Game of Thrones: Ranking all of the penultimate episodes

#8 Beyond the Wall

This one was a no brainer. “Beyond the Wall” sums up everything that is wrong with Season 7. There are massive gaps in logic, confusing character moments, and plot holes so big a dragon could fly through them. Simply put, it’s no bueno.

We had been lead to believe that the White Walkers were an all-encompassing, existential threat to the realm, and this ragtag group of guys come back with nearly their entire crew intact. Which speaks to the lack of danger in this episode; we should have lost more than just Thoros, who is at best a C-tier character. Though the manner of his death is pretty gnarly, and one of the better effects in the show’s history.

I do want to give it up to the effects department for this episode. The scale of “Beyond the Wall” is insane and extremely impressive. Particularly Viserion going down the way he does; it’s such a shocking and devastating moment in the show and I expect it will end up being the greatest legacy “Beyond the Wall” achieves.

But it’s still not enough to make up for the episode’s more significant flaws. Watching it for the first time was fantastic, or at the very least extremely entertaining. It just doesn’t stand up to any sort of analysis or critical thought.