The 20 Most Shocking Game Of Thrones Moments

5) Hardhome

“Hardhome” will go down as one of the best episodes of Game of Thrones ever – and it all hinges on the big shock moment waiting near the end of the hour. The viewer is lulled into a false sense of security, made to assume the threat in the scene comes from wildlings towards Jon Snow and his Night’s Watch comrades. Jon and the Watch are north of the Wall, in Hardhome, in an attempt to make an alliance with the free folk.

Nobody expects what comes next: a horde of wights, led by white walkers including the Night King, descending upon Hardhome to kill everyone – wildling, Night’s Watch or otherwise – in sight. An intense battle in which we come to understand the sheer magnitude of the white walker threat ensues, before the episode ends in silence, with the Night King having claimed a vital free folk town within minutes.