Action soars but acting plummets on Game of Thrones

The penultimate episode of a season of Game of Thrones is usually the point where something spectacularly game changing happens. In previous seasons, there’s been Ned Stark’s execution, the Battle of Blackwater Bay, the Red Wedding, the wildling attack on the Wall, the dragons in Meereen, and the Battle of the Bastards. It is sensible, therefore, to always enter the penultimate episode with a sense of trepidation and excitement, knowing that the events will not be inconsequential.

Last night’s ‘Beyond the Wall’ ended up being less ‘Rains of Castermere’ and more ‘Dance of Dragons’ (i.e. nothing of any huge import happened). The resurrection of the Ice Dragon offered an opportunity to level the playing field a bit, after we had just witnessed Daenerys incinerating vast swathes of the army of the dead without breaking a sweat. But, for the most part, out heroes survived their moronic foray north of the Wall, and received little information relevant to their quest, other than the assumption now that killing the Night King will destroy the rest of the White Walkers and their army.