Problems with the episode:
•Why the hell is anyone outside of the castle (besides Bran and his contingent baiting the NK)? That’s just terrible strategy. What did they think would happen? Maybe they couldn’t all fit inside the walls, but I really don’t think that was the case.
•I feel like Bran should have had significantly more men protecting him.
•Nice to see Ghost once more, but what the hell does he think he’s going to do against the dead? Do they make valerian rims for canines in Westeros now?
•Why the fuck is Jon on Rhaegal and not with Ghost and his fellow fighters? So much for that spirit bond he has with Ghost amirite.
•Melisandre shows up and we finally see that she is, in fact, gifted with fire powers. For some reason, Mel decides only one contingent of the vast army needs her help and goes off to play solitaire on her phone. I’m guessing Mel doesn’t have the strength to light EVERYONE’s weapons, but it’s really hard to say for sure with this show.
•Our heroes are getting overwhelmed and have to retreat, to the surprise of absolutely no one sane, which apparently doesn’t include anyone in the show. Somehow everyone gets back in around the trenches but none of the dead do. Whatever. Mel, frustrated with the poor WiFi in Winterfell, decides to come back out and help again. After a lot of trouble (because she’s scared? Lost faith? Who knows) Mel lights the trenches and temporarily saves the day. Unfortunately, Mel’s fires aren’t all-powerful and the Night King very slowly figures out he can just spam undead into the trench and force a path. Not sure what that was about? Really would have liked to see Mel actually fight, but it seems that she might need time to charge up her attacks?
•Sam’s special power is taking siestas in the middle of battles and not dying. Somehow.
•Arya is kicking ass for a while, and then inexplicably is overcome with fear. Arya, the stone cold assassin who doesn’t fear death, suddenly decides she does, in fact, fear undead ice zombies and transports herself into a horror movie segment. She’s met by The Hound (who also inexplicably is overcome with fear and fleeing) and Beric (accompanying the Hound for no other discernible reason than moral support), and they run into a big room where Beric dies of wounds sustained in the fight. Mel reappears, angry that she was disturbed after finally finding a room with good WiFi, but decides to give Arya encouragement, because Arya suddenly needs to be reminded to be brave. We are set up to believe that Arya, The Hound and Mel are going to have a stand against a bunch of the NK’s goons, but we never see this. Somehow, Arya escapes out of a super secret passageway and Mel and The Hound later emerge unscathed. Maybe Mel flashed her tits at the wights and distracted them. It’d make as much sense as anything else. Very miffed I didn’t get to see Mel incinerate some of the wights and/or white walkers in a showdown with Arya and the Hound giving her cover.
•Somehow a giant throng of undead have trouble with individual fighters. Apparently when Melisandre resurrected Jon she also gave him plot armor. Unfortunately for Theon and Jorah, their plot armor eventually expired. I realize a lot of this is because D+D have decided the plot demands it.
•Bran. What the actual fuck was he doing the whole episode? Watching sitcoms on the Three-Eyed Raven network?
•After Drogon saves Jon from being overwhelmed by wights, he screams “Bran!” and runs back to the castle instead of to the godswood. Wat.
•It’s established that Jorah is fighting in Winterfell but somehow he develops spidey sense and arrives in the nick of time to defend Dany.
•Apparently the undead Dragon just waits around for Jon to show up before trying to kill him instead of doggedly pursuing him. I guess it had other things it was destroying, but it seems like it did a rather low amount of damage all things considered.
•Arya is somehow able to just sneak past all the wights and white walkers and surprise the Night King himself. Meanwhile when Jon snuck up on him earlier he easily noticed. Just...I can’t even. I’m glad the army of the dead is defeated but Jesus, that was hardly believable.
•Mel feels that her purpose is fulfilled (I guess?) and decides to atone for her sins by committing suicide. She does this by removing her necklace which suddenly was actually keeping her alive even though we’ve seen her young without it in season 4 and seen her old but still able to survive without it in season 6. Apparently, Mel just decides what the necklace does, which kinda ruins the point of the necklace in the first place. I’m assuming she knew how much time she had left without the necklace, somehow, but it wasn’t explained, so who knows? Very sad that CVH will no longer be on the show, as she gave a brilliant portrayal of a fascinating character.
