We’ve seen just about 10 seasons of The Walking Dead over the past decade, and over that time the post-apocalyptic drama has delivered some spectacular TV. But what is the single greatest episode of the show, as declared by fans? Well, a new graph which collates the IMDb user ratings for every episode, from 2010’s pilot all the way to season 10’s penultimate installment “The Tower,” reveals the answer.
It makes clear that the episode currently sitting at the top of the pile is season 4’s eighth outing, “Too Far Gone,” which sports an extremely impressive 9.7 rating based on 21,452 votes. The only one that comes close to this December 2013 broadcast is “No Way Out,” the season 6 midseason premiere which isn’t far behind at 9.6, on the back of 23,759 votes.
“Too Far Gone” served as season 4’s midseason finale and memorably featured David Morrisey’s Governor launch an attack on Rick Grimes’ neighboring prison group. Michonne and Hershel are captured by the villain and, in the episode’s most shocking moment, and one of the saddest moments in the entire history of the show, the Governor kills Hershel, beheading him with Michonne’s katana in front of his own two daughters, Maggie and Beth.
The episode title comes from Rick’s impassioned speech to his enemy in which he calls for peace. “We’ve all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive, but we can still come back,” he pleads. “We’re not too far gone. We get to come back. I know we all can change.” Unfortunately, the Governor’s actions proved that they were, in fact, too far gone.
A similar graph, which collated all the lowest-rated episodes of your favorite TV shows on IMDb, revealed that TWD‘s worst installment, according to fans, is season 7’s “Swear.” which has a mere 5.6 rating. It’ll be interesting to see where The Walking Dead season 10’s finale, “A Certain Doom,” falls on the scale when it eventually arrives on AMC later this year.