Season 1 · Episode 1 of 10

Winter Is Coming

Scene 01 · Beyond the WallThe living

The first warning

A Night’s Watch patrol finds mutilated bodies beyond the Wall. One ranger escapes after seeing a White Walker, a creature most people in the Seven Kingdoms dismiss as legend.

Why it matters: The supernatural threat is real before the political story even begins.
Storyline: Jon & the Wall · chapter 1
In this scene

Scene 02 · WinterfellStark

Ned executes a deserter

Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell

Ned beheads a Night’s Watch deserter who swears he saw White Walkers. Riding home, the Starks find a dead direwolf with six pups; Jon persuades Ned to let each of the Stark children raise one.

Why it matters: The warning from beyond the Wall is dismissed as madness, and the Starks gain their wolves.
Storyline: House Stark · chapter 1
In this scene

Scene 03 · WinterfellStark

The royal visit

King Robert rides to Winterfell and asks his old friend Ned Stark to become Hand of the King, his chief adviser. Ned is wary of court, but cannot easily refuse the friend he fought beside to overthrow the Targaryens.

Why it matters: The Stark family is pulled from its protected northern home into royal politics.
Storyline: The Lannisters & the crown · chapter 1
In this scene

Scene 04 · PentosTargaryen

An exile is traded for an army

Across the Narrow Sea, Viserys Targaryen marries his sister Daenerys to the Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo. Viserys expects Drogo’s riders to help reclaim the throne his family lost to Robert.

Why it matters: Daenerys begins as a pawn in someone else’s claim.
Storyline: Daenerys · chapter 1
In this scene

Scene 05 · PentosTargaryen

Three dragon eggs

At the wedding, the merchant Illyrio gives Daenerys three petrified dragon eggs, and an exiled northern knight, Jorah Mormont, swears his sword to Viserys. Everyone treats the eggs as beautiful stones.

Why it matters: Gifts that seem ornamental will change the world by the end of the season.
Storyline: Daenerys · chapter 2 ·
In this scene

Scene 06 · WinterfellStark

A warning from the Vale

A secret letter from Catelyn’s sister Lysa claims the Lannisters murdered Jon Arryn, the Hand before Ned. Ned accepts Robert’s offer partly to find out whether the king himself is in danger.

Why it matters: Ned goes south as a detective as much as an adviser.
Storyline: House Stark · chapter 2 ·
In this scene

Scene 07 · WinterfellLannister

Bran sees the secret

Climbing a tower, young Bran sees Queen Cersei with her twin brother Jaime. Their relationship could reveal that Cersei’s children are not Robert’s heirs. Jaime pushes Bran from the window to keep him silent.

Why it matters: A private family secret becomes the fuse for a civil war.
Storyline: Bran & the raven · chapter 1
In this scene