I haven't read the books, but the way I took Summer's death was representative of the passing of Bran being just a warg and the sacrifices/lost that entails.

Agreed. It's the first part of herself she gives away, but (much like Needle), it's key that Nymeria is not yet permanently gone.

she has to lead a rebellion against ramsey and then also either broker peace or lead another failed rebellion against the crown.

Hey there, Andy. Welcome to the internet.

I'll agree on the rushed bit. I wish the White Walker creation / Night King grab was in the previous episode (we had one Bran-less one, right? I'd push most of it back) where they would have had more time to breathe. Or maybe the grab could have been the beginning of this episode, and then we would have swung back for…

I think it's just because we're leaning more heavily on the WW, dragons, etc stuff that are more familiar in fantasy fair now, but that was always going to be the case towards the end.

I didn't even notice that until afterwards but the music over Hodor's death felt VERY Lost.

To be fair to the show, though, the whole point of the White Walkers is that they have happened before.

Is the tree in the creation of the WW scene Bran saw the one he was in with the Three Eyed Raven? It's not, right?

Man remember when he kinda had some swagger and seemed like a murdery badass? A man is no one indeed.

Man, that time travel loop felt so Lostesque I am half expecting Eloise Hawking to turn up in Bran's future wargings.

BENJEN BENJEN BENJEN

I think he was perhaps sincere about underestimating Ramsey. So maybe he knew but overplayed his hand.

Well now that Bran is carrying a Magic-B-Gone!™ brand, it probably won't be too hard.

Which is kinda funny since Xenomorphs in ALIEN are basically (before this episode) Other levels of "indifferent natural nightmare."

The runt of the litter is always the most important animal. Storytelling 101.

The Hodor thing is from GRRM though, so you can't blame D&D for that jump.

I remember seeing some videos of her before she hit it big, and she was playing country (I think?) and sounded beautiful. I imagine Dr. Luke and the entire music machine had more say on the direction her music went after the ink was dry.

His description of seeing it in IMAX was the highlight of the episode for me.

None of that happened until this episode. You could infer it was going to happen, but they hadn't actually occurred yet.