I really liked the episode as well, but the glaring timing issues and deus ex machina devices were annoying. In the span of a single day, dude jogs all the way back to the wall, a raven gets to Dany halfway across the continent, and Dany gets on a dragon, flies halfway across a continent, and arrives in the nick of time. That's not compressing the plot for narrative purposes like Jon's trip up north two episodes ago or the various fleets and armies sailing back and forth in the early part of the season. That's just contrived drama. And Jon's uncle riding in to for the rescue at the last minute from out of nowhere and then refusing to ride to safety with Jon because "there's no time"? Uh, what? Maybe that's the best way they could think of to kill off the uncle?

But again, that stuff aside, it was great. Lots of crazy possibilities now with the undead dragon.

What say y'all about Arya and Sansa? After Arya's thinly veiled threat, my first thought was "Welp, they're going to kill Arya next." But I'm not sure they've done enough with her character yet give how much time they built up her training. The mass murder of the Freys was big, but not big enough to be her final significant act before death. Also, what exactly is the game here for Littlefinger? Sure, with no Arya and Jon gone, everyone in the North will rally around Sansa, through whom Littlefinger will hope to ascend to power. But if he's even kind of paying attention to what's happening, his position that far north is not a good one without the help of Jon and his current allies. And then there's Bran, who, catatonic or not, surely has to have some role in the goings on at Winterfell. Sansa's and Arya's vacillations between sophistication and naivety are frustrating, especially in light of the bigger battle going on around them.