The Most Insane Things That Happened on Game of Thrones This Season

By this season, we knew Arya was pretty serious about her kill list, but it's still eye-opening when she kills Polliver and takes back her sword, Needle. The most chilling part of the murder is how she repeats back what he had said when he killed her friend. She's got a flair for the dramatic, this girl.

Last season was tough on Theon Greyjoy; he was captured and tortured by Ramsay Snow (ahem, Bolton), ultimately losing his penis. But the worse loss may be his identity: when we are reacquainted with Theon in season four, he's a shell of a person, calling himself Reek and completely loyal to his captor.

So that's what Craster was doing with those babies. Last season we just thought the terrible old man was leaving his male sons to die in the elements, but it turns out he really was sacrificing them — to the White Walkers. How crazy is it when the baby's eyes turn an unnatural shade of blue? Shiver.

Justice is finally served this season when Joffrey gets poisoned at his own wedding. The young tyrant had just finished humiliating his uncle Tyrion when he chokes and dies immediately, leaving everyone to point fingers.

. . . And Cersei's finger swiftly points at Tyrion. Sure, he had motive, but we knew he wouldn't do it. Still, his father Tywin is more than happy to see him seized and imprisoned for the rest of the season.

Sansa is immediately spirited away after Joffrey's death, and we find out by whom: Baelish, who arranged for Sansa's necklace to hold the poison.

Cersei is reviled for many of her actions, and we had totally started to come around to Jaime — but when he rapes Cersei, his sister, next to Joffrey, their dead child, this show really broke new barriers. Horrible on so many different levels, we really had to reevaluate how we feel about Jaime.

OK, it's out of necessity that Bran goes into Hodor's body and kills Locke to save Bran and his friends, but it's so heartbreaking when Hodor gets control of himself and sees what he's been forced to do.

We still don't know for sure what happened between Daenerys and Daario when he spends the night (if we were cheated out of a sex scene between these two, I will riot), but the one thing we do get to see is truly glorious: his butt. Daenerys's face says it all.

Man, Lysa was annoying, and was maybe about to kill Sansa, but it is way harsh to get tossed out of your own moon door like a rag doll.

Stuck in a prison cell, Tyrion doesn't have as much of a chance to make an impact — until his own trial. After his former love, Shae, testifies against him, he's emboldened enough to say he wants a trial by combat. Brave, but this is before he finds out The Mountain is involved.

Jon Snow has been assembling his army for good reason — because Mance Rayder's is coming, and they are brutal. This is proven when we see them attack Mole's Town, slaughtering everyone in their wake (except, thankfully, Gilly and her baby, whom Ygritte spares).

Daenerys's most trusted confidant Jorah Mormont becomes her primary enemy when she finds out that he had been spying on her for Varys — at least when he met her. Though it seems his allegiance is firmly for her now, Daenerys harshly exiles him. I get it, but it's a little heartbreaking, right?

We were so looking forward to this battle — Oberyn Martell bravely agrees to be Tyrion's champion in order to get his revenge on The Mountain for what he had done to his family. It even looks like Oberyn is the winner — but he screws up right when he's about to win. The Mountain gets the better of Oberyn and crushes his head in one of the goriest scenes on this show ever. Oh, and Tyrion is sentenced to death too. Lose-lose.

As Ramsay Snow once said, "if you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." Such is the case for Jon and Ygritte during the Battle of Castle Black. The woman who once shoots her lover full of arrows is determined to finish the job, but when she has a perfect, clear shot, she can't do it. But there's no reunion kiss; a young archer instead shoots her, and she dies in Jon's arms as they promise to stay in their cave for eternity.

Yeah, we'd seen giants before, but not like this. Not only are the Wall and Castle Black being destroyed by an army of men, giants and a woolly mammoth are also part of the arsenal, and they are big, unfriendly, and ready to kill.

What in the heck even are these things? These skeleton-zombie beasts known as Wights are related to White Walkers, but with far less flesh, more speed, and more murderous tendencies. They attack Bran's little traveling group on the way to the three-eyed raven and, in the process, kill Jojen Reed. Apparently magic staves them off, but how long until we see them again? Shudder.

I really thought that The Mountain vs. The Red Viper would be the battle of the season, but Brienne's swordfight with The Hound may be the most epic fight after all. It starts civilly, with swords, but quickly devolves into a fistfight with crotch-kicking, rock-bashing, and yes, Brienne's Mike Tyson moment. She even spits the ear out! I'm not even mad, I'm impressed.

What an emotional roller coaster. I was all set for the death of Tyrion after Oberyn's loss at the trial-by-combat, but a last-minute miracle happens when Jaime sets him free. Rather than just running off with Varys, though, he takes a detour to his father's chambers. Surprise, surprise: his former love Shae is there, and the two have their final lover's quarrel. With Shae dead, he moves on to Tywin, who's on the toilet and, shall we say, a sitting duck. There are some final words about what a crappy father Tywin is, and then boom: patricide by crossbow. Sometimes Game of Thrones does deliver its own kind of justice.