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  ===Critical reception===
  The episode was widely praised by critics and cited as one of the best of the series. Rotten Tomatoes, a prominent review aggregator, surveyed 21 reviews of the installment and judged 100% of them to be positive with an average score of 9.9 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The most unforgettable episode of Game of Thrones thus far, 'The Rains of Castamere' (or as it shall forever be known, 'The Red Wedding') packs a dramatic wallop that feels as exquisitely shocking as it does ultimately inevitable." The majority of the comments were directed at the massacre at the end of the episode, where praise was especially given to Michelle Fairley's performance, leading to the disappointment of many critics when she was not nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. IGN's Matt Fowler gave the episode a perfect 10/10, calling it "an exquisitely awful event that managed to out-do the unpredictable and horrifying death of Ned Stark back in Season 1". Fowler also said he believed that the episode's depiction of the Red Wedding was more powerful than its depiction in ''A Song of Ice and Fire''.
  Writing for ''The A.V. Club'', both David Sims and Emily VanDerWerff gave the episode an "A" grade. Sims (writing for people who have not read the novels) expressed shock at the deaths of several main characters, writing, "I don’t think I’ve really processed what I just watched". VanDerWerff, who reviews the episodes for people who have read the novels, wrote "If the reader doesn’t terribly want to deal with the thought of the deaths of Catelyn and Robb, well, he or she can read that much more quickly. Or he or she can read that much more slowly if there’s a need to process the emotions more fully. On TV, you can't really do that." Reviewing for ''Forbes'', Erik Kain called the episode "one of the best episodes of HBO's dark drama yet", and noted "there was a deeper sense of tragedy knowing Robb also lost his unborn child". Sean Collins of the ''Rolling Stone'' also praised the episode, and commented on the unusual step the show took in ending one of its central conflicts. Sarah Hughes of ''The Guardian'' highlighted the decision to kill Talisa, writing that her "heartbreaking end was unbearable".
  For its 65th anniversary, ''TV Guide'' picked "The Rains of Castamere" as the third best episode of the 21st century.