Did you get an advanced screening of the episode?

So do the Frey's get addressed this season or is it going to wait?

Ha, well my covers blown I guess. No, just got lucky for once. I wish I could see an advanced screening every week.

They are in the preview of episode 10.

Too bad they didn't fashion old Wun-Wun a war-club out of a tree trunk.

Would have been useful.

sorry but Sansa offered little solutions at the first war counsel at Castle Black besides getting the Karstarks to come back (why?) and the Tullys.
Jon constantly mentioned needing more men because he knew they would starve like Stannis men did if they sat around waiting. Maybe Sansa could have mentioned Littlefinger and the Eyrie at that time or any of the subsequent times Jon mentioned needing more men or getting rejected for more men. She was incoherent wanting to go back to Winterfell because they had Rickon only to turn around and say he was as good as dead.
Yeah, maybe Sansa was this cold hearted war general who was willing to sacrifice Jon, the Wildings, Rickon, and everyone to pull a surprise move without informing Jon. I just think it's the Eagles from LoTRs all over again - I am glad Jon and some of the rest were saved but it was unnecessary to lose all those men just to draw out the Bolton men.

It is kind of surprising he didn't have a weapon of some sort. Then again, if he did he would have been unstoppable and probably would have destroyed Ramsay's army all by himself

Amazing episode as already stated many times. I was curious why they never thought to utilize Melisandre in the battle. She's got all sorts of potions and magical abilities. I know using blood magic may be a bit taboo, but I figured Jon would use every advantage he had in face of overwhelming numbers against him.

I was somewhat surprised that the entire ep didn't revolve around Winterfell.

Not too often that I look forward to what's going on in Mereen.

Fuck this encirclement!

She wanted to get a word in but he wasn't listening. She even gets pissed that just because she's a woman that she should have a say.

I liked that we finally got the payoff for not seeing the battle last season with Stannis' army as well as not getting to see Lady Bolton's mauling. Not seeing those things previously made this battle and mauling all the more effective.

This is something I liked in this episode: you could see the value of the advisers in tempering the bad impulses of their leaders. Tyrion was successful in getting Daenerys to see a more reasonable solution to their issues. Sansa tried (unsuccessfully) to get the impulsive Jon to see reason. This relative success of each adviser makes sense because Tyrion is a far more experienced and wily person than Sansa. I agree that Sansa's turning into a coldly shrewd person, giving a great arc to her character. Sansa started out as the epitome of a naive princess and has apparently learned a few things from his ceaseless maltreatment.

A few small things that bothered me in this episode:
1. No matter what explanation they're going to come up with, Sansa not explaining that the Vale was coming to Jon and Davos (desite having MANY opportunities to do so) makes no logical sense. This was lazy writing to set up some dramatic tension where none was needed. People died because of this stupid decision. Actually, the entire battle was pointless.
2. Bolton and his army suffered from the LOTR orc problem: they were shown as inhuman monsters incapable of any retribution. Ramsey and his army's obliteration thus carried no weight. It was viscerally pleasing seeing Ramsey getting eaten but kind of obvious and one dimensional. Even Joffrey's death carried a bit of weight as his parents watched him die, no one's going to shed tears over Ramsey.
3. Jon continues to act like a braindead idiot. He learned nothing from dying. He's got Stark's disease and is following in the footsteps of his cretinous "father" and "half brother". It makes sense, he's a young and inexperienced battlefield commander but he drives me crazy. Also, letting him get away with his idiocy is hardly the GoT way.
4. What was Jon's reasoning for telling Melisandre to not bring him back? Nothing beyond establishing dramatic tension where none was needed. More lazy writing.

He really doesn't know anything.

I don't think that was lazy writing at all. It's already been established that Sir Beric loses some of himself whenever he get brought back. Jon doesn't feel the same and doesn't want to go through it again. Plus it shows us that Jon thinks there is a very good chance that he's going to lose this battle. It's not lazy, it's letting us inside the characters head.

As I said earlier, my assumption was that she didn't know they were coming for sure until they showed up, and then she rode with them.

Im not sure if any great commander would behave differently after watching your brother killed right infront of you. That didn't bother me, cause it lead to a cool screen... when jon realizes "oh, shit I made a mistake" turns around and his men charge by him. That whole battle was just fantastically brutal... and yes, there was some issues like how did the bodies get stacked up so high. But they showed people still fighting and climbing over the bodies already there.

The cost of this episode must have been super high. I can't wait for next week episode and only hate that its the last for this season and we have to wait a year for the next. =(

Also Sansa promised to reward littlefinger and Jon would have been completely against that imo. But yeah, she didn't know they were showing up until they did. Also, it's littlefinger, he wanted the Starks and umbers and boltons to dismantle each other before he swooped in and saved them. Why waste any of his forces than he needs do. He attacked at the proper moment.

And after that Jon says "your right" and gives her her say. He even asks her what he should do differently in the coming battle. To which she responds "I don't know, I don't know anything about battles". Then later he asks her "When will we have a larger force? We've pleaded with every house that will have us." Her only response is "Its not enough". She had every opportunity to tell Jon what she was planning. And there is zero reason for her to have kept him in the dark. Jon lost probably 2/3rds or more of his army because she was being tight lipped for no apparent reason. If he knew about the possibility of reinforcements coming I'm sure he would have waited.

Easily my favorite episode of the series, and might even be my favorite hour of TV ever. The battle scene was incredible, but also immensely enjoyed the Dany and Yara meeting and the trio of dragons destroying the fleet.

And about the battle: there were bits of it that were an obvious homage to Brannaugh's Henry V. One shot in particular -- a worm's-eye view of Jon covered in muck looking wildly about in the middle of the carnage -- is a carbon copy of a shot of Henry during the Battle of Agincourt in Henry V.

Or...perhaps she knew that Ramsay would somehow goad Jon into making an error, which he did by rushing towards Ramsay's forces after Rickon died, thus causing his army to attack too early. Sansa needed Ramsay to commit his forces fully before the counter-attack.

He released Ned's remains as a show of good faith after Cat released Jamie. But his remains traveled with Cat as far as The Twins where a wedding didn't go exactly as planned.
I don't think the Freys were all that interested in seeing the Stark remains returned for a proper burial, but I suppose it's possible?

Maybe John did know Sansa and Little Finger were coming... in fact, I'm pretty sure he did know, just not exactly when. Sansa likely had some sort of idea because she's the one that essentially set the time of the battle the day before. Jon was playing his part, and likely was supposed to drag his feet a little, but when his brother was killed right in front of him he went nuts, went off script and got everyone into the thick of it sooner than planned.

PS: the guy playing Ramsey absolutely needs to be the new Green Goblin in the Marvel Spider-man franchise.

Fuck. Yes. Glad I'm not the only one. That was EXACTLY what was going through my head.

Yeah, my wife kept saying "where's Littlefinger?" over and over until the knights showed up.

That was how I took it, especially after her, "you have to do what he doesn't expect" speech. Jon charging Ramsey was exactly what Ramsey expected, seeing Knights of the Vale hit his flank wasn't. Sansa knew exactly how eager Littlefinger would be to have her in his debt.