'Game of Thrones' season 5 episode guide

Here's a refresher of everything you need to know from season 5 of Game of Thrones, episode by episode. (Check out our guides for seasons 1–4 and 6–8 and our list of essential episodes down below.)

Episode 1: "The Wars to Come"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: Michael Slovis

Plot: The balance of power started to readjust in the wake of Tywin's (Charles Dance) death. Up north, Stannis (Stephen Dillane) failed to persuade the Wildlings to join his army and march on Winterfell. Across the sea, Varys (Conleth Hill) tried to convince a drunk Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) to throw his support behind Dany (Emilia Clarke), who was currently struggling with the politics of ruling. Down south, Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) grieved their father's passing as Margaery (Natalie Dormer) plotted to pull herself out from under the former's thumb.

Introduced: Flashbacks! When Cersei was younger, a witch prophesized that all of her children would die and her reign as queen wouldn't last. Yikes!

Historic moment: Stannis burned Mance (Ciarán Hinds) at the stake for refusing to bend the knee.

Grade: B

Episode 2: "The House of Black and White"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: Michael Slovis

Plot: Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) ran into Sansa (and Littlefinger) at an inn and offered her protection, but Sansa (Sophie Turner), like her sister Arya (Maisie Williams) before her, rejected her help. Nevertheless, Brienne resolved to follow her, just in case. Jaime recruited Bronn (Jerome Flynn) to travel to Dorne and rescue his and Cersei's daughter, Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free).

Introduced: The titular House of Black and White (a.k.a. the house of the Faceless Men), where Arya was reunited with H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha).

Historic moment: Jon (Kit Harington) was elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

Grade: B+

Episode 3: "High Sparrow"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: Mark Mylod

Plot: All about the Starks! H'ghar forced Arya to discard all of her personal belongings, while Jon's tenure as Lord Commander began with him executing an insubordinate guard. In Volantis, Jorah (Iain Glen) recognized Tyrion in a brothel and kidnapped him as a present for Dany, unknowingly helping the wayward Lannister. In King's Landing, Margaery and Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) got married and wasted no time consummating their union. (Ew.)

Introduced: The Waif (Faye Marsay), an assistant to the Faceless Men; the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce), leader of a fanatic religious order and the future leader of the Faith Militant.

Historic moment: Sansa returned to Winterfell for the first time since the first season because Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) had arranged for her to marry the abusive Ramsay (Iwan Rheon), a.k.a. the son of the man who killed her brother Robb (Richard Madden).

Grade: B

Episode 4: "Sons of the Harpy"

Writer: Dave Hill

Director: Mark Mylod

Plot: Reactionary and rebellious groups became bolder in both King's Landing — where Cersei empowered the Sparrows to arrest sinners, including Loras (Finn Jones) — and in Meereen, where the Sons of the Harpy launched a devastating attack on the Unsullied. Less interestingly, Jaime and Bronn landed in Dorne as the Sand Snakes (Oberyn's bastard daughters) plotted to kidnap Myrcella.

Introduced: Jaime learned that his gold hand could be an effective tool in combat. Yay, more making it work!

Historic moment: Ser Selmy (Ian McElhinney) perished while fighting the Sons of the Harpy, a group of former enslavers who opposed Dany's rule over Meereen.

Grade: B

Episode 5: "Kill the Boy"

Writer: Bryan Cogman

Director: Jeremy Podeswa

Plot: In the wake of the Sons of the Harpy's violence, Dany let her anger get the better of her and fed a nobleman to her dragons. But, after some thinking, she decided to compromise and agreed to reopen the fighting pits to free men — and to marry one of the city's nobles as a sign of goodwill. Jon also made nice with enemies: At the Wall, he persuaded Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) to take him to meet the rest of the Wildlings to negotiate a truce, much to the rest of the Night's Watch's dismay.

Historic moment: Tyrion saw his first dragon right before he and Jorah were attacked by the diseased Stone Men. Unfortunately, one of the infected attackers managed to touch Jorah. At Winterfell, Sansa came face-to-face with Theon (Alfie Allen).

Grade: B+

Episode 6: "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"

Writer: Bryan Cogman

Director: Jeremy Podeswa

Plot: At Cersei's urging, the Faith Militant began an inquest and arrested Margaery for lying about her brother's homosexuality. Similarly, the Dornish guards broke up Jaime and Bronn's tussle with the Sand Snakes and threw the lot of them in jail. Meanwhile, enslavers captured Tyrion and Jorah; however, Tyrion convinced them to let Jorah fight for his freedom (and money) in the pits in Meereen.

Introduced: After weeks of cleaning corpses — and failing at lying — Arya was finally shown the chamber where the faces are kept in the House of Black and White.

Historic moment: This is more metatextual, but the critiques of the show's gratuitous use of violence against women came to a boiling point after Ramsay raped Sansa on their wedding night while a horrified Theon looked on.

Grade: C+

Episode 7: "The Gift"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: Miguel Sapochnik

Plot: Sansa asked Theon to help her send a message to her allies, but Theon snitched to Ramsay, who flayed one of her allies. Cersei visited Margaery in prison, mostly to gloat, but Cersei's fortunes took a turn when the High Sparrow revealed that he knew about her incestuous relationship with Lancel (Eugene Simon) and had her arrested. In other words, the Queen Mother played herself by empowering the Faith Militant.

Introduced: Meereen's fighting pits, where Tyrion finally met the Mother of Dragons.

Historic moment: Maester Aemon (Peter Vaughan) died; Sam (John Bradley) lost his virginity to Gilly (Hannah Murray).

Grade: B+

Episode 8: "Hardhome"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: Miguel Sapochnik

Plot: As a bitter Cersei languished away in a cell, her brother Tyrion enjoyed an audience with Dany, who decided to bring him on as an advisor and banished Jorah once again. H'ghar sent Arya on her first mission for the Many-Faced God, and Theon revealed to Sansa that he lied about killing her two brothers, who, unless you forgot, don't appear in season 5 at all.

Historic moment: Jon and Tormund met with the Wildlings and convinced many of them to join their alliance — which was immediately tested when an army of wights attacked Hardhome as the two groups were boarding ships to return to Castle Black. During the battle, Jon discovered that Valyrian steel can shatter a White Walker. As he sailed away, he witnessed the Night King resurrect the fallen as wights.

Grade: A

Episode 9: "The Dance of Dragons"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: David Nutter

Plot: In Dorne, Oberyn's (Pedro Pascal) older brother — Prince Doran Martell (Alexander Siddig) — granted Jaime, Myrcella, and Bronn safe passage back to King's Landing. And in Braavos, Arya crossed paths with another name on her kill list: Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie), the pedophilic knight of the Kingsguard who murdered her sword teacher.

Historic moment: Drogon, who had been mostly MIA, returned to protect Dany when the Sons of the Harpy attempted to assassinate her on opening day of the fighting pits. And, after Ramsay launched a sneak attack on Stannis' camp, Stannis saw no option other than to follow Melisandre's (Carice van Houten) advice: He made the heartbreaking choice to sacrifice his daughter, Shireen (Kerry Ingram), on a pyre in order to assure his victory over the Boltons at Winterfell.

Grade: B+

Episode 10: "Mother's Mercy"

Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Director: David Nutter

Plot: Drogon dropped Dany off in the middle of nowhere and she ended up getting captured by a horde of Dothraki riders, which couldn't be good news. Oberyn's lover, Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma), murdered Doran and poisoned young Myrcella, who died in her uncle/father's arms on their ship bound for King's Landing. And, Sansa and Theon used the cover of Ramsay and Stannis' battle to jump off the ramparts and escape Winterfell.

Introduced: Blind Arya, who lost her sight because she violated the Faceless Men's rules by killing Trant.

Historic moment: Where to begin? First off, Cersei endured her shameful and humiliating walk through the streets of King's Landing after confessing to her sins. Then, Brienne fulfilled her oath to Renly and killed Stannis, whose army was demolished by the Bolton forces. Finally, the Night's Watch turned on Jon and murdered him for allowing the Wildlings to cross south of the Wall.

Grade: B+

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