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Best Jack Ryan Episodes, Ranked

All 30 episodes of Jack Ryan scored and sorted — from the 8.4/10 high of S2E7 to the 7.6/10 of S1E2.

By Mira Vance · Editor & Lead Reviewer

Our rating: 8.1/10 average across 30 episode reviews (best 8.4, lowest 7.6).

Across 30 episodes this is one of the steadiest shows you’ll chart here: everything lives between 7.6 and 8.4, a spread of less than a point. That tells you something real about Jack Ryan — it rarely fails, and it rarely transcends. It’s a reliable machine that climbs hardest when a season’s geopolitics finally close in on one room.

The two highest-rated episodes (both 8.4) sit at the back of the middle seasons. S2E7 “Dios y Federación Makes Rescue a Deal With Worse Men” trades the Venezuela arc’s moralizing for a hostage swap where every option is dirty, and the show is sharper when Jack can’t shoot his way clean. S3E8 “Old Men Aim Missiles, Young Officers Refuse the Script” ends the Russia season on actual stakes — the chain of command, not Jack, decides whether the world ends. Just behind them, S2E6 “Reyes Makes the Embassy Gate His Sharpest Weapon” and S3E6 “A Tunnel, a Ghost, and a Country Used as Bait” (both 8.3) prove the middle two seasons are the engine.

The dips cluster early. S1E2 “Paris Narrows the War to One Apartment Door” (7.6) is the floor — table-setting before the show finds its legs — with the S1E1 pilot (7.8) close behind. S3E2 “Old Friends Make Dangerous Exits” (7.7) is the lone late stumble, a transitional hour. Season 4’s six episodes hold a flat 8.0-8.2, competent but never spiking.

Season 1: 8.0Season 2: 8.2Season 3: 8.1Season 4: 8.1
678910S1E1: 7.8/10S1E2: 7.6/10S1E3: 8.1/10S1E4: 8.1/10S1E5: 8.0/10S1E6: 8.2/10S1E7: 8.2/10S1E8: 8.0/10S2E1: 8.1/10S2E2: 8.0/10S2E3: 8.0/10S2E4: 8.2/10S2E5: 8.2/10S2E6: 8.3/10S2E7: 8.4/10S2E8: 8.1/10S3E1: 8.0/10S3E2: 7.7/10S3E3: 8.0/10S3E4: 8.2/10S3E5: 8.2/10S3E6: 8.3/10S3E7: 8.1/10S3E8: 8.4/10S4E1: 8.0/10S4E2: 8.1/10S4E3: 8.1/10S4E4: 8.1/10S4E5: 8.2/10S4E6: 8.2/10
Every episode scored on tension, payoff, and rewatch value. Hover a point for the episode.
RankEpEpisodeScore
T-1S2E7Dios y Federación Makes Rescue a Deal With Worse Men8.4
T-1S3E8Old Men Aim Missiles, Young Officers Refuse the Script8.4
T-3S2E6Reyes Makes the Embassy Gate His Sharpest Weapon8.3
T-3S3E6A Tunnel, a Ghost, and a Country Used as Bait8.3
T-5S1E6Jack Finds Hanin at the Price of Himself8.2
T-5S1E7The Boy Makes Rescue Feel Like a Trap8.2
T-5S2E4Dressed to Kill Sends Jack Into a City of Shell Games8.2
T-5S2E5Blue Gold Puts a Price on Every Betrayal8.2
T-5S3E4Jack Frightens Zubkov Until Matoksa Comes Into View8.2
T-5S3E5A Father Makes Old Treason the Family Inheritance8.2
T-5S4E5Wukong Turns Rescue Into a Rigged Table of Blood8.2
T-5S4E6Proof of Concept Puts Jack Between Torture and the Border8.2
T-13S1E3Black 22 Makes Jack Ryan Watch the Cost of Distance8.1
T-13S1E4Jack Follows the Wolf Until the Trail Turns Bloody8.1
T-13S2E1Cargo Finds Venezuela's Crisis Hidden Inside a Shipping Route8.1
T-13S2E8Jack Lets Venezuela Judge Its Own Strongman in Public8.1
T-13S3E7Moscow Finds the Coup Hiding in Plain Sight8.1
T-13S4E2Pluto Turns a Shutdown Into a Confession of Rot8.1
T-13S4E3Sacrifices Makes Jack Resign Before Dubrovnik Comes Into View8.1
T-13S4E4Bethesda Turns a Coma Ward Into the Season's Pressure Point8.1
T-21S1E5Jack Sets a Trap With a Brother's Ghost8.0
T-21S1E8Jack Finds Suleiman in the Hospital's Blind Spot8.0
T-21S2E2The Witness Makes Jack's Certainty More Dangerous Than Proof8.0
T-21S2E3The River Mission Finds the Wrong Kind of Cargo8.0
T-21S3E1The Old War Finds a New Fuse in Athens8.0
T-21S3E3Running With Wolves Sends Jack Into the War's Blind Spots8.0
T-21S4E1Jack Cuts the Wires and Finds Pluto Waiting8.0
28S1E1A Desk Analyst Finds the War Moving Toward Him7.8
29S3E2Old Friends Make Dangerous Exits7.7
30S1E2Paris Narrows the War to One Apartment Door7.6

Scores reflect our episode reviews. Tap any episode to read the full review, or browse the whole Jack Ryan season recap from the top.