(CNN) The following contains major spoilers about the "Game of Thrones" season finale.

If "Game of Thrones" has been a controlled burn for much of its run, the current season has been a raging fire, exhausting story at a breakneck pace. After a season punctuated by massive battles, the finale wisely capped the penultimate season by steadfastly focusing on the show's characters and dense mythology.

It was, from start to finish, a beautifully realized 80 minutes of television, one that reunited a number of key players. The episode then closed with a jaw-dropping visual -- the fall of the giant wall designed to hold back threats from the north, setting up the great war between the living and the army of the dead.

There were so many flourishes in the episode crafted to make fans lose their minds it's difficult, frankly, to know where to begin. Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) knows how to make one heck of an entrance by winging in on a dragon, but the producers managed to top that with this season's exit.

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The highlights included, but certainly weren't limited to, the official unveiling of Jon Snow's true lineage, name and birthright, Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys adding another front to the show's uncomfortably complicated romances; and the Stark sisters, Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner), teaming up to dispatch the scheming Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen), about as satisfying a farewell as any longtime "Thrones" viewer could imagine.

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