No matter how many seasons pass or how many dragons burn cities, the image remains—a pregnant queen stabbed in the womb, a wolf’s head sewn onto a king’s body, and a mother’s scream that fades to silence. The Red Wedding wasn’t just an episode. It was a scar on the medium. And we have never quite healed.

To understand the horror of the episode, one must first understand the relief that preceded it. For nearly three seasons, Robb Stark—the Young Wolf—had been the closest thing to a traditional fantasy hero. He was honorable like his father, a brilliant military tactician, and fighting to avenge his patriarch’s death. After a season of grim defeats for the Starks, Episode 9 offered a sliver of hope. Robb, having apologized to Lord Walder Frey for breaking a marriage pact, arrives at The Twins for a humiliating but necessary reconciliation. The band plays. The wine flows. The audience exhales.

Then, in a stroke of sadistic brilliance, Lord Walder Frey leans over the paralyzed Catelyn and says: “I’ll find another.” He saws her throat. The screen cuts to black. There is no music. Only the sound of a single, dying dog.