloody Gate and is turned away because she and the Hound don’t know to ask the right question. (Arya’s long hysterical laugh was one for the ages, especially when you know that her sister is at that very moment taking the lady of the manor spot in the household just on the other side.) This is the episode with Tyrion’s “Beetles Speech” which can be read as a thesis for the show itself. And across the Narrow Sea, Jorah’s chickens come home to roost as one ill fated choice he made ruins the entire life he’s built for himself. As Cameron so eloquently put it in his argument for this episode to win:

one of the best parts of that scene is that Daenerys doesn’t yell. This is the same woman who roared “those who would harm you will die screaming”, but Dany and Jorah are each other’s vulnerable spots, and the betrayal cuts her deeper than any mortal wound she has had in the course of her life. The trembling in Emilia Clarke’s voice is proof enough of that, and Iain Glen’s face as he sees himself in her eyes (the eyes that won’t even look at him, but above him, over him, beyond him) is as earth-shattering as the spear that pierces the Mountain’s chest.

But when it comes to the violence in this episode, moments like Mole’s Town and short scenes with Ramsey Bolton, nee Snow have nothing on the ending ten minutes. This scene not only took the prize for this episode, it also game Pedro Pascal the win in earlier polls, like Best Warrior and Best Death Scene, not to mention this sequence taking the prize for Best Action Sequence. Rowan broke down why the piece worked so well as a battle–the use of space:

This spatial awareness isn’t just useful to viewers (especially if you, like me, are tired of action films where the action is utterly incoherent), but it also frames the story. Oberyn Martell’s actions, tactics, and strategy all rely on space. At the narrowest level, he knows he’ll lose a contest of strength to The Mountain, plus his long-range spear is useless up close. Tactically, he, like Bronn in “The Golden Crown”, knows that his speed and movement can exhaust the man in heavier armor. He attacks just enough to keep Clegane on his toes, but spends the bulk of the fight dancing away from his opponent.

As for why that death remains in our minds:

Game of Thrones is not a show that shies away from death, but that is gory, even for it. The Red Wedding, The Purple Wedding, the beheading of Ned Stark—it all looks so sterile next to Gregor Clegane squashing Oberyn’s head like a grape.

And as for Oberyn himself, as I said above, we haven’t seen a character who spent such a short amount of time on the show reach such popular heights since Ned Stark.

From the moment Pascal’s Oberyn arrived in King’s Landing, it was clear he was a loose cannon. In the City where the Game of Thrones is played harder than anywhere else in the series, a wild card suddenly shuffling himself into the deck added a new element of danger in an already potent powder keg. Oberyn didn’t play his cards close to the chest either. He was in King’s Landing for revenge for his sister. How and when and where he’d take that revenge was the main question, and how badly would it ruin everyone else’s carefully laid plans.

Then there’s my favorite part, which is how Game of Thrones manages to bring in a cultural reference of another beloved action sequence, with Oberyn’s rhythmic chant of “Your Raped Her,  Your Murdered Her and You Killed Her Children.” Yes, it’s a bit more blunt than the phrase it echos, “Hello, My Name In Inigo Montoya, You Killed My Father, Prepare To Die.” But the echo is deliberate. After all, that sequence in The Princess Bride is Inigo overcoming all the odds to defeat his Six Fingered Mountain, and when he does, with a “I want my father back you son of a bitch” it’s a “FUCK YEAH” moment. For those who didn’t know it was coming, said reference might have thrown them off the scent, perhaps this hero too will defeat his Mountain and scream “I want my sister back, you son of a bitch.” The rest of us knew the bitter irony of how much he wanted them back would be his downfall.

So that’s our Awards for this season. Thanks to everyone who voted and argued it out in the comments. Be sure to check out the full list of winners in case you missed any over the last three months. And here are the results:

[polldaddy poll=8543038]

• Published on 01/05/2015 at 10:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:07 PM CDT