This year's science fiction and fantasy television delivered amazing highs and terrible lows. But what were the most brilliant scenes, and what were the most horrific? We've rounded them up the year's best moments, along with some of the absolute worst. Spoilers ahead...
Best TV Moments from 2013:
Sleepy Hollow - Farewell Yolanda
From "The Lesser Key of Solomon," episode, Ichabod Crane will win the hearts and minds of everyone he meets. Everyone.
Doctor Who - The New Doctor's Eyes
Peter Capaldi's first ever scene as the brand, new Doctor. Look at those brows.
True Blood - Vampire Skateboard
Because my god, this show.
A final farewell from father to son. You're our favorite thing, Fringe.
Parks And Recreation - The Cones of Dunshire
Read the entire oral history for The Cones of Dunshire.
Person of Interest - Grief Montage
Hemlock Grove - Werewolf Transformation Scene
Possibly the best television werewolf transformation we've ever seen. The show itself, eeeeeeeeh.
The best part of this entire series was the dome itself, coming down. After that... well we'll always have the cow-slicing Dome.
Grimm is at it's best when it's just dolling out ridiculous monster after ridiculous monster. And this was truly the best monster of the series — because we did NOT see a Krampus coming.
Teen Wolf - Stiles and Lydia!
Styles is the hero of Teen Wolf, and the character we love to root for the most, so it was great to FINALLY see Styles get a that long-awaited kiss from his long-time crush. Plus his eyes when he realizes that Lydia is kissing him, oh our hearts!
Supernatural - The Hobbit Reading
Felicia Day reads The Hobbit to her dying mom. Happy to have this character back in Supernatural, but weeping at her pain. Felicia Day, you are the best.
Wilfred - Pearl Jam Reference
A bling-and-you'll-miss-it reference to "Jeremy" that caused us to rewind 1,000 times. Wilfred you sly dog you.
Legend of Korra - Nuktuk
The movie within the TV show of Legend of Korra. Give us that sweet, sweet other dimension propaganda.
Game of Thrones - Daenerys Gets Her Army
Arrow really kicked it up a notch this season. Just a fantastic, highly watchable comic book series. But the very best scene from 2013 is two-pronged. When the Green Arrow finally receives his mask and at that same moment, the Flash is created.
We've known about 30 Rock's love affair with Star Wars and all things scifi for years. But we had no idea the grand finale would reveal one huge scifi twist. There can only be one Kenneth.
Community - Freaky Friday
The silver lining to a lackluster season, the Freaky Friday inspired episode "Basic Human Anatomy" (penned by the Dean himself Jim Rash) was a wonderful return to character reflection and charm. Troy and Abed switched bodies so Troy could avoid his one year anniversary with Britta. The whole episode was fantastic, so we just picked the best joke to highlight (while there were several moments we could have selected).
Datak and Sthama are truly the break-out stars of Syfy's Defiance. And in this scene local swindler and schemer Datak revealed that he wasn't all talk, he could kick a whole lotta ass too. Which only made us like this baddie even more.
Gravity Falls -Old Man Beats Up A Pterodactyl
Need we say more?
Once Upon A Time - Mulan and Sleeping Beauty
The gigantic family-friendly Sunday night drama series Once Upon A Time told its fans "we hear you." And just like that all the Mulan Sleeping Beauty shippers were treated epic heartbreak. We loved this scene more than the Swan and Hook kiss, and more than Peter Pan being a bad ass. Because (for the first time) Once they did so much without doing anything at all. And our hearts beat fiercely for the unspoken love of Mulan. SOB!
American Horror Story - Singing Severed Head
Kathy Bates appears on a television show as a severed head singing "Dixieland." There are no words.
Warehouse 13 - Myka Reveals her Cancer to Pete
Finally, Myka reveals her pain and Pete responds in the best way possible. We love these two, deeply.
Dracula takes in a Victorian Ladies Mud Wrestling Match. And apparently watching fully clothed women punch each other in mud, really turns on Dracula. But then again just about everything turns him on these days. Like magic trick (see below).
Breaking Bad - "I Did It For Me"
God what to pick... how about the final big reveal? When Walter FINALLY admits why he's been running this game for so long. But if you don't like that there's always Hank.
Walking Dead - The Tank Attack
I think our Rob Bricken said it best when he described the final episode of Walking Dead as "their own Red Wedding." Everything changed, everyone died, and we still don't know who made it out of the prison alive. Plus watching Herschel get executed right in front of his two daughters, via SWORD, brutal. So brutal. Runner up, the hitch hiker scene from "Clear."
Another impossible season to pick only moments from. But as much as we loved meeting the clones, watching the Soccer Mom clone torture her husband, everything changed when Helena ripped off her attackers pants and CUT OFF HIS TAIL. Only to take said tail into the club, and DANCE AROUND WITH IT. Amazing. All bets are off, we have tails now.
Adventure Time - Cheers!
Simon sings the Cheers theme while protecting Marceline, and dammit we're crying again.
Game of Thrones - The Red Wedding
The best scene of 2013's television. The end.
Worst TV Moments from 2013:
A hilarious joke about bestiality.
Tomorrow People - Teleporting Hookup
This was bound to happen, but why was it so boring?
Once Upon A Time - Mini Trident? YOU MEAN DINGLEHOPPER
UGH UGH UGH the Ariel episode. What a let down. Once Upon A Time hyped up the coming of The Little Mermaid for weeks and weeks. And when she finally arrived, she wasn't anything like the Little Mermaid AT ALL. She called forks mini tridents, didn't comb her hair with it, knew how to walk in heels and generally could have been any character from the Disney House at random. What a waste.
American Horror Story -Comet Enema
Patti LuPone gives her son a Comet enema. Because JESUS.
There is literally way too much to choose from in this series. But if we had to choose, perhaps it would be the magical egg inside a minidome that hatches a butterfly, which causes a total eclipse. WOOF.
Beauty and the Beast - Cat Waves off Her Domestic Abuse
It's not him, it's this terrible scarf.
Nolan gets resurrected by Klingon Space God in a particularly shitty dues ex machina.
Walking Dead - The Governor's Music Video
Look "The Last Pale Light In The West" by Ben Nichols is a very nice song. But oh my god this scene. We don't know what was more ridiculous: the melancholy montage of the Governor shambling around and growing a beard? Or that fact that he avoided being eaten by becoming a hobo? Don't try and redeem this guy, and don't try and make him look like a crazy bad-ass with soft guitar playing. Thank god he got back to doing what he did best within a few episodes.
Community - The Darkest Timeline
We did not need another paintball episode, and we surely didn't need one that resurrected the Study Group's "darkest timeline" characters for no reason.
Totally unnecessary death for a great character who didn't need to die. Whereas the show could select over 1,000 other characters that we would happily watch die, over and over. And over. Plus this death was only made MUCH worse by the fact that Terry had finally found inner peace, thanks to some vampire glamouring.
Falling Skies - No More New Aliens, Please
Just when we thought we were out of the dark, Falling Skies copies BSG and then throws even MORE aliens into the mix. Sigh.
Dracula - Guess What I Found In Your Vagina!
From the official recap: "Grayson and Lady Jane have dinner at her house, where Dracula shows her a magic trick where he makes a coin spinning in a dish instantly disappear. Lady Jane asks where it went, and the scene highly suggests it went in her vagina. Then they fuck." [Gif recap here]
Game of Thrones - Daenerys Frees the Slaves
And then crowd-surfs over them.