As far as the episode goes:
I felt like they spent more time on character dev this time out. A few of the conversations seemed a little forced, but it was harkening back to earlier days in the show when we actually just got to enjoy the characters bantering with each other. Sandor was particularly fun. I liked this.
There was still some weirdness. Aside from the whole quest in itself... like, is getting a walker USEFUL in any way? Will it change Cersei's response to ANYTHING? The only thing it really did was convince Dani of the severity of the threat and make her pissed at the Night King; and from a character perspective, it bonded Jon and Dany crazy-mad; and from a plot perspective, now the Walkers have a dragon.
- Where the hell did they get four metal-link chains of a size to anchor a battleship? If GRRM had used chains, he would have definitely given a historical reason they'd be there; but the show magically had a bunch of dead guys conjure up a bunch of long chains, because they badly wanted to stage a dragon being walkerized on camera.
- Logistics are still pretty fubar. How far are they from the wall, first of all? It felt like a few days, but apparently Gendry can run across a few hills and find the wall easily. And apparently they can send a bird south, and it can get to Dragonstone, and dragons can fly north of the wall all in about 12 hours. The show did try to suggest it took a night and into the morning.
- I don't really get how they ran to the lake, while Gendry went.... somewhere else? Like... why go there? Kind of confusing, it was like "Oh we need to have Gendry get away to save the day." So that's how it played out.
- Boy, those guys at the gate must just be sitting there for hours and hours watching intently. Because as soon as anyone appeared, they ran right out.
I liked the scene where Arya almost made Sansa shit her dress. I had no idea where that scene was gonna go. But hooray, finally -- a scene I could not predict. I am not sure why Arya handed the knife to Sansa.
Okay, and the dragon thing. It was pretty awesome to see them burn the dead and melt the lake. But as soon as the night King takes the spear, my heart sank. Apparently he's got a better arm than the Scorpion. Who died? Viseryon or whatever his name is? That dragon was just gouting blood coming down. It was just such a holy shit moment. I guess Drogon had experience with projectiles, so he was taking that into account (and dodged the last), but the other dragons did not.
I really liked the scene with Dany and Jon at the end. They have really great chemistry. Jon is a bastard in his eyes, and Dany is an orphan and exile. They are both outside the system. But when she comes in and sees his torso covered with stab wounds... and she knows he had been stabbed through the heart and brought back.... I think it is the first time she has really been faced with the reality that other people besides her have a narrative. All her life it's been, "I am the Queen, I am going back to Westeros, I am taking my rightful throne, and I am going to be the ruler," but now she sees maybe that might not happen + Jon has an obvious story that she is completely unaware of, just as heroic.... and no doubt others as well. She's grasping she is just another person. Jon responds perfectly by apologizing as soon as he sees her; it really feels honest and pained. When he calls her Dany... it's kind of funny. But she takes it from him without getting angry. I think it's showing that to him she's just another person like him, although he also then says he will follow her, and she's kind of taken aback. After all, she's losing the war, and she just lost a dragon, and she just postponed her war to fight against the undead and might never get the throne. We just haven't really seen either so vulnerable and "normal people" before.
Ice dragon! Ok, but what happened to the other dragon? Did she only bring two of them with?
I thought all three went, but we only see Drogon fly away so I'm not sure. I was gonna watch once my DVR grabs the episode.
Also... the sudden appearance of Benjen again was a bit much. And... I'm kind of irritated that Bran knows all this stuff but he apparently has hardly told any of his siblings anything except about the how pretty Sansa looked when she was raped. And what sense does it make for Sansa to send Brienne south?
Yeah, the only reason Benjen gets a pass is because we know he's there.... he saved Bran once too. I suspect he's been tracking the army the whole time, so... I'm not gonna gripe a ton, but sure it still smelled a bit of deus ex machina.
Sansa sent Brienne south specifically (I think) because it was clear Littlefinger was trying to use Brienne to hurt one of the Stark girls -- he brings her up as "she needs to protect BOTH Stark girls", which means she might end up having to kill Arya. So if the writing made any sense, it was Sansa getting rid of Brienne because Littlefinger was trying to use Brienne.
Surprisingly low body count... I was worried the Hound got it, who I actually gave a shit about. I was expecting Tormund to bite it though.
Yeah, I thought Tormund was a goner.
I guess we got to keep Tormund, but the price was a dragon.