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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: June 1, 2014
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Game of Thrones, “The Mountain and the Viper” (Season 4, Episode 8). [Stream on HBO GO.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: You wouldn’t think Game of Thrones would have been able to top itself after the Red Wedding. And in many ways it hasn’t. Certainly that feeling of safety falling away suddenly to dread won’t be able to be duplicated. The Red Wedding made sure we were on guard for every awful eventuality that might ever befall us on Game of Thrones. But when it comes to the violence that was on display that fateful night at The Twins … topping that was a challenge that Game of Thrones felt up to.
In its subsequent season, Game of Thrones introduced one of its best characters, Prince Oberyn Martell, the ambisexual, wickedly charming, hellbent-on-revenge rogue from Dorne who was determined to avenge the death of his sister at the hands of Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. In the season’s 8th episode, the occasion of Tyrion Lannister’s trial by combat is as good an excuse as any to get Oberyn and the Mountain into the same field of battle. It’s a brutal clash of styles, with Oberyn’s smooth, quick movements contrasted with the Mountain’s brute force. And then … oh and then.
Just when it looked like Oberyn might have actually done it, pulled off the impossible and felled the giant, his showmanship and familial pride combined to provide for his downfall. While demanding that the Mountain say the name of his deceased sister, the Mountain got the better of him. To the tune of the most disturbing, disgusting TV death of all time.
For real, you guys. It was super gross. Don’t press play on the below video unless you are entirely prepared for it. Ready?
I TOLD YOU.
I miss Oberyn a lot. His presence in King’s Landing was refreshing, and he had a lot of sex with men, which was great, of course. But I miss the me that existed before I saw Oberyn’s head crushed like a grape in front of my very eyes. I miss that me a lot.
[You can stream Game of Thrones‘ “The Mountain and the Viper” on HBO GO.]
