WiCnet Awards: Best Episode of Season 4

Happy holidays, readers! We’re ending the year on the biggest category of them all: What was the best episode of Game of Thrones from 2014?

As our staff was going through the episodes, we noticed that strong arguments could be made for seven of the season’s episodes, which is a pretty impressive ratio! We’ve written up our picks, and hope that you’ll give those a read before making your final decision–links below.

Voting will continue throughout the holidays, and we’ll be announcing the final, victorious episode on January 5th.

Here are the seven episodes we felt the strongest about:

• Episode 31, “Two Swords”: “The season premiere had to totally rebuild the conceptual thrust of Game of Thrones after the Red Wedding destroyed it—and ‘Two Swords’ did so magnificently.” – Rowan Kaiser

• Episode 32, “The Lion and the Rose”: “But it’s the way that the moment was executed that causes me to realize why this episode is my favorite. The poisoning comes after at least 20 minutes of tension mounting in every way possible…” – Andrea Towers

• Episode 36, “The Laws of Gods and Men”: “Let the other episodes have their flash. ‘The Laws of Gods and Men’ has a smirking Mark Gatiss, a rampaging Ramsay Snow, a curious Oberyn Martell, and a destroyed Tyrion Lannister. Those are why I watch the show.” – Rowan Kaiser (yes, I took two)

• Episode 37, “Mockingbird”: “But even with all these moments, the thing this episode will be most remembered for the most is the storyline from which it takes its name, and the eerie scenes in the Eyrie.” – Ani Bundel

• Episode 38, “The Mountain and the Viper”: “I like when Game of Thrones manages these underlying themes so well. It’s a reminder that even though this show has ice zombies and dragons and shadow assassins, it is still, at heart, a show about characters, human beings with strengths and flaws and drives that push them beyond their own limits in search of something greater.” – Cameron White

• Episode 39, “The Watchers on the Wall”: “But ‘Watchers’, for me, takes the top spot this season not just because of the battle itself…but because of the way it seamlessly integrated action with quieter moments that furthered character development even while heads were being chopped off in the background.” – Rebecca Pahle

• Episode 40, “The Children”: “Game of Thrones is best-known for its process at tearing us down—reducing our hopes to rubble and our faves literally to blood and gore—but I’m more impressed by episodes like this, that build us up.” – Yi Li

(And don’t worry–if your favorite was one of the three we didn’t pick, you can still vote for it and make your case for it in the comments.)

Without further ado, the poll:

[polldaddy poll=8543038]

• Published on 12/24/2014 at 8:23 AM CDT
• Last updated on 12/24/2014 at 8:23 AM CDT