Season 1

Complete listed story — includes the ending

S1E1 · Winter is Coming

North of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, Night's Watch soldiers are attacked by supernatural White Walkers. One soldier escapes but is captured at Castle Winterfell. Eddard "Ned" Stark, Warden of the North, executes him for desertion. Later, six orphaned dire wolf pups are found and one given to each Stark sibling, including Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow. In King's Landing, the Seven Kingdoms capital, Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, dies suddenly. King Robert Baratheon, Ned's old friend, travels to Winterfell to recruit Ned and propose a marriage between his heir Joffrey and Ned's daughter, Sansa. Lysa Arryn, Jon Arryn's widow, sends her sister (Ned's wife), Catelyn, a letter claiming the Lannisters, Queen Cersei 's family, murdered Arryn. Catelyn believes the Lannisters are now plotting against King Robert. Ned's young son, Bran, climbs a tall tower and witnesses Cersei and her twin brother, Jaime Lannister, inside having sex. To hide their incest, Jaime pushes Bran from the high window. Across the Narrow Sea in Essos, exiled Prince Viserys Targaryen forces his sister, Daenerys, to marry the Dothraki warlord, Drogo, in exchange for an army to conquer Westeros and reclaim the Iron Throne. The ancient Targaryens once commanded dragons, and Daenerys is given three fossilized dragon eggs as a wedding gift.

S1E2 · The Kingsroad

Ned, the new Hand of the King, travels to King's Landing accompanied by his daughters, Sansa and Arya. Catelyn remains at Winterfell to care for the still unconscious Bran. An assassin attacks Bran, but Catelyn fends him off and Bran's direwolf, Summer, kills him. Catelyn suspects the Lannisters were behind the attack. Ned's illegitimate son, Jon, heads north to the Wall to join his uncle, Benjen Stark, as part of the Night's Watch, and Queen Cersei's younger brother, Tyrion Lannister, accompanies him on the trip. Along the Kingsroad on their way towards King's Landing, Prince Joffrey threatens Arya's young commoner friend, later having him killed. Nymeria, Arya's direwolf, defends her, biting Joffrey. Cersei demands that Robert have the wolf killed, but Arya releases Nymeria to the wild. Sansa's direwolf, Lady, is killed instead. Meanwhile, Daenerys is befriended by Ser Jorah Mormont, a disgraced knight, while she focuses on learning how to please Drogo.

S1E3 · Lord Snow

Ned attends the King's Small Council and learns Westeros has been poorly managed and is deeply in debt. Learning that Arya aspires to be a swordsman and got a sword from Jon, he sends her to swordsmanship lessons. Catelyn travels to King's Landing to covertly warn her husband about the assassination attempt, but she is intercepted by her childhood friend, Councillor Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish. Bran learns he will never walk again and remains unable to remember the events leading to his fall. At the Wall, Jon proves himself more skilled than the low-born and convicted criminals that joined the Night's Watch, and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont asks a departing Tyrion to plead with the King to send more recruits. Daenerys, now pregnant, stands up to Viserys, threatening him if he ever abuses her again.

S1E4 · Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

While returning to King's Landing, Tyrion stops at Winterfell where he presents the Starks a saddle design that will allow the paraplegic Bran to ride a horse. He unexpectedly finds Catelyn in a roadside tavern, prompting her to rally her father's Riverrun allies to arrest Tyrion for conspiring to murder her son. Ned secretly investigates Jon Arryn's death, and in the process, discovers one of King Robert's illegitimate children, Gendry. Jon takes measures to protect Samwell Tarly, an awkward and friendless Night's Watch recruit, from the other Watchmen's abuse. A frustrated Viserys clashes with his newly-empowered sister.

S1E5 · The Wolf and the Lion

King Robert's eunuch spy, Varys, has uncovered that Daenerys Targaryen is pregnant. Ned rejects Robert's plan to assassinate her, considering Daenerys a non-threat, and resigns in protest as Hand of the King. Catelyn takes Tyrion prisoner at her sister Lysa Arryn's fortress home in the Eyrie. News of Tyrion's capture reaches King's Landing where Jaime Lannister, the Queen's twin brother, demands answers from Ned, prompting them to fight. One of Jaime's men stabs Ned in the leg from behind, leaving him wounded, and Jaime departs to get Tyrion.

S1E6 · A Golden Crown

King Robert reappoints Ned as Hand and tasks him with running affairs until Robert returns from hunting. Learning that Ser Gregor Clegane, a Lannister retainer known as "the Mountain", has committed atrocities in Riverrun, Ned sentences him to death and summons Tywin Lannister to a trial. Fearing war with the Lannisters, Ned orders Arya and Sansa return to Winterfell for their safety, and discovers that Joffrey and his two siblings are not Robert's biological children, and were fathered by Jaime Lannister. Bran, while testing his new saddle, is attacked by rogue Wildings, prompting him to be rescued by his brother Robb and Ned's captive ward Theon, who also take the woman Wilding, Osha, as a slave. In the Vale, Tyrion demands a trial by combat. Lysa chooses Ser Vardis Egen as her champion, while sellsword Bronn volunteers as Tyrion's champion. Bronn wins and obtains Tyrion's release. Meanwhile, Viserys grows impatient and angry waiting for Drogo to fulfill his promise, and he threatens to kill Daenerys' unborn child. Drogo kills Viserys by pouring molten gold on his head.

S1E7 · You Win or You Die

In King's Landing, Ned confronts Cersei, saying he knows Jaime fathered her children and will inform King Robert. Mortally wounded by a boar, Robert dictates his will and testament to Ned, naming him regent until Joffrey comes of age. Instead of "Joffrey", Ned writes "my rightful heir", and sends word to Stannis, Robert's brother, the legal heir to the throne. After Robert's death, Ned confronts Cersei and Joffrey in the throne room, where Baelish and the City Watch betray Ned and attack his men. At the Wall, Benjen Stark disappears during a foray north of the Wall. Jon and Sam are assigned as stewards, with Jon as Lord Commander Jeor Mormont's personal servant, with Sam believing Mormont intends to groom Jon for command. In Essos, King Robert's hired assassin is exposed by Ser Jorah before he can poison Daenerys. Drogo vows to conquer the Seven Kingdoms for his unborn son and starts marching towards Westeros.

S1E8 · The Pointy End

Arya escapes the Red Keep after Syrio Forel, her Braavosian sword master, fends off guards sent to arrest her, while Sansa is captured. Robb hears the news and prepares the Northern armies to fight the Lannisters, leaving Bran behind to rule Winterfell. Lysa refuses to fight the Lannisters, and Catelyn leaves to join Robb's camp. Tyrion and Bronn are ambushed by tribesmen, who Tyrion convinces to escort him to his father Tywin Lannister. At the camp, Tywin asks tribesman leader Shagga to help them confront the Starks in exchange for even greater payment. At the Wall, Jon and Sam bring back bodies affected by the White Walkers, one of whom awakens as a wight and attacks Commander Mormont before Jon kills it. In Essos, Drogo's soldiers begin attacking nearby settlements, enslaving locals in order to sell them to raise money to buy ships to cross the Narrow Sea. Drogo is wounded in a fight. Joffrey appoints his grandfather, Tywin, as Hand of the King. Sansa begs Joffrey to show Ned mercy, and he agrees if Ned publicly recognizes Joffrey's claim to the throne and admits to committing treason.

S1E9 · Baelor

The Stark army arrives at the Twins castle; Catelyn persuades Lord Walder Frey to allow them to pass through his land and assist them in exchange for Robb and Arya marrying two of Frey's offspring in the future. At the Wall, Jeor Mormont gives his family Valyrian steel sword to Jon in gratitude. In Essos, Drogo's wound becomes septic and his death imminent. Daenerys asks a mystic slave woman, Mirri Maz Duur, to use blood magic to save him. Mirri tells everyone to remain outside the tent until after the spell is cast. Daenerys goes into labor, and Jorah brings her into the tent seeking aid. Robb sacrifices 2,000 soldiers to fight the Lannister army as a diversion so he can move his army and capture Jaime. In a public hearing, Ned confesses to treason and publicly affirms Joffrey is the rightful heir. However, rather than sparing his life as negotiated, the vengeful and increasingly insane Joffrey has him beheaded, while Sansa, Cersei, and other counselors object futilely.

S1E10 · Fire and Blood

The North secedes from the Seven Kingdoms and proclaims Robb as king. With Jaime as the Starks' prisoner and Robert's two brothers, Stannis and Renly, each challenging Joffrey's claim to the throne, Tywin appoints Tyrion as acting King's Hand, while Tywin fights to defend Joffrey's reign. Jon attempts to desert the Night's Watch to avenge Ned and join Robb, but the others convince him to honor his oath. Mormont then sends Jon in an expedition to search for Benjen Stark beyond the Wall. Yoren, a Night's Watch recruiter, smuggles Arya out of King's Landing disguised as a boy, while Joffrey intends to crown Sansa his queen, despite executing her father. Daenerys's baby is born deformed and dead, and Drogo is left in a vegetative state by Mirri's treacherous magic, prompting Daenerys to end his life. She places the three dragon eggs on Drogo’s funeral pyre, has Mirri tied to it, and sets it alight, burning Mirri alive. Ignoring Jorah's pleas, she walks into the flames. When the embers die the following morning, Daenerys is found in the ashes, unharmed, flanked by three newly-hatched baby dragons. Jorah and other witnesses kneel before her.