I actually thought that episode was the weakest of the season, so it's interesting to hear that people thought it was good. It seemed completely full of padding and filler to push all the exciting stuff to next week, and tie up all the other characters plotlines that won't be involved in a hurried fashion. All the important moments were off screen in this episode. Why did they even have the Riverrun plot in the show? Jamie may let Blackfish's army go North in some sort of redemption story arc, but why have the Blackfish's death off-screen, and have a huge set for riverrun and have not much happen there?
And not to mention Arya. I think at this point I don't think I can assume there's any more double bluffing going on, I think we have to concede that it is Arya. I'll happily eat my own words if it turns out that she is the Waif or something, but I think it's much more simple than most people thought it was. Perhaps the series will end with Arya on the boat back to Westeros and it will turn out the Waif has stolen her face or something and she's off to take over Arya's life or some crazy shit. That would probably redeem some aspects of this episode a bit.
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Also, I don't think it was poor writing, more that Arya was just pretty dumb.
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But Arya isn't really known for being dumb at this stage in the narrative. The writing makes her character do dumb things, so I think it was poor characterisation as a result of poor writing.(I'm not saying I could do any better, just how I felt) I think they needed a cliffhanger last week, that was then pretty much ignored at the start of the this episode. In fact, you could have chopped out all of Arya's scenes from this episode and just have her story carry on with the Waif chasing her down the street at the end, and it would have seamlessly carried on from last week. Unless, of course, there is a bigger picture.
I hate to sound like I'm overly cynical, but that was a very disappointing episode after some real home-runs this series. Next week looks brilliant though.