Game of Thrones has long set the precedent that its penultimate episodes of its seasons would be the biggest in terms of scale and, oftentimes, loss, in everything from "Baelor" to "The Rains of Castamere." In that way, "Beyond the Wall" was no different, as it arguably featured the greatest loss the series has faced to date: a dragon killed by the Night King, and even worse, resurrected by him.

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But "Beyond the Wall" also suffers more than any other episode to date from the rushed, truncated storytelling in Season 7. Despite the incredible action sequences and solid performances from the stars, this week's episode hurdled headlong through major plot developments without time to let them breathe or let their stakes become clear. Heck, the episode doesn't even make it evident which dragon died beyond it clearly not being Drogon. ( Spoiler: It's Viserion. That loss is one of the most game-changing moments in Game of Thrones to date, and hopefully will be a good wake up call for the dragon queen, who has, until now, been acting as though she’s invulnerable. It's something her Hand, Tyrion, has repeatedly criticized, and though he could have found a slightly more tactful way to bring up who would succeed her should she die, "Beyond the Wall" proved it was a prescient question.Cersei Lannister might not have had the means to kill a dragon two episodes ago , but it turns out the Night King had a slightly more impactful Scorpion-like bolt in his arsenal (and slightly better aim than Bronn). To lose Viserion is a major blow, but to have the Night King resurrect Viserion and add it to his ever-growing army of wights, giants and bears is an even bigger threat. Heck, he might be able to fly over or around the Wall just like Daenerys did, though that wouldn’t help him get his army of wights into Westeros any faster.Despite the major loss, Jon and his band of merry men did get the wight they needed to convince Cersei this threat is real. More significantly, Daenerys saw the threat of the undead herself and realized the Night King is the true enemy. We haven't seen Daenerys truly afraid in a while, but she deserves to be at this juncture. "Beyond the Wall" also gave Jon Snow his first real glimpse of how he can defeat the Night King and his army: We seemingly learn that by killing a White Walker, you can knock out all the wights he created. Presumably all one has to do is kill all the White Walkers in the army, and the rest of the creatures (or at least the majority of them) will come down after. No wonder he so readily bowed a knee to Daenerys.These are pretty major developments for any season of Game of Thrones, let alone a single episode -- and we haven't even gotten to the Sansa/Arya/Littlefinger storyline. (More on that in a bit.) In many ways, the biggest surprise of this episode wasn't even the death and resurrection of the now-undead Viserion, but rather that any of this even happened at this stage in the story. For Daenerys and the Night King already to meet face-to-face on the battlefield is a hugely significant and exciting moment, and one that marks a major turning point for this show. There are only seven more episodes left of Game of Thrones before the end, after all.But all that rapid storytelling isn't necessarily a good thing, and I found myself increasingly frustrated by the whiplash pace of this episode. (At least Jon acknowledged that the Suicide Squad plan north of the Wall wasn’t his smartest idea ever.) After seasons of slow, drawn out plotting, Game of Thrones has had a marked shift in the past couple of seasons toward more expedited storytelling. In many ways, this has been for the better, as the show has gained momentum with the end in sight and brought many storylines and characters together in exciting ways after they've been apart for seasons. But, in the simplest of frustrations, it's also made it unclear just how much time is actually passing from episode to episode, and from even scene to scene.In no episode did that cause more whiplash than in "Beyond the Wall," which saw Jon & co. make it from just north of the Wall to the Night King's army, send Gendry back to Eastwatch, have him get a letter off to Daenerys, have her receive it and fly Drogon and her dragons up from Dragonstone, then get back to Eastwatch, have Jon get back and everyone depart. For the record, here's the path of just the Jon/Dany storyline this week:It's a lot of physical ground for one storyline to cover even by Game of Thrones standards, and as a result, little weight could be given to many of the key moments. The slow pacing of the walk toward the beginning of the episode allowed for welcome interactions between characters who typically don't get to speak with one another, and provided good context. The scene with Jon and Jorah talking about Longclaw and the legacy of Jeor Mormont was particularly moving. Same with closing up loose ends with Gendry’s frustration with the Brotherhood. Those ranging conversations were high points of the episode. It also underlined just how many characters are “safe” on Thrones now; despite Thoros passing away, the ranging crew was padded with metaphoric Red Shirts who only appeared just to be the unfortunate non-named characters to get taken down by the Night King’s army.Once the action ramped up, everything from Thoros of Myr's death to the loss of Viserion to Dany’s first encounter with the Night King was brushed past without any time for the ramifications to sink in for the audience or the characters. Remember when Benjen showed up just in the knick of time , gave Jon his horse and then die? So much happened in this episode, I've already written 900 words and have only had the opportunity to give about as much time to Thoros's death as the show did. (It's definitely worth noting there's no easy resurrection in store now for Beric or Jon unless Melisandre comes back, and she's not this season , which makes me pretty nervous for Beric's fate.) With the pace the series is heading at, it doesn't seem like that time will be allotted in next week's episode either.And that's not even touching on the drama in Winterfell. What's been most interesting about how Game of Thrones is bringing all these perspective characters together is that we're no longer getting as much time in their headspace. When we were following Arya in Braavos, or Sansa in the Eyrie, we were seeing the world through their eyes and understanding their decision making. Now, specifically with Arya and Sansa, it's become increasingly harder to understand what their ultimate goals are and whether they have any bigger picture plan beyond what is immediately apparent, despite Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams giving some series-best performances now that they're acting opposite one another. That scene up on the rampart when they clash over how they were complicit (or not) in their father’s death and what came after is series-best for the two of them.I can read a lot into why Arya is so antagonistic toward Sansa following their reunion; she hasn't following Sansa's journey like we have, so instead everything she's seen her sister do -- seemingly undermine Jon's leadership and wish for control herself -- reinforces the conception of Sansa she had from when they were children. For Sansa, Arya is a wild, violent stranger, and someone who doesn't take a political approach to any situation. They see the world in different ways, but are we really supposed to believe that Littlefinger is playing them both against one another so easily? Sansa played right into his hand by sending Brienne away after he seemed to imply the knight of House Tarth might side more with Arya than her. Or do they have some bigger picture plan that will reveal itself in the season finale?It all comes back to that catspaw dagger, and what role it has to play in Season 7. We know it's important, though not for any of the reasons I theorized . That tense scene between Sansa and Arya had me almost convinced the younger sister would take Sansa's face (how crazy a twist would that be?) before Arya placed the dagger in Sansa's hands. Was that just a power play? A wake-up call? Does Arya expect Sansa to kill Littlefinger with it? If Game of Thrones was able to dedicate more time to these complex character dynamics like it did in earlier seasons, we might have a better understanding, but for now the expectation is we just need to go along for the ride like any other TV show.All that begs the question: why the rush? Of course, I know there are a number of budgetary and time concerns. From a business perspective, we know that the amount of time and money dedicated to creating each episode increased significantly this season , which is why there are fewer episodes overall. If Game of Thrones had continued at its Season 1 pace this year, the events of each of Season 7's episodes probably could have stretched across a full season each.But these business decisions are hurting the story, and plot holes are starting to show. For example, where is Theon? He arrived at Dragonstone two episodes ago hoping to speak with Daenerys about rescuing Yara, and presumably has still just been sitting around during the two episodes since when she's flown to Dragonstone and away again. Also, if the wights all drown in the water, how did they get chains around Viserion to get it out? On that note, where did the chains even come from? And where is Bran at Winterfell?For that reason, "Beyond the Wall" suffers in a way that earlier epic episodes this season, like the excellent "The Spoils of War," did not. For all that the action scenes were excellent and the shots of the dragons blasting down wights was chill-inducing in all the right ways, these scenes likely would have been much more impactful if the writers had allotted time for their impact to sink in.Case in point: one of the most powerful scenes in "Beyond the Wall" was the quiet, vulnerable moment Daenerys had with Jon on the ship after losing her child. It's the first time we've seen Daenerys be truly vulnerable in a while, and as much as it was an important moment to further cement the blossoming romance between Jon and Dany (and have him bend a knee), it always was important for the audience to see behind her facade as queen. For the first time all season, we're fully seeing Daenerys the person, and she is terrified and shaken. That's an important character detail, and one that hopefully won't be brushed aside in next week's finale -- and beyond -- for the sake of big action and faster storytelling.