This was an good episode. Was it Hardhome or Field of fire 2.0? No. But it still was pretty exciting. I've learned to not give much thought to the timing of events. It has actually helped me to imagine D&D with a big remote fastfowarding to the important parts of the story.
I loved the dialogue between all of the "ice avengers". It was a good mix of humor and realistic interactions.
I do feel they are creating forced drama with the Stark siblings but I am willing to give the writers a pass because of the good faith they have earned from past seasons.
I'll admit that I might be a little biased because I feel I've become an Emilia defender, but I thought that her acting was superb this entire episode. I loved the range of emotions she displayed when Viserion went down. She went from confused, to in shock, to anger in a matter of seconds. She didn't have much time to focus on his death then because she was so focused on saving the squad, but she gave me enough to deeply feel her pain in that moment. Her best acting in seasons came in the boat scene though. She was heartbroken. Although she had tears, and her voice broke, she fought off breaking down in front of Jon several times. She came across as deeply defeated. I've always felt the chemistry from Kit and Emilia but tonight it was blazing. I think the main thing that took their chemistry to new heights was now Jon is completely on board. To me it seems that Dany was already there, but now the KITN wants a Boo in the North. I've never seen Kit give "bedroom eyes" so well.
Also, the CG is still by far the best in television. It even tops many movies. It makes me wonder who else besides HBO can put this type of money into a tv show? Maybe Netflix.