I disagree. It shows GRRM has been playing the long game all along. We were getting hints that Bran could affect the past and thus the future but this clearly confirms it in a heartbreaking way. This opens the door to a lot. Did Bran's whispers make the Mad King go Mad? Is Bran "Bran the Builder"? Does he become…

Notes? That depresses me more than an old man eating alone at a Golden Coral for some reason.

Exactly. And the terrorist with a heart also had a conversation about the atropine with the evil doctor earlier in the episode. I don't believe someone was paying much attention.