[FireGilbert]

I was a few days late on this one. It's been harder to avoid episode 3 spoilers than End Game spoilers.

Wow, that was a masterclass in how to keep your audience on the edge of their seat for 80 minutes. I think it might have been one of the most amazingly epic episodes of television ever but can't really confirm since I couldn't see much of anything. There was many a squint with lots of "who was that?" and "did they just die?" between my wife and I.

I loved loved loved the ending. I spent most of the build up going "oh no this is not good at all, I really hope Bran and the Red Woman have some sort of crazy plan". They set up Arya was going to do something very important but made me forget about it by making me think I was about to see an epic fight between the NK and Jon. Then we get the more realistic conclusion with the NK raising the dead and using his dragon to stop Jon while later being taken out by the most deadly assassin in Westeros at the moment all hope looks lost. Damn well done writers. As cliche as the whole kill the mothership ending is they did a really good job on this one.

I was thinking a couple things at the end though. When the NK was approaching Bran I got a Breaking Bad vibe and was hoping Walter White had wired up some explosives to that wheelchair as a last resort. I also got an Infinity War vibe when Arya attacked the NK and was like he better not say "you should've gone for the head"!

Can we please discuss military strategy a bit more? Jon knows nothing about military strategy and Dany is pretty weak herself but couldn't someone at Winterfell have come up with a better plan? Jamie, Tyrion, and Grey Worm were all there. Not to mention you'd think Sam would have read at least one book or two on military strategy. Sending all your cavalry in a night charge in bad weather against an unscouted enemy was just dumb, as was the placement of catapults, lack of secondary trenches, the delay in lighting the trench, the failure of 2 to 1 air superiority, and use of archers to name a few. I would have dug some secondary trenches to delay the wights and move them into 4 killing zones for the dragons, Dothraki, Unsullied, and knights. Keep the two dragons together and on the attack at all times to make the other dragon come to you and make use of your advantage. I guess other than not seeing much this is my other gripe with the episode. It seemed like a plot device to get rid of most of the army before the denouement.